Friday Photos from the Farm #8

Welcome back from Fall Break! I hope you had a wonderful vacation.

We used our time to start getting ready for winter on the farm. We cleaned out the garden, raked leaves, and put up some shelter for the chickens.

Here is what we do with leaves after we rake them in a pile!

Guess what? I found the picture of me holding a chick!

The chicks look like little chickens now that they have all their feathers. They still 'peep' instead of clucking like an adult hen.

Can you hear them peeping? You can hear the turkeys gobbling because they are loud!

This is Stew, our lamb. His fleece is too long and needs to be clipped off. We call that 'shearing.' It might seem funny to be shearing a sheep in the fall. This breed is called "Navajo Churro" and they get sheared twice a year.

The stomach is always sheared first. Stew might look a little uncomfortable, but he's really taking a nap. When you put a sheep or a lamb on its tail like that he almost falls asleep!

Those shears look like giant scissors!
Dallan is very careful when he shears the sheep for us.

Doesn't Stew look nice!

He's happier, too. He doesn't have a heavy coat to carry around.

He's telling me to put down the camera and give his nose a pet!

I hope you got to see and feel some of Stew's wool. I sent some to your teacher so you could see what it looks like right after it's been sheared. I haven't washed it so it might have bits of leaves and grass in it. It will smell just like Stew. If you don't like the smell of sheep, don't open the bag!

Do you remember what I said a few weeks ago about the new hen sitting on eggs?

Did you remember that I said they might hatch while you were having your Fall Break?

Guess what!!!

Look very closely!

Now you can see them! I moved the mother hen out of the way. The chicks were born on Thursday. So far three chicks have hatched out. I'll let you know next week if there are any more.

The mother hen is so sweet that she doesn't mind me holding her chicks.

Can you hear the chicks peeping? Can you hear the mother hen clucking? These chicks are only a few hours old. Watch the mother hen closely. She is rolling one of the eggs underneath her to keep it warm.

Get excited for next weeks photos! We have another new animal to show you! I think you will be so happy to see our new addition to the farm!

Have a great week!

Shearing

On Monday Vet2Be and his friend, Taco, sheared the two sheep. They are Navajo Churro and about a year old. Usually Churros get sheared twice a year, but we didn't get to it last fall and the weather turned too cold when we had time.

Mandy has a beautiful black fleece.

Unfortunately she has a birth defect - she has a severe under-bite. She has a very hard time eating and would never be able to support life, either after being bred, or if she managed live lambs, she would never be able to eat enough to produce enough milk for a lamb.

Vet2Be on the left, Taco on the right. Yes, they are using scissors. We couldn't get the Andis to work, and the hand shears had a spot that wouldn't cut at all.

They sheared Sparky, too. But I was in the house teaching guitar and so I didn't get photos of her.

It is WONDERFUL when I can send two boys out to do some work and it all gets done, and gets done well! Whoo hoo! Less work for me!!!!

Shearing the Llamas

It finally got hot around here and we needed to shear the llamas. Actually, one llama and one huarizo. Daisy (the huarizo, which is a llama x alpaca) had a heavy fleece this spring. You can see in the photo below how much fleece she has.

I went out to the field to find Daisy and realized the sprinkler was on it's side... again! I realized why why kept finding the sprinkler on it's side when I found Daisy sitting on it trying to stay cool. It was spraying right onto her belly and legs. I should have gotten a picture of that!

Taco, Vet2Be's good friend, came to help us shear. He's sheared alot of sheep and knows how to use hand shears. Last year we sheared Daisy with a pair of 8" sewing shears. It worked okay, but I wanted to see how to shear with the 'real' red-handled hand shears.

I held Daisy and Taco started shearing. We have a llama chute, but it is storing RN's things before she moves. So we decided to see how Daisy did in a stall. She did just fine!

It took almost 2 hours to shear her because her fleece was so thick. Once in a while she would stand without me holding her, then I grabbed the second set of shears and worked on her, too.

So cute! Huarizos are known for being more pet-like than llamas or alpacas. They are usually sterile and they usually have a wonderful fleece.

Me holding Daisy and Taco shearing. Vet2Be was in the house sick with Strep Throat. We saved the 'blanket' of Daisy's fleece and tossed the rest.

