March at the Farm

Cosmo leading the way

Rachel

It's only mid March but seems like Spring is here.  The weeds are growing in the garden amongst the onions and sweet peas that I planted a couple of weeks ago.  It's time to start seedlings as well, as a lot of other tasks, but have been busy these last two months completing the hi tensile fence in the back pasture.  That will be the new digs for the sheep.

Baby lamb (Suzette) is doing fine, getting big.  Rachel, the momma sheep, has not dropped her new lamb yet and looks like a barrel on four little sticks, she is so round.  My neighbor had his cousin look at her yesterday and he said it looked like she has three more weeks to go.  That was based on his experience with goats, so take that for what it's worth.  Big boy sheep, Omar, is also good, head butting the others around when they don't move fast enough for  him.

I am preparing myself to shear them in a couple of more weeks by watching YouTube videos.  I had one attempt at flipping the lamb which is what you have to do to shear them and it didn't go so well.  As soon as I put my hand on her she bolted.  It was like trying to hold onto a bucking bronco.  I am trying to psych myself up for the next attempt but now she won't come anywhere near me.

On the chicken front, I have completed the chicken trailer which is going to go out in the pasture so the chickens can free range. 

 

The chicken trailer

The 25 chicks arrived yesterday.  There are 21 Dominiques (Dominickers as they are known around here), and 4 Silkies.  The Silkies, though smaller show superior skill in foraging and aggressiveness.  I always thought of Silkies as sissy chickens.  If you know what the adults look like, you'd understand but I now have new respect and admiration for them.  The job of the Dominiques will be to provide eggs and meat while the Silkies will be for hatching eggs.

There favorite snack, over worms, (they hate slugs), is crickets which I find under rocks and feed to them.  They go crazy chasing which ever chick manages to grab it first.  It becomes a game of steal the cricket until the poor thing is torn apart and several of the chicks get a piece.  The smaller Silkies are always the first to snatch it up and usually get the lions share of the treat.  The Dominiques kind of stand around watching like they are not sure what is going on.  The runt of the flock is a tiny Silkie.  I was not sure she'd survive because of her tiny size and the fact that she has a deformed foot but she is one of the best foragers in the lot.

Scratching and pecking

Today was their first forage out in the chick play pen, a 6 x 6 pen out in the grass where they can practice their pecking and foraging skills.  They were a little unsure when first released but in a few minutes where running around grabbing bugs and scratching at the dirt, like they knew exactly what they were doing.  After a few hours out in the big world they returned to the safety and warmth of the brooder only to collapse from exhaustion.

First day out

Next on the list of things to do is get the garden in order, inoculate some more Shiitake mushroom logs and I am now considering a couple of brush goats to manage briar along the creek banks.  I saw some baby goats on Craig's list and they sure are cute!