Six Little Nankins

Well the nankin hatch ended successfully with 6 little fluffballs of joy. They are so tiny and fragile but wow, they are FAST! They can run much faster than bigger chicks! Less weight to move I guess! I am always fascinated by the differences between chicks of the same breed, and this time is no exception. Here they are in the "eggmobile" going for a ride. Their shape and pattern of head spots varies considerably.


This one surprises me the most - nearly all grey compared to the others, who are all shades of gold, cream and brown. They are all extremely fluffy and they peep at me incessantly when I talk to them. I guess I am mother bird for now.

It will be fun to see how their colors change as they get older. I'll be posting updates now and then!

Still in the incubator: Welsummers, Cuckoo Marans, Light Brahmas, Penedesencas, Silkies, and a couple of Cochins.

Hatching Nankins

Today I have some nankin eggs hatching in the incubator. They are a very small breed of chicken, with a maximum weight of about 22 ounces. As a result, they are very tiny chicks when they first hatch. I could easily fit 5 or 6 of them in my hand. I had purchased eggs from eBay for them and they had arrived well packaged and intact, which is always a bonus when one buys eggs online! Many thanks to the seller (BBlackburne) for his excellent packaging and for sending eggs that were clearly fresh and fertile!

After 21 long days of incubating and carefully candling eggs, I was thrilled to find that 9 seemed to be developing, which is also very impressive for mailed eggs. So far, I have 3 hatched and 2 more pipped (that means that there is a small hole in the egg that the chick has made) and 4 without signs of emergence yet.

Here's a picture of the 3 hatchlings so far. One thing I find particularly interesting about them is the difference in colours between them all. So if you look carefully, you'll see that the one furthest to the left has various dark markings on its back and head, and has a brownish/gold cast overall. The middle one towards the top of the photo has a greyish cast overall and less defined back markings, but still a spot on its head. Then the third and most recent hatch is nearly all gold colour with a small dark head mark. What this all means, I have no idea, but it's very intriguing and I will enjoy watching them mature and seeing how their colours change!

The laying hens have decided that winter is not their favourite time of year, so they are not laying much. I had only 1 egg today and 1 yesterday. Not what I would ideally like! Hens have a tendency to lay fewer eggs when the day length is short and when the days are darker it seems. Of course, the other possibility is they've found another spot to lay their eggs outside of the nesting boxes, and I am not wise to their little game. It would not surprise me. Must keep an eye out for egg hoards when I am cleaning up the garden!

When life gives you a lemon, use it!

I am a big fan of indoor citrus. Outdoor citrus trees just don't work in Iowa. Miserable fact of life in this climate. So, I grow citrus trees in large pots outdoors from about May to October. In fact, Kelly just brought them inside for me. Even though I use large plastic pots (because clay pots would be impossible to move), they are still very heavy.

So why do I have this perverse desire to grow things that are completely unsuitable for my zone? Because I can! And why not?! I actually began with my first lemon tree when I still lived in Canada. I don't even remember where I bought it, but when I left Canada, I could not tolerate the thought of my dear lemon tree going in the dustbin. So, I did what any sensible woman would do. I sent it to my mother by FedEx. Brilliant! My mother has lovingly cared for my lemon all these years and in fact it is getting quite tall and bushy now, although it certainly has taken its time about it. I wish it would bloom for her, because the blooms are beautiful and the scent is exquisite. I keep sending it blooming thoughts, but it has so far not responded correctly.

Here in Iowa, I purchased a lemon tree (unnamed variety) from Lowe's. After actually having a lemon grow on it, I was all the more intrigued. I found a wonderful online vendor of citrus by the name of Four Winds Growers. I ordered from them 3 different plants: a Bearss lime, a Trovita orange, and a Eustis limequat, which is a cross between a lime and a kumquat.

More recently, Park Seed was having a sale on gallon pot citrus trees. I purchased from them a variegated lemon, a "Nagami" kumquat, and a thornless Mexican lime. I am waiting for them to arrive so I can get them started this winter.

