Tuesday, September 14, 2010

veterinary work protea farm style

We had an enforced veterinary day this weekend, with 4 boys to castrate and a ewe with diarrhoea to drench. If that was not enough there was also a friend's sick lamb to treat and then Peggy decided to attempt to give birth to a monster goat-like creature. This was way too large to enter the world unassisted, so was manually delivered by torch-light.

From Protea Farm 1

Monster goat like thing pictured above at 3 days old. She is much larger than the 12 day old Bellamy twins and Grundy boys.

All the ewes are spending the days outdoors now, but due to torrential rain and the fox threat they are housed in the barn at night much to the amusement of the locals who find the molly-coddling of sheep most unnecessary.

From Protea Farm 1

Ness has started 'Operation Wood Duck'. Each year the wood ducks that live on the dam hatch out their ducklings and proudly show them off. Within 24 hours there are no ducklings and 2 distressed parents, so we assume that the fox has a poultry dinner. The plan now that the dam is a large lake is to construct a floating island out of recycled plastic items to provide a fox-proof refuge for the duck family, complete with plant life and a 5 star ducky environment. Hopefully the island will be successfully launched later this week.

From Protea Farm 1

'Lake Protea'

From Protea Farm 1


Duck Hilton under construction.

3 comments:

Lovely's Blot said...

Looks like you've been busy! Can you get lessons in castration on the Internet! Seriously, that worries me about starting to acquire a lot of animals as the cost involved is quite significant! Like the hen hotel!

Anonymous said...

Once a vet always a vet then Fi! Can't leave the old trade behind lol. R.

Anonymous said...

R....was rather enforced though!
Lovely- think you need to find a tame french vet in the village as a matter of priority