Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A day of lots of health and welfare related tasks!! Firstly we got the goats tagged: we had eight to do and sixteen screams later we were all done!! As you can see from the middle photo of Chestnut, the pain went away and after a fair bit of head shaking, so did the funny feeling he and the others all must have had because of 'something' being 'stuck' in their ears!! Tagging should be done quickly and confidently in order that the goat feels as little pain as possible and the tag is neatly attached to the ear. The best place is around about the middle of the ear (avoiding any veins) and that way the tag is less likely to get caught in fences and bushes and ripped out. Some tags DO however get ripped and so for that reason we have only tagged the goats that are going to their new homes in the next few days in the hope they keep their tags in place until they go. Legally you don't have to tag goats and sheep until they are six months of age OR they leave your farm or smallholding, whichever comes first!
Today we also gave Jupiter an injection to try to get rid of the mites we found on his legs when he was sheared (see 26th July). We also found a few on his neck!! In addition we used some medication called a 'spot on' which helps to keep lice and flies and other beasties away. You put a small amount on the animal's shoulders so that it can soak into the skin and because we have seen quite a few flies around in the last few days, we gave Neptune (last photo) some as well. Both boys are still not quite back to their usual selves and some of the trust they had in us seems to have gone a little. They allowed us to put on their halters and give them the medication but Neptune was quite nervous which is not normal for him, and that probably made Jupiter worse. We hope they will be more settled as the days go by!!
And finally today we checked a few chickens for lice. On the whole we have few problems with lice on our poultry which we put down to the fact the chickens are free range and have so many places to dust bathe. Dust bathing really helps to get rid of any creepy crawlies as it disturbs the warm places under the feathers where the beasties like to go!! Lice and similar creatures can cause problems because they may bite the poultry and/or lay their eggs on them and so hatch out loads more. We found none on this cockerel nor on the other three we had a look at. Good news all round!!!