I stayed in bed LATE today, did not make it out of bed until about 6:45, and got things started for the day. When I came in from reading meters and picking up the newspaper and letting the chickens out of their coop, Jody was up and feeding the dog and cat. We both read the paper and drank our coffee, and then I made a lovely egg loaf (see the entry from a couple days ago). After that, I decided to start my day, and I headed out to feed the cattle. True to my anal-OCD traits, I counted what I at first thought were two extra cattle. I am not startled any more when one of the cows gives birth, but I thought for a minute that we had two new calves. It is about time for them to start dropping calves, and I was ready for it. BUT, it ended up that there was just one new calf, and NEW is the key word.
When I got out there, I think the calf was perhaps less than an hour old, still shaky but really cleaned up very nicely by its mother Orchid. Orchid still had a trail of placenta evident, and that is where the concern and anxiety comes from. It is now almost twelve hours later and the 'braid' of placenta has still not been discharged. I have read up on 'retained placenta' on the Internet, and it is not as bad as it might be, but if Orchid does not get it discharged there are two possibilities (or more); the first will be I can give it a gentle tug and see if it will discharge and the second will be she will need to be taken to the vet for treatment. The more serious side of it will be it may become toxic and could end up killing her, so we do not want that to happen. I will watch her closely tomorrow and make a few more phone calls tomorrow if she does not discharge it soon.
In the meantime, you can enjoy these photos of the new member of the family. They are in chronological order starting from the top and going down. The first two photos cover a period of about an hours time, and the last photo was taken about five or six hours after birth. Not at all certain of the gender of the newest calf, but they all look like heifers to me. I learned a lesson a while back, and that is not to call the gender until you see it pee. And then I have been known to be wrong! So, I will let you know when I know more. Since it was an extra cold morning, I am thinking of an appropriate name for the calf, something like Frostee or Cool Breeze. Any ideas? We could have a contest!I got some paver stones put down in front of the doors to the red barn out in front, and if I keep buying pavers, I will soon have the entire front of the property covered and that will cut down considerably on the maintenance. I let the chickens loose pretty early today, probably about 10 o'clock, and that made them happy. We got four eggs from them today, so that was nice. Tomorrow I will be cleaning the coop, and that is gonna take a little bit extra time this go-round.
It was a really pretty day, and another nice thing was to see some activity at the bee hives. Bee season will be upon us before you know it, and the cold weather has kept the bees pretty sedate, but they were busy (as you know what) in the sunshine of the afternoon. I will be going to the Williamson County Area Beekeepers Association meeting in Georgetown on Tuesday night, and I will be ordering some supplies for this season soon. We are expecting a lot of honey this season, our second year for keeping the bees. It is going to be a great year!
Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW CALF, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!
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