Well, lucky we did not cull the sick hen. Nick took one look at her and said she is just moulting. Apparently the white powder is just part of the process - presumably from the feathers - and the stubs are new feathers growing not the remains of diseased feathers.
There are very few eggs being laid at the moment but we are hoping that when we collect the shed that Pauline has donated we will be able to get some new chickens. I spent a small fortune at the farm stores on electrice fencing (it looks more like a tennis net) and tonics for the "sick" hens. Nick said it was not wasted money because when moulting the chickens will benefit from
the nutrition boost. We need to get the fencing up quickly for two reasons - the chickens scuff up all the soiled straw in the barn which should be left undisturbed using the deep litter system. Also there is a large vixen on the prowl and she has been seen in our hedges, so she needs to get a swift electric shock to remind her that the hens are ours and not a readimeal for foxes.
It is lovely to have some good weather again. We are hoping the muddy gateways will dry out a bit.
Bono, fingers crossed, seems to be getting better.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Weather Woes
Apart from making life much harder the long spell of wet warm weather has brought other problems to the farm.
Firstly there has not been a dry blade of grass for weeks. All the gateways are churned up and the race between the paddocks is slippery and waterlogged. The alpacas have not seen dry land for a long time which gives us concerns about their feet. Although they do not suffer with foot rot like sheep, their pads start to skin with holes appearing. Their toe nails grow more quickly and we feel that the constant rain makes their lives pretty miserable. When the sun does come out they seem to look more relaxed and of course much less bedraggled.
Usually they stay out all year, but last winter we brought them into the barn at night when the weather was too bad, such as the snow. We have decided to do the same thing again from now on this winter. We are hoping that a few hours a night on dry straw will help to keep their feet in good condition and save us problems later. It is also easier to feed them and keeps the wear and tear off the sodden paddocks.
Obviously as, even after this year's sales, we have 49 alpacas left, we cannot fit them all into our small barn so the males and the weanlings are remaining in their paddocks but we are cleaning them out daily and topping up the straw so that they also have the opportunity to keep their feet dry. The males usually go into their shelter at night anyway and the weanlings have their alf alfa and hay in their shelter which encourages them to spend time inside. Most mornings when we draw the curtains these days there is no sign of an alpaca.
We had sent off a routine dung sample to test for worms but in the meantime were alerted to the extra danger of fluke worm this year by our friends Ian and Lynsey Skinner. We went to their house for dinner on Thursday night and had a lovely meal and a very sociable time with the Skinners and their neighbours who were the other guests.
They have had some alpacas with fluke and so on Friday I checked the husbandry records and although it was only just over ten weeks since the last treatment decided to drench the whole herd straight away. Just as well, as Tim Lawrence, one of the vets, phoned on Saturday afternoon to say that the samples from the males and the weanlings showed some fluke eggs. Strangely the main herd which has been on the wettest pasture were clear. This unlikely scenario - i.e. fluke in the dryer paddocks and no sign in the wetlands, vindicated our decision to worm them without delay.
Bono took a step backwards. He started to look tucked up again and spent some time lying down on his own, so he is back on the Antepsin. We have reduced the dose to twice a day and it seems to have perked him up again. We are still waiting for the results of his blood tests.
The weather improved this afternoon and made everything look rosy again.
Firstly there has not been a dry blade of grass for weeks. All the gateways are churned up and the race between the paddocks is slippery and waterlogged. The alpacas have not seen dry land for a long time which gives us concerns about their feet. Although they do not suffer with foot rot like sheep, their pads start to skin with holes appearing. Their toe nails grow more quickly and we feel that the constant rain makes their lives pretty miserable. When the sun does come out they seem to look more relaxed and of course much less bedraggled.
Usually they stay out all year, but last winter we brought them into the barn at night when the weather was too bad, such as the snow. We have decided to do the same thing again from now on this winter. We are hoping that a few hours a night on dry straw will help to keep their feet in good condition and save us problems later. It is also easier to feed them and keeps the wear and tear off the sodden paddocks.
Obviously as, even after this year's sales, we have 49 alpacas left, we cannot fit them all into our small barn so the males and the weanlings are remaining in their paddocks but we are cleaning them out daily and topping up the straw so that they also have the opportunity to keep their feet dry. The males usually go into their shelter at night anyway and the weanlings have their alf alfa and hay in their shelter which encourages them to spend time inside. Most mornings when we draw the curtains these days there is no sign of an alpaca.
