Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Confused Maternity

It turns out that Coco and Patches may have fallen too hard for the sweet little lambers. When I went down to the farm yesterday morning Coco was guarding them from Lulu! The lambs were as content as could be, sleeping in the sun. Lulu was not so happy. I put Patches in her pen for milking and tied Coco up. Then I moved the sheep and lambs in with the chickens. Our main concern was that if cows weren't letting Lulu nurse the little ones, her milk supply would dry up. The lambs seemed to be getting enough food from Patches! She gave about a quart less when I milked her. This could have been a sign of heat, but her teats were sticky as if they had been sucked on.

The sheep seemed happy enough in their new home with the chickens. The chickens didn't even seem to notice. Coco was heart broken and bellowed all day about it. However the move was a bit of a short term solution. The sheep have shelter in the greenhouse, but eventually it will be too hot in there. Also it means managing seperate pastures for the sheep and cows, something we were going to try to avoid if possible. After several years raising sheep we had decided we were going to stop and then these little ones came along. If anyone is looking for a few nice pet sheep please let us know. Lulu is a sweetheart. We've had her for about 7 years. Blackie is her companion and actually has good wool, not that we have been using it. If you'd like the pair and the lambs, let's talk.

Tomorrow is Pig Day! Things are really starting to happen on the farm. It must be March!

1 comment:

Josh in NOLA said...

What's "Pig Day" mean?

And another reason for you to blog is to let me keep seeing updated pictures of Beatrice growing bigger.

I miss y'all.

-Josh