Sunday 16 September 2012

Comfort in various ways.

Golden Delicious continues to gain weight steadily, and we have increased her bottles to accelerate the rate - meanwhile she continues to feed from mum, Autumn Gold, which is comforting. I was wondering, when other breeders have asked, 'is she a first-time mum?', implying that short milk-supply is not unusual in first-timers, do they usually continue to breed from them without milk-supply problems in subsequent years?
It's funny how pregnancy can change the behaviour of a female - we decided to do some toe-nail trimming today, and Bramley was having none of it - she used to kush but would sit quite happily while you worked around her, but not today, and she even spat - comforting in one way - smelly in another!
We were invited to the Ashcott Harvest Fayre, so last saturday we took Autumn Gold and Golden Delicious, along with Appleknit products and advertising for the spinning and felting evenings.
We have negotiated use of a small paddock across the road, which will be useful for weaning and keeping the boys in - we've pulled out some Ragwort, and have a bit of bramble clearing and fencing to do before we use it, but it's comforting to have arrangements in place.

4 comments:

  1. We had a first time mum with low milk supplies went on the be much better in subsequent years. Geena on the other hand never has enough.

    When we've milked colostrum from first time mums in the past it hasn't seemed as thick as repeat mums.

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  2. Glad to hear that Bramley is still behaving nice and pregnant!

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  3. Pleased you got the use of extra land - that will be very useful to you. Shirley & Robbie

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  4. Great photos .... Ive often found that first time mums have much less milk yield in their first year, however go on to yield more after the first pregnancy. Excellent news regarding the extra field and Im sure it will be really handy for you. Sounds like the alpacas and the knitware are a real hit ...... Jayne

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