Billy Update

Billy is doing very very well!
He is turning 6 weeks (we think) this weekend, and he's gotten so fat he's ready to wean (which a bottle baby should be doing at 6 weeks anyway).

He's got his buddies the goats who are showing him he's bottom of the pecking order. A really good thing considering the massive weaponry that is coming in on his head!

Full grown Jacobs Ram
Souce: ALBC

His foot has healed and he's no longer limping. Amazing what a little bit of food & care will do for a lamb!

Billy has a home here for the rest of his life, and will hopefully be producing some lovely wool for me. He's just one of the family now, and comes running when you call for him. I'm sure something that will be only slightly less adorable when he's 120lbs! He's got a date with an elastic band in a few weeks (not for his horns) to keep him friendly.

Classic Sight

We've got ourselves a barn rooster. The Henny's new eggs came with the stipulation we take one of two fighting roosters home, and so this guy arrived in our yard.

He's going to be barn rooster, free to eat all the little buggies he wants. Hopefully he'll be smart enough to roost indoors at night and stay away from the cat...

It was this or the stock pot, so
"barn rooster" is not a bad job of an extra
Roo to get!

Ugly Duckling Stage

Okay, they're still pretty cute...

Duckies are now about 6 weeks of age and starting to feather out.

Huey, Dewie & Louie

Miss Kitty is NOT Impressed

I stole the great huntress' lunch. I'm not really quite sure what it is but I've been told it was probably a martin and I probably should not have taken it away from M.K. and will live to regret setting him free ...

So long little guy! Never return please!

Henny did not do well at motherhood (ewwwwww)

Did not take any pictures to share because it was a little too much for me & I'm not all that squeamish. I had not yet moved Henny to a secluded nest away from the other chickens, and now I know why you are supposed to do that!

Originally she was setting on 4 eggs, a few days ago I noticed there were only 3. I thought, perhaps one was bad so she broke it, or it fell out of the nest by accident (sides are pretty high, that would be hard to do), or perhaps my 3 year old got behind my back and snuck it off somewhere (a very likely scenario), so I let it go.

I went in to turn in last night and I noticed she's in the wrong nest. Who thought chicken where this... well... they aren't smart! She had pecked open/the shell had broken on one of her remaining eggs (and there was definitely a chick in there, hence the no pictures -barf!-) and abandoned her other 2 for Penny's non-fertile egg.

Hennys remaining eggs were stone-cold, (while the non-fertile was nice and toasty!). I waited till dark to candle them, one is infertile & really surprisingly we got movement in the other. So we'll see what develops (or not)!

Henny & Penny may be joining the meat chicks (who are arriving before the end of the month!) on their final voyage. The ladies just aren't giving me eggs regularly and they are both bossy and un-friendly to the other chickens. They'd better pull of some pretty big trick if they want to stay.

Roll Call!

We've been here for just over a month now.

A very exciting, very exhausting month! 

The farm dogs

Madison (doberman x border collie) and Kayla (smooth coated collie)

5 & 4 1/2 and amazing puppies!

The beautiful and talented Iberian Warmblood Meg (AndalusianX) 

4 Shorthorn cows (2 mamas, 2 bull-babies) 

3 Muskovy ducklings

1 Mystery "Barn Rooster"

(he comes and goes as he pleases, no one is sure what he is)

6 Cuckoo Maran Chicks

(Were supposed to be Barred Plymouth rock!)

4 Narragansett Turkey

Lenny the Dominique rooster. 

(Also supposed to a BPR!)

Henny (Deleware) and her mystery-chick eggs.

Penny (a real Barred Plymouth Rock) laying hen 

The gorgeous & talented Miss Kitty.

She predicts the weather!

(not kidding, she was a stray who found us & she always seems to know when it's going to rain and heads inside for cover)

Peaches.

Not the brightest bulb in the box... but we love her :)

Oscar, a.k.a. Big Fat Oscar. 

Peaches' son, so we've had him since he was born, and he is the laziest, sweetest kitty that ever grew so large!

2 Saanen Goats 

(no names still!) 

And of course there is Billy!

We're finished expanding the farm for just right now, although if I can get things lined up, there may be just one more 4 hooved creature coming to stay. 

Rule #2: Always leave the fencer on!

Hubby and I had a simultaneous exhaustion-inspired brain fart related to the amount of fence that was down behind the pig pen and whether or not the cows would go through it Wednesday night... 

These would be my neighbour's fields...
They not only went to the back of this field, but over
to the right the same distance,
then back even further,
then into the wooded trails! 

They did.

After an hour & a half of chasing the cattle up & down the neighbours field (had them at our gate 3 times and they refused to go in!) I had to call hubby home from work, and we both proceeded to chase them for another hour. I think hubby reminds the cows of their former owner, so they responded as soon as he showed up, and started coming back home after I'd lost them in the woods. Then one of the calves took off on his own, so hubby had to go chasing after him... It was quite the morning!!

Things would have been MUCH easier if my former leaser hadn't taken off with my bridle, I could have just saddled-up Meg and gone off on a cattle round-up! Of course I'm not quite sure what I would have done with the kids... (as it was they sat patiently in the car yelling "GO HOME COWS!"). But Meg would have trampled a minimum amount of the crops & allowed me to get in front and beside the cattle to get them going in the right direction.

As it was, the dogs "helped" but they aren't trained to herd, so mostly the just got the cows going forward, frequently in the wrong direction.

Heading off to get the cows.
The dogs thought this was
GREAT fun!

This little Adventure lead to an entire afternoon of fence-repair, fixing the hole and we strung the whole back of the big paddock as well. Now it's ready to be divided so we can rotate all the animals and hopefully no one will ever get out again.

The cows founds some LOVELY trails behind our neighbour's property; but I think I'll wait to apologize for all the crops they trampled before asking to ride the pony back there!

Back home where they should be.
The farmer warned us they'd probably
go off looking for the herd, and they
definitely did!

We've been trying to come up with some names for the momma cows, "Hilda" (because they headed for the hills...) seemed like a good choice after 2 hours of cow chasing before my morning coffee...