Bridgemoof--Sheep & Wool festival

[jodief100]

So sorry about your rough day. I had one myself a few days ago. That is farming and there is nothing we can do about it.

Is your place real muddy? The boers seem to have a lot of hoof trouble in the mud.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Yep it's muddy, and more rain and snow coming tonight and tomorrow My Tunis sheep also do very poorly in the mud. They are meant to be in sandy areas I suppose. Both of them are from Africa, so different climate than what we have here.

Oh I now have 3 bottle babies in the house! My friend brought me another Tunis lamb, a ram lamb who is VERY vocal tonight! And we now have a baby Alpine/Nubian kid about 2 weeks old that we are trying to get to take a bottle. It's a bit of a struggle, but I think we'll get there.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Hi everyone!

I sure have a lot of updating to do.

SHEEP
The 2 bottle babies have been out in the barn now for 3 days and 3 nights. No more mess in the house! I feed them their bottles every 4 hours, except for night. I get up to check the pregger sheeps around 2 am so I give them a bottle then. They are doing great and growing! It's been very chilly at night so I've been keeping them in a lambing jug with a heat lamp at night.

Still waiting on ewes to deliver. Finn, Beatrix Potter, Fluffy, Cinnamon.... Last night Leah had milk, so maybe some Finn's today? Yeah I know, I've been saying that for a while now.

We had the vet out the other day to listen to lungs, we have a case of Micoplasmal Pneumonia running around through the goats and sheep. He gave a few of them injections of Zactran, and then we ended up buying a 100 dose bottle and are administering it as we hear a cougher.

O'Malley, our oldest biggest Suffolk ewe had a fall in the rain and mud last week. I went out there and she was stuck on her side and couldn't get up. Tim and I had to tie a rope around her and pull her up, then push her up into the barn. She laid there for 5 days and didn't get up. She was eating and drinking but just couldn't stand on her own. Tim and I picked her up a few times and got her to walk around the barn a little, but her legs were very wobbly. So Friday we decided it was time to put her down. So that deed is done, her fleece was very nasty and Suffolk wool isn't the best. So Tim took her whole hide and put it in the washing machine and is going to make a saddle pad out of it.

GOATS
The bottle baby goat kid who never took the bottle has been adopted by boer goat #28, the one who lost her twins when we tried to pull them. We were getting like 2 quarts of milk a day out of her, but now her milk production has gone way down and we are barely getting enough to feed our bottle lambs. It is the funniest thing though seeing this teeny tiny black nigerian alpine kid tagging along with the big boer goat.

Have had a lot of limpers due to wet, muddy conditions so now we are trying Koppertox to treat their hooves.

CL
Tim is buying a super sized big antique loom CocoNUT found on CL. It's a good deal, but we absolutely have NO room for it. It will be stored in the barn in pieces and maybe someday we'll have a place for it. He's thinks he's gonna make a rug. Last week Tim got a bunch of free soap making supplies from some lady who was moving. Lye, Stearic Acid, bottles of Alcohol, pots and pans, plus soaps and bath salts she had already made.

PIGS
We have two pot belly pigs in the horse trailer that we picked up last night. This is the craziest thing. The pigs came with 7 16' long cattle panels and that's why Tim wanted the pigs. All this for free. So his plan is to set up the cattle panels around our garden where he just dumped some fresh manure and let the pigs root around in it and prep the soil. So today he has to build a shelter in the garden for them.

HORSES
Tim sold a yearling colt from our Stallion, so that was pretty decent money. Also we had 2 3-year old colts gelded this week. Thunder Bob, the Appaloosa colt has been so wild and actually tried to jump out of his stall one day last week. He got stuck with his front legs hanging out and his back legs still in the stall. It was scary, but he's okay. Hopefully he'll calm down now.

That's all I can think of for now, have to go feed!

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Sorry about O'Malley!!
That really sucks that it is soooo wet around your farm! I dont have to worry about the down pours and mud for another month to month and a half.
Such cute bottle babies!!! I raise Tunis too, I have about 50 ewes.
Good luck with your up and coming babies!!!!!!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Boy are you a busy woman. Sorry about O'Malley.

 

[promiseacres]

I have some off/on lamesness in my ewes too good to know I can use koppertox....sorry to hear about ur ewe cute lambies!

 

[Bridgemoof]

Well everything we've read says you can use Koppertox on sheep. But the one day I put it on my little lamb because she was limping and then I though, omg COPPER! I'm sure it absorbs into their skin. She is okay, but I'm not going to use it on lambs anymore for fear of copper toxicity. May be too much for a little lambie. :/

The pigs are STILL in the horse trailer. It is snowing like crazy, we got about 4" overnight and more is coming.

I would think that this pressure system would make my pregger sheep go into labor, if it doesn't I don't know what will!

We didn't get the loom yet. Tim's mom is sick and he may go to NY to see her. Things are not looking good for her. Annie leaves for California for spring break vacation tomorrow. One of these days I'm going to leave these guys here to hold down the fort and go on a vacation and NEVER return!

 

[Bridgemoof]

For those of you who didn't catch it, my Jacob ewe Fluffy had a single teeny ewe lamb last night. She and mommy are doing great! Details and pics are in my lambing thread.

The rototillers got put into action finally today!

They are now working pigs!

Tim built my a hay rack in the sheep shed from one of the cattle panels. It's great!

And here's a pic of my sheeps under one of their shelters. It's sunny today but windy and brrrrrr!!!!!!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Nice hay rack! Looks like it would be easy to fill too.

 

[CocoNUT]

Nice "rack" Bridge!!!