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Contains forums, wildlife live webcams, diary, blog, artciles and pictures of farm animals.

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Sorry about the Denbury Farm web cams going down last…

Sorry about the Denbury Farm web cams going down last night, I did not realise until I got up this morning, and I don’t know how long they were off for. We had an automatic update on our security, that restarted our computers and turned the web cams off.

The Squirrels are back in force, using the squirrel peanut box feeder, and also the sunflower heart bird feeders, that are not put out for them.. I think that the Squirrel are eating the the sunflower hearts more than the peanuts. The bird feeder by the squirrel box feeder has a Squirrel guard on it to stop them climbing the pole, that it sits on, but it is to close to the brambles, and they are climbing the brambles to get above the guard, to get to the food. It does not take them long to learn how to get to any food, in any feeders once they know where it is. That is why I want to get a Squirrel obstacle course up and running. CJ Birdfood give us our sunflower hearts, peanuts and Badger food free, It save us a lot of money that we can then put into the web cams.

I want the Squirrels to use the peanut feeder that can be seen from the main Badger camera, there is more room to put up a biggish obstacle course in that area, unfortunately they have not found the peanut feeder there yet, the reason being, is that they first go to where the birds are feeding, then they find the peanut feeder. Well I hope that is the case, as I have placed a bird feeder close to the Squirrel feeder. We will find out in a day or two. that area is a good wildlife area. There must be more Rabbits there than Water-ship Down.

I was asked on the forum today, if we have any Pigs, Goats or Cattle on the farm. Since we came to live at Denbury, we have had a good selection of different animals, but now we only have Horses and Sheep. We have had Charolais and Limousine Cattle and Wild Boar, that you would say are pigs. We nearly got a small herd of Angora Goats, but fortunately a friend talked us out of them. I think we were only getting them as they looked so cute. As you have properly experienced at Children’s Zoos, they will eat anything. We have also had six Llamas, Ostriches and a Zebra. I must admit other than the Cattle I regretted all the others going. They all went for good reasons, none were not just an off the moment, good idea at the time decisions, to have them. We had a lot of good and bad experiences with them all. I will tell you about them every now and them.

The Badger with the bad leg has still got the problem. I can only imagine that it happened when we saw the Badger fight a while back. There is a chance that it had been bitten when fighting and that the bite is now infected. It could be broken, but going by the size of the dead Badger that we found the next morning after the fight, I should not have thought that it would have been able to inflict a serious break or wound as the injured Badger has. Unfortunately there is nothing that I can do for it, without causing a lot of stress for the injured Badger and the others in the sett, especially as the Badger cubs will be due to show themselves soon. That is of course if there are any cubs.

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We have twelve lambs now there are more due looking…

We have twelve lambs now, there are more due looking at the udders of the Ewes. I should think most of them will have their lambs within a couple of weeks. Three of the Texel Ewes have five lambs between them, they seem to be staying very close to each other. Today is the first time for three days, that they have been out in the fields. For some reason that have been living in the wood, very close to where the Fox lair must be. It was a bit of a worry with the noise that the Foxes are making. It sounds that they are fighting over food, with the sheep so close we think that the Foxes have had one of the lambs, but none of them are missing.

I have shown the sheep on camera, late this afternoon. The lambs have not stopped running around playing, it seemed for ever. They made me feel exhausted just watching them. The Ewe who’s twins died has been on her own for the last couple of days. When any other sheep come nearby, she wonders a little bit away from them. A Portland Ewe lost her lamb this afternoon. The Ewe was up and down the valley calling for the lamb, so many times, that she must have run a marathon. She disappeared and her calling stopped, she either fell over exhausted, or more likely found the lamb, who I should think had been fast asleep in a hedge.

I need to move all of the sheep off of the fields that they are on at the moment. These fields are the hay and horse grazing fields, we need to let the grass grow. With the sheep eating the grass, we will need to keep the horses in of a night time, when they should be out. It also save us a lot of work when they are out. We have fenced an area for them to be moved, down at the far end of the valley, we must get them down there very soon.

The geese must be alternating between different lakes. We heard the two pairs fly onto our lake this morning. They have been squabbling all day long. It looks like one pair has started to nest. That could well be the problem, after all the work they have put into it, they don’t want to be chased off. They need to sort themselves out before another pair like the look of the lake, at the times they are away.

