Farm Life, February 2020

I won’t going to write a Farm Life post this month as I didn’t think much had happened.

Then, as usual, I looked back at the photos and changed my mind.

For months, I had wondered if Sponge, the last of my female pygmy goats was pregnant. I was beginning to think she wasn’t and that maybe I was just over feeding her but then we noticed some discharge and waited. The farmer checked her over and said the cervix was closed so we went to bed that night expecting a kid in the morning.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. She had given birth but the goat kid was born mummified. It happens. So we fed her up (she actually looked really sad, bless her) and ended up putting her back with the others as they do much better in groups. Poor Sponge. We will let her get pregnant again later this year so let’s hope for a better outcome.

Soon after that, the farmer found one of the Romney ewes on her back. He said he hasn’t known many to get back on their feet after this and put her in with the goats.

Sponge must have been feeling better because she spent most of her time butting the poor sheep and Sponge had to be put back into solitary confinement to try and give the sheep the best chance.

My TLC (and goat food laced with molasses) must have done the trick as she is on her feet and still in a little stable. The children love her so I am hoping she stays put until lambing. Everyone needs a pet sheep.

We rehomed some ducks which ended up being a two-hour round trip. It was a bit of a nightmare really. The ducks were in a very bad way and two died on the way home. We kept them in for a bit and allowed them to go on the pond. To cut a very long story short, the ten ducks ended up being the most expensive mistake ever.

Even though they are rescued, you usually have to pay a nominal amount to the organisation to cover their costs.

Any ducks that did survive became fox food very quickly as, not only would they not integrate with my ducks who seem to be a bit more savvy but they also would not integrate with each other and the term sitting ducks definitely came to mind when one by one, they disappeared. The farmer surmised that it would have been better just going buying young dicks who would have integrated with my original little flock. I had thought I was doing a nice thing. Never mind.

The hens are still prolifically laying and the lighter evenings are definitely having an impact as my two Polish hens have started laying really cute little white eggs and there has been one, very exciting green egg which I believe is from Miss Money Penny who originally belonged to The Marvellous Mrs P.

I suppose this time next month we will be in eager anticipation for lambing although, we put the Romney ram in the week before the other rams so we may even have lambs.

The children have called the pet ewe Betsy so maybe she will have had a lamb then.

It is still majorly wet at the farm and freezing. We are so thankful to be in a much better situation than some other farmers who have suffered with flooding but the wind is bitter and Spring still sees a long way off.

Maybe next month’s Farm Life will be slightly warmer. We can only hope.

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