Busy Santa and Business Planning

Well, Lucian is off school today due to the teachers strikes.

We planned to visit Santa in his grotto in town but sadly the only thing waiting for him when we got there was a kind man with a chocolate lolly who explained to Luey that Santa was not there today but would be back tomorrow. So we decided to go to a BIG toy store instead where there were toys stacked to the ceiling.. many many isles of them... Well we were there for a very long time and I think Lucian excitedly checked out every toy in the place! I don't know how he will ever choose which ones to ask Santy for when he meets him.

Now he is plonked infront of a movie, Jay has taken Faro out again and I have the arduous task of business planning for 2012. So spare a thought for me glued to my computer for the next 6 hours :o(

By the way! how HARD is a sprout stalk??!! Tried to cut one into pieces for the rabbits to gnaw on today but it couldn't be done. Will have to enlist the help of Jay and a hack saw...

Oh well. Goodbye blog, hello calculator and spreadsheets :o(

Better Bunny

Orla seems well today and has done normal dry droppings. YAY!

Annual Inventory of Sheep & Goats

Bit of paperwork today. The inventory is a form for all farmers and smallholders to record and tell DEFRA how many sheep & goats are on each holding.

It had an interesting bit of info on it though which we did not know before. Apparently, because our holding borders a common, we are able to link our ground to the common and take our goats there without having to do movement licenses each time. The tricky bit seems to be finding the county parish holding number for the land behind us :o(

Orla

The goats seem just fine today and no sign of sickness, so it looks like the activated charcoal has done the trick!

However, we now have another one to admit to the sick bay! Orla the baby mini lop has a runny tummy today even though she is only on a diet of plain hay. No idea what could have upset her at all so if she is still poorly tomorrow we will try to treat it with probiotic yoghurt.

poorly orly under the weather :o(

Sick Goat :o(

This morning, we found Handlebar slinging the cud which is usually a sign of poisoning.

I know I had not fed him anything poisonous so started to worry about the leaves that had been dropped into the billy enclosure because somebody just this weekend happened to mention that plum tree leaves were poisonous to horses.

Even though the goats have been eating the plum trees all year, it turns out that dead or wilted leaves are actually toxic! So as the leaves have fallen, Handlebar has obviously started to munch on more than he can cope with. The other two billys seem totally fine but we have treated all three.

TREATMENT
All have had a capsule of activated charcoal to absorb the toxins, administered by way of a piece of bread. They have also had strong tea to drink (luke warm, no milk)
Finally, Handlebar was given a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda

We will now be vigilant about fallen leaves and plan to cut down the plum trees along the goat pens.

Fingers crossed that the billys will be fine and that we caught the problem swiftly enough.





Harry & Hermione

 

Christmas Baby Bunnies?

We believe that Crookshanks the Dwarf Lop is pregnant with kits due on Christmas Day!

We are also hoping that Dutch doe, Binky and our new British Giant, Rosa, will also litter down just after Christmas to give us our first 2012 kits :o)

Ginger is Pregnant

Ginger the guinea pig is expecting pups! She usually lives free roaming in a secure area of the garden but she has moved into a disused chick brooder to have her babies in the house where we can keep a close eye on her.

Star is our boar and sire of Ginger's litter.. his photo is below

We will post here as soon as Ginger gives birth!

Introducing Our Smallholding

Welcome to our BLOG and thanks for stopping by!

This is our online diary of life on a smallholding.

You can meet the animals on our website at http://www.broadwaters-smallholding.com/ and we will endeavour to post plenty of photos and videos within this BLOG.

We are Jay, 36, Caroline, 28, and Lucian aged 4
We currently keep pygmy goats, a pony, rabbits, ducks, geese, chickens, guinea pigs, a barn owl, a foster puppy who has his own BLOG and Lucian also has pet snails... Giant African Land Snails :o)

In 2012 we also plan to create a new 'market garden' on our property and we will post details of its progress right here! We have yet to plan out exactly what we will be growing but our family, friends, neighbours and our animals can be sure to be provided with plenty of good n fresh food!

We are also working on the finer details of a poultry breeding programme. Last season we kept and bred our own chicken breeds and still do keep Silkie, Silver Spangled Appenzeller Spitzhauben and Lemon Cuckoo Pekin Bantams. However, for 2012, we plan to incubate and raise chicks from eggs purchased from a variety of local farms and poultry keepers. Preliminary plans are to hatch 30 chicks a week!

Our third venture is our rabbits. During 2012 we plan to breed Continental Giants, Mini Lop, Lionhead, Mini Rex, Dutch and Dwarf Lop rabbits.
Having had a good few years experience in raising rabbits then taking a break, we are very much looking forward to getting stuck in again.

We would also like to look into getting more nanny goats as we currently only have one (plus one wether and three billys!). We will see how we get on in April when Hermione is due to kid. If we do not have a heart attack and manage to get through the stress of our beloved nanny goat giving birth then we may well decide to expand upon the goat breeding. This year will teach us what to do and give us the experience we need.

Well that is about it really. We really hope you enjoy the BLOG :o)