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As I was looking for the Geese on camera this…

As I was looking for the Geese on camera this afternoon, a Heron flew onto the lake, I hope some of you saw it. You properly saw it fly off a quick as it arrived, as I always chase them off of the lake when I see them. I run to lake as fast as my legs will carry me, clapping my hand with my arms waving in the air, making daft noises, If any one sees me they must think that I need locking up. Sometimes they fly right away, at other time they fly onto the top of a tree, or into a field in the farm next door, and wait for hours to get back onto the lake to have their dinner. I reckon they are tormenting me on purpose. Don’t get me wrong, I would not hurt them, and I like the look of them, but I sure don’t like them taking the fish from the lake. I should think that any of you that have ponds will know what I am talking about. Unfortunately it s not just a case of them taking the odd small fish that they can eat, they will try to take any fish in the lake, what ever size. The main way they fish is to stab the fish with their long bill. If they stab a large fish they are unable to eat it, and it may die or be scarred. More than one Heron visits the lake, properly every day, so you can imagine how many fish they will take over the course of a year.

Our farm drive runs down the side of the lake. One day, when returning home along the drive, I saw three Herons and a Little Egret, all on the lake at the same time. I could not believe my eyes. It looked like one was teaching a young Heron to fish. I don’t know a lot about Herons, so I don’t know if I am right that they are taught by their parents, or not. It was good to see the Little Egret, it was the only time that I have ever seen one, a very attractive, all white bird, I suppose a little more than half the size of a Grey Heron. Attractive as it was, no way was it going to fish the lake. I have heard people say that you don’t get more than one Heron on a pond or lake at a time. That is why some people put dummy Herons by the side of their ponds. An old wives tale, that one.

Back to the Geese, after all the bickering and fighting that the two pairs did yesterday, they were all gone when I went to look this morning. We heard one pair leave and I thought that the other pair were still on the lake. Maybe the two pairs decided that they had lost the territory argument. None had flown back in, this evening, but I should think that at least one pair will return within a day or two.

Woody has not had any recurrence of her illness. Every time we see her laid out flat in the field we have to go check her out, just in case.

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The Barn Owl Trust camera will not be working for…

The Barn Owl Trust camera will not be working for two day, whilst alterations are being made to the barn.

You may have seen Woody on camera today, you would never have guessed that two days ago she looked at deaths door. There was no point in having the Veterinary look at her as she was today, he would not have found anything wrong with her.

I have been trying to get the ducklings on camera today, there are still ten swimming about. The excitement on the lake today has been with the Canada Geese. There are still two pair trying to gain the territory and the island. One pair had taken residence on the island, the other pair will not accept it, and have been trying to chase them off. The Goose who is trying to take over, challenges the other Goose by swimming close to the island and even chasing it off across the island. and is seen off. Neither will give up trying. I should think that is why the duckling are not about, they must be keeping out of harms way. I hope you have seen it on camera. Every now and then when it is warm, you can see the fish in the lake. there are some weighing 12lb and maybe more.

We have seen a Pied Wagtail and one of the Tit family, start nesting, both in awkward places around the holiday cottages. The Pied Wagtail has chosen the cooker hood extractor fan hole to nest, the fan will not be able to be used until the fledglings have fully fledged, or they will find it a little drafty. The Tit is nesting in a hole in a timber lintel, that a few years back we found a wasp nest in. I will try to show them on camera.

When we converted a barn some years back, we had a Swallows nesting in the kitchen ceiling timbers, before we had plaster boarded and plastered it. Holiday guests were due, it did not look as though the fledglings were going to leave the nest before they arrived. There was no way they would have accepted sharing the cottage with the Swallows, especially as the cottage door would have to be left open. Luckily they fledged the day before, we quickly finished the cottage by boarding the ceiling and painting the board, we did not have time for the plastering. The guests never noticed, or at least didn’t say they had.

