Day two of evil late winter scourge. I have a fever, and some pretty serious body pain. Managed to get out for maybe an hour this morning after G did most of the duties, and ended up back on the couch with a wool blanket and tea by 11 am. After a long while of rest and some ibuprofen I dragged myself outside to keep working on things, and spend time with G. He was away half the week in Denver, and now I find out he's away for three days again this coming week. I miss him!
We had a really fun road trip yesterday to pick up a small trailer I found on craigslist. The trailer is great! It was used to haul pigs and goats to the state fair apparently.
Check it out:
Check it out:
The floor is mostly rotted, so I'd like to tear out the boards instead of just covering them. To make it a chicken pasture-mobile all it needs is some half inch hardware cloth to cover all of the gaps, some roosts, and a few coats of paint. I have half a mind to paint it Tardis blue, since G is a Doctor Who fan.
Winston's blood results came back with a much elevated red blood cell count, PCV and white cell count, so I'm very relieved. Still waiting on some other tests.
New spring migrants are returning daily. Last week we had eastern bluebird, american robin, trumpeter swan, Canada goose, sandhill crane, and last night common grackle. House finches and cardinals are singing love songs, and I'm even hearing barred owls in the evening.
This is great news for birders, but not so great for the spread of a highly pathogenic strain of avian flu that is travelling along migration routes in the US. Minnesota has already had a hit--a turkey operation a few hours west of us. All the birds had to be killed of course.
With the warm weather comes insects, and I've already seen a few flies. Time to order fly predators.
We are going to try making our own chicken food. There are several recipes out there that look pretty good. I'd been resistant to this in the past because as with all species of birds if given the option they will pick out their favourite grains and leave others, thereby not getting complete nutrition. My friend recently lost her six year old hen, and discovered on necropsy that she had died due to visceral and renal gout, likely partly caused by high levels of calcium in the diet. Well of course commercial layer feed has very high calcium! We were shocked to finally have something resembling proof that feeding birds like this (especially if they are not laying, or are roosters) is not healthy.
Ideally we would try it on one of our flocks and not the other to see if we noticed any differences.
I am switching all of our bantam groups in the garage to nipple drinkers, as I'm tired of dealing with our garage mice problem, and worried that eventually the chickens will get sick. I have to run their feeders up high on their ropes every night to keep them from getting mouse infested, and even then it doesn't always work. Sometimes the mice can run along wires, or climb the hardware cloth and then leap into the feeders. Impressive acrobatic skills, but maddening.
G starting work on the herb garden expansion:
I'm so grateful for his help! This amount of digging and effort would have been terrible for me with this cold. At least now it's started! Now just to put our seed and plant order in.
The Shepherd's Harvest Festival is coming up, in two months that is. But now is the time to sign up for classes. I will be taking one felting class, and one or two spinning classes.
I also need to book our shearer--I think I will try someone new who is apparently very good and experienced, as well as being gentle with the sheep. Last year the sheep were shorn mid April, the day after a huge snow storm. But in typical Minnesota weather fashion, it had been stifling hot for them the week before. Who knows what it will be like this year? Just have to play it week by week.
I still need to discuss a deworming plan with our sheep vet. The flock that Henry and Prince came from had a ewe that was diagnosed with barberpole worm (Haemonchus contortus) which causes huge losses around the world. The problem is that you can't diagnose this worm on a fecal egg count. It looks like all of the other strongyle types. It also doesn't cause diarrhea, which would be what would send most shepherds running for dewormer. Some folks just notice one day their sheep or goat is doing poorly, check eyelid colour and it's literally white, which pretty much assures that the animal will die due to anemia from the blasted parasite burden inside. It's just usually too late by the time it gets to that point.
I had Henry and Prince tested last month, and Henry showed no eggs, but Prince showed 150 per gram. He still has good colour (meaning he's not anemic) but I really don't want to open up their paddock doors when the grass finally grows and have him merrily shed eggs all around our pastures. I also want to get us set up with a microscope and learn the specific egg per gram method of testing, so we can do our own fecals. One round of fecals at the vet for eight sheep would more than pay for a microscope. Then we can monitor and determine who tends to have heavier loads, and deworm appropriately. It's one of the ways you can help to slow resistance to deworming drugs.
We also learned from our vet that mob grazing (high animal density in very small area, then move them to the next spot) isn't the best for parasite management. You can't let your animals eat the grass right down to the ground, even if it was just for a day. (not that we ever did that on purpose) Anyway, we are still learning and trying to figure out the best management techniques for our flock and our ever-changing land. Parasite ecology just throws a kink into every sort of plan.
Speaking of parasites, I'm going to try growing zinnia flowers along with our cucumbers this year, as I read somewhere (can't cite reference, sorry) that they help deter cucumber beetles. We had a big problem with them last year.
