Margali's Griffin Wood Ranch

[Margali]

I had some 1"x1" stiffer netting for plant trellising saved. I wrapped the inside of the 16'x16' pen with that. It's just secured at the corners for now. Tomorrow I will get some UV stabilized zipties to secure it better. These chickens need to start laying soon!

 

[Baymule]

Your chickens are determined to be Bruno snacks.

 

[Bruce]

The chickens keep leaving the run and becoming Bruno chewtoys.

Fortunately no Bruno here. Chicken feeding was late last night (5 instead of 4). Aurora decided she shouldn't have to wait behind the 5' gate and flew up on top then over. DW and her sister saw it happen. Sadly Aurora isn't too bright, decided she wanted to go back by trying to squeeze through the 2x4 wire. Of course she couldn't get more than her head and neck in. Sort of panicked but managed to find the gate after I opened it and pushed the other 21 hens out of the way.

 

[Margali]

I sold the calf table for $350! Only out the gas money for getting it. Here's the chicken run semi setup.


That's the good new. Bad news is operations at plant screwing up AGAIN. This time they assumed the instruments didn't work AND did not verifying in the field. Last week, ops management had them put a bunch of maintenance spares out in the mud to get rained on. I'm considering job hunting again...

 

[Baymule]

Great news on the calf tilt table. Yay for chicken run going up and all things ion the farm.

BOO on working with idiots!

 

[Margali]

This heat is horrible. I'm only able to work on stuff from a little before sunset to complete dark.

I'm trying ro decide if Pepper and Dash are big enough to go in with Snip. Managing one paddock will be easier with my limited time. They are approx. 6 months old and about 2/3 as tall as Panda. Dash weighed 60lbs at 4 months.

Thoughts?

 

[Alaskan]

This heat is horrible. I'm only able to work on stuff from a little before sunset to complete dark.

I'm trying ro decide if Pepper and Dash are big enough to go in with Snip. Managing one paddock will be easier with my limited time. They are approx. 6 months old and about 2/3 as tall as Panda. Dash weighed 60lbs at 4 months.
View attachment 92787
Thoughts?

@Baymule ?

 

[Baymule]

I’d give them a couple more months. Some people breed ewes at 6 months, I like to give them time to grow and mature a little. I wait until 9-10 months. Probably not what you want to hear. And this heat is horrible.

 

[Ridgetop]

With this heat I would definitely wait until they are closer to 10 months old. Just because Katahdin (and Dorper) ewes can breed at 6 months doesn't mean you need to breed them that early. Waiting a couple months will allow the ewelings time to grow larger. Pulling nutrients from the body of a growing eweling to support the growth of her own lambs can stunt the ewe. Sometimes young ewes won't breed until 10 months or so anyway. Early fertility and breeding have been bred into these sheep as an industry tool to obtain more lambs (the cash crop) faster. Very early breeding is mostly used on large sheep flocks that need to support farm families as sole income.

Katahdin rams should be fertile in this heat but no need to stress the ram either. Wool breeds go temporarily sterile in high heat situations.

 

[Margali]

It's been a couple of weeks since I updated, just too dang hot. The girls went thru the e-fence to be in padock with Aria twice in week after I posted. I decided letting them stay was easier on my sanity. Snip is NOT interested in the heat.

I got tpost for first cross paddock fence spaced and set. They aren't all the way in because the ground is rock solid and the neighborhood dogs were going crazy. So I stopped at 9pm.

So far the no new chicken losses.