Spring is bursting out all over!

The pastures are lush!  The lambs are thriving!  New life is springing up everywhere!  Temperatures are warming overall, and the rain keeps falling enough to keep the grass growing!  

I snapped a full battery’s worth of photos yesterday in the warm sunshine, knowing that we’d have a few gray days coming up.

 

Firstly, those who have been purchasing eggs from us will be happy to learn that as of July we will be increasing our supply of eggs significantly.  This will also please my eldest son who LOVES eggs but more than once has found himself rationed on his consumption so that we will have enough eggs for our customers!

 

Here are ten 3 month old pullets who arrived Saturday and are testing out our new chicken tractor while they mature to layers over the next few weeks (until our broilers are ready to take it over!)  The older girls can’t help themselves and come over to check them out!  

 

 

The chicken tractor is working out well!  Each day we move it to a completely new square of grass, and the pullets seem to be pleased, as is the grass, which will get a break to grow back by the time the tractor is ready to return to that spot!

 

Speaking of grass!  It’s definitely spring!  I noticed that it was really getting thick and lush around the feed and storage shed.  Instead of mowing and weed whacking it, as we have in the past, I grabbed a couple of the boys to help me set up the portable electric fence so that we could “mow” and “feed” at the same time.  The yearlings and Millie were more than happy to comply!  They should have a few days worth of feed here.  We move them over in the morning and return them to the barnyard in the evening.

 

 

I decided to go in and try to get some candids of the lambs – they’re growing and changing so quickly!

 

Here’s Roxanne’s ewe lamb, enjoying the shade of the hay feeder.

 

 

Of course quickly after approaching her, she called to her brother and they ran over to Mom for some support!

 

 

Molly’s singleton, which had a head start with an 11 pound birth weight, is HUGE!  And she’s growing some nice horns, now.  She’s shy, but starting to come a bit closer to us now.

 

 

Here’s Bindi with her moorit ram.  

 

 

He’s adorable and chocolatey!

 

 

And here are his ram/ewe siblings.

 

 

Hi Bindi!  Yes, your doing a great job with those triplets!

 

 

I threw Blue’s ball in just for fun recently.  I thought perhaps the lambs would play with it a bit.  Matilda is pushing it with her nose — only to get it out of the way of food supply, though!

 

 

Then her lamb took a brief interest in it.

 

 

I decided though that overall it was not a hit and threw it back out of the pasture for Blue.

 

Going into the rams’ pen with the camera was…intersting!

 

They were so inquisitive, that my initial attempt at close-ups was more
than I bargained for!

 

 

Think “extreme” close ups!  They HAD to see if the camera was edible!

 

 

There.  Finally!  Relative succes.

Hi guys!

 

 

And with only a tiny spark of battery left, I finished up the shoot with the “picture of contentment”!

 

Awwww!