Well, this has been a week of highs and lows, with both Lucy
and Pippin lambing early and within minutes of each other. Pippin really
struggled with it all and had a difficult labour. An under-developed lamb who
died shortly after birth only added to my feelings of disappointment, and to
her distress.
Fortunately I had little time to dwell on Pippin’s lambing
losses before I was distracted by Elvis escaping from his bonding pen and Lucy
giving birth to twins! The twins are a perfect pair of lovely big Ryelands, a
ewe and a ram. Lucy, like Lilly, is a great mum and is doing a brilliant job with
them despite Lilly’s attempts to interfere.
Got anything to eat in here? |
The sun was out again this morning and I let the ladies and
their babies play out in the orchard. Elvis and Buddy investigated the chicken
coops, much to the distress of the large croads who had clearly no idea what
they were. As you might expect, it
wasn’t long before they had escaped and their mum had broken through the
temporary fencing to join them. We returned them to the paddock and collected
up any available pieces of board and breeze-blocks and set about lamb-proofing
any potential escape routes.
Pippin is looking no worse for her ordeal and our daily
cuddles and cookie session has resumed. In fact she was well enough to find her
way into the chicken coops and eat the layers pellets, much to the dismay of
the growers! I was relying on her to keep Elvis in check, but I fear that she is
not such a positive influence!
Meeting Rufus - and ignoring him! |
Elvis is clearly a lamb who knows his own mind and doesn’t
seem to worry too much about doing what he’s told or what Lilly wants him to
do. Buddy is a little more obliging, but easily led by Elvis. This morning I
found them both chasing Buffy round the chicken coops. Teddy enjoys climbing on things, especially
his mum, who doesn’t seem to mind, and Tuppence is always on the lookout for a
cuddle and doesn’t mind who she gets it from.
The chicks that I incubated (known as the chig-lees) are now
fully feathered and they are getting the hang of independent living. They are
now no longer the babies, with Poppy’s hatching of a couple of large fowl
chicks. They met Rufus for the first time today!
The large birds Joseph, Angel and Gloria, are on the last
day of their breeding confinement and have provided me with sufficient eggs to
post to a fellow Croad Breeder in Europe. Spring has finally arrived – and it’s
busy!
I do love your commentaries Sue. It makes those of us who would love to live on smallholdings, but can't, feel like we are there!
ReplyDeleteI also love keeping up to date with the antics of the sheep and chickens!
DeleteFor the first time in years I am not getting new chicks this spring. But the araucans still give me a couple of eggs a day now that spring is here - and they are three years old.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of quite elderly (over 5 years old now!) Polands that still surprise us with an egg every now and then. The young cockerel is quite besotted with one of them! He follows her wherever she wanders.
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