Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Another rather beautiful day (as this picture of the moor shows) with the worst of the weather staying away untill the evening so once again, most of the animals had some time outside. For the alpacas the chance to get some sunshine on their backs is quite important: sunshine encourages the skin on the body (including in humans) to produce Vitamin D and Vitamin D which is needed for good growth and healthy bones. Alpacas originally come from South America which on the whole gets a lot more sunlight than Britain so in this country most alpaca breeders give vitamin injections (or pastes) to their animals to make sure they are getting all the vitamins they need. Jupiter and Neptune are due a vitamin injection in the next few weeks so this is something we need to talk to our vet about.
And talking of injections, one of the chickens with sniffles (a Red Leghorn) had to have another injection today as her breathing first thing this morning was really laboured and she definitely had a very runny nose. We are happy to report that by evening though she appeared a lot better, and managed to get up on a perch for the night. Perching is a very natural behaviour: chickens (and other poultry) perch at night so they are safe from any potential predators. It is always a bad sign if chickens stay on the ground when it gets dark as it usually suggests they aren't strong enough to fly up. Fingers crossed our Leghorn feels better still by morning.