Ironwoods' Time

Ironwood was released in with the girls on Sunday 06 November, 2011. He spent the first hour chasing after first one mother daughter pair and then another until everyone was too exhausted to run. At one point he was sniffing up behind Kia when Ava had had enough and stomped her feet at him in frustration - "Leave my mother alone!"

Ironwood was not very courteous, he spent a lot of time showing his teeth, flapping his tongue, sniffing the air. He will have two months to complete his business until Wild Man (Alder) moves in.

The New Guy has a Job to Do!

We have a new goat on the farm and everyone is excited to see who it is! Chip was the first to welcome Romeo to his new home.

Romeo is a shy fellow and looks to be a bit small and youngish to complete his assigned duties.

He is a handsome fellow and he has long thick hair that can be expected of a yearling.

Romeo had the wrong idea initially, thinking that he might be living in the house instead of in the barn. You can get a rough idea of Romeo's size when you compare him to Sara who is standing next to him. You can also see some important goat parts that Chip no longer has......and those are why he is here. Back in August I went in with Karen from Pelican Acres to jointly buy Romeo from a farm in southern Wisconsin. It is now my turn to house him for a while and to reap the fruits of his loins?

Becca Boo wasn't quite sure what to make of her new suitor, so she gave him a few headbutts to make sure he knew his place.

Romeo seemed to be more of a novelty than a member of the herd.

Gidget wanted to know what that horrible (intoxicating?) smell was and where it was coming from. She seemed a bit surprised to find a goat that was actually smaller than her.

No matter his size Romeo sure is a handsome fellow, note the moon spots. The other goats had better get used to him because he has a job (or three) to do and will be hanging around till he gets it done.

Wounds, Worms, Traps, and Losses

When Sunday rolled around it was time to give everyone a second dose of wormer; fun, fun, fun. I decided to start with the rams and took them in the same order as last time. As the leader ram Killarney was selected to go first as he has a habit of trying to protect his buddies whenever the Commander grabs them. As we were holding him I noticed some scabs and blood on the top of his head and on his nose.

Seems Killarney has been spending some time bashing heads with his so called friends.

I sprayed some antibiotics on his wounds and finished worming him, I couldn't wait to see what battle damage the other boys were sporting. As I was feeling around on the top of his scull I couldn't help but notice how thick the bone on the top of his head is. No wonder it doesn't seem to faze him when he crashes into his fellow rams at full speed!

Alders horns are very wide yet he showed no sign of cuts or abrasions. The Commander had his normal struggle capturing "Wild Man" so I could give him his dose of wormer, these sheep are strong! I don't know how people with larger animals can handle them.

Ironwood and Albion were finished last with no problems. I didn't see any wounds on Ironwood, but his horns are so massive that he must hit with them instead of using the top of his head.

I still haven't figured out how the door to the rams shed has been getting opened but the night vision camera I set up caught this little critter crawling around into Sara's kennel.

I don't think he is the culprit but what a cutie pie!

Listen to him growl!

The girls were wormed next with the usual panic at being touched. It looks like Ava has recovered from her illness completely and will be ready for breeding next week.

Here is a shot of little Alma and her tiny horns - they are almost scurrs really. She is the smallest ewe we have so I am a bit worried for her come lambing time.

Finally one of the guinea nuggets was killed by what I think was an owl Saturday night. The guineas have gone back to sleeping in the coop since that tragic evening, it just isn't safe around here. I wonder how long their fear will keep them inside and safe before the decide to sleep in the trees again.

Accident or Mischief?

Twice this week when the Commander has come inside at night after closing up the chicken coop he has discovered the top half of the dutch doors on the ram shed open. There are several ways that this could have happened so we chalked it up to coincidence or mischance.

Last night my son called me after he left for town and reported that he had spotted the rams along the side of the road and was in the process of chasing them towards home. The Commander and I threw on our jackets, grabbed flashlights (it was pitch black outside), and bolted out the door. I grabbed a bucket and filled it with grain while the Commander ran down the driveway in time to see my son and the rams thunder by.