We had sent off a routine dung sample to test for worms but in the meantime were alerted to the extra danger of fluke worm this year by our friends Ian and Lynsey Skinner. We went to their house for dinner on Thursday night and had a lovely meal and a very sociable time with the Skinners and their neighbours who were the other guests.
They have had some alpacas with fluke and so on Friday I checked the husbandry records and although it was only just over ten weeks since the last treatment decided to drench the whole herd straight away. Just as well, as Tim Lawrence, one of the vets, phoned on Saturday afternoon to say that the samples from the males and the weanlings showed some fluke eggs. Strangely the main herd which has been on the wettest pasture were clear. This unlikely scenario - i.e. fluke in the dryer paddocks and no sign in the wetlands, vindicated our decision to worm them without delay.
Bono took a step backwards. He started to look tucked up again and spent some time lying down on his own, so he is back on the Antepsin. We have reduced the dose to twice a day and it seems to have perked him up again. We are still waiting for the results of his blood tests.
The weather improved this afternoon and made everything look rosy again.
When I was putting the hens to bed tonight I noticed that one of them was looking poorly. We had noticed that she had some grey around her head but it seemed to had got a bit better. We are now feeling really guilty that we did not examine her more closely because when I picked her up I found that most of her feathers on her underside had disappeared leaving only stumps and she seems to have a sort of white powder on her - perhaps some sort of skin problem or mite. We are going to check them all first thing in the morning and make sure that the others are not effected. In the meantime I will try and find out what causes the symptons and see if it can be treated or if it is terminal. Not looking forward to having to kill it if that is needed.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Time goes by
Our van, which Mike drives most of the time, broke down recently and he took it up to the garage to replace the fuel pump. Unfortunately when he got home the pump failed again. We got it back to the garage and Mike changed the fuel pump yet once more. It was very late when he phoned me to say that he had fitted the new pump but the engine had failed. He has not talked about it very much (understandably) so I am not sure what the problem was, but the outcome is that he has spent today at the garage fitting a replacement engine.
Chris phoned on Monday to break the bad news that the garage had been burgled on Sunday night (obviously not by Christians) and thieves had taken some valuable hand tools and expensive diagnostic equipment. Chris spent Monday night camping out in the garage armed with a base ball bat but they did not return. They are in the process of repairing the damaged fences,roof and window and putting in metal bars to the window and a steel roof. In between working on the van Mike helped with the new security measures.
Meanwhile back at the ranch the weather was horrible so after checking all the animals I spent most of the morning in the office. There were a couple of orders for hand knits to be parcelled up and sent off and I spent quite a lot of time resizing and uploading photos to the website.
I had a phone call from a local small holder who had seen us in the breeders' directory of Country Smallholding (one of the few places we advertise) and he and his father came over to talk alpacas and have a look around. Despite the weather we had some customers in the shop and we are getting daily visitors now, although it is not as busy as this time last year. Maybe there will be a last minute rush.
Chris phoned on Monday to break the bad news that the garage had been burgled on Sunday night (obviously not by Christians) and thieves had taken some valuable hand tools and expensive diagnostic equipment. Chris spent Monday night camping out in the garage armed with a base ball bat but they did not return. They are in the process of repairing the damaged fences,roof and window and putting in metal bars to the window and a steel roof. In between working on the van Mike helped with the new security measures.
Meanwhile back at the ranch the weather was horrible so after checking all the animals I spent most of the morning in the office. There were a couple of orders for hand knits to be parcelled up and sent off and I spent quite a lot of time resizing and uploading photos to the website.
I had a phone call from a local small holder who had seen us in the breeders' directory of Country Smallholding (one of the few places we advertise) and he and his father came over to talk alpacas and have a look around. Despite the weather we had some customers in the shop and we are getting daily visitors now, although it is not as busy as this time last year. Maybe there will be a last minute rush.
Monday, 30 November 2009
Alpacas go to school
Today we delivered the last of our young males to their new home.Isidro and Iago are this year's weanlings and so are still quite small and instead of taking them in the horse box we took them in the back of the truck. They were very cosy with a bale of hay and plenty of straw. We had to lift them in but once they were settled they soon went into the kush. They stood up from time to time on the journey but seemed very laid back about the whole thing.
