https://www.facebook.com/Ystwythsmallholders Have now gone live on Facebook ! So feel free to follow us Just click on the link....above :-) We now offer Horse Rug Repairs contact us for any enquiries or message us direct on the blog or Facebook site - feel free to send an email or pm on Facebook. Email Address chris63red@hotmail.co.uk Send a photo of the rug if needed we will post photos soon of repairs already undertaken.

You can not have, just a few Quail......!

Gone Quail mad, oh dear the illness has set in - love the Japanese / Italian Quail who do not have much in the way of sense but get by very well & are actually are very good layers, I have now got my first pair of Californian Quail & for me these are very special birds .

I have joined a few groups on 'facebook' relating to Quail & have been networking with some very helpful people. Worth mentioning the groups as they are a great source of help, advice for people with a mutual interest in Quail & not just Quail (FB is taking over the world)! Thanks in particular to: Quail UK, Quail Breeders of the World, Quail Wanted Or for Sale in the UK, Quail Breeders Unite, Quail Buyers and Breeders, Wisconsin Quail Breeders Club, There are many more ! I have tended to have a liking for the more decorative Quail in particular the Californian Quail, Blue Scale Quail& Gambel Quail. On my next post I will update you on the Spanish Minorcas - my visit to the Winter Fair at the Royal Welsh Showground & how I may well be exhibiting birds poultry at the Welsh National Poultry show in 2014 !

What are we doing?

Currently getting the ewes ready for tupping & have to heptavac them all before setting Elvis in with them. Just purchased a pair of Bob White Northern Quail very nice breed just hope they breed well for our future bob whites & have finally sourced some Californian Quail in Ammanford hope to go view them soon (Charlotte unaware I think) :-0 We have finally managed to source a Cream Legbar Cockerel locally very pleased with his type very true colours & pure breed. I will post some photos soon as will be busy building more houses this time for quail ! I need to build a shed & have cleared the site for it just need the materials now ££££, then I can build an indoor aviary?? of sorts...maybe well that's the plan. Anyone out there with Quail? Any tips? Are you in Wales get in touch........

The Quail are coming on well they are the Japanese Coturnix variety (maybe some Italian in them somewhere)! & have plumped up very quickly on our high protein feed sourced locally :-) We have been given two Faverolle hens that we like very much - unfortunately their legs need some attention but should come good soon. Very pleased with the Spanish Minorca pair we purchased recently, originating from the island of Minorca off the coast of Spain where it once could be found in large numbers. They lay white eggs so easily recognisable.

Photo update

Photo update long overdue! Ram Lambs born April 2013 ready for work ! Plus Our new Spanish Minorcas nice..

For Sale

3 Torddu Ram Lambs for sale Born April 2013 Ready to work & from very good stock feel free to enquire or come & take a look. Registered Sec A mare for sale see previous post & photo reduced price now £275 ono Any enquiries via blog or email at chris63red@hotmail.co.uk

Spanish Minorcas

Very pleased managed to pick up a pair of Spanish Minorcas locally, just need to add a couple of hens now & the cockerel will be very happy :-) I will add some more information about them & photos very soon.

Busy, Busy

Lots happening at the moment & lots to do - we have newly hatched quail under heat source & growing rapidly on high protein feed, three weeks old now. Lambs all weaned & ewes looking good ready for tupping in November, though Elvis our Ram looks like he may need to go on an exercise regime to lose some fat ! We have 3 Ram Lambs for sale born in April 2013, we may keep one of them as looking good. We need to register the ewe lambs so need to get a move on with the Badger Face Sheep Society. Had hoped to purchase more ewes this year but money is tight so may have to wait until next year, I had been keen to add some Boreay Sheep to our flock & have found a potential source but it will have to go on hold for now :-(. Have been quite keen to get myself a shire horse but for the same reasons will have to put on ice for now, maybe horse riding with Charl next year....lets hope so! The horses all look good & even Lady attempts a gallop now & then well she is 27 years old ! Need to get some new poultry may have some Faverolles coming my way, would not mind getting some game as well ..in addition to the quail. Photos soon....

Badger face Ram Lambs(Torddu)for sale sensible offers only from good stock - you are welcome to view email or leave a message for more information. Born early April 2013.

