Chicks

Latest Hatching Update:

Sunday 28th 7.09pm chick no.1  hatched (21 day incubation period (as roughly expected)
Wednesday 30th 6.00am chick no.2 hatched (21 day incubation period (expected 19 days)

The Effects of Mild Weather On Livestock

With one of the mildest and wettest Decembers on record just having passed, livestock throughout the country have suffered greatly.

The persistent wet weather has resulted in extremely muddy ground all over the country, which has caused havoc on sheep's feet. Recently when treating a Ram Lamb for scald I noticed how soft there feet have become, however this isn't the worst of their problems. The wet ground results in scald, and the majority of our 89 strong flock are suffering from this condition, which essentially causes the gap between the two parts of the cloven hoof to become very sore and pink, with the worst cases resulting in bleeding. This has led to widespread lameness. Luckily it can easily treated with an antibacterial spray, which dries the foot out and destroys any infection.

Scald

However with respect to cattle it has not been too bad in un-flooded  areas. Many of the local cattle have been consigned to barns, which one might  argue  results in the easy spreading of diseases, helped by the mild weather. But the appropriate design of cattle barns coupled with the high winds has meant that the barns have had good ventilation, and so disease has not been too bad.

Cattle Barn

HEADLINE NEWS: The Big Duck Hatch

Time: 16:54 (3/04/2015)
Lockdown has begun with two ducks already having internally piped and chirping...

Ducklings

A few months ago we decided to invest in a pair of Mallard Bantam ducks, a drake and a duck, and now we are expecting our first hatch of 3 eggs this Sunday.

Here is a picture from when they were candled at around day 11:

 

Unlike the chicken eggs which I have previously hatched, duck eggs can take up to 28 days, give or take two days, but since the eggs that I am incubating are Bantam or more commonly know as call ducks, they may take more around 26 days, with internal piping expected at around 24 days.

This all means that lockdown will start at the end of day 23, where humidity will go from 50% to 70% and the temperature will drop down from 37.5C to 37.2C.

LAMBS, LAMBS AND MORE LAMBS!

Last Saturday we started lambing and its been non- stop with 7 ewes giving birth to 16 lambs, however one was stillborn. We have had two sets of live triplets four sets of twins and one single so far, 10 boys and 5 girls. This year I've been allowed to inject antibiotics into the ewes we assisted and do all the iodine and spectam. Last night I even assisted a first timer give birth to a massive ewe lamb. Furthermore as one of the ewes with triplets only has one teat working we decided to move one of the triplets onto the first time mother with a single and so far it has been a success! Only 16 left to go!

A Lucky Day

Last Sunday our ewes were scanned for pregnancy,  we were very nervous before hand, due to fact that during late November 36 of the hunt's hounds had become out of control and charged through our flock of pregnant ewes. Now we usually have the rams late anyway as we don't want the lambs to die of the cold, but he had to stay even longer this time,  as we feared that some of them had miscarried.
However when they were scanned all but two were pregnant  albeit all of the lanbs were different sizes, which means that some had not miscarried and the ones, who had were covered again.
When looking through our records we found out that one who wasn't pregnant did not give birth last year and that the other (a Ryeland) had complications at birth last year and had suffered a ruptured uterus when pulling the lamb out and the uterus lining clearly hadn't been able to repair itself for the embryo to implant in it.
Never mind, BRING ON LAMBING

Solli's Transformation

It has been six months since Solli arrived and he has changed quite a lot. Due to a diet of rich grass, linseed and lots of riding!








SOLLI- May 2013



SOLLI- August 2013