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I have been asked on the forum what signs should…

I have been asked on the forum, what signs should you look for as Lady is going to foal.
Unfortunately there are not any set out signs. If she is constantly looking behind herself, can sometimes be a sign, that tends to be more with first time foaling mares, although it can be a sign with all mares, however many foals they have had. Being very restless, constantly getting up and down, are other sign. It could be that the first sign is the the actual birth, with the head and legs showing through the bag. I look at the nipples on the udder, very often they have a waxy substance on them. I thought I saw that a week ago, but I was mistaken. If I see any signs, and I get the time I will post it on the forum.

Woody, well I just don’t know. Most of the day she has been eating the hay that we put in the paddock, and has looked fine. About an hour before we bring the horses in for the night, she started to look uncomfortable, laid down flat out. When I go to get the horses in, Arnie and Breeze are normally first at the gate, then Woody and lady. As I go to get them in, I always shout to the, come on then, and they are there waiting. Today Woody was still flat out not stirring, as if she was really poorly. As soon as I opened the gate, up she got and trotted out of the gate to her stable, ate her feed and started on her hay, as if she had not been unwell at all. Get a Veterinary out as she is would be a waste of time for him, and a waste of money for his visit.

What does worry us is that she is a month away from foaling, although she has scanned in foal, she does not look very big. This could be the problem, the foal may be lying in the wrong position, and may be causing her pain. She may even have lost the foal, but I cant think how we would have missed it. The stables are mucked out every day, so we would have seen signs there. If she had lost the foal in the fields we would have seen blood or discharge on her. I will have to talk it through with the Veterinary tomorrow.

Just before I posted this entry, Woody had her head over Lady’s stable, being horrible to her. She cant be feeling to ill tonight.

The Ewe who’s lamb died yesterday has settled down, she must now realise that it is not in the flock, she is not now running from lamb to lamb thinking that one may be hers, and that it is not about at all. Portlands unlike most sheep are able to get into lamb twice a year, hopefully for her, she will lamb again later in the year.

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When I went to feed the Ewe lamb this morning…

When I went to feed the Ewe lamb this morning, I found it dead, I fed it late last night, Normally when I go to the barn the lamb knows I will be feeding it, and comes over to me, last night I had to pick it up, it was snuggled into the Ewe, and very quiet. It took the feed, but it was not well. It was born on the 3rd of March, our first lamb born on the farm. For over a week I thought that it may not survive. Although I was feeding it, it was not growing and was not a lot bigger than when it was born. I don’t think that it could have got all the colostrum that it needed at birth. As I said when the lambs were born, it is unusual for Portland to have twins and may not have produced the colostrum for two lambs. Without colostrum very few animals of any species will survive.

The Ewe has been lying next to the dead lamb for most of the day, other than when it sees me, it then comes to me and turns back towards the barn, as if it wanting me to go with it. I will leave the lamb with it until the Ewe realises that it will not follow her, if I take the lamb away and put the Ewe in the field with the other sheep, she will only return to the barn looking for her lamb. It always saddens us when one of the animals looses their off spring, for the way they act, you know that what ever feelings animals do have, they must have in some way, a feeling of lose.

At about 6.pm I went to see if the Ewe was still with the lamb, we had left the barn door open so that she was able to leave when ready, she had gone. I went to see if she was with the other sheep, she was. It was sad, she was running from lamb to lamb to see if any of them were hers. Whilst looking I found a last years Ewe lamb caught in the bramble, she was well and truly stuck, and she would never had freed herself.

Walking round the lake today, I saw the first ducklings of the year. A Mallard with twelve swimming in a flotilla. Unfortunately the bull rushes and reeds have very little growth, so there is not a lot of cover for the duckings to hide from their predators. Chances are that none will survive for more than a few days. I cant remember having ducklings on the lake this early, in the year before.

What a day of woe today is. Woody is unwell again. When we fed her this morning she was fine, she ate her feed as normal, all of the nights hay had been eaten, she had been drinking her water, and her droppings were normal. We turned her out as normal, but noticed an hour later that she had been lying down for a long while. On checking her, She was very uncomfortable and bleeding slightly, as if she maybe was starting to foal, far to early, as the foal is not due for another month, and her udder has not sprung. We have given her a pain killer to see if it settles it down, as it did the last time. This is the third time this has happened in the past couple of months, I comes on so fast that it could well be a problem caused by the foal moving into a position that is hurting her. The Veterinary needs to check her a look over to make sure that it is not a more serious problem.

