ba-bye birdie, part 3

sadly - this past week another one of our original birds died. Her name was Jwalker; she was named after her real parent, Jade Walker (my best pal) of Mill Creek Urban Farm (click on link at bottom of blog!). Jwalker was a RedStar sexlinked chicken from Charlestown CSA Farm in the Phoenixville area (support organics!)

A few weeks ago I noticed another chick missing. For several days I counted the birds when they walked out of the coop after laying eggs in the morn'. I kept getting 13 (that includes our two roosters). Then as soon as I could refill my 5 gallon water bucket & get down to the sheep I would find one of our younger RedStars, which led to some confusion as to wether this bird was living with the sheep over night. I think she was just racing me down there to munch up leftover grain & hay from the loving sheep.

Confused no more - we have ten hens and two roosters..way too many roosters however I am having difficulty taking away life these days (any helpers??!!). Having too many roosters actually affects egg production & hen happiness. In our case these two roosters get along amazingly well; they do not fight. In fact, one morning last week I looked out the window to see them both on my patio, together, alone with no other hens. Only at our place; our peaceable kingdom.

Newsflash! Sheep highly adept at memorizing faces!

Sometimes folks comment on how unsmart sheep are. Often folks compare them to goats, claiming that goats are somehow smarter. Not true! goats are different and have a much more outgoing attitude with humans (they also stink). Sheep are often shy or "skittish". They are just wary & protective. I am sort of a hybrid sheep/goat (geep) as I am friendly and outgoing but also reserved & I wait for my intuitions to spell safety.
My dairy farmer always says that sheep have a low will to live -unlike his 1400 pound cows! Not true! They have an amazing will to live as I have observed with Blink, our wethered north country cheviot, who has been stricken with dermotitis, external parasites & now some infection that is making him have flesh open/scab things all over him! He has an incredible will to survive & to beat this beast of an infection.

An interesting study was done earlier in this century (2000) showing that sheep are highly adept at memorizing faces. A sheep can memorize 50 faces for up to 2 years. One can imagine how this would help identify the flock, since to some eyes "all sheep look the same". Here is an article about this study:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1107_TVsheep.html

Also here is a link to read more on "sheep smarts".
http://www.sheep101.info/stupidsheep.html

And by the way not all sheep look the same at all. Same with cows and all animals I spose. After milking for a year and a half I can attest to that. I am one of those assholes who says, "look at the black cow" while gazing upon a field of 50 black & white cows. Most folks would think I was nuts but some folks would say, "oh yea, she's a beaute!"

We are so proud!

we are so proud to add this little clock at the bottom of this blogg page that counts the days until Bush is out of office! At Lillian's Farm we support life. We love life! Therefore we do not support folks (the Bush Administration) who enjoy killing, putting profit over life, health & happiness, AND those whom live in hypocrisy of all this (oppose women's right to make free & informed decisions about their bodies YET support genocide & encourage poverty on other people's bodies).
ugh, can we rush to election day already??

The one flaw with this clock is that we have NO idea who will be sworn in on january 20th 2009.. we just know that bush is out. out-flat on his GMO eating ass.

so think about adding this clock to your website or blog (they are working on making it myspace compatible-i love myspace).

First Asked Question FAQ

FAQ: Why Sheep? Asked by flederhaus this past month. Sorry for delay in answering.

My earliest memory of a life vision was when I was about 3ish so so. I was in sweden frolicking with cousins and sheep. I remember feeling I needed to be with sheep in my life; to life among sheep. There is a photo of me on my fridge at age five of me trying to chase sheepies to ride them like cozy short horses. I was wearing one of my outfits that my mamma made for me - a cute purple jumpsuit reminiscent of the middle ages (or I guess the 80's?).
Its a vague vision/memory. It did not include farm business plans or ideas for fiber arts projects. But I felt sheep. I have always been drawn to them, to wool, and to sheep iconography (and sheep jokes too).
I love sheep so that's why sheep, sister.
sweet dreams yall, in wooliness, L

Don't fence me in...

...breeding sheep is fun but has it's problems. Since we have a ram on site (versus artificial insemination) our girls initially were pepped up on hormones & were acting a little naughty. Like they were escaping through the barbed wire fence nearly every day for a few weeks. They were on some hunt for the most freshest & greenest grasses I spose, as their bodies encourage them to be at optimal health to bear twins. Unfortuanatly the fields had fresh sprouts of winter wheat that is valuable to the farmer who planted it. So we were determined to be good neighbors by keeping our sheep in their field.
we became adept at herding OR luring the girls and Mr. Chocolate down from the mountain. We learned a lot about our flock. Cool!

Things were not ideal & levels of sheep stress were high (for me or sheep??)

So I ordered some excellent electric netting for sheep from Premier Fencing of Iowa (they are like the rodale institute of fencing & farm equipment - they have large research facilities).

After not too much confusion we got it set up & the wires hottt! Within a few moments the flock learned the netting!

Buffalo, Blink & Wink did not have such a desire to escape so they are still grazing in the "free" part of the pasture. They have learned that the netting is hottt from the other-side. The icelandics are in the netted area that is super simple to move around. Rotating your animals is the way to go for parasite safety & so the grasses grow back healthy.

So all is well except that I need to save up for more sections of netting now that I know it works so well.

The Dub Shepherd & the Pirate Shepherdess shared a big high five, sat back to watch the kids learn the fence! What a day that was! What a sense of accomplishment to set up something with wires, alligator clips, a battery, an energizer, grounding rod and all..oh my!