July 2012

In last month’s diary I wrote about our disappointment that, despite having consumed several kilos of peanuts (‘bait’), the Green Farm badgers failed to turn up on the critical evening when the traps were to be set ready for vaccination … so I’m really thrilled to be able to tell everyone that, at the beginning of July we were successful!

For some weeks they’d been going into the baited traps every night, but on the first occasion they were set to ‘trap’, they had stayed away, no doubt discouraged from their nightly roaming by the really foul weather we’d been having.  So, undeterred, we carried on baiting traps each evening for a week and throughout this time we noted a lot of signs of badger activity around the entrances to the sett when we checked every morning.

With confidence in the project renewed, we got in touch with Ken Goodwin of ITV West and Caroline Stocks, a reporter for Farmers Weekly, who had previously expressed their interest in reporting on the practicalities of vaccination and the role it can play in helping to reduce the spread of bovine TB.  We made our second 4a.m. recce and waited anxiously at the field gate while Lucy and Rosie of Brock Vaccination checked the traps.  Within minutes (and even in the gloaming we could see her big smile) Lucy waved us forward, indicating that the first 2 traps had been triggered and we were ready to vaccinate.  The sense of relief was palpable – we were in business!

The first trap contained an adult female – not the smart black & white of picture books, but a slightly grubby reddish colour from our native clay!  In the next trap close-by was a youngster, probably her cub.  Between them Lucy and Rosie checked the badgers, carefully noting their condition; then swiftly injected the BCG vaccine into the thigh and marked them with stock marker before releasing them.  We watched them scurry straight back to the sett, then we moved on to the next trap – another youngster.

There’s strong evidence that a vaccinated female (sow) will pass on a degree of ‘passive’ immunity to her future cubs, who in turn will be vaccinated themselves during the next four years that our programme runs, this will give them lifelong protection.  The cubs that were vaccinated this year will found the future of a disease–resistant sett, and by the end of the 5 years, we can be confident that all its occupants will be healthy and pose little or no risk to other farmed stock, or wild life.
See ‘March 2012 Diary’ for the reasons why we decided to embark on a badger vaccination programme on our smallholding.

July is always a busy ‘sheep’ month at Green Farm, and this year everything has seemed much harder work as we’ve been trying to fit all the outside jobs between torrential rainstorms!  I had intended to start showing our Hampshire Down sheep this year at some of the local agricultural shows, but somehow never found the time for all the lengthy preparation of washing, carding and trimming – let alone the travelling and day spent showing.  Next year, I promise!



We did, however, manage to spruce up two of our shearling ewes to display on our stand at our favourite show, SHEEP 2012, the National Sheep Association’s bi-annual show, and one of my favourite outings.  I was particularly pleased by the comment of one of the HDSBA’s top breeders “They’re a fine representation of the breed” – high praise indeed!

Our young chickens are coming along really well, and, at six weeks old we judged them sufficiently well-feathered to move them outdoors into our recycled coop and run – it’s ideal for youngsters who haven’t yet developed a strong immune system as it’s so easy to keep clean.  They’re now 8 weeks old, and – I can hardly believe our luck, it looks very much as though of the 6 Speckled Sussex chicks, 5 are hens and only one is a cockerel!  Fingers crossed that none of the ones I think are hens turn out to be late-developing cockerels, but the signs (larger size, more prominent comb) should be quite clear at this age.

Unfortunately, we’ve had less success with the Light Sussex hatch that shared the incubator with the Speckled Sussex eggs; of the six we set in the incubator, only one hatched and that was with a little help as the chick was really struggling to get out of its shell.  At first, she (“Blondie” – I really must stop naming our food!) appeared quite healthy, then, when she was about 10 days old I realised she wasn’t as steady on her feet as the other chicks.  I ruled out ‘splay legs’ – this would have been obvious sooner, but her hocks seemed almost fixed in the bent position, making it hard for her to stand upright and balance.  We considered culling her on humane grounds, but decided instead to try a bit of physiotherapy by gently stretching her legs for a short period twice a day.  Over the weeks she’s definitely steadier, but I don’t think she will ever come right.  She uses her wings to steady herself but isn’t being bullied by the others (which often happens to a weak chick) and gets around to feed quite happily.  We’ll continue to monitor her progress, and importantly, whether she will be able to have a good quality of life, or not.