Farm Stand Open

Recently, I realized another one of my farming plans...at least a start of it. I opened my roadside Farm Stand at the end of the driveway. I'm selling Farm Fresh Eggs and I have a sign I painted and close by, I have a cooler, which I will refill daily. The cooler will be brought out in the morning and sit on a little table and be brought back inside in the evening around 7pm. Inside will contain ice packs, egg cartons and a small heart shaped tin for the customer to put their money in as payment. Its also called an honour stand and it makes sense for me to do, because I have a surplus of eggs, but I don't have enough to justify sitting out there selling them, nor to maintain steady customers with regular egg deliveries. I call it my drive-thru, self-serve Farm Stand. We are a society that increasingly likes things to be easy and quick. We are fitting a lot into our days and having to stop by and drive up to the farmer's house to get your weekly eggs may be a deterrent to some. But...if the eggs are right there, you drop in your money, grab your eggs and go on home. Nice and quick...no chatting necessary, no concern that you are disturbing the farmer or that he isn't home or you waste your time because the eggs are sold out. That's the idea, so at least it will be interesting to see if it works.

Of course, if you do want to drive up the driveway and chat with the farmer and see the chickens and meet the sheep and talk about anything that may come up, she will be pleased to do that too!

Ram-proofing

The troubles I had last year at breeding time with my rams fighting across the fence and at the fence with each other in the presence of the females, led to broken fences and ram lambs with broken front and hind limbs and general frustration from the farmer. I "installed" makeshift tarps with bungee cords and ties and wooden panels late last fall. This worked temporarily but the tarps wore out and shifted over the winter/spring. Another shepherd told me of putting up landscape fabric, so come gardening season, I was on the hunt for something suitable. After searching several stores, I found a brown-ish landscape fabric at Loews in Orleans called Landscape Pro from DuPont that has a 25 year warranty...and no, I don't work for either of them, I'm just sharing what worked for me. The roll was 4 ft high (roughly the same height as my page wire fence) and 100 ft long for nearly $50. I attached it to the gate and as far as the roll would go along the fence so that it more than covered the common fence line. I used a hole punch, making 4 holes in the shape of a square straddling the areas on the fence where I planned to attach it using a soft garden string. I attached it to the ewe side of the fence, top, bottom and middle on posts and in between posts to spread out the wind pressure.

It took a morning to install and it has been working well and staying in place for about a week now amid rain and wind storms. The rams generally have no clue I'm on the other side of the fence and are pleasantly surprised when I'm calling them to the fence for their daily hay ration. I'm hoping that it will last at least all winter.

Pictured here are the rams in their pasture with the covered up fence in the background with a view of the Sheep Barn behind it where the Girls are hidden from view. Farming is an occupation involving continual trouble shooting and problem solving. It can be frustrating but can be rewarding beyond the financial. One of the rewards is the satisfaction of figuring out how to deal with an unexpected problem and discovering good-ole-fashioned "Farmer's Ingenuity".

New Additions to Shetland Flock

This past weekend I welcomed 2 new additions to my Shetland Flock: Windwater Caramel and UnderTheSon Two Bars.

Caramel is my first Registered Shetland ewe. She is a 3 year old mioget, which is a very light modified brown colour. She has a Krunet on her head and white legs (Sokket), but may be Gulmoget patterned (I haven't flipped her yet to see if her belly is white). I bought her from Tammy, a Shetland breeder from Southern Ontario, who was taking a trip out east. We met at another Shetland breeder, Heidi to make the exchange. If it weren't for both of these ladies, Caramel would not be at my farm right now. Thanks to both of you so much for helping me get her here! Caramel was the picture of a doll when I first saw her. She was in the back of Tammy's truck in a large dog crate lying down on a bed of hay, contentedly munching without a care in the world. She was fairly quiet on the ride home in my vehicle, only startling Brianna & I twice with a loud Baaaa!!! when we came to a stop sign. As we drove up the driveway at home, my other girls were in the front pasture. She started Baaing loudly and repeatedly. Brianna wanted me to open the windows, because she was trying to say hello to her new flock. She has settled in quickly after being put in her place by Meg, my flock boss.


Two Bars came the next day through another Shetland breeder, Donna, who lives very close to my farm and Heidi again. They drove to Prince Edward County together to pick up several sheep from yet another, well-known Shetland breeder, Bill. They graciously brought home Two Bars for me along with their girls. Two Bars has fit in rather quickly with my 3 other rams (2 of which are intact) after a bit of head bashing. He quickly learned his place, and I found him the next morning sleeping peacefully next to Tommy, my wethered ram. I'm very pleased with him. He is a solid light moorit ram. What I can see of his fleece is making me very excited for next year's lambs. It is soft and very crimpy. He's 2 years old and seems able to hold his own among my other rams.

Soon Twist will go to his new home and Choy will have to go, one way or another, so this year's breeding season should go smoother than last years, with only 1 ram breeding the girls this year. That's the plan anyway!!!

Horns and Quills

It was a beautiful, sunny but cool breeze blowing kind of day. Perfect for cleaning out the sheep barn....again. I'm getting a new ewe tomorrow, Windwater Caramel and I wanted to clean out the pen which has the remaining girls & ewe lambs. One section was done a few weeks ago when I separated the ram lambs from their moms. As I did the morning chores, I finally noticed the big rams. They are in an adjoining pasture and I typically throw them a couple of flakes over the fence as part of my routine. Twist was covered with white spikey things on his head. I quickly realized that he had rammed a porcupine. Panic set in...what to do! I remembered that my neighbour Pam had removed several quills from her dog herself, so I called her, but unfortunately she wasn't home. Plan B...the internet. Remembering that Pam had mentioned just pulling them out with pliers and NOT cutting the back end, and having that confirmed by what I was reading online, I headed out with 4 different pairs of pliers to try out.


I tied him outside of his pasture in the backyard and gave him his own flake of hay. I held his horns (I love that the rams have "handles"...it makes handling them much easier) and closed on one quill as close to the skin as I could and pulled. I was pretty nervous and shaking, but out it came and rather easily. I did 5 on his nose and near his eyes, before he started to squirm. As he tossed his head, I got pricked by one of the quills. Apparently the back end of the quills is just as sharp. I gave him a break while I went to get a bandaid and a camera. I did 5 more but the wind was taking away the discarded quills from on top of the nearby chicken house. I then went to get a baggie and a helper. Brianna came out to help in her PJs and held the bag of quills close by so I could remove them and just drop them in. When all was done, I counted 64 quills. Overall, he was a really good boy considering his predicament. I'd never heard of this happening to a sheep. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen to their livestock.

I carried on cleaning out the sheep barn. It took me over 3 hours of hard, physical work. I laid down some lime and fresh straw overtop and set up the middle lambing pen to put Caramel in tomorrow night, so she can get used to the new flock without getting bossed around. She'll have her own water and hay and hopefully recover from her long drive.

It was a busy, productive and educational day!

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.