Anyway, there' s quite a bit going on here. Lambs are growing like weeds, chicks are eating faster than we can fill their feeder and the garden is doing well (to the extent that we've gotten things planted on time).
We've got ten lambs so our original flock of 5 ewes has tripled in size. I need to be taking more photos. That would be a good assignment for my daughter. She's 7 years old and quite a budding photographer. As soon as we get some nice weather I'll ask her to get a clear picture of each of the lambs. These two guys were born on April 19th and this photo was taken about a week ago. They are checking out the chicks through the open door.We're raising 50 straight run white Plymouth Rock chicks. They will be five weeks old this week. The only birds we've ever raised from chicks have been Cornish cross broilers. These white Rocks are much slower growing. I used to put the hybrids on pasture at 10-14 days old but the birds we have now were almost four weeks before we let them venture outside. They are still sleeping in the barn because I haven't built them a portable pasture house yet.
Today when Jennifer came home from a dentist appointment, the rambunctious lambs had knocked down the netting that was confining the chicks. I didn't have it hooked to the electric fence (doh!). The chicks got out and were all over the barn and the pasture. It started raining pretty hard around 5:00 or so and the ones outside went right back into their pen. They're clearly much smarter than the hybrid birds we've had.
The pasture is already growing much faster than our small flock can graze it. I'm buying a half-share in a rotary mower from my brother-in-law. I need to get the overgrown parts mowed as soon as things dry out so it will regrow before the spring flush is over.
Our next big task is composting the bedding pack. I'll write about that and I hope to post about our garden soon, too.
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