For Sale Section A Mare

For Sale Sec A mare for sale just turned 4 years. She was lightly backed last summer then turned away, unfortunately I haven't had the time to bring her back into work so she will be sold from the field. Alternatively she would make a good brood mare with her dam being Cilsane Misty Maid young mare class winner at Royal Welsh 2009 and sire Knolton Daylight with Eppynt, Trefaes and Synod in her bloodline. Reduced Price £325 ono

Fleeces

We have fleeces available - Torddu Badger Face Sheep (Black & White), ideal for spinning - collection only. Also small quantity of Lambswool contact via blog or email me on - chris.charl.91@gmail.com

It's been a while......

It's been a while since I posted on here, so here goes as you can see from the photo's Elvis & his crew have been sheared I think he looks great the photos were taken in June & July he does appear to be gaining weight ! We will put him on an exercise regime starting next week & maybe a smaller stretch of land to graze. Can not recall if I posted that I had lost my Cream Legbars previously, just one left & recently purchased two more so slowly building them back...very slowly, we are on the lookout for a cream legbar cockerel ! I will post some more photos.

Some Photos from the Smallholder Show (Spring Festival) RWAS Builth Wells 2013


                                          Weekend camping

                           

                                          Shearing by hand very impressive

                                          Boreray

                                          Boreray Lambs

                                          Boreray Rams

                                          On my wishlist (Fergies)

                                          Farriers hard at work

Oh Dear..managed to get the disco stuck & made a pretty good job of it as well, thanks to # David at Gelmast farm for bringing along his tractor to haul me out & # Gareth Rowlands for his banter & laughter at my predicament :-)
Thank you both !

Update

After vaccinating the new lambs with heptavac and tagging them, the next day we moved the ewes & lambs back up to the land. I have to say it was a great sight seeing our first lambs running & bouncing around the land with mum's in close proximity I will post some photos shortly. 

Before taking them all up to the land # Gareth Rowlands kindly tailed the ewes for us, this I would say is a good idea especially as the ewes have been denied access to grass for some weeks now & returning to the land may have an adverse effect upon the digestive system. 

The plan now is to get in the Ram, Wether and yearling lambs as they require worming, feet trimming etc they are separate from each other at present on differing parcels of land.

Charlotte has moved the horses on to the back but is keen to move them again where the grass is now finally coming through, now that also means ensuring they have adequate access to water so more work for us again.... 

Must get the photos added soon & see if I can upload some video?

Poly Tunnel

We cleared the poly tunnel today & have made some progress in clearing space to actually plant something, we managed to put in runner beans, cucumber & courgettes. Lots more to do & we plan to put in raised beds for more vegetables & when ready the potatoes outside.

For something completely different:
I have a few carnivorous plants so had the opportunity to split some of the sarracenia in the hope of new emerging plants, enjoyed doing this again & I may look to get some more highland plants such as nepenthes which I have have grown previously.
 An excellent book to look up carnivorous plants is " The Savage Garden " by Peter D' Amato.

Lots of rain today which will help get the grass growing & hopefully us look to move the ewes & lambs back up to the land - just hope the temperatures rise !

All the ewes & lambs appear to be well bonded & making good progress, they are all in the one shed now so lots of confusion lambs looking for their mums & vice versa.
We are letting them all out during the daytime into the yard with lots of bleating for food every-time we go anywhere near.
We are continuing to feed ewe 18 premier nuts with additional haylage, making sure they have access to fresh water day & night. Not much growing up on the land so will probably wait 2 or 3 weeks before moving them or until we run out of haylage !
All the ewes with lambs have been wormed, foot trimmed & replacement tags inserted if required that all seemed to go well - we got better at the foot trimming as we got through the ewes so may have to revisit the first couple...
We are really pleased that all the ewes lambed unassisted & all appear to be great mothers maybe this is just true of mountain breeds ?
Or have we just been very lucky.................
So we have doubled our breeding flock plus we have 2 yearlings that we can breed from in the autumn in addition to the ewes who have just lambed.
Need to think about Heptavac now & wondered if the vet could provide individual doses at a smaller cost than purchasing a whole bottle hmm.