The exciting thing about growing citrus indoors is that they actually produce fruit, because the blooms are self-pollinating. As proof of this statement, I present to you, the enormous lemon! It weighs 14.2 ounces and is the biggest lemon I have ever seen. You can't buy these in an Iowa grocery store! I haven't cut into it yet, but I assure you I will blog about it when I do. I have included the pop can to provide a sense of scale. I tried to research the world's largest lemon and found one from Israel that was 11 pounds, 9.7 ounces. OK, so I have a little bit of work to do, but this is still one massive lemon!

This is my Trovita orange. It is obviously not ripe yet, but I am just waiting for the day when it is. I have several limes and another lemon on the way. What a delightful way to enjoy the fruits of summer when it's winter in Iowa. The flowers that bloom in the middle of winter make my living room smell like a citrus grove, and are quite delightful when faced with blizzards out of doors. They keep me going, waiting for spring! In the meantime, I shall make lemonade.

You bought WHAT?

This posting is titled after the most common response I have heard from friends after telling them about our latest purchase. Is it really that unusual to spend one's Sunday afternoon purchasing a couple of llamas? I guess it is. But our friends and family should expect that sort of thing from us by now!

We purchased two registered female llamas on Sunday, and they are already well settled in with the goats. They were purchased with a few thoughts in mind:
a) First and foremost, they are well known as good flock protectors. They will be quite capable of dealing a swift kick to any fox, coyote, coon, or possum that dares to lay foot inside our goat/chicken area.
b) Second, they have lovely fleece, which can be sold to artists such as spinners or weavers. Llamas need to be shorn in spring and then their fleece grows back in time for winter.
c) Third, they are a fun new addition to our flocks and we think they are very interesting!

Our llamas are named Hazel and Cabernet. When we bought them, Cabernet was actually named Cle-Cle, but we have fallen into the habit of calling her Cabernet, which is part of her registered name. Her whole name is Cabernet's Carmenere, but we will just call her Cabernet. She and Hazel are half sisters. Cabernet is 5 years old and has both Bolivian and Chilean ancestry. We have her pedigree (part of the fun of a registered llama) and her ancestral family has lovely names, like Skansen's Silver Pheasant (her great grandma) and White Oak Zipizape (her great great grandfather). Some of these are quite well known bloodlines.

This is Hazel.

One interesting factoid about llamas that I learned this weekend: llamas hum. They do not bleat like goats or whinny like horses. No, they are far more original. They hum. Each one has a slightly different tone and style of hum. I can stand by the fence and hum to my own little tone and they will come over to investigate me.

This is Cabernet.

Putting your hand on a llama's back, into the heavy fur, is like putting your hand into a very large, very warm mitten. Everybody should experience this at least once in their lifetime! It is remarkably warm and soft.

The llama ladies are settling in well with their new goat friends, and have also taken an interest in the chickens. The chickens have a tendency to scuffle about in the straw after the goats have finished eating, looking for leftover treats. The llamas were a bit scared of the chickens at first, but now approach them with interest.

This evening, Hazel decided it was time for the goats to go to bed, so she herded them all into the barn. We did not teach her to do this, but she seems to have developed a talent for it already. Zak, our largest male wether goat, decided he did not want to go in the barn. Hazel kept a beady eye on the goats already in the barn, and gently encouraged Zak to join them. She is gentle but firm. Zak pretended to be interested in some non-existent food on the ground. Hazel let it go this time, but I think she is getting wise to his tricks!

Cabernet is a little more stand-offish than Hazel, but is particularly fond of cracked corn. I am encouraging her to interact daily with a small amount of cracked corn as a morning treat. Surely she will come to think I am her special friend as a result. We exchange hums and eye each other daily. I hope she will become as friendly as Hazel in time.

We are delighted with our new girls, and look forward to learning more about llamas as time goes by. One other thing we have learned is that they are not deterred at all by cold temperatures. Here they are this morning with frost on their backs. Oblivious to the cold, but extremely interested in their morning ration of hay.

Oh, of course, one last item of note. Cookie is doing incredibly well. She now has a normal stance and is slightly dragging her rear feet but it isn't that noticeable. She's such a trooper and we are so very pleased at her recovery. Deer meningeal worm IS treatable in goats if you get it early. We welcome questions or comments from other goat owners who have been touched by this disease.