I finally found some zeolite to help manage the ammonia now starting to off-gas in the duck and chicken coops. We won't be shovelling out the coops yet, so until then I can lock up that nasty ammonia, keep the birds' environment healthy, and apparently it's great for adding to your compost. It's essentially like capturing that ammonia and keeping it for later. (Glenn gets upset about off-gassing ammonia because it means it's lost, and cannot then become fertilizer) He's a nutrient recycling nut for sure. Waste nothing!!! (But I have clearly stated that if he wants to make a composting toilet, then HE gets to deal with it.) I already deal with most of the poop on this farm.
While G is away this week I have a few extra projects to tackle, including over seeding some pastures and walkways that have been a bit torn up and/or overgrazed. I really should start painting/overhauling the new trailer. Unfortunately I may have to disassemble my herb spiral and move it, since I'm planning a huge trellis or screen to finally hide the electrical box, air conditioning unit and satellite dish that make my otherwise beautiful herb garden just ugly to look at.
But one thing at a time. I don't feel like lifting boulders today. It's more of a reading my seed catalogs type of day. I'll get there!
Ideally we would try it on one of our flocks and not the other to see if we noticed any differences.
I am switching all of our bantam groups in the garage to nipple drinkers, as I'm tired of dealing with our garage mice problem, and worried that eventually the chickens will get sick. I have to run their feeders up high on their ropes every night to keep them from getting mouse infested, and even then it doesn't always work. Sometimes the mice can run along wires, or climb the hardware cloth and then leap into the feeders. Impressive acrobatic skills, but maddening.
G starting work on the herb garden expansion:
 |
| Apparently my feverish brain caused camera fail. |
 |
| Beautiful Miss Petunia!!! She and Millie are going to be six years old in May! We have spent many hours of our lives gardening with them. |
I'm so grateful for his help! This amount of digging and effort would have been terrible for me with this cold. At least now it's started! Now just to put our seed and plant order in.
The Shepherd's Harvest Festival is coming up, in two months that is. But now is the time to sign up for classes. I will be taking one felting class, and one or two spinning classes.
I also need to book our shearer--I think I will try someone new who is apparently very good and experienced, as well as being gentle with the sheep. Last year the sheep were shorn mid April, the day after a huge snow storm. But in typical Minnesota weather fashion, it had been stifling hot for them the week before. Who knows what it will be like this year? Just have to play it week by week.
I still need to discuss a deworming plan with our sheep vet. The flock that Henry and Prince came from had a ewe that was diagnosed with barberpole worm (Haemonchus contortus) which causes huge losses around the world. The problem is that you can't diagnose this worm on a fecal egg count. It looks like all of the other strongyle types. It also doesn't cause diarrhea, which would be what would send most shepherds running for dewormer. Some folks just notice one day their sheep or goat is doing poorly, check eyelid colour and it's literally white, which pretty much assures that the animal will die due to anemia from the blasted parasite burden inside. It's just usually too late by the time it gets to that point.
I had Henry and Prince tested last month, and Henry showed no eggs, but Prince showed 150 per gram. He still has good colour (meaning he's not anemic) but I really don't want to open up their paddock doors when the grass finally grows and have him merrily shed eggs all around our pastures. I also want to get us set up with a microscope and learn the specific egg per gram method of testing, so we can do our own fecals. One round of fecals at the vet for eight sheep would more than pay for a microscope. Then we can monitor and determine who tends to have heavier loads, and deworm appropriately. It's one of the ways you can help to slow resistance to deworming drugs.
We also learned from our vet that mob grazing (high animal density in very small area, then move them to the next spot) isn't the best for parasite management. You can't let your animals eat the grass right down to the ground, even if it was just for a day. (not that we ever did that on purpose) Anyway, we are still learning and trying to figure out the best management techniques for our flock and our ever-changing land. Parasite ecology just throws a kink into every sort of plan.
Speaking of parasites, I'm going to try growing zinnia flowers along with our cucumbers this year, as I read somewhere (can't cite reference, sorry) that they help deter cucumber beetles. We had a big problem with them last year.
I finally found some zeolite to help manage the ammonia now starting to off-gas in the duck and chicken coops. We won't be shovelling out the coops yet, so until then I can lock up that nasty ammonia, keep the birds' environment healthy, and apparently it's great for adding to your compost. It's essentially like capturing that ammonia and keeping it for later. (Glenn gets upset about off-gassing ammonia because it means it's lost, and cannot then become fertilizer) He's a nutrient recycling nut for sure. Waste nothing!!! (But I have clearly stated that if he wants to make a composting toilet, then HE gets to deal with it.) I already deal with most of the poop on this farm.
While G is away this week I have a few extra projects to tackle, including over seeding some pastures and walkways that have been a bit torn up and/or overgrazed. I really should start painting/overhauling the new trailer. Unfortunately I may have to disassemble my herb spiral and move it, since I'm planning a huge trellis or screen to finally hide the electrical box, air conditioning unit and satellite dish that make my otherwise beautiful herb garden just ugly to look at.
But one thing at a time. I don't feel like lifting boulders today. It's more of a reading my seed catalogs type of day. I'll get there!
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