Hot Chicks


These day old chicks are enjoying a nice warm start to life. They arrived yesterday evening and after their journey they are put in to a snug brooder to keep them nice and warm for the first 3 weeks, gradually reducing the heat until they go outside to the fresh grass and fresh air.

Mission Impossible (with a farming twist)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to enter the pen and check if a 3 hour old calf has received his all important first drop of milk.

After giving birth some animals can be very protective of there young, and rightly so, for all this cow knows I could be a danger to the new born. However this video highlights the potential dangers faced by farmers (and vets) when dealing with livestock. Needless to say I left her alone after that and gave her time to settle. She still remains dangerous, but I managed to slip in and check the calf and bolt out without getting in her way. In a day or so she will cool down and get used of her new arrival.

(BTW a lovely heifer calf and great to see that not even an event like that could wake the pigs from there mid day nap)

Piggy Eclairs

It is amazing how a few days of sunshine can make the winter weather blues disappear, we've had our first litter of piglets and our first calf of the year. The piglets love the sun and are lined up in the hut like a box of chocolate eclairs. While the calf was bit wobbly on her feet but after a while she got the hang of it.