farm

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A New Season … More Stink Bugs

More and more people are meeting one of our most recent invasive pests, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB).  It had spread to at least 29 states since it was introduced in a shipment to eastern PA sometime during the 1990s.  They were first collected in Allentown, PA, in 1998.

BMSBs are a major agricultural pest in Asia, feeding on fruit crops and their population in the US has reached numbers to make it a real problem to American orchardists, too.  They don’t eat entire fruits or even make them inedible.  They disfigure hundreds of individual fruits – like apples – so that they cannot be marketed for fresh fruit sale.  Instead these apples and other fruits can only be used for cider or juice. 

Adult BMSB
Now that spring has arrived (in most of the country, anyway) we will be seeing more adult stink bugs waking up from hibernation in our homes.  Our family flushes all that we find so they don’t stink up our vacuum cleaner!  I have been wondering, lately, if they could be used for anything else…say a food source for something.  I happened upon a forum today with some interesting ideas for “disposing” of BMSBs.  Here’s the link: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pagard/msg101628188305.html; the discussion thread is called “Fun Organic way to Deal with Pesky Brown Stink Bugs.”  I particularly like that one person’s pet turtle loves them!  I’m considering catching some in a jar, freezing them and feeding them to our chickens.  I’ll let you know if they eat them!

In addition to waking up from hibernation, BMSBs will also be reproducing soon.  Here’s a photo from the Penn State Cooperative Extension, York County of stink bug eggs and the hatched larvae:

BMSB eggs and larvae
The Penn State department of Entomology describes the eggs as, “elliptical (1.6 x 1.3 mm), light yellow to yellow-red with minute spines forming fine lines. They are attached, side-by-side, to the underside of leaves in masses of 20 to 30 eggs.” The adults reproduce from May to August and produce one generation per year in Pennsylvania , depending on the temperatures. Here is an image of BMSB nymphs

BMSB Nymphs

If we educate ourselves to the different stage of the BMSB, we can work at reducing their numbers – from egg stage to adult!

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Right Now?!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks everything always happens at once.  Does the phrase, “Never a dull moment” describe anyone elses’ life perfectly?

Today I had an appointment with the state veterinarian at 11 am to complete our annual inspection for the USDA Scrapie Eradication Program.  Hannah and I had been outside feeding the critters earlier and then came in for a break for a while.  We bundled up (it was 20 degrees colder today than it was yesterday!) and ventured back outside at 10:30.  While I brought fresh swimming water to the ducks I saw the vet’s SUV coming up the drive.  OK… I had wanted to get the ewes into the barn before he got here … luckily he had some paperwork to finish so I had time to persuade my girls to come to the barn.

I got as far as the gate when I heard it.  Little, tiny, adorable lambie baa’s.  I was expecting our ewes, Beatrice and Camille, to lamb at any time but I had let them out of the barn for some exercise and fresh grass.  Beatrice was on the other side of my garden with 2 still wet lambs!  One was standing; the other hadn’t been cleaned off yet.  I quickly fetched 2 towels, helped dry off the 2nd lamb and brought mama and babies into the barn.  Once I had them together in a lambing jug (or pen), I went to gather the other ewes into the barn.

Our inspection went well and once I had made Hannah lunch I went to check on Beatrice and her twins.  The ewe lamb weighed 9.5 lbs and the ram lamb weighed 8.75 lbs.  I made sure the both knew where to nurse and headed back to Hannah in the house.

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A New Adventure

Monday morning, around 6:15am, the phone rang… the dairy farm we had contacted about Jersey bull calves had 2 waiting for us.  

I had built a large wooden box for the back of our mini-van so that we can transport a couple animals without hitching up the trailer… actually Aunt Celie’s trailer.  Anyway, we loaded the box in the mini-van and after dropping Noah off at school, Hannah and I went to Gap, PA to pick them up.   I think the family we purchased the calves from might still be talking about us putting calves in the back of a mini-van! 

One of the calves was 1 day old (born on 2/13) and the other was 10 days old (born on 2/4).  This week was a great time to get them because Dave is taking classes in Philly so I’m not working this week.  The older calf needs to be bottle fed twice a day and the younger calf will get 3 bottles a day till he’s a week old.  I wanted to call them Thing 1 and Thing 2, but Noah decided they should be named Burger and Sandwich. 

Burger

Sandwich

We castrated them by banding them Tuesday night before giving them their bottles.  It’s definitely more involved than banding tails to dock them.  We don’t castrate ram lambs so I didn’t realize how tricky it is to get both testicles on the right side of the band!  The calves didn’t even flinch when I got the band on and they’re doing fine today. 

Stay tuned for more calf stories!

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Isaac Finds a Home

Noah and Hannah with Isaac

Our newest sheep arrived today.  Isaac is a 2 – year old Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) ram and was owned by a friend in my spinning group.  She and her husband are moving and had to find homes for their animals so we decided to take Isaac.

