May 9, 2018
CHICKENS
A year and a half ago our last rooster, Wooster, died following a stroke at a year old. Since getting another rooster, Bertie, David has been going out to the coop every day to check and see if the chickens have laid chicks.
When we first got Bertie, it took a while for me to explain to him that a rooster doesn’t lay eggs but makes it possible for eggs to become chicks. Well, he got the chick part anyway.
A couple weeks ago our newest hen, an Old English Game, Harriet, went broody. So, I decided to let nature take its course and, instead of trying to break the broodiness, she is sitting on a few eggs. It was 3, but one of the other chickens snuck an egg under her a few days in, before I marked the eggs. A week in, the Little Red Hen went broody and tried taking over Harriet’s nest. Harriet simply moved and sat on there eggs laid that day. I shifted hens around and put the egg that was a few days behind in its incubation time under the Little Red Hen—I candled them to see how far along each was in its development. Well, now Dotte, the blue laced red wyandotte, has also gone broody, so I may move one egg under her to complete its incubation time and see if it will break all of their broodiness in one go.
Just under a week left until they hatch and David is excited. I took him out to candle eggs with me one evening a few days ago. I think he now understands that chicks hatch from eggs and are not simply ‘laid as chicks.’
COWS
Allie gave birth to her first calf on the morning of May 4th. Her official due date was May 3rd, but since she was bred in the evening (July 24th), the next morning is not far off of the expected 283 days.
May 3rd Sangria was pushing Allie around a bit with her horns, so we separated the two cows overnight.
May 3rd between the morning to the afternoon Allie’s udder began to bag up.
On May 4th I woke early. I went to check on the cows around 7 A.M. and, as there was no calf, I turned them loose together and planned to check on them in an hour or so to evaluate if Allie seemed any closer to calving as I wanted to separate them for the birth. I watched for a few minutes as Allie wandered up the pasture hill. She seemed a little disinterested in eating and before I headed back to the house I saw her raise her tail and kink it to the side (a few weeks ago I read a post with an attached picture that described how whenever their cows raise and kink their tails like this, a calf is generally born within 12 hours). I mused to myself that perhaps today would be the day. I’d been checking her a time or two every day for the previous two weeks, as some calves come early.
I put Willow down for her nap just before 9 A.M. I helped David get his shoes on and told him we needed to go check on the cows and see if Allie had her calf yet. “Yeah, it’s May already,” he said, continuing, “Allie is having her calf in May.”
As we headed toward the barn I heard an unusual bellow. I began to trot. The peculiar bellow sounded again. I picked up my pace and headed toward the noise. As I quickly climbed and swung my leg over the fence, Allie bellowed again. I saw my two cows on the far side of the barn’s side paddock. Allie turned and I think I saw the calf hit the ground. I approached the cows, now standing nose to nose, who were looking down at the newest addition. As I neared the newly born, and wet, little black calf, it tried to test its legs. As it stood Sangria pushed it over with her horns; Allie bellowed. It tried again, Sangria knocked it over; Allie bellowed more desperately. This repeated a few more times. I knew I needed to separate them but felt a bit concerned about stepping into the middle of two 600+ lbs cows, one of which was a new mama cow.
This is the fence I went over that David sat on while I was in the barn. Picture from a different day.
I called to David that there was a new baby cow and asked him to stay by the fence. He sat on the fence to watch.
I hopped another gate into the hay barn and, as the leash was all the way across the barn in the milking parlor, I opted for a rope close at hand. I also armed myself with a big stick, an old shovel handle. Thus prepared, I exited the barn slowly and carefully approached the cows. I calmly talked to them and slowly slipped the rope through Sangria’s collar. Although some people are against collars on cows as they can be a danger them if they get caught on something, at this moment, I felt very grateful that we have collars on our cows. Allie stayed standing over her calf and I gently pulled Sangria away. She very grudgingly plodded after me. I tied her to the feed trough and closed a gate between them before turning her loose again. Sangria mooed grumpily.
Allie licked her new calf and quietly mooed at him. A new mother taking excellent care of her calf. He soon stood and immediately nursed. After a little while he tried to test his legs out more by hopping around. Allie mooed, seeming to chastise him and telling him to hold still as she wasn’t done cleaning him yet.
That evening Simon confirmed the calf’s gender: Bull. We weighed him: 47lbs.
Welcome to the farm, Wellington!
