Creekwell farm blog

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Time for another update, I have got over my woe is me frame of mind from my last post. As with any small holding a lot has happened in a month. I should update ever week just incase I forget anything.
Well I have one of those stories that should start "I went into this bar........" or "There was an Englishman a Scotsman and an Irishman..................." My story starts with me getting the wood to put a floor down for the tempory plywood arks. Being on my own I started with the four GOS weaners. I made the floor up next to the main ark, I screwed some 4 x 2 poles to the sides to act as handles and lifted it corner by corner onto the floor. I went round the back and used the poles to slide the main ark across the floor. Stepping over the straw on the earth was difficult enough but with the four weaners "helping" I found myself tripping and knocking against the ark. (I wear hearing aids that act maskers for tinitus I got from a work related injury in my previous life) My hearing aid got knocked out and hit the floor, when they come in contact with something solid they start to whistle; this one started to squeal the pigs became aggitated and one attacked the hearing aid and ate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I recovered some of the pieces, called the hospital to make an appointment to get a replacement and had to explain how a pig ate my hearing aid! I produced the bag of bits and said the rest was in transit. Funnily enough they didnt want the rest back. Looking at the womans expession this excuse rated up there with the dog ate my homework. I had to pay £50 for the replacement.
Lambing is going well, 9 of the ewe's have produced 11 lambs so far, I have orders for 8 already, only a couple of problems this year, one ewe was stressed and straining for 2 hrs, having large hands make assistance difficult I couldnt work out the anatomy I wasnt sure if I had a shoulder or a hip but deffinately had a spine, as the vet is 30-40 mins away I gave them a call. When the vet arrived I met him at the gate and walked up to the field shelter and blow me if she hadnt delivered the lamb normally.An expensive phone call. So how long do you wait? The other lamb was one foot and a head out 1 leg back. so push back in bring the leg forward then deliver normally Hurray success the book info was right.
On 19th January we had another litter of GOS pigletts, Started of with 10 ended up with 7 the clumsey sow sat on 3, such a waste she has an 8x8 ark and farrowing bars!
January I also took 3 of the 7 month Kune Kune pigs to slaughter, The meat is amazing certainly the best pork I have eaten, Crackling is out of this world. Next step is making salami from the meat. At the moment I cant make enough of it. More kune kune meat boxes available if anyones interested £5 per Kg. Give us a call.

[creekwel]

The current batch of Kune Kune meat boxes have all gone. We are sending 3 more to the abbatoir on 15th March so the next boxes are available from 20th March whole or half boxes available. The salami is curing I made snack sticks this time ( 1 cm diameter), so they will be ready in 3 weeks; garlic and black pepper, which is our most popular.
The geese started laying on the 23rd Feb, my incubator is full and I am trying to pursuade them to make their nests in sensible places so they can sit in peace. I wonder what the fertility is going to be like. One gander to 6 geese, its a bit of a stretch for him but he is trying hard. They are using the pond which is still loosing water the act of fertilising the eggs looks more like the gander trying to drown the goose, we will know if it worked in 30 days time. We have white Ebden geese all from the same source and I have two different sized egss whats up with that?
We have finally had a week of dry days. The pig pens are drying out, at one point the pigs looked like boats in a sea of mud legs invisible and bellys creating a bow wave. I made the effort and gave the arks a good clean out, Its deffinately a good idea to have an ark where you can take the top off the base. Mud and straw have set like concrete and I have spent the day chiseling of the mess. The floors got to dry off in the sun, when I put them back together and filled them with straw our boar (Creekwell Gerald or "Bill" to his mates) went in snuffled about a bit and then just flopped down he looked really happy I swear he was smiling. No matter how many arks the pigs have they want to sleep in the same ark. Its quite amazing to see three adult GOS pigs and 7 piglets comming out of a 8x6 ark.

[creekwel]

Only 2 ewe's left to lamb! Was leaving the ram in with them all year a good idea.............Hmmmmmmm maybe not; I think I'll find him a home for the summer.

