The twin lambs at Gail and Frenado's are doing great, they having a ball chasing each other around just like little lambs do, then dashing to feed on mom Dolly and catching a little nap in the sun close to mum. Unfortunately another lamb born this week died after her mum got a bit carried away munching on the umbilical cord, no one was around to save the little one. Very sad ...
I did mention our ewe Bella's mum was making strange little noises the other day but we still waiting ... That evening I went to bed rather late expecting something to happen only to be woken up by the Blond One at midnight, informing me our dogs very going crazy barking at something. (I am a little deaf so did not wake from the noise)She investigated and found 5 sets of red eyes looking straight into the beam of the torch. That meant only one thing Foxes, a whole pack of foxes. The sheep were all standing huddled in one corner sensing danger.
Well we don't own any weapons/guns so shooting at them was not an option. Man I really want to learn to shoot to protect my animals. Might get my mate Alby to teach me sometime, so next best thing was to light up the enclosure as best as I could. We decided to build 2 fires and keep them stoked for a while, that took a lot of moving around fetching and carrying of wood. We sat rugged up warmly by the fires, sipping on Hot chocolate and munching on some raisan toast, while the fog came rolling in. After a while the foxes must have moved on with empty tummies, no lambs or chickens to be had here tonight, (around 4.30 we decided it was fine to go off to bed.) We could heard dogs barking in the distance!
I heard on the radio that donkeys are being used to protect sheep and goats, they don't like dogs and will try to kill them if the dog gets in their enclosure. Farmer are adopting donkeys esp for this reason, wild dogs and dingos are a real pest. Now what do you think of that. I thought alpacas are great protectors for a sheep or goat flock. I wonder where I can find a sweet heart like Cookie ...
I lost 6 chickens in one week to something. Not sure if the weather played a part as we did have a realy big storm one day and I lost 3 hens that day. Do you have a inside pen/shed/barn type thing that you can put the sheep up in at night?
ReplyDeleteYes, I've heard of donkeys also. We don't have many foxes here. Our problem is coyotes. And lots of them. They are getting bigger and bigger every year and more and more plentiful. THey have even started attacking humans now. They come right on our doorstep at night. It's scary. We've just gotten a guard dog for the goats. But at the moment she's only 7 weeks old. The only thing she's guarding is her teddy bear!
ReplyDeleteShe's a Great Pyrenees. Supposedly they're great for protecting against coyotes because they hate all other dogs.
How scarey! I'm glad that all was kept safe!
ReplyDeleteI have heard the same thing about donkeys. I hope you can figure something out before you lose any animals.
ReplyDeleteThe man across the road from us was having trouble with dogs attaching his goats....he got him two donkeys. Trish
ReplyDeleteYes, having a gun and knowing how to use it is always a good plan. I hope you can get those foxes to move far, far away.
ReplyDeleteDern predators! Thankfully we`re pretty lucky and only seem to lose chickens to hawks but we do hear the coyotes nearly every night!
ReplyDeleteThat's sad about the lamb.
ReplyDeleteSydney - City and Suburbs
We use donkeys to protect our cattle from everything from coyotes, wolves, big cats etc. In the process we also found they eat thistles ( a dreaded weed here in the Ozarks) so they don't reseed. Bonus!
ReplyDeleteGod bless ya and have a fantastic weekend!!!