Edward and Ellie

so we now have 2 cade (orphan)  lambs . So at least they can keep each other company.

They should be starting to graze and eat soem grass. So hopefully a  few more weeks of bottle feeding and they shoudl be out with the others.

Another cade lamb

So at about 2110 , one of the remaining 2 ewes went in to labour. Watching at a distance it all went well , albeit slowly with the second stage about 40 minutes ( usually 10 minutes or so ) .

An attentive mother did what she should and licked the lamb, which tried to stand

 but the lamb would get head-butted away.

So the next step was to corral the  mother and lamb, latch the lamb on ,so it could suck and feed and see of that changed things . So some successful latching and feeding

but given a chance the lamb was butted away.  Sometimes the mother doesnt take to the lamb. This looks like on of those occasions.
So we have our second Caddie, on 4 hourly feeds at the moment. A bit loud and insistent , this one .

Edward no mates

Our caddie lamb (Edward) needs some company. We cant really put  him in a field within earshot of his mother - they are bothe likely to get distressed on hearing each other. So we thought wed try him with the new twins - they  are in an enclosed space and all the lambs might get on

 the lambs got on fine , but the mother didn't like him going near her, and her lambs, being just over 24 hours old, don't venture far.  So he has been returned to his enclosure and we will try again in a few days

allowed out

So after a night in the shed , twin 2 looked a lot brighter and more active so we gave them a bit more space to go exploring  to see how she actually was getting on .

It looks like there isn't a problem any more  

 So probably back into the field with the others tomorrow.

Some TLC

At 0310 this morning, the other Texel ewe delivered.  Sunrise today is 0427. the sun is just  starting to come up( but it wasn't as  clear as this - the photo has been 'photoshopped' (well, gimped) .

 The second lamb delivered about 20 minutes later.

And initially both lambs were feeding and active

 But as the day went on the second twin wasn't as active as we would expect. So some TLC is called for.

We brought the mother and both lambs inside, so Junior no2  stays closer to her mother and it will hopefully be easier for her to feed.

And it has worked so far .  Shes not a alert as the first twin ,but getting up a stretching is a good sign

they lay them here, they lay them........

Ducks are not renowned for their intelligence.  They lay eggs which we can use, eat or sell 
thet get locked in at night so that they will ( hopefully) lay they eggs where we can collect them. We have even given them their own duck houses to lay in .

But it is still a challenge.
they might lay their eggs in the nest in the duckhouse.

or they might lay them in the run , because going 5 feet to the duckhouse is too much for their intelligence

or they might make a nest and lay the eggs wherever they think they will

 and we are a duck short, Its either wandered off and got lost, an otter has got it , or its sitting on some eggs somewhere and will reappear ( or not)  in a few weeks

Out and about.

 So when the sun is shining ( and even when its not ) the Caddie needs to get out.


So we have made a small pen, blocked up all the likely exit routes and he goes exploring and nibbling grass.








But he is still inside , in the dog cage , in  the evenings. Except when he gets to explore.

Our own Cade

It started quite well - the Boraray ewe gave birth to twins.

The first one was born with the  legs straight back rather than bent forwards. Lambs in this position often cant be born without assistance but nevertheless, all three doing well in the first 24 hours . But then one of them was rejected by the ewe ( it happens from time to time - the ewe is happy with just one) . Had we left the lamb with her it could have been seriously injured by the ewe.

So we now have our own caddy (orphan) lamb .

After exploring the kitchen

He has been brought inside and need to be bottle fed 4 hourly for the first few days and have somewhere to sleep.
And someone to hold it and help keep it warm.

incubator update

there was a good reason why the  remaining chick hadn't got out of the egg. whilst under the broody. ive no idea what it might be, but even with us breaking the shell  a little to help it out , it was unable to get out of the  shell and died.


the other one similarly struggled. And something isnt right - there was still some of the yolk sack  remaining in the shell .

 Usually chicks come out in a few hours. this one has taken 24 hours to exit the shell, and still hasn't fluffed up , dried off and stood up.

But it it still making an effort ,so we will keep it  warm in the incubator and see what happens.

And the remaining 4 eggs are coming to nothing . No cheeping from inside the egg. We  will have a look later today.its our first venture with  an incubator , so we suspect  there are some subtleties to doing it right that we have missed. probably the eggs got too hot or to cold sometimes over  the last 3 weeks.

But another hen has gone broody , so she is sitting on some eggs

chick update

  10 it is.

1 remaining chick has started to peck through the shell .

It has been transferred to the incubator  to see  how it will do .

Mother and 10 chicks doing well so far, and transferred to  a chick run. So we expeect them to be out and eating tomorrow

Update from the incubator later.

Animal woes

We have a hen sitting on some eggs as shown here. The hen is in a broody box , ensuring that she doesn't wander too far and forget what she is there for .

But there are problems - there isn't a lot of room and they sometimes end up standing on the eggs before settling down over them .  And we found a cracked egg.  As the chicks aren't due to hatch for another week  or so  the chances of survival are slim - it went in the incubator
but after a few hours it was clear that the chick hadn't survived .

  And one of the ducks didn't look right. We managed to catch it and have a look.

 I imagine it cant see much out of this eye. But it is still active, going round with the others and  eating anything that is in its way. So for the time being we will leave it with the rest of them


And we've got a guest . A limping pheasant

this pheasant has been hanging around for a few days. It limps, but can still fly away if you get too close to it. So its harmless and we will leave it hanging round .

Sadly

The duckling was alive first thing this morning, but at lunchtime we found it dead in the run.
And the mother hen was still dutifully guarding it.

Either it wasn't strong enough to survive, or there was a problem anyway ( which is why it ended up in our pond)

At least it didnt get attacked by the local hoodies whilst it was alive.

see what we found

Out early  in the morning , we found this  duckling trying to get out of the pond.   No sign of its mother, or any other ducks ( ours were still locked up) . Ours get counted in and locked in every night , so we don't think one has surreptitiously been sitting on some eggs. Although the eggs will probably survive if left for couple of hours  and then re-incubated  , they wont survive left overnight, 

So we think its a wild duck that has hatched some and this little one got separated, or lost, and go carried down on the stream.

So what to do ? We could just leave it and let it take its chance  of either the mother finding it (very unlikely) or it succumbing to the hooded crows (very likely)   or it dieing of cold and starvation (very  likely). 

So what we did is  take the eggs off one of our broody hens and  put them in the incubator

 and  slipped the duckling under the broody hen.  She seems to have accepted it and they have been moved to the chick run and  given access to food and water  

  So we shall see what happens.