Animal Mayhem...

When the animals go loony, WOW. They all go crazy. This weekend we've had to capture 6 ducks, 5 chickens, 2 goats, and 5 guineas and put them back into our yards. One rooster got his head caught 2 separate times (yes, the same stupid rooster) in the fence. (IN as in we had to cut a part of the fence he was so stuck). The goat, Jack, knocked down part of the fence being a giant PITA and let 2/3 of the farthest yard out and they were all taking a nice stroll down our easement road.  I found a frog in what I thought was an empty fish tank. It had been there for who knows how long.

Jack has gotten very aggressive with everyone lately. Thankfully, I have a friend who has a lot of goat knowledge and she has taken him to the equivalent of goat detention and is going to work with him and let him be with the big goats for a while to see if that straightens him out. I'm hoping this works because we'd tried everything we could think of and just couldn't figure out how to keep him contained and not hurting the kids and everything anymore. :(


The little puppies aren't so little anymore either!

But even these two have gotten crazy! They are somehow sneaking from yard to yard but we can't figure out how! We've blocked every possible way we can find, but they keep sneaking over every time we aren't looking. This, in itself, isn't a problem. We worry they'll do this with an outside edge and get OUT out. THAT would be a HUGE problem.

The Farm at 6 Months!

We've lived at our new house for almost exactly 6 months now. Overall, it works really well. It has some HUGE pluses.

• The scenery is gorgeous.
• The house layout and space suits our needs soo much better than the old house did. I mean - the closets, pantry, porch... What's not to love about those??
• We have the freedom to choose what animals (ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, goats, guineas...) without worry about the city freaking out since we live just outside the limits. But juuuuussst barely outside. 
• I love the kitchen layout. There is plenty of cupboard space. The pantry is HUGE for grocery storage. I've been able to can stuff and store it (not freakish like, but a few things of jam and sauces). I love the stove top griddle. 

• I can safely send the kids out to play in a BIG space and the biggest worry is them getting lost in the woods - not cars (because I send them out back, not to the highway), child thieves, or boredom.

There are a few things that I really don't like. They're goofy, out of my mind, stupid to mention things. But every time I have to deal with them, I get irritated.

• The bicyclists.  The HUNDREDS of bicyclists. That alternate between pedestrian rules and automobile rules. They want to be special and have both. I want to run them ALL over. Mostly, just the ones that ride 4 to 7 abreast and take up the ENTIRE road going 23 miles per hour. The entire time but won't let you pass, go around, or find an safe way to bypass them. EVER. It makes a 6 minute trip take 20. Literally. I timed it more than once. 
• Bugs, spiders, flies, scorpions, moles, snakes and other creepy crawlies. There are a bazillion of them. EVERYWHERE. All The Time. 
• The air conditioner doesn't work nearly as well as I would prefer. It's the middle of summer so I'm pretty sure no ones is, but *I* want the AC to work so it cools to like 65 at the drop of a hat. It doesn't. It functions adequately and sufficiently for the time being given that it is the original of the build. We did have to add a super air filter but it can go to a new unit whenever we are forced to upgrade.
• My allergies have been literally a daily battle since we moved. Stupid outside world. 

So the baby Netherland Dwarf are getting HUGE for being 14 days old!

 These were actually taken a few days ago, they are even a little bit bigger even! They look so much like little bitty bunnies now for just a few days ago!

Look at the differences!

BABY BUNNIES!!!

We are so excited, our first baby bunnies were born last night! The little grey Netherland Dwarf doe had 3 little babies that are all healthy and fairly big considering her size. We pulled them out of this giant nest she built the day before and looked at them and took pictures. They are healthy, fat, wiggly looking little fur-less blind babies. Not to mention we are all super excited because we doubted the level of success we would have. Not only had we heard and read that Netherland Dwarfs were the hardest to breed, but who doesn’t doubt their first attempt at anything?  These babies are to be sold as pet bunnies – they should be less than 2 pounds – the White Rabbit is our meat doe and we will probably breed her in the next month or so since she’s getting close to 7 pounds. Those babies will be raised to be fat and then for food (for people or snakes or whatever). 

Aren't they so cute, but grotesque at the same time??