I gave the Commander the bucket and he began to call the "boys" and shook the magic bucket to get their attention. Fortunately they stopped running and my son was able to move them homeward in conjunction with the rams wanting to get to the grain in the bucket. The Commander was able to lead them back to their barn and once they were out of the road Sara picked up the tail end Charlie herding duties. We found the door to the ram shed wide open....how did that happen? Is someone looking in (and freeing) on our rams at night? Was this another accident? How/why did the rams bypass all the grass and shrubs in the yard and make their way down the driveway and into the road?  We usually secure the doors with metal fasteners yet the one for the ram door was not in place, accident or mischief?

Eggs, What Eggs?

One egg today, one egg yesterday, and three eggs the day before....looks like egg production for the year is ending.

I started the year with eight laying hens and in June and July I would get six to eight eggs per day! Add to that two guinea hens who were laying one egg each per day and things around here were hopping. Like everything else in life at some point all good things come to and end and I guess this is it.

It started with the guineas. Juliette was the first to go broody and between her hatching one huge clutch and trying for two others the guinea egg production disappeared.

Next two of the chickens went broody. The first hens' clutch failed completely, fortunately she picked up eight of Juliette's keets to raise as her own. Honey was next and all her eggs failed but one, chicklet. So with those two hens not laying because they are busy being mama's and one hen dying I am down to five potential layers. By the shape and color of the eggs we are getting it looks like three of the hens are laying an egg around every other day and two have stopped laying completely.

(Mamma chicken and the guinea nuggets pictured above) I hope things pick up next Spring!

Worming Day

It was very nice outside yesterday and since it is getting close to breeding season I decided to break out the wormer and hoof trimming gear. Chip was excited because he loves to be held. The goats are easy to do because the just jump into your lap and eat up all the personal attention.

The girl sheep are a bit trickier to worm as they all panic and scatter at the very idea of being handled. We have to get them all into a stall and pull them out one by one, the biggest challenge is to avoid them hurting themselves in their panic.

Ava got an extra dose of a vitamin B oral drench to help keep her energy up, she is looking a lot better today. I'm not sure what got her sick but I'm still not sure she is totally out of the woods as of yet.

Taking care of the rams is always a bit tricky because of their strength and short tempers. The Commander went into the ram shed with a shepherds crook and pulled them out one by one for their treatments. Killarney was selected first to remove the leader of the pack from the others. He is always a bit protective of the others so the Commander thought he was less likely to get rammed once Killarney was finished.

Alder (Wildman) was next. Alder ALWAYS panics when handled and he didn't disappoint this time. Once the Commander got him hooked Alder went wild and the Commander ended up wrestling him for several moments before he got him under control. After a lot of huffing and puffing Alder was finished and set free.

That left Ironwood (who tried to jump out the window last time we tried this) and Albion. Ironwood was selected and wormed while he stood side by side with Albion. It took a bit of wrestling but no buildings were damaged in the process of worming Ironwood and then it was easy to finish Albion at the end of things.

The whole process needs to be completed again next week, hopefully the Commander will have recovered by then - I know the rams will be waiting for their rematch.

Avalon is Somewhat Better

Yesterday afternoon we took Avalon to the Vet to see if she could figure out what was wrong with her. The exam didn't reveal anything obvious so she needed to draw some blood to send off for testing.

I didn't know that the preferred place to draw blood from a sheep was from the neck! Ava has very thick wool and it was playing havoc with the needle placement and after several tries the Vet broke out the scissors and cut away a nice clear patch. The blood was finally drawn but Ava was not happy, I was afraid she may go into shock.

That night Ava wouldn't go anywhere near the barn and I had to catch her with the shepherds crook. Once again Kia had to be lured inside with grain, she is next to impossible to trick but so far bribes have worked.

Ava got a 3rd dose of LA200 and was running a temperature of 102.6F - normal! I put her to bed with high hopes. Today she looked much better but still not totally her self. At 1730 the Vet called with the blood work results and they were ..... inconclusive :( ..... Her liver and kidney enzymes were slightly elevated but nothing that was completely unexplainable. The only takeaway was that we should discontinue the antibiotics, so I decided to leave her hassle free once she entered the barn.  The break from treatments might do her nerves some good. Of course Kia wouldn't go into the barn at all, not even the bribes would work. She had to be captured with the shepherds crooks, we may have to break out the tranquilizer guns tomorrow!

If she is better tomorrow I will have to credit the LA200 and banamine for saving her while she was running a 106F fever. It is good to know that she doesn't have anything contagious or some owner induced malady.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and well wishes!