Saved by the....chick?

The other day, Brianna and I visited a farmer friend of mine. It was a short visit, but we got to see and hold his new meat chicks just a day old. He gave me great ideas by showing me his water setup for the chickens with watering fountains. We got to cuddle friendly barn kitchens and visit with his young calves. He even sent me home with some of his vegetable garden bounty (beets, lettuce and 2 different garlic cloves) all of which have been yummy and flavourful and baby lilac shoots of an unusual to me purple lilac that I can't wait to see grow up and flower in a year or 2. I even got to see his workshop and studio.

The main reason for our visit was to pick up a dozen of his 1 1/2 year old cull hens. He replaces his laying hens every year for peak egg production for his farmgate sales. I had been thinking of replacing the laying hens I originally got about 4 years ago, because egg production has been really down and unpredictable. I had added a few new chickens along the way: some Americaunas for blue eggs, silkies for brooding and hatching and those few chickens that have been hatched by the silkies. The "new" chickens required that I clean out the coop, old chickens and all. I should have had it all organized and done for the Friday when I picked up the hens, but of course it wasn't. They've been housed temporarily in the little shelter next to the sheep, with the lambs poking their curious noses through the mesh.

Today was clean-up day. I started with the roosters, which I have had too many of because the silkie hen mainly hatched roosters. I decided to keep one rooster (he's 1 year and he looks very nice). As I was looking around for the next victim, I heard a little peep. I've had an old hen get broody a while ago and rather than chase her off, I decided to let her try since I had been too busy with lambing and shearing the sheep to bother much about my unproductive layer flock. She's been sitting on several eggs and when I lifted her up, there was a little chick still wearing half a shell. It is yellow with black markings and looks like an Americauna...here's hoping its a hen.

The old hen still had 7 eggs under her. I love chicks and I especially love hens that raise their own chicks, so this old girl will be saved. I found my rabbit house and run I built a few years ago and decided that it would do great for a broody hen and her chicks. I set about cleaning it up and getting it ready. When I went to retrieve the hen, her chick and the eggs, I noticed there was another hen in there with her. She is 1 of 3 cream coloured hens I got as ready to lay, from a friend of Hugh's this past winter. 2 of them have decided about a month ago that they would be wild chickens and have literally flown the coop (5 foot fencing). They did it enough times, that I got tired of having to chase them down every night to return them. I've since seen them roost in the cedar trees in the ram's pasture and they come running to me in the morning for their feed. I have to hunt down their eggs, but they are generally down to 2 places. They actually look great, better than before when the 3 roosters would gang up on them. The 3rd girl, a very little hen, didn't have the same need to escape. Looking at the eggs under the old hen, they mainly belong to her, although its the old hen that's been taking care of them. Today, this little hen was trying to be part of the brood. She was cuddled up under the old hens wings, probably drawn there by the peeping chick. I've set up the old hen in the rabbit house by herself with the chicks and remaining eggs. Hopefully, I'll see another chick hatched by morning.

Since the little cream coloured hen is still laying, I'll keep her as well. She'll join another keeper hen, a gorgeous black girl born here about 2 years ago, because she's been laying beautiful blue eggs lately. I'll clean out the coop tomorrow and move the "new" laying hen flock in with the black hen, the 1 saved rooster and the 3 small cream coloured wild hens. Hopefully everything will go well and everyone will be healthy.

Below: Clio was very interested in the little chick as we checked up on her, and then too interested as she tried to reach in to get a good sniff. Mama hen just ruffled her feathers as we quickly closed her up safely.

New Pasture

Finally, Hugh and I buckled down and finished off fencing the front yard to create a sheep pasture. We've only done the perimeter and the run coming from the back where the back pastures and sheep shed are located. It took over 1000 feet of page wire fencing, 110 cedar posts of varying sizes and about 25 lbs. of fencing staples on the hottest couple of days since the summer began. Our alarm rang at sun-up and we'd get up shortly after that to try and beat the midday heat and we'd go back out in the evening after supper. We made several mistakes, but have learned from them and in the end, the fence will still work and do its job. We still have to make the interior fences to separate it into 4 paddocks so I can accomplish proper pasture rotation. The perimeter fencing requires a lot of finishing work yet: splicing joins and securing wire ends, making gates, and anchoring corner posts (which should have been done before attaching the page wire), but it is functional for now.

The sheep have been allowed to move in for about an hour last night and they were funny to watch. They took a while at the entrance eating some longer grass that didn't manage to get cut earlier this week. Then they continued walking as a herd along the fence line, even sticking their heads through the fence...the nerve! I guess the grass really is greener on the other side!!! Then they'd take off, back down the run to the shed in the back. They did this in smaller herds repeatedly...almost as if they wanted to make sure they knew the way back or that they could still get back. I'm being careful to ease them into a nice grassy pasture, because if they overdose on the grass, they could bloat and die. I'm feeding them their normal hay and will be allowing them increasing amounts of time in the front pasture to get their stomachs used to it all.