He’s had an interesting life so far.  Apparently his birth wasn’t planned… his mother and father were siblings.  Soon after he was born he developed an eye infection that had to be treated daily with ointment for about a month.  He’s very gentle and has never produced any lambs even though he’s been housed with ewes his whole life.  I wonder if that’s a result of the accidental inbreeding.  Anyway, he will have a visit with our vet in September since we aren’t interested in breeding him (and he obviously isn’t interested in breeding either).

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Surprise!!

Saturday was very busy here…lots of mowing, weeding and moving sheep.  We bought a New Holland tractor a couple weeks ago for mowing the fields since the lawn tractor that we had been using caught on fire while I was mowing.  (Moral of that story – everyone should have at least 1 fire extinguisher and know how to use it!)

Anyway, Dave went up to the top field (the riding arena) to let the goats and Karloff out so he could mow it.  The next thing I knew he was back by the barn yelling “Kim, you have to see this.”  That usually doesn’t refer to something good.  Along with Karloff and the goats in the field were our 3-month old chicks in their chicken tractor, but when I got to the gate I saw chickens running all around and 2 really big chickens in the tractor.

The goats and Karloff like to rub on the chicken tractor and the wire on one side had given way.  Of course the goats couldn’t resist a buffet of chicken feed.  Karloff was the only good one and was sleeping in the sheep/goat shelter (it’s on the left in the background).

We lifted up the back of the chicken tractor to let Rudy and Buster out, fixed the wire and caught all the chickens.  Then Dave could finally mow the field!

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Cameron and Desmond Found New Homes!

2 weeks ago we sent our ram lamb, Desmond, and our yearling ram, Cameron, to their new homes in NJ!  We know they will do well with their very own flocks. 

Desmond went home with Karin Evans…

Desmond

…and Cameron went home with Christine Egidio.

Cameron

Thanks Karin and Christine!  We wish you many beautiful, healthy lambs! 

(ps – I kept Cameron’s lamb fleece.  If anyone needs an awesome Tunis fleece I highly recommend his.  The guys at the wool mill were so impressed with it!  If you email me,I’ll put you in touch with Christine!)

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Catching Up…

I have been neglecting my blog because of all the “stuff” that’s been keeping me busy.  Here are some highlights for now:

*went to Ohio for the Great Lakes Sheep and Fiber Show, and organized the Tunis Wool Show.

*did a spinning demo for 3rd graders’ Colonial Day at a NJ school.

*plant, weed, water & mow garden.  (….repeat)

*moved Hannah into a toddler bed.

*help stain deck / help keep kids out of stain.

*looking at new tractors because lawn tractor caught on fire and is now dead.

*still spreading around the 3 truckloads of woodchips that I got from a tree service (for free). 

Stay tuned for pictures and stories!

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Our Trip to the Dairy Farm

Last Thursday I took Noah and Hannah to meet our friend, Becky, and her 2 daughters at Becky’s family’s dairy farm.  It was a beautiful, although very windy, day and everyone had a great time.  All the kids are around the same age and had so much fun.  We arrived close to lunchtime so we ate a wonderful meal before heading out to see the cows and calves and explore.

  

The 1st thing we did was watch the cows walk down the lane to their pasture for the afternoon.     

Sarah, Hannah, Noah and Rachel with cows in background

 

  

Cows going down the lane

Afterwards we visited the calves, the youngest of which was only 5 days old and very cute!  Noah fed one of the calves and another wanted to get a closer look at him.

 

Do you have any milk for me?

We went on a hunt for eggs in the dairy barn…the chickens like to lay in there.  I was amazed at how much poop needs to be cleaned out of the barn each day.  All I can say is, “Wow!!”
 
All the kids loved the ride we took in the Gator, especially when we rode across the stream.

Going for a ride

We  had some cookies and fresh milk before we left…yummy!  We were all dirty and smelly after our adventure on the dairy farm but it was worth it – we all had a lot of fun.   

 

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Our newest lambs

Last Wednesday our shearer came out and sheared the sheep… Well, everyone except Beatrice and Bertha because they were due to lamb any day.

Bertha ended up going into labor a couple hours after our shearer left, and gave us a beautiful, 11-3/4 lb ewe lamb.  I only helped when she looked like she was getting tired.  It was her 1st lamb so the shoulders were difficult to pass.

Bertha and ewe lamb

Beatrice lambed the next night and also gave us a ewe lamb.  She was a petite 11 lbs!

Beatrice and ewe lamb

Beatrice’s lamb scared Dave Friday morning when he checked on the girls.  She had slipped through the  slats in the lambing stall and was in with Bertha and her lamb!  Beatrice was very happy to get her baby back.  Bertha has proved to be a very attentive and protective mother…she tried to hide her lamb from us when they were in the barn by standing in front of her!

Now we have 4 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs with 2 more girls due next month!