We had a three hour journey to a school in Tooting which has started a small farm. Driving through Tootingh High Street we began to doubt if it was possible that there was any green land anywhere near. We had not visited them prior to delivery because of the distance involved but had their assurances that they already had pigs and sheep, a farm vet and had been inspected by Animal Welfare officers.
When we arrived at our destination we were shown round the farm which consisted of about an acre of ground but with grazing on the playing field when it was not being used for sport. The animal housing was all newly built and lovely and clean and well cared for. The stable which was to be the boys' night shelter was equally immaculate.
We have been handling the weanlings on a regular basis and putting a halter on the two boys but with so much rain we had not got as far as actually getting them walking around so it was a bit disconcerting when we found that we could not drive into a catch pen or a yard to unload the them, so we walked them on their halters for the first time. They were a bit reluctant to start with but amazingly they allowed us to take them all the way to the stables along quite along path, up and over a bank and down into their living quarters with very little resistance. Little stars.
I had seen City Farms on TV but this was my first experience of one in real life. There is a full time farm manager with two other designated staff members and it is manned all day with evening security visits too. The animals probably get a lot more attention than ours!!
In addition to the pigs, sheep and alpacas (two of each) they also have an aviary, a couple of dogs, and about ten hens.
Apparently the pigs and sheep and the alpacas will be going for walks on Tooting Common once they are all leadable.
We stayed just long enough to get the boys settled in and then had to get home in time to put the hens to bed to avoid another meeting with Mr.Fox. Luckily the torrential rain we experienced on the outward journey had cleared and we had a pleasant sunny drive home. The extra light skies meant that we had time to check the herd, walk the dogs, feed the alpacas who are in the barn and still get the hens to bed on time.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Bono bulletin
Bono is looking much better. He does not look so hunched and is mixing with his alpaca mates more of the time. When we look towards his paddock he is usually grazing whereas before he was often lying down on his own. We have decided to go ahead with the blood tests in case there is an underlying reason for his condition which is not apparent. We are also going to have a female blood tested. Crystal used to be very well covered and was always the biggest female on the farm but since getting pregnant with her last cria we have just not been able to get her up to condition.
Mike is back to normal and will not require blood tests.
He is busy measuring up and ordering wood to make one of the shelters into goat housing so we can get them here. Apparently they are all in season and cannot wait to start having babies!!
We are looking for an old shed to use as a hen house so we can get our new chickens. 8 x 8 or 8 x 10ft would be ideal if anyone knows of one going at a reasonable price.
Mike is back to normal and will not require blood tests.
He is busy measuring up and ordering wood to make one of the shelters into goat housing so we can get them here. Apparently they are all in season and cannot wait to start having babies!!
We are looking for an old shed to use as a hen house so we can get our new chickens. 8 x 8 or 8 x 10ft would be ideal if anyone knows of one going at a reasonable price.
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Below par
When Nick was helping me on Tuesday he noticed that Bono, one of Pauline's stud males had a hunched back. As he has very good conformation, including a straight back, this set alarm bells ringing and we caught him to check his condition. He was quite thin but otherwise there were no obvious signs of ill health. We took precautionary measures - gave him a vitamin injection, wormed him and gave him a does of Total Solutions which is a sort of all round tonic with vitamins, minerals and other miracle ingredients. Nick suggested feeding him some concentrate - i.e. pelleted food to try and fatten him up.
As luck would have it, when I was at the Goat Farm Tessa (our vet) mentioned that there had been an increase in incidents of ulcers associated with too much concentrate. We actually only feed ours in the winter and then only as a booster from time to time and we hardly ever give the males extra feed, although we do provide them all with Alf Alfa Chaff ad lib along with their hay. Given this information we decided not to feed Bono up after all.
Yesterday we were concerned that he seemed to spend quite a lot of time lying down on his own, although he did graze with the others at times. I wandered over to him a couple of times when he was lying down and he was not cudding - chewing his regurgitated food, but just lying there, and he was still looking tucked up which made his back look humped when he was standing.
I called the vet and Tim Lawrence came out within about half an hour, which was much appreciated given that the weekend was approaching. He checked him over and we discussed the options and decided to try an ulcer treatment initially with the possibility of blood tests if no improvement was apparent by Tuesday. There was no point in taking bloods on a Friday as they would not be tested until Monday at the earliest by which time the samples would have deteriorated.
We are now injecting him twice a day and giving him a drench three times a day. We started off by catching him and administering the medication in the catch pen but having been soaked a couple of times and given that we felt he should not get too cold we made a pen in the barn. He will not be alone as there are five females in there at nights at the moment having mite treatment. They go out in the day but we will probably keep Bono in if he does not get too distressed.