I found the sheep looked so small in that huge large field. I joked to Hugh that I need more sheep to fill in the space. Brianna said that we needed a horse or 2. I'd like a jersey cow!!! I was a bit worried about how to get them all back into the sheep shed at night, but I got Shepherd Aidan to enter the run with the pans of grain and move to the top of the field calling them and shaking the pans. They all ran right back and followed him "home". It was wonderful to watch. I was looking at all the work that's been done recently and in past years and our house and gardens in the glow of the evening sun and I felt very happy and content. Things are looking good. The farm is shaping up. We are setting down some pretty big roots on this farm and I'm feeling hopeful about my dreams and wishes for this place.

Handshearing

This year, rather than hiring a shearer to do all my sheep at once, I decided to shear them myself by hand using handshears. Even though I think my shearer is a lovely person, I would be heartbroken to have second cuts in my precious fibre, especially my shorter lamb's fleeces. By shearing myself, I would have no one else to blame but myself for the 2nd cuts. Also, I could sort the fleece as I was shearing, removing undersirable bits and second cuts along the way. I'm hoping that this will speed up my skirting process later, but I haven't started that yet and have my fleeces piling up in bags in the chicken coop. The process of shearing them is taking a long time, because I can only do 1 or 2 a day as it takes me an average of 1.5 hours to accomplish each one. I have 3 1/2 sheep left to go and I've already done 15 1/2 sheep. Bok Choy is my 1/2 done; half not done. I sheared him when the weather was very hope and he seemed to be suffering for overheating. I ran out of steam shearing him, but I managed to get the wool from his topline off and around the neck so that he'd be more comfortable and that did the trick.

To the left is Nessa Rose, Black Katmoget ewe with Gray fleece. She is the first ewe I sheared. She is rather ratty looking...such a bad haircut. Below is Morgan, my last shearing.

The sheep in the picture above is Morgan, a Black Iset, Blettet ewe. She is the most recently shorn girl and I'm so proud of her stunning haircut. Not just that, but I had a wonderful time shearing her fleece. It was very easy and the shears cut through her fleece easily, which I think is just a timing thing. Thelma, the ewe shorn the day before her was also very easy, but she fought me the whole time, head butting me constantly. Morgan on the other hand kept wagging her tail. I kept hearing her tail knocking against the back of the shearing stand. I thought she was swatting flies, but then I'd let go of her and then scratch her newly shorn neck or body and there would go her tail again. She was born here on my farm and her mother Meg is stand-off-ish, but Morgan would stand still so I could pick her up as a lamb. She'd almost cuddle with me. I called her my little "doll". I was talking to my friend Judy last week and she asked whether my shearing process was less stressful on my sheep (being upright on a shearing stand for 1 1/2 hours) versus 15 min on their butts with a shearer (using noisy electric shears). I told her that likely it was just as stressful, but a different kind of stress. My sheep know me very well and know that I won't hurt them. After shearing Morgan, I can say for certainty, that my method of shearing, for her specifically, was not stressful. I also remember that when she was shorn by the shearer for the first time, she kept struggling and he clipped her leg, so I think she was a happy camper that day.

I started handshearing this year by shearing last year's 3 ram lambs just before going to the butcher in early May ("haircuts" pictured at left). From that first shearing experience, I determined that I'd need a shearing stand. I modeled my stand on the Wooden Stanchion found on pg. 145 of the book "How to Build Animal Housing" by Carol Ekarius using some pieces of wood I had around. I'll take measurements, materials list and post comments in a later entry on my stand for those wanting to build one for themselves. It is pictured at the top. It is a neccessity for me because my back can't take the strain of being bent over.

Good byes

Lambs socializing around the water cooler prior to leaving: Winola (centre), black Giselle (back left), and Piper (front, right) prior to going to their new home. The other lambs rounding out the picture are Whitlock (white, centre left), Graydon (behind Giselle) and next to him Penelope (centre back), with Orion my big white ram lamb on the other side of the fence.

Last Friday I said good bye to 4 of my moms and their lambs: Dot and her 2 lambs Fiona & Faolan; Elphaba and her lamb Giselle; Natasha and her lamb Piper and Una and her lamb Winola. They have gone to a very good home where I'm sure they will be loved and well cared for. Thanks Deanna, enjoy them!

