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     my new peeps rosario and francesca (and vanya, who seems to really like them but gets annoyed because he tries to get them to wrassle and they just bounce around wiggling their tails)
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Aug 9, 2016 05:25
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baby farm animal question - my babies are about 72 hours old and they're in an outdoor shed with two older weaned kids. there are plenty of warm spots for them to nest but they insist on curling up right beside the door, where there's barely any straw and they're between a wooden board and a metal wall. it's only getting down to about 8c (~45f) minimum and they seem fine in the daytime but i'm worried. i've tried relocating them to the warm areas and made those places as comfortable as possible but they just keep going back to the same spot by the door. the others are over by the other wall where it's much warmer. i don't know how in touch kids that young are with their internal thermostats so should i trust them to pick a spot where they won't freeze to death if they're so insistent on it or should i be putting them in a box that they can't get out of?
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Aug 9, 2016 11:28
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thank you! i read all about the danger of letting kids get chilled and thought i had it covered but was totally unprepared for them being so determined to put themselves in the coldest spot in the shed. (btw researching handraising kid goats online is crazy, every article has this confused message of "goats are hardy creatures that are easy to raise however they will instantly drop dead if you so much as breathe on them" and don't even get me started on trying to get a simple answer as to how much you should feed them) more photos are definitely on the cards unless the kids think of ants and die before i get the chance
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Aug 10, 2016 04:45
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update: the babies have wised up and are in one of the specially prepared warm spots tonight with the other two goats 
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Aug 10, 2016 10:23
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Tendai posted:Are baby goats as soft as they look? Because they (especially their ears) always look just amazingly soft to me. 
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Aug 11, 2016 05:52
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 there's one in every family
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Aug 12, 2016 04:47
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:sheepsmith: kid status: boing!  boing!  boing!  boing! 
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Aug 16, 2016 09:55
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      i love these little shits
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Aug 17, 2016 05:06
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ij i can't believe how gorgeous your sheep are. heritage breeds are rare in australia, i only ever see merinos for fibre and dorpers for meat - they're nice but it gets a little boring. the fools are now one month old and doing great  they've doubled in size and started eating solid food (including everything i'd ever planted in their enclosure but that's my own stupid fault.) here they are engaged in mortal combat over a silky-oak leaf   
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Sep 11, 2016 06:45
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 hallo
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Oct 10, 2016 08:20
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reba really does have the sweetest little face 
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Jan 8, 2017 01:46
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 disclaimer, these aren't actually my sheep, they just randomly wandered onto my property five minutes ago. one is very pregnant 
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Jan 9, 2017 10:21
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the sheep are still here although i've been searching for their rightful owner on facebook their new names are jubilee, jillyfish, jusara and jiminy cricket. jiminy cricket is the pregnant white one. look how pregnant she is  i'm going to have to deliver someone else's lambs 
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Jan 12, 2017 10:49
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surprise sheep status:   full
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Jan 24, 2017 07:08
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 i've named this one jubilee, she's lovely and has the funniest gravelly bleat i've ever heard. BLUUHHH
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Jan 24, 2017 07:23
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i'm sure chipping sheep does happen but i've never heard about it being done out here - i imagine it would only be for very valuable purebred animals. three of them are untagged and the fourth has a tag but it's been snapped off very mysterious!
