Erin McAndrews

Sorry for taking awhile with an update, but wanted to especially thank you for your reply. I did help me feel a bit more confident going in. There were a handful of other folks without sheep experience, but that alone didn’t offer me too much comfort once the actual sheep handling began. To be short, I think I could be much better at shearing if I had more experience moving and handling sheep in the first place. I hope to get more experience working or volunteering on a farm somewhere nearby, trying to figure out the best way to arrange this. No one in their right mind would let me shear their sheep yet, though!

(Also, thanks for your final note – raising chickens and ducks has shown me that there’s inevitable loss to working with animals, and I know I’d better be as prepared for sheep as possible, because I imagine the emotional weight of feeling you’ve contributed to the death of a large mammal is somewhat heftier.)

I don't own sheep yet. Hoping to add them to my farm within 1-2 years. I'm still in the research phase, but still have pretty much no hands-on experience with sheep.

The opportunity arose for me to attend a sheep shearing school, and I jumped on it. I'm excited, but nervous. I'll probably be the only one there who doesn't actually own sheep.

Any advice for how to appear less foolishly noobish in front of the real sheep people?

I've lived on my farm for about three years now. When we moved in, the existing raised bed garden was completely overrun with weeds. After clearing some of the weeds, it became clear that the smallest bed in the center was planted with strawberries. I left them in place, hoping for a better harvest the next year.

Since then, the bed has been productive, but troubled. Some plants are covered in spots, and I remove them, but it persists. I think this is most likely leaf blight.

I'm looking for ideas for treating the blight. Some pages recommend various sprays (chemical and natural), but I'd like to talk to someone with experience before I go around spraying all sorts of concoctions on my plants.

Another suggestion is to rotate the crops, which makes sense, but this bed is so well sizes and placed for strawberries that I'd like to keep them there if possible (how does one rotate perennials, anyway?)

One final suggestion was to burn everything in the bed and start over. I'm kind of leaning toward trying this. Any thoughts?

Hi,

I'm hoping to adopt some alpacas later this summer, and I'd love to be able to transform this old corn crib into housing for them.

Obviously I intend to sand and paint to get rid of the rust, and replace the missing roof panels...but what about the floor? I'll reinforce it from the bottom, but what would make good flooring in this situation? I was thinking rubber stall mats. Could there be any benefit to leaving the grated floor, and just putting straw over it?

Also as far as the grating, I'm not to worried about the walls right now in summer, but I think I should probably do something to weatherproof it before winter.

I'm open to any suggestions, or pitfalls you'd like to point out.

Thanks!

Thanks for the input, guys. I think I should do more research about goats and poultry sharing space. Do you know if sheep would be affected by the same issues?

I'd hope we wouldn't have too many issues with cocci, since we only ever lost one to this (right after she came from a hatchery) and they have such a large area to to forage. As you can see in the picture, they don't really respect the fence, so they end up free ranging over way more than their half acre. However, if I were to improve the fence to contain goats, it would also confine the chickens, so I have to keep their space-sharing in mind. Is there anything that can be done to mitigate the effects of cocci, other than just dosing them with Corrid regularly (if that would even be recommended)?

Also, John, thanks for the tip about the worms. Good to know that it can be treated though.

I'm in southern PA, between York and Baltimore, if that matters for anything else.

What is everyone's opinion on keeping a trio of angora goats in this space? It's about a half acre.

I know I'll have to improve the fence, but otherwise, do you think they'll have enough space without turning the area into a mud pit? I also have chickens and two Indian runner ducks in this area...would it be a problem to share?

If angoras won't work, could someone suggest another fiber animal that might? Would there be any benefit to trying pygoras instead of the full-size angoras?

Thanks for any input. We have 10 more acres we hope to convert to pasture in the coming years, but I want a small herd to start learning about them now, if possible.

Julia,

Thanks so much for the reply. I’m starting to really enjoy the idea of having a rooster, and I actually have seen ads for people trying to re-home “friendly” roosters. A few follow up questions though:

Does timing matter (as far as when I acquire the birds)? We are thinking about getting pullets instead of chicks so that we can make sure they’re good to enter the coop long before we have to go back to school at the end of August. Should we get the ladies first and let them get comfortable before adding a rooster, or does it matter? Also, I assume the rooster should be from an un-related flock?

Finally, should I be concerned that the rooster may attack our cats and dog (a beagle)? The cats are probably smart enough to stay far away from him (I think), but the beagle might not be. Granted, we don’t plan on letting any of these animals anywhere near the chickens, but should such an encounter occur, should we worry about the damage a rooster may do to them? (I figure the dog is at least probably fast enough to run away if he has to learn the hard way that the chickens are not toys.) Any experience in this area?

Hello! I’m new to the forums and to farming in general, so be forgiving of my inexperience.

My husband and I just bought a 12 acre farmette in south central Pennsylvania (we have not actually moved in yet – we will be doing so at the end of the month). The property already has a very nice chicken coop so we are interested in getting chickens as soon as possible. There is also a fenced area of about 1-2 acres around the chicken coop.

My question is with regard to letting the chickens free range during the day while my husband and I are at work (we teach in Baltimore, about 45 minutes away). We would love to allow the chickens the freedom to roam within the fenced area during the day, but have concerns about possible predators. Again, we have not actually moved in yet, so when we do we will speak with our neighbors and find out what the most prominent threats are. Based on the geography though, I don’t think we should have issue with large predators, probably just dogs, cats, weasels, skunks, hawks…that sort of thing.

I’m interested in considering a guard animal to protect the chickens while they are out in the field. Based on what I’ve been able to discern from my research so far, the most reliable choice seems to be a guardian dog. However, I am not sure we have the time/expertise to train an LGD at this time. I’ve heard conflicting ideas about donkeys and llamas protecting chickens. Some sources say they will guard them just fine, others warn that they will step on the birds (intentionally or unintentionally). From what I’ve read, it seems that donkeys and llamas (once source even suggested a buck goat) will not necessarily bond with the chickens, but it will go into alert mode and protect its territory from a predator. One source suggested a goose or turkeys, and another suggested guinea fowl (although I’ve also heard they may bully chickens).

One source suggested a rooster to watch over the chickens. This makes a lot of sense to me, but everything I’ve read about newbie chicken ownership advises against getting a rooster (at least at first). From reading previous threads, it appears that there is no perfect solution, but I was just hoping for a little insight so we can start to plan our new farm.