It was the first time I've really sold any of my babies and although it was tough, it was necessary and it feels better already. I now have 12 moms and 13 lambs. More will be sold throughout the summer and into the fall so that I can get closer to 9-10 ewes and no lambs.

Ursula...

I was out all day today giving a Fibre Preparation Workshop downtown at the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild. It was a fun workshop and I made some new converts to wool combing. By the end of the day, I felt I was needed at home rather than go out again to watch Brianna play her first soccer games. I had had a funny feeling that morning, that Ursula was close...I've been way wrong most of the time this year. Sure enough, as soon as I drove up, I looked for my 2 last girls still waiting to lamb. Thelma was out in the field eating what little grass she could find, but Ursula was nowhere to be seen. As I was about to walk into the door, I heard the telltale noise...someone in labour, and it didn't sound good. Its the same sound that I got from the ewes with badly presenting lambs. I started to panic and got in my farm clothes and rushed to the sheep barn. Ursula was already in the lambing pen (clever girl) and her water had broken, so definitely in labour. I put up the gate quickly and gave her some water. She wasn't pleased by anything. I kept looking to see if her lamb was coming out well, nothing yet. I couldn't stand waiting and watching, so I went into the house to refill the other water buckets. When I got back to the barn, I could see 2 feet...good!!! But Ursula was still in distress. I remember her mother Thelma was a real moaner too when she had her first few lambs. I tried not to panic again...I started trying to visual my sheep book's pictures of mispresenting lambs, and wondered if it could be 2 back feet...not good! Eventually I looked in again and thank you, I could see the nose. OK, she's not happy, but it will be over soon...looks like a big lamb. The head cleared, but she was lying down, so I helped guide that lamb all the way out. She changed her tone quickly after that and started cooing at her lamb. Her lamb is a white ram lamb with interesting facial markings. She is already proving to be a great mom, because he was up and I saw her nursing her lamb within an hour. She's also quite calm. I'll weigh him tomorrow and find a name for him (Whitlock). I can't wait to see him when he dries up some more. His fleece looks very nice and even.



Ursula and her ram lamb Whitlock, which is English for "white lock of hair"...this just fits. He came in at a nice big size of 2.84kg for a 1st time lambing.

One more girl yet...and I saw her pawing the ground and behaving bizarrely tonight...maybe I'll wake up to 2 more lambs and an end to this big lambing season.

Ebony

Late last night, as Hugh and I were putting the sheep and lambs in for the night, I noticed that Ebony was in labour. I quickly hustled her into a free lambing pen and went to work capturing errant lambs. About 15 minutes later, I was all done and mentioned to Hugh that I would look in on Ebony to see how she is progressing... Hugh says, "Well, there's a lamb!" Sure enough, a dark little Katmoget ram lamb that I've named Graydon which is English for Gray, as that is the colour of his fleece. That just shows you how quick and easy these sheep are. This little guy was born late in the evening and coupled with the fact that the temperature was dropping drastically to zero, with winds, we closed up all the doors. I put a little sweater on him to keep him warm as he was shivering and I didn't really want to hover over him all night, as Ebony seemed to have everything under control.

That leaves only Thelma (due to have twins) and her daughter from last year Ursula (with only 1 lamb expected). The lamb count is now 17 (7 rams; 10 ewes).

Dot's Two Little Lambs

After supper the night before, as I had hoped and predicted, 2 little lambs were in the pen with Dot. A white ewe lamb named Fiona (which means fair, white) and a black Katmoget ram lamb named Faolan (which means little wolf). They looked very wobbly, especially the ewe lamb and even later on, the little ewe lamb is still a bit wobbly, but Dot is a great mom and the lambs are being well taken care of. I weighed them this morning and the ram lamb weighs 3.0 kg and the ewe lamb weighs 2.7 kg. I decided to keep her in the lambing pen all day to make sure her wobbly lamb doesn't have to chase her all over the field. Its a good deal too, being in the lambing pen. You can eat without competition and you know your lambs are close by and safe. But, Dot had other ideas and I found her out in the field after supper with her 2 lambs close by her. The ewe lamb is quite cute...she doesn't seem white, but a definite cream colour, although it may change later on.

Earlier in the day I sprung Meg and her 2 lambs and allowed them to explore the field and make friends. By mid afternoon I spied Meg going head to head with Thelma, who is still waiting for her lambs. Thelma seemed the aggressor and Megs lambs were being "taught" manners by the other moms...its a tough world in the sheep herd.

Brianna and her friend Olivia helped me put the sheep and lambs safely to bed tonight and it sure was a scramble. There was 1 lamb on either side of the pasture that caused us much grief. I put Meg and her lambs back in a lambing pen for safety, since there is a vacancy and of course Dot stayed in her pen.