Tuesday, 29 March 2011
The grass IS greener!
The cows and horses out on Adventurer's Fen have been given back their whole roaming area again this week. They had been fenced into one half of it, whilst a new fence was built along the footpath. We let them out last week and now they are thoroughly enjoying the long grass that grew while they weren't grazing that area. When we let the fence down we called the cows through using a bucket of food. They have to use new crossing points and we thought if we led the cows through them with a bucket of food, the horses, who are not bucket trained, would soon get jealous and figure out how to get to the field where the grass was defiantly greener. The poor cows girls looked very confused when they reached the new fence! They had cantered down from two fields away, which in itself is an impressive sight (and the most active you will ever see those girls!), and then stopped suddenly when they realised there was a new fence in their way. We had driven the vehicle, along with the bucket of food, across the crossing point, and they looked at us, looked at the fence, looked at us again, looked at the fence again and then looked at each other as much as to say, " has this fence always been here?!". One of them eventually figured it out and then they all came thundering through to find food, though many of them were just as happy with the long, lush grazing on that side of the fence.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Magic Cows!
Its been fairly quiet with all the animals at the fen lately. The fight between the bulls has dropped off. Ewan and Billy seem to have made a new gang, and are avoiding Edmund and the rest of the herd. We are expecting the possibility of three new foals in the next few weeks, the mares having foaled around this time last year, so I shall keep you posted with them.
The only eventful, and slightly frustrating thing to happen is the mystery of the super flexible cows! We have had two troublesome cows find their way through some fencing, where to them, the grass definitely looks greener! They are mother and daughter, but are in different herds, and seem to be able to squeeze through any slightly slack fencing! I have spent a long while cow proofing a lot of fence lines and fighting with a lot of barbed wire and this, thankfully, has stopped them. Though we are at a loss as to how they managed to get through without leaving any hint of passage, or cow shaped holes in the fences! I think they may even have apperated there!
The only eventful, and slightly frustrating thing to happen is the mystery of the super flexible cows! We have had two troublesome cows find their way through some fencing, where to them, the grass definitely looks greener! They are mother and daughter, but are in different herds, and seem to be able to squeeze through any slightly slack fencing! I have spent a long while cow proofing a lot of fence lines and fighting with a lot of barbed wire and this, thankfully, has stopped them. Though we are at a loss as to how they managed to get through without leaving any hint of passage, or cow shaped holes in the fences! I think they may even have apperated there!
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
A New King
We have had major upheaval in our herd of bulls over the last 6 weeks. Before Christmas we had to sedate out dominant bull, Ewan so that we could ear tag a cow that was in season. We left him plenty of time to recover, but while he was still a little disorientated, the next bull down in the hierarchy, Edmund, decided he would have a go at taking him on. I don't know who was more surprised that Edmund won, him or Ewan! So for the last six weeks or so there has been a lot of shouting, a lot of throwing mud, a lot of looking big and a little sparing as well! One of the cows, Megan, came into season in the middle of all this, and as there was no certain dominant male to guard her, she got chased about a bit, poor girl. It seems to have quietened down a little now, and everybody in the herd is still fit and healthy, if a little tired. We are still not sure who has come out on top,we'll just have to wait and see.
The horses are all good. There was a very cute moment today when the herd of horse met the cow herd. The horses, especially the younger males, were very interested in these new hairy creatures they had discovered, even though they must see them every day! The cows on the other hand just seemed to be trying to decided what the horses were, and they weren't that impressed with whatever they decided!
The horses are all good. There was a very cute moment today when the herd of horse met the cow herd. The horses, especially the younger males, were very interested in these new hairy creatures they had discovered, even though they must see them every day! The cows on the other hand just seemed to be trying to decided what the horses were, and they weren't that impressed with whatever they decided!
Monday, 13 December 2010
Ice, Poo and Tinsel Wars
Hey,
Its getting very Christmassy round the fen now, even though the weather has warmed up ever so slightly. We've had Father Christmas take up resisdence in the wren building, and therefore lots of very excited children visiting him!
I had to collect poo samples from the Verrals herd of horses at the beginning of last week, which may sound like a gross job, especially in the cold weather, but as its collected fresh, it does keep your hands warm while your waiting for the next horse to poo! We have to analyse the poo to get an indication of the worm burden of the horses. I did feel slightly strange borrowing Santa's workshop for the afternoon to sort through poo samples though! I would like to add, that Santa had finished for the day, and moved on from the fen to do other very important work, after all its a busy time of year for him.
We have the vet coming in on friday to help us re-ear tag some of the cows. In preparation for this we have been baiting the harrisons herd into the corral, so we feed them in the holding pen every morning. On the first morning we did this, however, they came charging over the bank when we called them, and then stopped on the other side of the ice, and just looked at us as if to say, well we're not crossing that! So we spent the best part of 2 hours coaxing them across the ice with buckets, and trying to smash bits up with an old fence post. Ewan, our dominant bull, was brilliant and followed Carol, or more to the point Carol's bucket, across the ice and to our amazment some of the ice was thick enough to hold his weight! The best moment though, that I will always remember, was when Edmund, a lovely looking big red bull, was half way across the ice, all four feet on the ice, and his legs froze in an iceskating Bambi style, and Carol ended up steering this massive bull across the ice by his horns!! Eventually we got them all over, and they haven't gone back since, thankfully.
We have been spending more time in the office over the last couple of weeks, nothing to do with the cold weather of course :-p, but the wardens have entered into battle with the education and admin staff to achieve the best decorated office! It looks like a giant box of tinsle and baubles has exploded in both offices, but unfortunately education are still just ahead of us due to the sheer volume of decorations they have managed to put up!