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Jan 27, 2017 01:12
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guess what!   to the great relief of everyone, especially herself, jiminy cricket the turgid ewe dropped beautiful twin ram lambs on the 1st of february.   i've named them jasper and jabberwocky. don't ask me which is which because at the moment i can't tell them apart! they're doing great, bouncing and playing and nibbling on things, and she's a very attentive and protective mother. what i'm going to do with them i have no idea, i'm still trying to find the flocks' owners but it's looking less and less likely that anyone will claim them. they look like dorper crosses so hopefully they'll be full shedders and i won't have to learn to shear. randomly getting four sheep that turn into six sheep would have been the equivalent of a lottery win in ancient times so that's how i choose to look at it
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Feb 4, 2017 23:45
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the children are growing so fast i can even tell them apart now! jasper  jabberwocky  brunch
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Feb 9, 2017 04:28
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no, lol. it's one month today since they arrived here, i've asked everyone i know irl and every community facebook group tangentially related to farming in the area and nobody anywhere near me has reported missing any sheep, so i guess they either literally fell off a truck or trekked hundreds of miles to get to my promised land
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Feb 9, 2017 05:02
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i found the sheeps' original owner last night and they have finally returned home
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Feb 10, 2017 01:19
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it's summer here! which made me think they'd wandered further than they actually had because they were so exhausted when they arrived, but actually they were from just over the hill. they'd only been recently purchased so their ear tags had been removed at their old place and their new owner hadn't got around to putting new ones on yet - apparently they're escape artists, they've got away a few times now, so i'm sure it'll be a priority for him to get some identification on them. he has a few hundred sheep so he didn't even notice they were missing until someone tagged him in one of my facebook posts. it's a bit sad but in the end i don't deal in stolen goods even when the goods steal themselves and it was very fun having bouncy little lambs on my property
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Feb 10, 2017 02:00
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i've been getting more and more excited knowing it's spring in the northern hemisphere purely because of this thread congratulations on your new babies, they're all adorable and so sturdy! bring on the jacob wave
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Mar 17, 2017 23:14
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oh no  that really sucks, i hope it's the last serious birth defect you have to deal with in this year's crop. good on you for catching it quickly so he doesn't have to suffer at all.
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Mar 18, 2017 03:03
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i'm checking this thread like ten times a day awaiting the jacob tsunami 
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Mar 20, 2017 20:21
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omg perfect babies!!!
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Mar 24, 2017 14:55
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that little white girl with black spots over each eye is the most perfect thing i've ever seen. the other lambs are also the most perfect thing i've ever seen
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Mar 25, 2017 01:17
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im cry
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Mar 26, 2017 00:49
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how good is the motherly ewe noise. wockle wockle wockle
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Mar 26, 2017 22:12
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bramble's lamb is so tiny i want to scoop her up gently in my hands and kiss her face
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Apr 2, 2017 11:45
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what? i love meat. we're getting a whole processed lamb soon in return for agisting my neighbour's cows during the drought and i am stoked about it
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Apr 5, 2017 01:45
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the thing is also that when you farm, you get used to animal death very, very quickly. just about everyone starts out with small poultry, they're at the mercy of absolutely everything and no matter how much you try to secure them you will lose many to predators and will have to euth many more due to botched predator kills, which inflict horrific injuries - like i started out going "i'm going to nurse wounded animals back to health no matter what it takes!" but about three days after i started i found myself holding a japanese quail that had been attacked by a butcherbird and was half decapitated and had no eyes. in that situation there's only one thing you can do. if you farm you inevitably start breeding your own babies, because 99% of the time it's hilarious and rewarding and delightful, but i'd estimate about 1 out of 20 babies of any species is born with some deformity that makes happy longterm survival impossible and again, you have to make the choice. it's incredibly hard at first, but you learn the techniques and once you're good at it, it takes less than a second to kill an animal, they don't know it's coming, and they don't suffer. so i've kind of realised that being killed for meat is one of the better fates that can befall livestock, as long as they have a good life and a quick, humane death.
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Apr 5, 2017 02:35
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yeah it's good that she at least got one. and what a gorgeous little cherub i can't get over how sweet your lambs' faces are, they all have these funny half-smiles... and the spots, the spots
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Apr 7, 2017 00:26
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Instant Jellyfish posted:My small friend who like to scritch me back when I give him scritches. He better turn out really nice because I luvs him.
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Apr 10, 2017 02:11
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baby blues 
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Apr 16, 2017 01:49
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:54 |
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quote:
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May 20, 2017 07:52
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