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There seems never to be a dull day on the…

There seems never to be a dull day on the farm. One of our horses, Branston a colt, has learnt how to open a gate inwards, it allows him to get out of his enclosure and cause havoc, where ever there are other horses. Without us realising, he has been doing it for a few weeks. We have been blaming each other for leaving the gate open. Today we caught him at it. Branston is only two, you would not expect him to be doing that at his age. He would not have learnt it from another horse, he would only have seen us opening the gate inwards.

On the other occasions that Branston had got out, he first goes to Arnie’s paddock, where Lady, Woody and Breeze are also turned out in the day, after a few menacing threats, that makes the mares run riot around the paddock, Branston realises that it would not be wise to have an argument with Arnie, and trots up to Smugglers paddock, further up the farm drive. Smuggler is a four year old colt, about the same size as Branston. They have a argument across the gate, biting each other until I managed to catch up to him, to chase him back to where he belongs. Before I could get into the position to chase him back, he decided to leg it further down the drive, towards the road. I managed to get in front of him, to turn him back, by running round the lake to cut him off.

As I got Branston back to his paddock, I could hear horses behind me, when I turned I could not believe my eyes, there was Smuggler and his paddock mate Sunny, running so quick toward Branston’s paddock, I could not get time to close the gate. I turned Sunny but Smuggler got into Branston’s paddock, a situation you really don’t want. Two unfamiliar colts are very liable to hurt each other. Branston at his age would initially be very submissive, but Smuggler you just don’t know what he would do, if he decided to start attacking Branston, Branston would retaliate, where it would end, you can never know. There was a lunging whip leaning against the wall. Cracking the whip, a lot of running around and shouting, we managed to chase Smuggler out of Branston’s paddock. After blocking the drive to stop Smuggler from running up the drive, towards the road we got him and Sunny back into their paddock. We never make a mistake in tying Smugglers gate. I can only think that Smuggler or Sunny had been playing with the tie, when Branston was at the gate he push it slightly open, allowing Smuggler and Sunny to squeeze through. Fortunately none of the horses got hurt, but it was very close.

Don’t make to much of Lady not being rugged up tonight. Although the excitement of the colts getting out, could bring the foaling on, I left the rug off as it is not that cold and the rug was nearly over her head last night. I don’t like to strap the rugs up around the legs, to keep them on, so near to foaling, if you miss the foaling there is a chance that the foal may get caught up in the straps. We are waking every hour to make sure she is OK, although I reckon we are awake more than asleep, we seem to be more tired when we get up in the morning, than when we go to bed. The sooner she foals the better

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There were more lambs born over night and today unfortunately…

There were more lambs born over night and today, unfortunately none were able to be viewed on camera. We were concerned that the Foxes had taken a lamb last night. As I was coming back from feeding the Badgers, I heard a fight going on between the Foxes, how many were fighting I don’t know, but it was the worse Fox fight I had ever heard. It was coming from the area very close to where the Ewes and Lambs were. I could only imagine that the Foxes had taken a lamb and were fighting over it. This morning I could only see one lamb with Minty and of course thought that one of her twins had been taken. Checking the Ewes and lambs this evening, we found Minty with both her twins lambs, and could not see any others missing. What ever the Foxes were fighting over so fiercely, I cannot imagine.

Four pairs of Buzzards have been flying above the farm today, it happens every year. They must be marking out their territory for the coming breeding season. It varies from year to year how many pairs fly above the farm. A few years back their were fourteen pairs. Some years they return for four or five days, flying and gliding in the thermals for hours at a time. Only one pair stay in the area of the farm, the way they hunt the valley, they must nest in the woods, but I have never found out where. It is good to see the Buzzards around the Farm, and they let you they are, with there call.

Although the Buzzard is about two thirds of the size, and has different colouring of that of a Golden Eagle, for those who have only seen the Eagle in a book, they could be excused for thinking that a Buzzard may have been an Eagle. I remember some years back that our local newspaper reported a Golden Eagle sighting, within a mile or so from the Farm. I cant believe that it was not a Buzzard, and surprised that our local newspaper would not have questioned the sighting.