Its getting very Christmassy round the fen now, even though the weather has warmed up ever so slightly. We've had Father Christmas take up resisdence in the wren building, and therefore lots of very excited children visiting him!
I had to collect poo samples from the Verrals herd of horses at the beginning of last week, which may sound like a gross job, especially in the cold weather, but as its collected fresh, it does keep your hands warm while your waiting for the next horse to poo! We have to analyse the poo to get an indication of the worm burden of the horses. I did feel slightly strange borrowing Santa's workshop for the afternoon to sort through poo samples though! I would like to add, that Santa had finished for the day, and moved on from the fen to do other very important work, after all its a busy time of year for him.
We have the vet coming in on friday to help us re-ear tag some of the cows. In preparation for this we have been baiting the harrisons herd into the corral, so we feed them in the holding pen every morning. On the first morning we did this, however, they came charging over the bank when we called them, and then stopped on the other side of the ice, and just looked at us as if to say, well we're not crossing that! So we spent the best part of 2 hours coaxing them across the ice with buckets, and trying to smash bits up with an old fence post. Ewan, our dominant bull, was brilliant and followed Carol, or more to the point Carol's bucket, across the ice and to our amazment some of the ice was thick enough to hold his weight! The best moment though, that I will always remember, was when Edmund, a lovely looking big red bull, was half way across the ice, all four feet on the ice, and his legs froze in an iceskating Bambi style, and Carol ended up steering this massive bull across the ice by his horns!! Eventually we got them all over, and they haven't gone back since, thankfully.
We have been spending more time in the office over the last couple of weeks, nothing to do with the cold weather of course :-p, but the wardens have entered into battle with the education and admin staff to achieve the best decorated office! It looks like a giant box of tinsle and baubles has exploded in both offices, but unfortunately education are still just ahead of us due to the sheer volume of decorations they have managed to put up!
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Snow!
Hello!
I thought I would let you know how our animals are doing through this cold weather and in all honesty they're coping a lot better than us! We've done the monthly checks on them over the last couple of days, and apart from one young bull with an on going hip problem, everyone is doing good. The cold and snow doesn't seem to bother them too much. I watched Hanty, one of the horse bachelors break through the ice with his front hoof the other day to get at the water underneath. I find it fascinating that they know to do this and must have many other cold busting tricks that I've not seen to cope in this weather. A few of the younger horses were even out on the ice, seemingly just for the fun of it, which for those of us who have issues staying upright in this weather, seems mad!
We have officially named the new foal, that is now called Ellis, after the baby grandson of a member of staff at Wicken. The calf is still waiting for a name, as we can’t seem to find one that suits her. The name we came up with, Serafina, after the witch from the His Dark Materials trilogy, was decided to be too floaty for a cow! So we are now trialing the name Hedwig, which may have been influence slightly by my love for Harry Potter!
I thought I would let you know how our animals are doing through this cold weather and in all honesty they're coping a lot better than us! We've done the monthly checks on them over the last couple of days, and apart from one young bull with an on going hip problem, everyone is doing good. The cold and snow doesn't seem to bother them too much. I watched Hanty, one of the horse bachelors break through the ice with his front hoof the other day to get at the water underneath. I find it fascinating that they know to do this and must have many other cold busting tricks that I've not seen to cope in this weather. A few of the younger horses were even out on the ice, seemingly just for the fun of it, which for those of us who have issues staying upright in this weather, seems mad!
We have officially named the new foal, that is now called Ellis, after the baby grandson of a member of staff at Wicken. The calf is still waiting for a name, as we can’t seem to find one that suits her. The name we came up with, Serafina, after the witch from the His Dark Materials trilogy, was decided to be too floaty for a cow! So we are now trialing the name Hedwig, which may have been influence slightly by my love for Harry Potter!
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Excitement with the horses
Hello!
Since I lasted blogged we've had a new addition to the horses. Krieka has had a male foal who is now a week and a half old. He has very long legs and is already being lead into trouble by Polly, another foal in his harem who is quite demanding for attention!
All the other horse are well, though there has been some unrest with one of the stallions chasing a mare that is not in his group over the past week. They have settled down now, and its going to be interesting to see how the groups in the herd will settle out after this small disturbance.
The cows are all doing well, and the young calf has been up with the herd, spending a lot of time with Ewan, the dominant bull. He is very tolerant of her bumbling around his feet and they do look very cute together!
Since I lasted blogged we've had a new addition to the horses. Krieka has had a male foal who is now a week and a half old. He has very long legs and is already being lead into trouble by Polly, another foal in his harem who is quite demanding for attention!
All the other horse are well, though there has been some unrest with one of the stallions chasing a mare that is not in his group over the past week. They have settled down now, and its going to be interesting to see how the groups in the herd will settle out after this small disturbance.
The cows are all doing well, and the young calf has been up with the herd, spending a lot of time with Ewan, the dominant bull. He is very tolerant of her bumbling around his feet and they do look very cute together!
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Brand New Baby Girl!
Big News! Isle had her calf! She is a girl, and is a smokey grey colour, and is very cute! She's just over a week old, but we haven't got a name for her yet. It was a very exciting morning when we discovered Isle had calfed, as we had to find the calf, not only to check it was healthy, but to ear tag it and take a hair sample, all the while keeping Isle calm with a bucket of food. We keep getting glimpes of the young one, but as highland cattle stash their calves for a few days after birth it has been tricky, however it does make a pleasant afternoon wondering around the fen looking for a calf, especially when a barn owl pops out to say hello as it did when I was on calf hunting duty!
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