Christina Mayes

Hey there. We have sheep who have suffered from lameness that happened suddenly. We're quite sure it was from meningeal worm infection. I know goats and camelids are also prone to it. Usually comes from them ingesting slugs who have eaten deer poop and are infected with the parasites eggs. If that is the case, most of those animals do not recover and have to be put down. We had a ram who did recover, but he was neurologically damaged for the rest of his life (his eyes were permanently pointed in odd directions).

A ewe lamb that we had got it twice, she was permanently lame and the second time we just ended it for her.

Genetically some lines of sheep, goats and camelids are more prone to infection.

I would do some reading about it, the symptoms are varied, but the recommendation we saw the most was basically to end that animals line, because it's children or grandchildren might also get it.

It might not be that, but it sounds like a good guess to me. Sorry about your goat, and I hope she gets better.

Andrea Locke wrote:I haven’t planted it yet, but I bought seeds of a couple varieties of upland rice which I plan to plant in south coastal BC which is also zone 7/8. Hoping to trial these in the next year or two in a wetter area of the farm, but being upland strains they should not need paddies.

I'm curious to know how it turns out. I think upland rice might be the way to go, we'll see. Still don't know if we want to try it but we'll see.

cynda williams wrote:Regarding breeds of ducks for slug control, I vote for Muscovies. I had a slug issue in my poultry yards. Previously, I had a market garden in the same area as one of the yards. I found that setting down pieces of plywood (3x4 foot) on the ground at night, then flipping them over when I let the Muscovies, chickens and turkeys out for the day, all the birds RAN over to the plywood as I flipped the boards. I believe it was a competition between the birds after they saw the juicy slugs! I've had several breeds of ducks and would choose Muscovies every time. I think having broody ducks raise their young naturally has helped the ducklings learn to love slugs. After a few years, I had few slugs. A saucer with beer, set with the rim at soil level will kill slugs. They can't resist the yeast in the beer. Of course, you have to dispose of the dead slugs and they do stink! Using boards to collect slugs in the garden, then scraping them off with a scraper into a bucket, then take them out to the birds. I know the ducks do search in the mud for insects we can't see and love the mud. Turkeys don't scratch as much as chickens do...however that said, I had several broody chickens raise turkeys and those poults learned how to scratch like chickens. A note here...turkeys LOVE Gypsy Moth caterpillars! Good luck with your slug control!

We just got muscovies for this reason. This is a relief to hear. Our slug problem is awful and I'm hoping they will clean them out for us eventually once we scale them up.

Dang, I figured that might be an issue. We can problems with robins and other birds repeatedly eating our seeds for other plants as well. If anyone else has had success let me know. We don't have a greenhouse and not sure if we're going to bother getting one to start indoors.

Hi guys, new to the forum but been doing permaculture on a homestead for 5 years now. Has anyone in my climatic zone here had success with growing rice? My husband and I are talking about it and we're right off the coast of washington. Any success with other people in my zone and this region with growing rice?

What worked for you? What mistakes to avoid?

If so what varieties of grain worked for you? I have no idea what to look for, but we could make some rice patties here and get started.

Thanks so much.