http://www.lambbank.co.uk/

Worth checking out the lamb bank service is a free service to put those with surplus lambs in touch with those looking for additional lambs.

http://www.rwas.co.uk/en/garden-festival/

The Smallholder & garden festival is on the 18th & 19th of May 2013 at the Royal Welsh Show ground Builth Wells.

check out the link

For sale registered section A
Just about to turn four years of age section A filly with very good breeding, dam Cilsane Misty Maid young mare class winner at Royal Welsh 2009/10, Sire Knolton Daylight.
She has been backed last summer & left to mature over the winter, now ready to bring back into work or alternatively would make excellent brood mare with Eppynt, Trefaes & Synod bloodlines.

£399 contact for more information:

chris.charl.91@gmail.com

Torddu Lambs !

Lambing is over

6 ewe lambs & 2 ram lambs later from 5 ewes not bad going all appear to be doing well & all were unassisted.
1 ewe aborted earlier in pregnancy & has gone back up on the land with last years lambs, all the others are happily accommodated in the stables.
Managed to move my old Land Rover yesterday by pulling it away from the entrance of the stables it is now in a position for it to be renovated and has cleared our access to the stables.
I will post some photos of the landie when I begin the restoration - the landie has been restored previously whilst in our possession but has been left (by me) to sit and eventually seize up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02tGxAoi8Ps

Gareth Wyn Jones: Hill farming in a Spring disaster - Inspirational footage

Twins again

Okay another set of twins, this time from our eldest ewe Marge yesterday no assistance required she did look like she was going to produce triplets due to the size of her but we are happy with twins & more ewe lambs at that.
One more ewe to lamb, current count is 6 ewe lambs & 1 ram lamb.

Fingers crossed she lambs tonight.

Another new arrival

Well done to Charlotte for getting up early & discovering that our three year old ewe had indeed produced a lovely single lamb (another girl). This lamb seemed quieter than the others maybe as being a single ?
We were not certain that she had latched on properly & mum was very noisy pawing the ground & encouraging the lamb. We later decided to give colostrum could not do any harm ( please note our first time/ attempt at this).

Got the lamb settled on my lap, Charlotte prepared the barrel & tube 50ml of made up colostrum & tube lightly lubed with vegetable oil all going well. We fed the tube gradually over the tongue of the lamb aiming to have  5-6 cms left not sure if we achieved this on the first attempt as Charlotte had neglected to take the sleeve off the barrel so when she gently squeezed the barrel I ended up covered in colostrum spraying from the end of the barrel !!

Second attempt Charlotte held the lamb & fed the tube down & we successfully provided the lamb with 50ml of colostrum, since then the lamb appears to have picked up successfully & has latched on now.

Nice to see the two sets of twins out in the yard playing, bouncing around I will post some photos later.

http://bcove.me/6jqbekzs

Useful link on livestock health videos 

Farmers weekly is campaigning to raise awareness of the responsible use of antibiotics, vaccines and wormers in livestock.

Please check it out now - click on the link above.

Lambs first venture outside

Our first set of twins ventured out into the yard for the first time today with mum close by, having said that we did subject mum to a manicure, replacement tags & worming she was not impressed.

Lovely to see the twin lambs springing about the yard it really feels like spring has arrived at last !
I hope I have not spoken too soon.......about the spring weather here in Wales.

I meant to post earlier about yellow poo that had been visible from the first set of twins - being our first time lambing we were not quite sure about this, especially with our second set of twins displaying no such symptoms.
Following much searching on the web it appears that the yellow faeces is indeed simply due to overfeeding.You see it more often in bottle fed lambs but if the ewes nutritional level jumps up you can see it briefly in a few ewe - fed lambs, and then it will disappear. It's more or less harmless as long as the lamb is clearly still feeding and the faeces are not getting darker and thinner ( indicating dehydration in the lamb).


If symptoms persist or you see blood in the faeces check in with your vet as concerns such as colibacillosis may be present - if you are concerned get it checked out.

Its a good idea to keep the area inside where you may be keeping lambs to be clean & ensure fresh straw avoiding any build up of heat in the bedding that may be a breeding ground for bacteria.

