Elkfarmer's Blog

Fallow Deer Buck

elkfarmer — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:55:51 +0000

Our buck is now 2 years old and just went hard antler yesterday. He looks awesome!

Hard Antler in 2011

elkfarmer — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:47:28 +0000

All of our bulls but one have gone hard antler. George is the only bull still in hard antler.

The Elk are Shedding Their Velvet

elkfarmer — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:42:46 +0000

The 1st elk of 2011 began to shed his velvet today, Aug. 11. Gene is the 1st bull to begin shedding.

Elk Babies at 2 months

elkfarmer — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:23:45 +0000

The bottle babies are now 2 months old. They are getting very cute and their personality is really starting to show. Dah-niece is now the friendliest of the two. Dah-nephew is very gentle and extremely curious.

Elk Bottle Babies

elkfarmer — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:35:01 +0000

The babies are now 6 weeks old and doing great! Here are a few pictures of them.

Bottle Raising Elk in 2011

elkfarmer — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:51:26 +0000

This year we had a bout of pneumonia roll through a few of our baby elk. Because the weather was still cold during calving season this year, a few of our babies contracted pneumonia. We first noticed that one of our babies was very lethargic. Alan and I started watching it carefully. We then noticed two others acting the same way. We went out into the field to take a look at them. At that time we decided that we needed to get them on heavy antibiotics. They were not able to get up and could barely hold their heads up. When I first saw how bad off they were, I did not think that we were going to be able to save them. We had to remove the babies from their mothers because it was apparent that we were going to have to administer antibiotic once a day and we were going to have to administer IV’s. We had to put them on subque IV’s to keep them hydrated. In the beginning I had to put IV’s in them at least twice a day. We also started them on a 4 day regiment of penicillin. I had to force feed them. After two days of penicillin, one of the babies was starting to show signs of improvement. After three days of penicillin another baby started to improve. On the fifth day we decided to start another round of a different penicillin. On the 6th day, one of the babies passed away. The other two babies continued to show signs of improvement. We were not able to place the babies back in with their parents as we had them on 8 days of penicillin and then they needed to be observed for several days to make sure that they did not start to go back down hill. After that long away from their mothers we were afraid to place them back out in the field as the mothers may not take them back and they could possibly recontract pneumonia. On of the babies is a boy and one is a girl. The boys ear tag number is 1115 and the girls ear tag number is 1114. Alan’s dad was here visiting and suggested that we name the girl Dah-niece and the boy Dah-nephew. I have now been bottle raising the babies for 3 weeks and they are doing great. When our babies are three months old, we wean them. At that time we will place the bottle raised babies in with the babies that are being weaned. The girl was born on the 9th of June and the boy was born on the 10th.

Skewer

elkfarmer — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:39:51 +0000

Skewer was born on July 9th. His mother is Hershey. He has a cute little pink nose.

Peanut Butter

elkfarmer — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:33:44 +0000

Peanut Butter is now a month old. Here are a few pictures of her. She loves to hide behind her mother.

Fallow Deer 4 Days Old

elkfarmer — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:33:39 +0000

We have come up with a name for our new baby. Since, the names of the other deer are Smore, Hershey, Marshmellow and Graham Cracker. We thought we would name the baby Peanut Butter and call her Peanut for short. We have a friend who puts peanut butter on her smores. Here are a few pictures of Peanut at 4 days old.

Fallow Deer 2 Days Old

elkfarmer — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:10:42 +0000

We had to put an ear tag on our fallow deer baby today. They have to be tagged by the time they are 1 year. But, it is easiest to do when they are very little. They are up and running quickly and it gets harder to tag them the older they get.