October and the new arrivals

Sorry I have not kept you up to date with what is going on here at Yorkshire Rose Farm, over the next few month I hope to show you what we have been too busy to get down in our blog.

The most resent things that have happened is the arrival of our 40 day old chick, I got a phone call at 6:10 am we got a call from the local post office sorting office that our chicks had arrived and needed collecting. We had been emailed from the hatchery the day before to say that our chicks where on their way so we had put our heat lamps on, so that the had a warm home when they arrived.

There is a mixed bunch but all are female, 25 red stars which we got last year and have done very well for us, 5 black Australorps, 5 silver laced wyandotte's 5 White rocks.
Sorry the pic is a little distorted by the red heat lamps, they are all doing well and we have 3 extra, one I think is a red star the other two are a free gift from the hatchery , they are rate Extic chicks. We got two last year and seagull and road runner have made us smile through out the year, seagull has given me small white egg that I have made our own as all the rest of the hens lay brown, she is now in full molt and very happy as she is quite a good looking girl. Road runner I am not sure how many she layed, I would get a smallish brown egg now and again, she seems happy but neither are very friendly and flee when you we get close.

The big girls (sheep) are all well, we have got through the drought and all have them have been in their breeding groups so fingers crossed they are all pregnant, I took a couple of photos and the 29th as it was the first time that all the females have been together since the the spring, The ewe lambs where split off for weening and then they where split into breeding groups.

I think they all look good the lovely frost morning.

I will tell you about other things we have been doing in the come weeks and getting more pic's

Getting to be big boys and girls

On Sunday we weighted all the lambs and gave them all some medicine for intestinal worms and I thought you would like to see how big the lambs are getting. The one with his head in the bowl is one of the bigger ones and is around 100lbs and the one walking away is little brown nose, he is one of the triplets that we bottle feed because his mum had mastius and could not feed them herself.
 He is the smallest of the triplets at 54lbs.

 His is the hay scrummage, there is plenty to go round but like all sheep the lambs want to eat what his neighbor is eating.

This is the cool place to hang out, the shade of the trees even and 8am is the best place to be.

 

 Taking a walk though the field we seeded this spring and the out look is optimistic IF we can keep getting some rain.
Part of the field looks like this, which is not good but it is still hanging in and with a bit more rain it my produce some hay and or grazing.

 This part of the field looks a lot better, still not ready for hay or sheep but is a lot healthier and it is helping us keep our spirits up even though we know we are going to have to buy quite a bit of expensive hay from somewhere.

The chicks that where born on the 4th July are on their first excursion in the big chicken run. We lost 3 of the chick to a predator when they where only 2 days old, but now at nearly 3wks we decided to put them in with the old chickens that like to stay in the winter quarters.
We put them in early Sunday morning so they would be use to the run before night time, at 8pm we went to catch them and fasten them in the chicken house for the night and we found our old cockerel with a very bloody face.

We think he has been defending his girls and babies, part of his comb on his head is missing and his eye is partly closed. We gave him a close inspection and while he looks quite battered all of his injuries look to be superficial and best of all  know one else was hurt so he did a good job. Dave is now patroling the chicken run at dusk and dawn to see if he can find the critter that is harming our chucks.

North fence line

Untitled, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

This pic shows the north fence line from west to east , it looks along way to the east fence line.

Fencing 18 acre field

Untitled, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Our fencing is under way this is a picture of the north west corner we have nearly all the wooden fence posts in and all the green T posts are in on the east and north side. We are now ready to put on the wire on the North side.

babies again

Untitled, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

How about this little ones, they hatched yesterday 4th July on one of the hottest days of the year. Mum had 8 eggs and as you can see she has got 6 babies, so she has done very well.

Untitled

Untitled, a photo by Shepherd_Carole on Flickr.

Busy Times

Sorry its been so long, I need to get in to the habit of blogging and with all that is going on here on the farm at the moment it is very hard, there is always another job waiting to be done.

We sheared the sheep in early May so it has been a round of endless shirting(cleaning) the fleeces and then washing and I am still washing and will be washing till the fall I expect, as I hand wash every fleece. This practice may have to stop as it is time consuming and it is not good for my hands been in water for so long.

The 18 acre field that we seeded grass this spring is growing, but very slowly as we are suffering from a lack of rain, we where hoping to get a hay cutting off it and then graze part of it but at the moment the only animals on grass are our weaned lambs. All the ewes are on hay and are sheltering from the heat in the tree line, which is good as they are keeping all the weeds down in the trees.

Finally today I would like to tell you about the wonderful day we had last Sunday 24th June, at the Schultz's farm we were asked if we would attend their farm day that they put on for the international student services They asked us to bring our stall that we set up at the farmers market and some of our sheep, so we took Lambie our Tunis ewe and her two lambs and two weaned Romney Lambs. We had a great time talking to the students and professors from other countries and seeing other displays and and talks that they put on from a bee farmer to a cheese making demonstration, quilting displays and lessons to spinning and fiber prep and finally square dancing. The students had a good time and so did we even our sheep looked like they enjoyed the attention most of the time.