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I have a naughty hen at the moment that has decided to lay her delicious eggs anywhere but her hen house. First it was the wood shed where the lambing gates are stored, but when we took them away for the lambing shed, she went on her travels again... Her latest 'plot'/ nest is at the entrance of the driveway to the farm, right next to the busy road!!!Typical....
Lambings very much here, and its been a busy couple of weeks. My mother-in-law Anne is the main lamber on the farm, and has been busy down in the shed day and night. My contribution to lambing this year has not been as full on as the past few years because of baby dunc, but I have managed to fit some lambing duties into my baby routine! In the mornings, after Duncans feed, I dress him up into his snowsuit, and bundle him into his buggy, and wheel him down into the lambing shed. He quietly observes the sheep and lambs, while I feed and water all the pens of sheep that have already lambed. Its a great way to keep him occupied, and get him used to the sound and sight of animals. After a while down in the shed, he gets tired, and becomes a bit grizzly with all the 'baaaas' and 'bheees', but with a gentle rock of his buggy (and a wee suck of his dummy) he manages to drift off into a wee sleep, so I can finish off my duties, as well as feed these two wee men! (above pic).These guys are very cute, and they welcome me in the mornings with a very high pitched 'bheeee'! They are currently under a heat lamp, and being fed by us to keep them strong. They were too small and weak to stay with their mothers, so we had to take them off her, so we could look after them, and keep them alive. They are the size of little kittens, but doing really well!
I currently have a very broody hen who has been sitting on eggs for a few days...unfortunately her eggs aren't fertilised, so I have turned them into pancakes, and through the power of Ebay, ordered half a dozen Cuckoo Maran eggs so she can hatch them! Its crazy how you can order eggs on Ebay, but wonderful for times like this!I really hope they are fertile, and that myhen hatches them successfully!
We are days away from lambing, and after all the cold weather we dont have any grass. When the snow melted, it exposed what little grass we had, and what their is, is almost dead, and needing some heat about it to make it grow. This is a concern, as once the sheep have lambed, we put them outside into the fields, and if their is no grass in the fields, their is no food for the sheep. So we needed to look for a cost effective way to feed the sheep while the grass tries to grow! Turnips were the answer, and this morning an artic load were delivered, all ready to be munched on!! It takes the sheep a few days to get used to the taste, but once sampled a few times, they love them.
A lot of turnips.....I think Duncan forgot how much an artic could hold!!! But at least we'll have happy sheep!!
