Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sheep care

Merino sheep's teeth. Photo by Bruce Spencer.First, we trim their hooves. A sheep’s hooves are rather like fingernails and continue to grow unless worn down or broken off. I suppose that where sheep originated – somewhere in Asia – the land was rocky and their hooves wore down, but this doesn’t happen in Kentucky meadows so the hooves grow too long and cause problems.

Next, we change their coats. Each spring we shear the sheep and put coats on them to protect their wool from dirt and sun bleaching. The sheep’s wool grows during the year the coats get tight, so we switch to larger coats. We can’t simply put larger coats on them in the spring because the sheep would “step out” of them.

Finally we give each sheep worming medicine and a general look over to make sure they are healthy. One way to tell health (as well as get an idea about its age) is to look at its teeth. This sheep – Josephine – is about eight and her clean teeth show that she is healthy.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Fall gossamers

Spider silk gossamers on a field of grass. Photo by Bruce Spencer.Sometimes I see life on the farm, not by what it is, but by what is has left behind. On fall and spring days I look to the fields when the sun is low in the sky. Occasionally I'll catch a site that's difficult for the camera to distinguish - a lace of gossamers over the fields. They are spider silk left by hatchling spiders that have ballooned onto the wind. The spiderlings hatch from silky cocoons (egg cases) by the hundreds. Competition is fearsome and spiderling actually try to eat each other. To avoid this fate, the spiderlings disperse using an interesting strategy. They climb to a high point, tilt their abdomens upward, release silk lines and, since they are so light, simply float off on the wind. On some days you can see these silk gossamers practically covering a field.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Last of the breed

The angora rabbit Harvey. Photo by Maureen Spencer.A friend once said I have a hair ranch. I suppose it’s true. The first animals on our farm were angora goats. Maureen is a spinner and angora goats have wool that’s very similar to a sheep. The angora rabbits were next.

This is Harvey, our angora rabbit. Maureen has a habit of naming our animals after Beatrix Potter characters, but by the time we got to Harvey the character names had run out. Angora rabbits are a domestic rabbit bred for their long, soft hair. They are thought to have originally come out of Turkey and are prized for the quality and softness of their wool.

An interesting point: Angora rabbits are the only animals, I’ve ever heard of, that have entered a symbiotic relationship with humans (that is besides the bacteria in our bodies). Angoras have been bred for two traits: wool quality and a tendency to loose their full coat of wool every eight weeks or so. It just falls out and some angoras can even be plucked. This second trait is a deadly problem for the rabbits – they tend to lick their fur, get wool block and die. So we gain from angora’s wool, and they depend upon us to relieve them of it. Angoras can no longer live on their own or in the wild.

Harvey. Photo by Bruce Spencer.A true story: Maureen was once spinning at a fair and had one of our angoras with her. A woman came up and ask; “What is that?” Maureen told her it was an angora rabbit. The lady then ask; “What kind of cat did you breed your rabbits with to get it like that!”

We once had six angoras, but rabbits aren’t made of very good stuff and they start getting sick after three or four years – Maureen couldn’t stand the pain of their short life-spans or the vet bills, so Harvey is our last angora.