Spring checklists

Despite the craziness around here, I've actually gotten a fair bit done.

I got all of the paperwork in order, ordered tags, and scheduled the USDA-APHIS flock exam for our sheep so they can be in the export monitored and eventually certified Scrapie farm category. 

The veterinary technician tagged my few sheep who were without tags with the new tags printed with our farm ID number.  The vet did a cursory exam to make sure all was well.  I had to sign some paperwork, and agree to a yearly exam. It doesn't cost anything except our time.  It was great meeting some women in the veterinary industry, especially who work in large animal practice. 

Oakley and Winston both had their teeth floated last week, and had their early spring vaccinations. There are many mosquito borne diseases that they can get.  Oakley is doing well on his medication for Cushing's disease, though I am still anxious about his risk of laminitis especially with the lush spring grasses emerging. Any misstep he takes or any slightly odd gait or shifting I observe and my heart skips a beat, I grab for his hooves to check for heat. He and Winston have a bit of mild thrush after all of the wet weather lately, so I treated them for that yesterday.  It is a quick daily treatment that I can turn into great training opportunities. 

After some cold nights lately I noticed some young dead bees in front of hive one.  So after checking in with my bee mentor I suited up and was able to put more pollen patties in both hives and I refilled both feeder pails which were empty.  I am a little trepidatious about performing hive reversals in the next few weeks.  I've never done that before, and there is a risk of killing many bees including the queen during this procedure.  Essentially you switch the boxes around, putting the bottom box on the top so that the queen will have more space to lay eggs, since bees naturally move up, and since they are already crowded in the top several boxes due to their migration upward during the winter as their food dwindles. At the time of reversals I may be able to determine if one or both hives need to be split into extra hives (too many bees might make them swarm to find a new home).  I would have to order new queens for the extra hives.  If that all goes as planned, then we will have four hives!!! With all of that extra work I will need G's help in managing them this summer.  

G and I finally got our acts together and caught up all of the sheep to trim hooves, check body condition and eye colour, and give their annual CDT vaccinations.  I like to have those done before shearing, since cuts from shearing can be a route of infection, so giving the vaccinations on shearing day isn't really protective, and just adds to the time it all takes.  Even for only eight wooley sheep it takes a few hours to get everything setup and the precious fleeces taken care of. 

I spoke to our shearer yesterday and we should be able to have him out in the next few weeks.  The weather is going to take a drastic turn this week, from rain and sleet and snow (we had a surprise blizzard yesterday) to 24 C forcasted for this weekend.  I just wanted to wait until we were more likely to have warmer overnight temperatures so our sheep don't get cold and potentially sick. Several nights this week have been -5C, the pond froze, any waterers that I unplugged froze, I certainly don't want naked sheep with the brisk spring winds we have had lately.  Jen kept commenting on how loud the roaring of the wind is here, she said it sounded like the ocean. Last year after shearing several of the flock looked so miserable, shivering and depressed.  I will have heat lamps on hand just in case. 

G has a large cold frame well planted in the garden, and we are gradually bringing plant starts out into the greenhouse, but still have to add frost blankets at night.  My friend in the city lost all of her tomatoes because she put them out too early under plastic and then was out of town for two weeks. This time of year it pays to be a bit conservative. 

Bossy drake and Panda duck

We're quite impressed with our new grow lights! Hopefully next year we can get a few more.

Oakley isn't terribly impressed with crazy loud guineas invading his paddock

You can see Rocket, aka Garage Pigeon on the left side of the roof. He visits almost every day.

 Tick season has begun, I pulled one off Glenn after he'd been out in the field modifying our electric fencing for the horses. 

And with that it's a sign that we need to start letting the guinea flock out to range, because they are our anti-tick army.  That's the primary reason why people in the midwest keep guineas.  I have let them out for short periods of time only when I'm home, because they tend to go too close to the road, or even cross the road, and they don't know what cars are.  I also am practicing recall with them. They all need to know how to get back into the coops since doorways can be scary for them.  Luckily the senior members of the flock know very well what millet is, and the younger birds tend to follow their lead. I'd like to catch up all of them and put coloured leg bands on them so I can keep track of them better. Just another thing to add to the list.

Chaos in avian form.

That's it for now. It's going to be a beautiful day. We've gone from frost warnings and thunder snow to fire hazard warnings this week. Never a dull moment.