No more lambs to date but our three year old ewe looks a possibility for tonight...

On another note we had moved our quail to a new residence only to find that there was probably too much headroom !!
Spooked by well just about everything they were in a state of panic finally resulting in the ladder to the upstairs bedding area to fall on a couple of the unsuspecting quail now sporting injuries & blue antibiotic spray the rest of the birds were returned to the safety of the previous residence.
A shout from the kitchen alerted us to the fact that the presumed safe residence of the quail had  a door wide open into an enclosed pen, however following much searching we realised only one of the Japanese Quail was missing if you do come across her she will be sporting blue colours!

Photos of the recent snowfall here in mid Wales blocking our route to feed the sheep & horses, we did manage to get through all animals were fine.

3rd photo of the Ystwyth River winding through Hafod.

5th photo more recent shot of Flik.

Meet Flik our Sheepdog she comes from sheep farm breeding & is taking a keen healthy interest in the sheep though lots more training required !

We had a quiet night last night no new lambs but still incurred the frequent checks throughout the night, we were highly surprised when my 15 year old son declared that he would be setting his alarm for 4am to help out with the checks on the ewes & lambs !

Seems this lambing business is having a good effect on everyone including the eldest daughter at home who has claimed the one & only Ram Lamb as her best friend........

Here we go more photos of our Livestock & Horses

We are building up a flock of Badger Face sheep ( Torddu) & will occasionally have Ewes or Rams for sale please feel free to enquire:

chris.charl.91@gmail.com

Please Leave a Comment...

If you are viewing this blog then please leave a comment, if you like what you see or read then please feel free to recommend.

Thank you

Twins

Delayed posting on the blog today due to the arrival of another set of twins born last night, plenty of commotion from the stables.
We had spent most of the evening out in the stable awaiting the arrival of the first lamb - typical we pop for a cup of tea & a warm & on our return a beautiful new born lamb & very attentive mother, probably 40 minutes until the arrival of the next lamb.

When the time was right we then shepherded the ewe & lambs into the nursery part of the stable for mum to spend more time bonding, thanks to #Gareth Holland for the assistance !

Need to identify some time now to get this blog started properly.

The rest of the crew

Well that seemed all reasonably easy - starting a blog uploading photos why have I not done this before ?

Introductions
We have over the years had various livestock but at the present time sharing our lives are of course my Badger face sheep 6 ewes in lamb, 2 yearling ewes, 1 wether and 1 ram (Elvis) on loan !

Horses
One cob type (Lady) 27 years old
One Welsh mountain cross (Penny) 12 years old
One Welsh Cob (Bonny) 6 years old
One Welsh Section A (Peppa) 4 years old later this year & for sale

Birds
Toulouse Geese
Assorted poultry will go into more detail later as we have just had a nasty visit from Mr Fox !
Quail
Aylesbury Ducks
Assorted call duck & silver appleyards
Eggs always available :-)

Dogs & Cat
Astra rescued German Shepherd (loves Charlotte) very protective.
Flik my Welsh blue Merle sheepdog in training !
Tom our black cat
I think I have included everyone oh sorry yes nearly forgot........the kids !

Next time I post info & photos of where we live & our famous extension.

Easter Lambs

Okay here I go my first venture into keeping a blog, by the way my name is Chris & I live in Mid Wales with  my lovely & better half Charlotte & our three children.
I will start this blog by telling you about what happened yesterday & hopefully I will then be able to provide a little history of what has happened & happening in our  lives especially in our trials and tribulations in some mild attempt to be smallholders & enjoy (not sure that is the right word) the "Good Life" !

March 31st 2013 our very first Badger face Lambs have arrived - twins one of each & no assistance required.
I will post photos of the first Ystwyth Torddu badger Lambs very shortly.

Information
Badger face sheep are a Welsh pure breed of  mountain sheep there are two types Torddu, white with a black underbelly running from below the lower jaw all the way through to the end of the inside of the tail.
Torwen, black or dark brown, the lower jaw should be white and run as far as possible down the throat.
This is my interpretation however for more detail on the points of breed access the breed society page:

http://www.badgerfacesheep.co.uk/index.htm

Welcome to the Ystwyth smallholder blog 2013