Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Definitely an eventful day: too much for one blog so here are the highlights...
The first good news is that the wonderful Katherine has managed to hatch SEVEN out of her eight turkey eggs and, touch wood (or fingers crossed) she IS showing signs of being a good mum. We moved her and her babies into the barn as explained yesterday, and then watched somewhat nervously as the babies huddled together in a corner totally ignoring Katherine's calls. SHE was doing everything right: crouching down, wings slightly outstretched to encourage them (a bit like us opening our arms to invite someone for a hug!!) and softly calling. But despite having hatched under her, the instinct to run under mum's 'skirt' just did not seem to be there. A little human intervention was called for so we gently picked a few chicks up and popped them just by Katherine's breast in a hope they might get the idea... They did!! We kept checking throughout the day and all seems to be going well!! The second photo shows two of them looking as pretty as our first brood and just as strong, we hope!!
Gorge was next! We could see she was starting to go into labour late morning: a wet back end and pawing at the ground were the giveaways and so we brought her back up to the barn for some peace and quiet. It was not however to prove a straightforward birth. She had only been straining for about five minutes but we could see that the kid was not going to come out. Poor Gorge had not really opened up enough and when we then saw a 'tear' we knew we had problems. David put on gloves and applied lots of lubricant and five minutes later managed to pull out a very large kid that has been trying to come out BACKWARDS. One of the lambs was also born backwards (see 11th March) but we had not needed to help with that birth. Poor Gorge screamed and screamed but once the kid was out (a boy) the second kid (a girl) slid out without any effort whatsoever. We got the vet to check the tear was not serous and needed stitches (it didn't) but we gave Gorge some pain relief and antibiotics to make sure she heals quickly! She is proving as good a mum as her sister Cheddar and this evening all three new mums were peacefully curled up with their kids on a nice fresh bed of deep straw...
A perfect end to the day!!