We managed to knock a pole into the lake today, we can now find a branch to push into it, hopefully to make a landing site for the Kingfishers, to fish from. I had to get into the boat to help my lad keep it still as he was unable to stop it from moving, to be able to knock the pole in. I had it on camera, thinking he would be doing it on his own. Fortunately I was out of the sight of the camera when we had finished, for when we got to the bank, my lad got out first, and decided he was going to act daft, I have a better word, but you would not want to see it. I was sitting in the back of the boat, when he got out the boat it was well down in the water, he pushed the boat away from the bank so hard that the back started to go down, how I did not finish up in the water, I don’t know. You would not want to know what I called him

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It seems that the diary is all about sheep this…

It seems that the diary is all about sheep this week. One of the Texel Ewes, Minty decided that she was going to lamb in a great place to watch the lambing on camera. Whilst in labour, one of last years Ram lambs tried to mount her. I went to try to catch the Ram, so that it would stop bothering the Ewe, unfortunately when I went up the field to try to catch it, it got away. Actually it was not quite like that, I managed to grab it by the horn, I straddled across the Ram and got it laying down to get in a better position, so that I would be able to lift it on to the quad trailer. I was down on my knees still straddled over the Ram, thinking that it was calm, it suddenly got up and made a dash for it, as it did so, it lifted me up, so that my feet came off of the ground, taking me for a good few meters ride, until I fell off and finished flat on my back. It didn’t give me another chance to catch it.

During the lambing I moved the camera into a different position as the Ewe was having a little trouble lambing, the lamb was coming out in the wrong position and I needed to push it back and turn it in the correct position for delivery, it turned out to be very easy and I could have left the camera on the Ewe, but if it had gone wrong, which it can, it would not have been pleasant to watch. The Ewe had twin lambs, they are feeding and doing very well. We will have to watch out for the Fox, searching for the after birth as they did yesterday afternoon.

I went and looked around the Ewes that had not lambed yet, by the way their udders are springing, a few more will lamb over the next day or so, if poss I will show them on camera again, of course it depends if they are in view of the camera.

All the lambs that were born yesterday are doing well. The Portland had lost her lamb this morning, she was running around bleating in panic, we thought that a Fox may have got it last night. She eventually found it and has not left it all day.

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There are new details about the Ghosts on the Ghost…

There are new details about the Ghosts, on the Ghost Cam page.

We finally got the straw into the lake today, as some of you may have seen, but what a performance. The netting bags had been left in the water by the bank since last week when we were doing it, being soaked through, they should have sunk, with the weight of the wet straw and the attached concrete block. No such luck, we pulled the bags to the middle of the lake and they still floated. My lad was clowning about, not knowing he was on camera, he had not bothered to turn the boat over, to get rid of the water in the bottom. To stop his feet getting wet he decided to paddle the boat, standing on the seat. How he managed not to have fallen in the lake, I just don’t know, the boat was rocking from side to side and looking very unsafe, at one time he reckoned he was going for a swim. Eventually I told him that he was on camera, he wasn’t best pleased.

We had to pull the bags back to the bank, attach another block and try again. With so much weight, my lad was unable to paddle the boat and pull the sack and weight at the same time, all that was happening, was that he was pulling himself back to the bank, from where he had started from. Because of the weight he could not hold the sacks, weight and paddle at the same time, we thought about putting the whole lot in the boat, and tipping it out, when we got to the spot where we wanted it, chances were that as he tipped it over, he would have gone in with it, if the boat had not sank with the weight in the first place. In the end we attached a long length of baler twine to the bags and weight, and paddled the boat across the lake and pulled the twine to drag the bags and weight across the bottom of the lake, to the spot we wanted it. It was a performance, but no real hardship, as it made a change to be working on the lake.

It was a good day to do it, the sun was shining and it was very warm. You may have seen the Geese fly in as we were working, a few fish were at the top of the water, and there were plenty of waterfowl about.

I should think that the Geese who did land today, will be those who will nest on the lake. The Goose was on the island inspecting it, with the Gander watching, as he swam about. I don’t hold out a lot of hope of them raising a family. I tried one year to chase them off of the lake, but they just kept coming back. I don’t suppose it will do any good, but I will put a small wooden slope from the water to the island bank, they may then take the goslings back on the island of a night, that will stop the fox at least.