Sarah finally had her piglets what a disaster she squashed half of them. What a waste going to rethink the arrangements next time. Well short of time now more later with photo's

[creekwel]

Pictures are on their way just need to resize and upload. I have been busy trying to wittle down the male turkeys we have. I had to unexpectidly dispatch one of the females yesterday after she disembowled herself trying to lay an egg. I havent heard of this happening before, poor thing was in a real mess. Still the turkeys are comming in at 11Kg, being double breasted they have loads of good meat. We have started making our version of chicken nuggets, which are proving popular with the local Mums even the fussy kids like them. Really need to get the commercial kitchen sorted out

[creekwel]

One of the easter lambs born today

male lamb born 5th April 2010

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Getting up every few hours to check on the ewe's which had yet to lamb you get to see some strange things, like weird lights in the sky

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The twin born to the lamb born the other day is not doing well. When it was born its was muconium stained, I checked to make sure the ewe accepted it and it got up to feed. I checked both on and off throughout the day and always fine. I check the following day and it appeared dead, i found it was breathing slowly popping a finger in its mouth revealed it was hypothermic. I brought him inside to warm up and get milk into it. Its jaw appeared locked and feeding was difficult, I struggled with this but Fiona is the expert and started reviving him. He has now warmed up he has difficult standing and walking but this is getting better, one eye was milky but appears to be clearing. The important thing is he is not in pain I will give him a bit longer before I decide what to do with him. As its Easter and he has come back from the dead I've called him Jesus!

[creekwel]

Our sick lamb has not done well, his main problem is his dodgy back and eye sight. He is certainly blind in one eye I am not sure about the other. His spine problems hampers his walking getting up and sitting down. He eats well waste management isnt a problem either. Without constant help he wont manage. Will he be able to feed himself and drink? Unfortunatly I wont get to find out. When I started this I thought lambs either lived or died I didnt think of disabled. But the right thing has to be done. With animals if you dont do the right thing you get critisised, with people if you do the right thing you get arrested! go figure............

[creekwel]

We finally finished lambing on 14-April and what a way to finish. WIlly our maiden ewe had a marathon. Luckily she started in the afternoon. The water sack appeared first ( this is not always the case) an hour later I could see the nose and a foot. That was as far as it got I decided to intervene. Hot water soap and lots of lube! Having large hands is a disadvantage even though Oxford downs are one of our largest breeds of a sheep. There was no room to move only one leg was forward the other was nowhere to be seen. The proceedure is push the head and the leg back in pass your hand over the head down the shoulder and find the foot cup it and bring it forward, you will then have two legs forward and the head as though the lamb is diving out. I couldnt push the lamb back I couldnt get my hand past the head to the shoulder; it was so tight. It wouldnt come forward it wouldnt go back. I got Fiona to help, smaller hands should do it. No it dosent. More lube and I tried to draw it forward head and leg out surely the shoulders would push out . Crap a hung lamb I was really in the poop know. Time to call the vet. The lamb was in the position for an hour I kept checking for signs of life, hoping the vet would get here soon. The head started to swell the eyes looked like a boxer who had gone 10 rounds. The vet arrived here hands were half the size of mine. But even she couldnt get her hands in to retrieve the leg. More lube more pushing and pulling and still no joy I had already resigned myself to loosing the lamb but the ewe as well. Willy was the first lamb I bottle fed this was serious. After another hour the only option was to pull, The vet massaged the inside of the vagina to see if it could be stretched and tugged and tugged he eventually popped out. Drops to stimulate breathing massaging the chest, straw up the nose and we got a wisp of breath, more chest rubbing and life was returning. He survived!. I'm amazed, this I didnt expect

Willy has totally reject the lamb I guess she is in considerable discomfort, she keeps breaking out of the pen to get away from him so we have another pet lamb. Cross fingers he is doing well. Willy seems ok.. This one has been named Wilson. What else.


As you can see he has made himself at home and made a new friend

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new piglets born 22 May 2010 already taking orders

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