BrownSheep- It's been a while

[BrownSheep]

I can't remember if I have told you guys but I was accepted int the research program which will pay me for my internship .

Not to much going on here. Study study study and going home one the weekends. Were are all most done lambing. We've had quite a few losses but when I consider over half of those come from the two ewes who had quints and quads it really wasn't too bad. Not counting those we had two still borns, twins that had something off about them, one bummer that got seriously hit by a ewe, and one we suspect had damage done shortly after birth( first time mom).

I found some one selling highlands on Craigslist.....I really think I need some highland/yak crosses.

Also I am 75% certain I am still 5 and not the colIege sophomore I pretend to be. I came home made myself lunch and netflixed Mulan....yesterday it was kuzkos new groove

 

[BrownSheep]

Not much to report. My padre wants highlands as well but we are concerned the yaks would take them out. Yaks use horns ( clanking and tapping) for most of their communication.

My bestest buddy from high school has spring break next week so she and her friend are going to take a day to come see me!
My mom's birthday is next weekend. I still haven't found her a gift . Our local-ish commercial sheep dairy is selling ewes so maybe she'll want one to make cheese....Or maybe that's me .

The dairy is selling them for 175 -250...I need one or 28 of them.

 

[jodief100]

Not much to report. My padre wants highlands as well but we are concerned the yaks would take them out. Yaks use horns ( clanking and tapping) for most of their communication.

My bestest buddy from high school has spring break next week so she and her friend are going to take a day to come see me!
My mom's birthday is next weekend. I still haven't found her a gift . Our local-ish commercial sheep dairy is selling ewes so maybe she'll want one to make cheese....Or maybe that's me .

The dairy is selling them for 175 -250...I need one or 28 of them.

I think you should get the dairy ewes... Then I can live vicariously through you since hubby won't let me.

 

[BrownSheep]

Haha I tried to convince them!

We are 98% done with lambing. Just a few stragglers who I think will go more towards April. We have some nice looking lambs from this batch. I am in LOVE with our oldest black ewe. We also have a couple of ewes from last year who just aren't making the cut. The biggest offender is Blind-y. She is wool blind to a certain extent and tiny. We have 6 wk old lambs who are as tall as her. I think she will be headed to the butcher when we take the wethers in.

Yaks are doing well. We think Harry finally got whomped on by Boris. He is real slow moving and hanging off by himself. The two of them have been battling back and forth since Harry came back home. I am hoping for calves come June.

Turkeys are in the mood and poor Betty White ( tom) got beat up. If you remember, he was the one who has a deformed beak due to a chucker attack as a chick. They broke off the end of his beak ( I was about to do that any way) and bloodied him up pretty good. I'll be making breeding pens this weekend so he has his own ladies with out competition. I also have one Marans cross hen who is working on some chicks for me. I have no idea how long she has been sitting and the eggs are too dark to get a good idea.

The weather has been spring-ish. It was raining pretty hard all morning so I drove to the zoo instead of walked. They of course got a delivery of grain so we ran around trying to get everything put up. Rained until about the last 20 minutes there. The giraffes were mad since it was right after we locked them up for the night. Sun and blue skies as I drove back. Now it is thunder and lightening and hail.

PS Giraffes don't like foot baths.

 

[BrownSheep]

Scratch that...we are have blue skies to the east.

 

[BrownSheep]

So the mainstay of my internship is as the data entering professional. Aka the chick who goes through the trail camera photos and records the recreational events. In my latest batch of data just some of the things cracked me up. Selfie taking ground squirrels, a dude who found the camera and tried to leave a message with his phone (seemed like a nice guy), another guy almost running over the camera twice, People going out with bags and coming back with out. All of this way out in the foot hills.

I also have seen deer, vast amounts of coyotes and rabbits, large herds of cows ( of course), large herds of mules/horses, and dumb birds....The thing that really bothered me was a twig...2700+ pix...I want to find it and introduce to a blow torch.

 

[BrownSheep]

Our renters moved out this weekend so we opened up the alley way to the yaks. It looks like Ruby ( the "yow") might just have a little bag starting. It's hard to tell since she pretty much has the yak tail. She was very heat-esque towards the end of July so this would be right about the right time for a baby. I don't expect a calf from Betty since she calved in April with Sophie. I want to say I read that they only calve every 18- 24 months which would back up our current experiences. The Boris was mad for the other three around October so that puts us at about June.

Sophie has gotten a little friendlier so I am hoping to catch her next week ( SPRING BREAK ) and start halter breaking her. She is almost a year old but probably a little smaller than a 4 month old steer. Boris and Harry are still duking it out. The current pecking order ( accourding to my dad ) is Boris, Betty, Harry, Ruby, Pixie/Dixie, and lastly Trixie. Sophie is still a baby and is treated pretty much as such by the herd.

During the break I am also hoping to take a load of lambs into the butcher, set up breeding pens for my turkeys , and set up our electric fence.

 

[BrownSheep]

Yesterday was a no good very bad day.

I came home yesterday since my dad's birthday is today. At lunch we had been talking about letting the sheep out to graze in the area behind our house ( not fenced). I said that I planned to but wanted to take a nap first ( 3.5 hours of sleep. College rules. ) When I got home I noticed how nice it was and said screw it and decided to let the sheep out. I stayed out with them since they have been know to find the grass along the road to be the best. It didn't take them long to find the spot where the hay had been and they spent most of their time eating there.

About 45 min later some of the older ewes had decided to go back into the dry lot. I noticed one ewe lay down oddly kind of like she was lambing. She kicked a couple of times. I noticed there was a lamb bugging her. I ran over there and she was dead. Unfortunately, she was a named one who I was pretty fond of. I ran and pushed everyone else back in the dry lot. Just about every single one of the darn things started bloating horribly.

Of course the worst ones were the "pets" of the flock. I ran in grabbed the vegetable oil and a drench. This took no more than 1.5-2 minutes. Went back out another one was dead. Grabbed, Millie and Billie ( our first ever bottle babies) and drenched them. They had actually looked worst when I left than the one who died. My mom ran into town to buy more of a bloat drench which name escapes me, bloat blocks, and vegetable oil.

My dad and I ran every one into the smaller lot so we could start drenching. I also called the vets. I can handle one or two or even 10 bloating sheep but 30 is above my pay grade. The recepetionist actually sounded more panicked than me and took my number so she could hunt down one of the vets. ( they spend most of their time out on dairy calls). She called me back to tell me to get the on dry lot and start dosing with vegtable oil. Yay, we were already doing that. A vet called me a couple minutes later. By that time I felt pretty confident every one would be ok. He kind of himmed and hawed and eventually said to use soap instead. Dosed the worst ones with soap. Threw in some bloat blocks and called it good.

We took the two dead ewes out (one single and one with twin) to the bone yard. We actually skinned one but didn't have time to do the other.

We have no clue as to what they could have eaten to go so freaking fast. They have been on the dry hay all winter. they grass was just cheat grass shoots. We did the same thing every other year. They literally were only out for less than an hour.

Luckily every one else has recovered. The singleton orphan is old enough she can be weaned now. The twin orphans who are only a couple of weeks old I guess have been adopted prior to this by a ewe who lost a lamb when they were about a week old.

Moral of the story- Take a nap, leave the sheep in the pen.

 

[norseofcourse]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... what a terrible thing to go through Good thing you were right there and knew what to do, and had help, too. I am glad you were able to save most of them.

 

[elevan]

Goodness, what a troublesome day! I'm glad you were able to save the greater lot of them.