More Arrivals and Departures

Our population has gone up and down.  Beatrice, our last ewe to lamb, produced a lovely little girl last Friday.  Beatrice, along with Barbara and Bianca, are our first three ewe lambs born at Fossils Retreat.

Proud Mum, Beatrice, with baby Diana - 1 day old.  Another hit by the mystery paintballer

Lambing is now complete - we had five ewes lamb, with a lambing percentage of 140%.  In contrast to last year where we appeared to produce nothing but rams;   of our seven lambs this year, four are ewes which we will keep for future breeding.  All the ewe lambs are black with white 'paintball' hits, and the breed is known as 'Wiltidorp' - a Wiltshire ram over a Dorper ewe.  All are doing exceptionally well and putting on weight magnificently.

We have also procured another six hens - point-of-lay 'Hyline' pullets which are the breed most commonly used to lay commercial eggs.  Our three Plymouth Barred Rock hens are/should be laying now - one went broody and had to spend a few days in the sin-bin (converted cat carry-cage).  Right now, the Hylines look some weeks off egg producing.  Makes one truly realise what the term 'hen pecked' really means when you see the treatment metered out to the newcomers by our existing five girls.

Not a very clear picture, I am afraid, of our newcomers - they are the brown ones at the back of the pen

We also have some visitors at the moment - a mother duck who proudly does the rounds of the paddocks showing off her little brood.

If you look about half way up the photo, towards the right hand edge, you will see a little broken brown line that actually is a visiting Mother Duck with 9 little ones.  She wouldn't allow us any closer to get a good photo.  She started off with 12 babies, then we noted there were 9, and today I note there are only 6 left.  Maybe they will remain the sole survivors as they are now getting a little bit too big for hawks to swoop down on

More visitors - Pukekos on our lawn.  The dogs were tied up when this photo was taken - you don't see the pukeko when the dogs are loose!

Departures - Zita and Zelda are but fond memories for us now, having met Vic, our homekill agent.  Charley Farley (a.k.a. Stumpy), Bonnie's vertically challenged Dexter steer, is next to board the angel train - Vic is due down to meet him in 3 days' time.  Also departing us then will be Cedric, our last of last year's male lambs