This evening when we administered his final medication of the day we felt that he was looking a lot better already. His back is now straight and he is eating for England.
We have been given loads of black fleece and so spent most of the afternoon sorting it as the weather was not condusive to going outside except when really necessary. It is really good fleece although some of it is spoiled with too much vegetation - probably imported alpacas who have travelled in straw or maybe animals that have been housed in a straw filled barn. We are only about one third of the way through it, but I am really impressed. Makes me want to sell our blacks and start again.
Mike is also below par and although it is only 7 p.m.has just gone to bed. I hope he will be feeling better tomorrow.
As luck would have it, when I was at the Goat Farm Tessa (our vet) mentioned that there had been an increase in incidents of ulcers associated with too much concentrate. We actually only feed ours in the winter and then only as a booster from time to time and we hardly ever give the males extra feed, although we do provide them all with Alf Alfa Chaff ad lib along with their hay. Given this information we decided not to feed Bono up after all.
Yesterday we were concerned that he seemed to spend quite a lot of time lying down on his own, although he did graze with the others at times. I wandered over to him a couple of times when he was lying down and he was not cudding - chewing his regurgitated food, but just lying there, and he was still looking tucked up which made his back look humped when he was standing.
I called the vet and Tim Lawrence came out within about half an hour, which was much appreciated given that the weekend was approaching. He checked him over and we discussed the options and decided to try an ulcer treatment initially with the possibility of blood tests if no improvement was apparent by Tuesday. There was no point in taking bloods on a Friday as they would not be tested until Monday at the earliest by which time the samples would have deteriorated.
We are now injecting him twice a day and giving him a drench three times a day. We started off by catching him and administering the medication in the catch pen but having been soaked a couple of times and given that we felt he should not get too cold we made a pen in the barn. He will not be alone as there are five females in there at nights at the moment having mite treatment. They go out in the day but we will probably keep Bono in if he does not get too distressed.
This evening when we administered his final medication of the day we felt that he was looking a lot better already. His back is now straight and he is eating for England.
We have been given loads of black fleece and so spent most of the afternoon sorting it as the weather was not condusive to going outside except when really necessary. It is really good fleece although some of it is spoiled with too much vegetation - probably imported alpacas who have travelled in straw or maybe animals that have been housed in a straw filled barn. We are only about one third of the way through it, but I am really impressed. Makes me want to sell our blacks and start again.
Mike is also below par and although it is only 7 p.m.has just gone to bed. I hope he will be feeling better tomorrow.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
It's a cat's life
No wonder we don't know where the cat is half the time. Mike was moving the small trailer we use for taking hay around to the paddocks when he noticed something dark. The dark patch gradually grew ears and eyes and emerged as part of our cat, Polly. She certainly knows how to look after herself and keep warm.
Yesterday I went to a Goat Farm Walk at Forde Grange which is only a couple of miles away. I received the invititation from our vet practice who were in attendance. It was really aimed at people interested in goats for milking but I thought it might be worth attending in view of our intention to get some Angora Goats (for fleece). I did not expect to see anyone I knew but on arrival Tessa, Alison and Emma from Coombefield (our Vets) smiled and waved me to join them. Tessa was there to do a short presentation on the health issues. They have nearly 2000 goats all housed indoors. Although quite tightly packed they all looked nice and clean and did not appear stressed, not like the treatment that battery hens have. I am pretty sure that if they were unhappy their milk yield would be adversely effected.
After Tessa's talk was pretty worried about all the possible things that could go wrong, but as she confirmed afterwards, our five or six goats are not really likely to have much in the way of health problems compared with 2000!!
Lunch was goatburgers and muffins for pudding. I went to look at the milking parlour which is like a huge caroussel (if that is how you spell it). The goats wander on and stand still whilst feeding and being milked. Apparently it takes about 8 seconds per goat. I am not sure if this is just the labour time or if it includes milking. I should't think it includes milking as their udders would be sucked inside out if it was done that quickly wouldn't they?
We have been experiencing really high winds here. Whilst it is quite unpleasant in some ways, it is drying out the ground very quickly.
Our Christmas rush seems to have started in the shop and on line. Mainly hats, socks and snoods, but it is surprising how it mounts up. I think the shop would do better if the weather improved a bit.
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