Quick and easy cattle panel hoola-hoop house

[Latestarter]

Amazing... that's a LOOTTT of water and though they say the dam is fine... if the overflow keeps eating the spillway, that trench is going to start undercutting and backing up toward the top and once it gets there, that's all she wrote. Just wow. I hope those downstream have their bug out bags ready to go.

 

[Bruce]

I am already planning major excavation for the spring. Large berms and drainage ditches to direct all the streams around the Ag building instead of through the middle of it.

What? Complaining about having water available right in the building, no expense to get it there??

Congrats on the lambs, sure home you find the missing one. I BELIEVE that in many places you can legally shoot raptors that threaten livestock. Might want to check into that so you know your options.


OK, this looks REALLY bad. "Update, 7:15 p.m. Thursday":
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/07/engineers-assess-spillway-problem-at-oroville-dam/

If the rain doesn't cut way back, there are going to be some new rivers, new paths for old rivers and some "used to be there roads". Same thing happened when Irene blasted Vermont a few years ago. Not dam spill overs, just WAY too much water coming down the mountains into narrow valleys with villages on the edge of what were relatively small rivers for scores of decades. Some farms ended up with their tillable soil going "downstream" replaced with rocks.

for everyone downhill from Lake Ororville

 

[Baymule]

No you cannot shoot raptors. Nope. Nada. NOT. Suck it up and get LGD's. Hope you find the lamb.

 

[farmerjan]

Baymule is right. You cannot shoot any bird of prey; eagles, owls, hawks, VULTURES, NONE. Have been through that with the free range layers and the eagle that decided that ONE A DAY was HIS personal right. Lost 122 and the neighbors were watching. And our Local Sheriff also was losing hens to an eagle and his LGD would be trying to chase them off and the other one of the pair would go in and get one while the LGD was busy with the other. Then they attacked the LGD and it got some nasty talons in it's back and stuff. They had a young LGD in there that was learning the ropes and they hurt it so bad it died from the wounds and infection. So we both decided that for now, free range layers are so NOT a part of things. Eagles are majestic, but they are as mean a predator as they come.
The black mexican vultures are such a problem that they will get together in group and attack a new born calf. There are states that have introduced legislation to allow for them to be killed since they have become such a nusance(sp). Had a group of at least 10 after a calf that one of our heifers had. She was running at them and they were circling around on the ground to try to get to it and the after birth. Luckily the friend that lived in the house saw them, went down on the 4-wheeler and chased them off and called me. I was on my way home from work and got there and stayed til the calf got up and nursed and the heifer took it up into the wooded area. They are the absolutely most god-awful thing there is.
Here, there are several eagles that have been micro-chipped; it would be a crap shoot to kill one and have it be one of them. They will put you under the jail if you are caught killing one or if it can be tracked to a place where it was buried.
Had a "chicken hawk" get into the run attached to a chicken house and kill one of my sons best breeding purebred show bantam roosters. It just disappeared and we have NO idea where it went but we haven't seen it since. They are fast and fly like a woodcock in the wild, darting in and out and erratic. Next to impossible to shoot even if it was legal.

Most here practice SSS with anything but the eagles. I caught some black buzzards years ago that were attacking and eating the rear end out of a LIVE calf about 20 foot in under a big shed. I will say they never flew off anywhere and I an not afraid to say it. I had to put the calf down too. It was gross.

Hate to say it but I am afraid that the lamb is probably gone. Don't ever leave a baby like that if you see any sign of a bird of prey. They can pick up a good sized rabbit and a 5-6 lb chicken and carry it off. Just be glad that you still have the ewe and at least one lamb. Sorry that it was probably a lesson learned.

 

[Bruce]

No you cannot shoot raptors. Nope. Nada. NOT. Suck it up and get LGD's. Hope you find the lamb.

So much for that idea. Seems I was wrong

again

as usual

 

[soarwitheagles]

Thanks for all the great info again everyone! Yes, Lake Oroville is still having challenges. Now it appears they have increased the flow to 5500cfs, the spillway is experiencing more damage by the minute, the lake is receiving double the amount of water it is releasing, and they plan on opening the emergency spillway tomorrow morning. Lake Oroville is still the highest dam in the USA. Never a boring moment, that's for sure!

And never a boring moment raising sheep too!

I hear you on the hawks, owls, buzzards, etc. As mentioned before, a friend gave us 15 free range chickens a couple of years ago and he swore they knew how to take care of themselves [they did just fine at his ranch 30 miles away]. They lasted less than two weeks. Came home the first day and there was a massive hawk, enjoying his last few bites. Next morning, it was an obvious owl kill. Next morning, it was an obvious skunk kill [headless torsos]. Finally, I believe the large population of possums helped themselves to the last few chickens. We realized we need to keep our chickens in a large enclosed area, and to this day, that is exactly what we do...don't let em' out for even a minute or two.

I do know there are a number of people out here that practice the SSS with no qualms whatsoever...and I personally have no problem with that at all.

After searching for over an hour last night, I gave up on the new lamb. I searched most of the forest with shotgun in hand, looking for tracks at the last place I saw the lamb...still no go. It was a horrible feeling when I realized it was 100% my own fault...

So around 10 pm I called it quits and went to bed...hoping that a good night's sleep would help dull the pain of my foolish decision. I told my wife if we did not find it in the evening, it was as good as dead. My wife would not give up. She kept looking and looking even in the midst of the storm. The back area has 12 or so acres of Eucalyptus forest. Come to find out she found the lamb far away, near a neighbor's property line. She carried it up front and set it down next to Dorper mama and the other twin and went to bed. She had also picked up a number of placentas and threw them in the garbage.

Early this morning the mama was cuddling only one twin. I found the lost lamb hundreds of feet away, sleeping under a tree. I separated the mama and both twins from the flock and gave them their own paddock. Hours later, all three are hanging out, close together, and both lambs are slurping the milk. So it appears as if this nightmare may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. First, I learned NEVER leave a new born in the back forest. Second, I am reconsidering my plan to separate all ewes that appear ready to give birth, and place them in a paddock, away from the forest, in a much safer area...

Have a great day everyone! I have the day off from my teaching job and I am enjoying Lincoln's Holiday and working at our ranch all day!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So glad he's back in the fold!

 

[norseofcourse]

Kudos to your wife for not giving up! So glad she found the lamb and they are all doing well now.

 

[farmerjan]

Tickled that your wife found the lamb. I am surprised that it managed to find a place to feel safe, and be safe long enough for you to get it. Alot of times the ewe will take the bigger or the more aggressive baby and then shun the lessor one. It is their instinct to take the one that can follow quicker to get it away from the birth place so that the scent doesn't attract a predator.

We are in the middle of lambing right now and have had to take one of a set of twins that she just won't accept and an old ewe just rejected both her lambs and she doesn't have any milk. So they are on bottles. We will sometimes take a twin from a first time ewe so she can learn and understand that she needs to take care of the baby. Twins often confuse them and they will abandon them if overwhelmed. We are lucky that most of the first timers seem to have mostly singles. And some that have twins do fine. But twins are also hard on a first time mother as they often don't have enough milk either. By the second time they are fine with the twins. We will separate the ewe with her twins so that they can bond as the lambs sometimes just get confused and they can lose their place and then the ewe will not want them. Some will do fine when they have nothing else to concentrate on but their babies for a day or two and the lambs get stronger and know where to get their meal from.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Glad to hear the lamb was found!