 

Daisy didn't like anyone shearing her legs, but we were able to do it without too much trouble. Shearing her neck was trickier. I had no idea there were folds of skin at the base of her neck. I ended up holding her head down towards the floor while Taco sheared.

Meadow with two years of growth on her. We leave the halter around her neck because otherwise we would never be able to catch her. She was originally rescued by Taco's mom and then placed with us. She came to us skittish and afraid of people. Now she will come up to us and cautiously eat grain out of our hand. She is a wonderful mama llama and nursed Daisy for about 18 months--much longer than most llamas.

We paid to have someone shear Meadow the first year we had her. He stretched her out on the ground with ropes and pulleys between two trucks. She was really easy to handle when she couldn't move! This year Taco was willing to help us try it without a 'professional'. We are always greatful for his help, and he helps often!

Meadow was faster to shear than Daisy, but more difficult because she was not happy with us at all. Son1 brought Taco and I some water to drink since it was about 100˚ while we were shearing, and he got right in and helped us. Son1 held Meadow while Taco and I sheared. At first we wanted to be as fast as possible so we used the loud electric shears. After doing her back we noticed that the electric shears weren't working very well and switched to the hand shears. Hand shears don't give as smooth a cut, but they are much quieter and less to mess with than electric shears.

We didn't get a picture of Meadow with her 'bandit' mask on. Taco showed us how to cover her nose and mouth with a flour-sack dish towel so if she decided to spit we wouldn't get covered with green goo. Basically the towel was folded on the diagonal and went across her nose, it was crossed under her chin and tied behind her head. It worked like a charm! No spitting!

 Daisy peeking in the stall to see what we are doing to her mom.

I also trimmed Daisy and Meadow's toes while we had them contained. They both 'went down' as we were finishing the shearing. No problem. I reached underneath and pulled their feet out and trimmed them. Meadow ended up with Taco and Son1 laying over her back so she didn't jump up while I was trying to trim, but Daisy was fine as I pulled each foot out to trim.

Daisy and Meadow aren't too pleased in this photo. But they were fine in the evening. Both came up and ate some grain out of my hand. We didn't do a fantastic job shearing, but they have a much shorter coat and are much cooler. That was the most important!

Shearing Daisy

We sheared Daisy, the huarizo, last night. Technically she isn't a huarizo because her mother is a llama and her father was an alpaca, but since Daisy if half alpaca and half llama, we call her an huarizo anyway.

Shearing her was a 'hack and whack' job. She really looks terrible right now. Hopefully we can clean her up later this week. I've taken a class in shearing using the Andis shears, but I'm really not experienced enough yet to use them efficiently. Since this spring was rainy and wet Daisy didn't have a chance to dry out enough to shear her. Then my mom passed away, so this has been the first chance I have gotten to take care of Daisy.

Daisy's fleece was a disaster, I didn't even try to save it. She loves to roll in the pasture and the dirt so it was full of foxtail, sticks, dirt, and grass. YUCK! Her fleece was about 4" long so you can imagine the amount of debris that was stuck throughout. If we had had the time we would have spent a few days blowing her coat, combing through it, and then washing her. But the temperatures are above 95˚ F and we wanted to get her sheared so she wouldn't get heat exhaustion. Here is a link about shearing llamas. Here is an excellent link on shearing alpacas.

It took Vet2Be and Hubby about 20 minutes to catch her and get her into the llama chute. We decided that the llama chute would be much better than tying her down on the ground. The other people we talked to said that the llamas and alpacas are much happier if they have the chance to stand rather than have their feet tied and stretched out. Although we haven't tried the other way, she seemed just fine standing.

We trimmed her toes first. She didn't seem to mind much at all. No kicking at all!

Then onto the shearing. I used the electric shears for about 30 minutes. Daisy's fleece was so dirty and long that the blades got dull quickly. We resorted to scissors, which Daisy liked better than the noisy shears anyway! Prion, Vet2Be, and I all had a pair of scissors and snipped away for another 90 minutes.

Daisy is happy to have a thinner coat in the heat of July! I'm sad her fleece was a total loss, especially because this is her first fleece. I'm glad it will grow back. I could tell that it was a beautiful, soft fleece, so I am excited to shear again next year.