South Carolina

[huckleberryfarm]

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Pink - I saw on Facebook that the stray dog came back so they moved the donkey in with the baby and the donkey killed the baby. Very sad.

Good grief.. why in the world... I had jacks and jennies for years and never had one attack .. thinking in it I do know of one years ago that a friend owned that killed a baby goat..

darn Im sorry to hear that ... well thats two animals that need to go.. the dog and the donkey needs to be rehomed if he was here.. cant have them killing young'ens. it think she said it had killed one before.. hoped it was a fluke.. guess not.. shame..
so so sad..

thanks for letting me know and to Susanne and her family my condolences for the loss..

)O(
Pink

The dog is not ours. It just shows up. We've shot at it once and think we hit it. We're trying to catch it.

My other jack killed the baby goat. They left the others alone that were born this year. I'm not sure what got into Muffin. We probably should have introduced them.... if we could have caught the lamb. They just kept running from us. Oh, well! Live and learn!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Wow, Joy! How exciting for you! Congrats!

I never thought to ask you what you were incubating in and just assumed you had a big cabinet 'bator. Shows you how much I know!

I love my big Sportsman and hatch way more than I really want to. I keep thinking I do not have many eggs of my own in it until I look at my chart on the wall and realize, "Crap, yes I do". It leads to many chicks and no much room in the brooders.

Sounds like we are going to have to clean out your garage one day and get your "brooder room" going. I'm telling ya, that would make a really, really nice one!

Hey everyone, enjoying the weather??? I was loving it yesterday except for the high winds with one of the storms. We did get to see a beautiful rainbow with lightning streaking across it. That was awesome. It is amazing what you get to see while outside moving tractors and birds around.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Welcome back!

This is normal for this time of year. The weather was too hot and the birds need a break before giving lots of eggs for holiday cooking. Next year if it is very hot in June like last year, they will do the same. they follow weather patterns, as most of nature does.

Come the beginning of the year this will happen again so be prepared. But come March it will all pick up again. Even hatching all year around I get many that go with the weather but I try and find that certain type of hen that wants to be different. As lovely as the day was yesterday, I got only a dozen eggs from my free range flock. That is 45 hens that could have spit out eggs but they will get it going again in a few weeks and I will have them out my ears again.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

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Joy, That is great! What did you get? I am excited for you as I know how much I love mine!

You will have to keep us up on the first hatch!!

 

[FarmerJohn3285]

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Edgefield County here. Boy, we are growing exponentially as of late...must be something in the water

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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I

her!!!!!! and I love the mixes!!!! Amy I need to come visit again soon. Cause as soon as I actually finish the Polish Palace I love love some polish mixes or polish chicks just a cute place for some cute little chicky chicky!!!

UPDATE: Momma Buff Orp is taking care really good of her one and only chick...the others should hatch on mon-tues, but I don't think they will.......

I thought I had hatched out some Sizzles from them but if so they are smooth because none of the chicks in my brooders are curly Sizzles. I have a few Frizzles that I found running around. I guess this means it is time to set more eggs from them.

We took out a pen of roos yesterday and I need to get those in the freezer today but that really freed up some pens to move my birds around. I put all my BLRW together, threw the Golden Cuckoo roo in with the ducks (he says they look and talk funny but he thinks they are good for breeding anyhow!), put all my Mottled kids in a tractor along with some other bigger EEs and whatever else I could grab that was about the same size and this morning I am moving all my blue and lavender Ameraucanas up to a tractor and out of the wire bottom brooder where they sleep at night. They will be ticked to be in a smaller pen because I let them run the duck pen during the day. But I think they will be safer here and I can use their brooder for another set of chicks like my white bantam Cochins that are growing up much too fast!

My friend is on her way to bring me more Guineas because Guinea girl is on the nest and Guinea boy has taken to staying by the brooder pen with the little keets. He loves his own kind and has gotten bored hanging around the nest of his "wife". I suppose he is really talking it up with the keets so they will love him for life!

With this cooler weather I feel like doing a lot more. AND DD boyfriend fixed my lawn mower yesterday so once I get some gas in it I can sing "Green Acres" again!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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How wonderful! I want one!
Jolie took off again yesterday. We have no idea how she gets out but somehow I think she squeezes through the gate. I am tired of looking for her so we just wait for her to come back. And indeed, as we left for school this morning there she sat at the gates wanting back in.

I have got to get an Anatolian for the farm. I have a feeling they may be easier than the Great Pyrs. The hair alone would be better. I am still pulling off last winters hair from Jolie. That dog is huge with all her hair!

But like you say, predators are careful to stay away or lose their lives.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Does SLGD stand for super little guard dog???

They are some great dogs to have learned not to touch their siblings. Most people are not so lucky, Yancy!

 

[RedBugPoultry]

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Yesterday afternoon, after much debate, we decided to close off the sheep into one of the pastures. Our sheep, goats and donkeys have been together for months. They are NOT separated. The dog scared us so we put our most docile donkey in with them to help protect the lamb from the dog. This donkey is with the sheep ALL THE TIME! They pasture together. My husband walked up to the house. I looked out and saw the donkey flying around the pasture. My husband ran as fast as he could out there but was not in time. The donkey had the lamb in his mouth, dropped it, stomped on it and then rolled on it. It happened like so quickly. We were shocked, mad and sad. And of course, regretting our decision. My husband was so mad at that donkey. I sat with the lamb until it died. No saving it. It had blood coming out of its ears, nose and mouth. The poor mama was walking around bleating mournfully. My kids were crying. My husband was chasing and screaming at the donkey. Ugh!

So.... the dog apparently lives... the lamb is dead.... the momma is devastated.... and the donkey is clueless. I have three more ewes that are pregnant so we are trying to figure out what the best course of action is. The predator you don't know or the predator you own? Which is the biggest threat?

I told my husband and my children that farming has a big learning curve and we are smack dab in the middle of it. We will make some bad choices but not on purpose. And we will learn from them. That's all we can do.

At least we've had a bit of rain and it's cooler!

Susanne, I am so sorry for you and your family on the loss of your lamb. I cried just reading this. I raised sheep when I lived in Oregon state some years ago and had constant trouble with the neighbors dogs on both sides of my property. I had some older male llamas that I kept seperated from the ewes with lambs(I am a hand spinner) because they would kill the lambs and finally ended up build kind of a pen inside of my pasture for the ewes with lambs so the llamas could patrol the borders of my pastures. That method worked very well but it took time to accomplish. The llamas did get one dog that got into the pasture but chased more than that out. Not sure if this would help your situation but obviously your donkey would probably do the same to a fox or dog!

 

[FarmerJohn3285]

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WELL, WELL, WELL!!! Talk about long time, no see or talk!! Eric, how's it been going, man?? Last time I saw you was up at Country Boy Feed & Seed. I've gained some new breeds and sold some birds but I think my count is somewhere in the 30-40 range. Do you still have any girls from that first set of eggs you hatched from me and Beth (hardluckhill, who no longer gets on here)?? Dude, I went from 12-15 eggs/day down to 3-5 eggs/day. We have a CSRA thread up and running now: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=551564&p=1
I'm guessing you could try some BOSS, protein is always good when they're molting or you just wanna push out a good bit of eggs somewhat quickly. Don't stay gone so long next time!!