Cookie's Walking!

Hooray! Cookie is up all by herself and walking. In fact, she even ran a little bit in the barn. She's a bit wobbly and unsure of herself, for good reason, but she is able to lay down and get up by herself when she wants. This is a HUGE improvement. I am so pleased for her. She will continue to get some "rehab" for her muscles to ensure they build up again and get strong. She may always have a limp or a funny walk, but that's OK if she's able to move and be a normal goat. Here is a picture of her now. Her back is a bit more curved than it should be and you can see her stance is not "normal" but it's a lot better than seeing her dragging both legs behind her and moving along like a seal.

And yes, I know the floor is messy - this picture was before I cleaned out her area and refilled the water dish. I was just so excited to see her standing, I had to take the picture right away!

Cookie Update

Today, Cookie seemed slightly better. It is so hard not to be optimistic. I don't want to be too optimistic because I don't want to have to have my heart broken if we have to put her down. Of course, that will break my heart anyway, but it would be worse if I really thought she was getting better.

I tried to encourage her to walk today. She is not extremely heavy (so although it sounds bad, it really isn't) so I gently held her back end up by the tail. When I hold her tail, she tries to scamper around just like she used to. I don't always have to hold her tail. Sometimes, like when she stops to eat fresh clover, she can balance on her back legs. I think she could not do that before. If she tries to run, she falls over. If she walks slowly, she manages to go about 10 feet before she falls over. I hope this is a good sign, because she could not even do that before. She actually ran for about 20 feet while I was holding her tail. She certainly has a strong will to live and is not in any way lethargic. I let her rest in one spot for a while and went off to do something else. About 20 minutes later when I came back, she had moved herself about 10 feet. I am not sure if she dragged herself or walked.

She has 2 more days on panacur (dewormer) and 1 more day of steroid, and then day 7 is just another dewormer (ivomec). After that, we have to hope the inflammation goes away and the parasite is kaput. Of course, we also hope that she does not have permanent neurological damage. She is so sweet. It doesn't matter if she always has a limp or a funny walk. We will love her anyway.

Be strong, dear Cookie. We're all pulling for you.

The Administering of Goat Injections

For the last few days, I have been treating our goat, Cookie, for an infection caused by deer meningeal worm, the Latin name for which is Paralaphostrongylus tenius. Normally it infects deer, but goats and sheep, along with some camelid species, are secondary hosts. Goats can get it from eating a slug or a snail, which is the intermediate host for this nasty parasite. It gets into their central nervous system by entering the brain or spinal cord, and is often fatal.

We found this out because we took Cookie to the University of Iowa large animal clinic after we noticed her dragging her rear legs. They did a spinal fluid test and found elevated levels of eosinophils in the fluid. This is a sign of the infection. So, she has been on massive doses of deworming medications (2 different ones) as well as a steroid. The poor little goat is only 6 months old and is very sweet, so the idea of her dying from this horrible parasite is extremely upsetting. We are doing our very best to bring her back to health, even if she has a permanent limp, which can happen if they do actually live.

So, this week I learned how to give sub-cutaneous (sub-q) and intramuscular (IM) injections to a goat. This has not been a lifelong yearning desire of mine, but now that I have goats and chickens, I guess it was time to learn. I feel better having learned how to do this task, even if it doesn't help this time around. To be honest, it was more difficult getting through the skin than I expected. Goats are tough skinned! Or maybe humans are just thin skinned. I haven't given myself any injections but I've poked myself with pins or sewing needles often enough to know it's not that hard to get through my skin!

Today, although I am very guarded about this, I am slightly optimistic. I carried Cookie outside to let her eat some fresh clover since it was so nice out, even though she has been housed inside the barn since she became unwell. She actually stood on her own for a few seconds after I helped her up. Then she leaned against my leg for a while as she munched on the clover. I don't want to get my hopes too high, but I really hope she makes it.

If you have the inclination, please send healing thoughts, prayers, white beams of healing light, or whatever else you believe in, to my little Cookie. Here she is just a week or so ago, in better times.