August 2012

I’m really pleased to report that our little Light Sussex (‘Blondie’) pullet has made tremendous progress during the past month; her legs have strengthened, and she’s now holding her own in the coop alongside the six Speckled Sussex who were her ‘incubator-mates’.  At 14 weeks old, they are all pretty well fully feathered and starting to exhibit all the behaviours of adult chickens.

I find the nature vs. nurture subject particularly interesting; since none of these birds has ever seen a grown-up chicken, they have learned purely by instinct how to roost on their perches, forage for insects, and establish the coop hierarchy, or ‘pecking order’, without any tutoring from ‘mother hen’.  Instead, ‘Mother Nature’ has been their guide, as indeed she has been in all aspects of their development.  For example, all chickens are ‘dimorphic’, meaning the males and females are distinctly different from one another, with these differences becoming increasingly apparent as they mature:  the cockerels exhibiting much showier plumage, headgear and bearing than the more seemly hens.



It’s quite amusing watching the two young cockerels sizing up to one another, hackles raised as they strut around, making faux charges at one another (“Who’re you lookin’ at?” or  “You lookin’ at my bird?”) – while the hens concentrate on the much more important task of discovering how to extricate a small snail from its shell.

I suppose the next landmark will be the first egg at around 22 weeks.  I’m just hoping that it will be Blondie who lays it.



This summer has not been a good one for sheep.  The constant rain, combined with the resultant lush grass growth, has presented a great challenge to their feet, and we’ve treated more lame sheep this year than ever before.

The main problem we’ve encountered is scald, particularly in the lamb flock.  Scald is easily recognised (pink skin between the cleats, sticky exudate, but no foul smell), and easily treated if caught early (spray with oxytetracycline, keep treated animal on hard, dry surface for at least 30 minutes after treatment).  Left untreated it can quickly progress to footrot, which is a much more serious condition to treat, and in many cases leads to the premature culling of otherwise healthy sheep.

It’s commonly agreed that there are five specific foot conditions in sheep, although if you include some of the more uncommon diseases, this rises to ten – each of which requires specific attention.  There’s also the sheep that simply has a ball of mud and grass between its cleats, painful enough to cause a limp, and left alone it can rub the skin allowing bacteria to enter.

So, we’ve got into the habit of regularly ‘lameness scoring’ all our sheep individually, with a score of ‘1’ meaning the sheep is sound, and a score of ‘5’ for any animal that is acutely lame (often sitting down, kneeling to relieve weight on a forefoot, or limping heavily).  As soon as a sheep shows signs of lameness, we’ll bring her in for inspection and appropriate treatment.  By doing this we’ve managed to avoid having any chronically lame sheep on the farm, but it is very time-consuming, not to mention the back-breaking task of ‘tipping’ one of our 70-80kg ewes to facilitate diagnosis and treatment!  By keeping scores for each individual, we can identify regular ‘offenders’, and – harsh as it may seem, if they don’t respond to treatment after 3 separate occasions, they have to go.  If we kept them, they would simply be a reservoir of infection for all the other sheep and lambs.

Regular footbathing in zinc sulphate then holding the sheep on hard standing for at least 30 minutes is very helpful, and I’ve also had success with ‘tubbing’ feet in salt water (horse and dairy cow owners will be familiar with this technique), then applying a dry poultice to draw out infection and cushion the foot.  The whole foot is then carefully wrapped with a cohesive bandage.  This is repeated every 2/3 days for a week, and if there is any sign of footrot or CODD (contagious ovine digital dermatitis) present, we’ll give an appropriate antibiotic injection on our vet’s advice.

There’s a saying in the horse world: “No foot, no horse”, and that, sadly, is equally true for sheep, so it really is vital to keep on top of this aspect of shepherding.  When we were filming the section on footcare for our “Managing Your Flock for Peak Health” DVD programme, we spent a very enlightening day with Agnes Winter – an eminent vet who has specialised in sheep health, and particularly lameness in sheep.  She’s also written several books on sheep health, including the excellent “Sheep Lameness”.

And, finally, you may have wondered about our home-page advice not to eat blackberries after Michaelmas?  The date of Michaelmas is 29^th of September, the feast of St Michael the Archangel, on which night the Devil is reputed to spit or urinate on blackberries.  At any rate, whether you believe this legend or not, the date does coincide with the time that the berries are likely to start going mouldy and when the grubs of the Raspberry Beetle start to appear in the fruits, so probably best avoided!

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