We've also been getting visits from some deer who have taken an interest in the goat food. They've figured out how to work their tongues through the fence into the goat food buckets we've got hanging and just snack away! (Excuse the really, really bad pictures - it was the best I could do without spooking them.)

Look really close and you can see the glowing eyes. The deer had been snacking out of the goat food. It's hilarious. It drives the ducks and big house dogs insane. Absolutely, wildly insane.


And for the random joy of it:

 Just look at that giant Rupert!

It's like Farmville!

We've expanded! No, we didn't get any more animals - we got rid of a few of those (roosters) actually. We built more farm yard! We more than doubled fenced in yard space actually.

We have those little trees in there for some natural shade, grass, tons of nice bugs for tasty snacks for the birds, running space for the puppies. Boy, did that suck to build though. C and I did it with the kids in a few hours on Sunday and got it all done at once. Logic would have suggested waiting until it was cooler (the heat index was 103 when we started), get help to make it faster, or break it into parts so we didn't want to die. But, no. We follow no such logic. We rotated giving our gloved to the kids so both C and my hands are completely torn up (the kids are fine of course). And I have a rash on my upper leg from sitting for all of 4 seconds on the ground. BUUUUUUT look how pretty!

Look how big this little Reaper Monroe has gotten! She's such a good girl too. She's picking up all the basic commands and loves to play in the water bins we have sitting around for the ducks. She literally climbs all the way in and just plays in them. She loves getting brushed too - which with how fluffy she is, is good.

The geese are ready to come out of the brooder, if they'd stop causing trouble with the puppies :( We tried to let them out 2 days ago and I looked out after a few minutes to find one of them had pecked Adams face so much that Adams had just grabbed it's neck and was just carrying it around. As you can see, it's completely unharmed. There isn't even a bite mark on him. (Which just goes to show how gentle the puppies really are, we still like to discourage to carrying of the birds in the mouth.) So, until the geese can get along with the puppies (and vice versa) in they stay.

My helper boy! 

My helper girl with a fantastic hair cut!

The Farm is Full!

We made what we plan to be our last acquisition for a while.

This is Reaper Monroe. Yes, the kids named the puppy. Yes, they named it Reaper.  They had a really good "reason". Adams is pretty lazy so we got Reaper to go actually catch and kill the varmits. The boy's logic was she would be the Reaper to all the *bad* things we didn't want. It was interesting logic I couldn't argue with sooooo. Reaper Monroe it is. She is a 7 week old Great Pyrenees puppy. She is very much more aggressive than Adams is. She is the complete opposite of Adams in that actually - which is exactly what we were wanting. Adams is absolutely precious. But is very lazy, laid back, super sweet, easily trainable.. Very tame.. Completely non-go-getter. Pretty much everything was going to get eaten in the yard.


But with the addition of Reaper, it does make our yard feel - complete. We have just the right number of everything to be just enough to not need anything else. Nor is it so full to be overly crowded or hard to manage. The Reds are almost big enough to start laying. And Holy Moly the ducks are huge.

And Look!

 These are the Saxony ducks we hatched ourselves just a month and a half ago or so!! They're HUGE!!

And Look at little Lambie! We've found a spool for her to climb on as a toy. She loves it. She flips off of it like a little loon.

Adams and Reaper together are going to be awesome LGD's!

Keets!!

The kids have been trying to get some guineas to hatch in the incubator. While they've got about 2 more weeks left before they are supposed to hatch, I candled them the other day and only 1 is showing *any* signs of any success potential - AT ALL.. most didn't even seem fertilized to begin with. Which is kind of a bummer, but on Craigslist I came across an add for keets for super cheap in Coweta (like half price of anywhere else and local so no shipping) so we made the little jaunt up there and got 10. Holy moly are those little buggers loud! The guy had several different mixed colors, so I'm not really sure what we ended up with, we just had him mix it up for us. They are tiny right now.

The helpers are excited about taming them. I don't really get the appeal of birds, but who can deny these little faces their little pets - especially since I won't actually be taking care of them?

Yeah, I couldn't tell them *No* either. They know if they do the work, they can have them. Little stinkers.

Oh! Yard Updates!

We've been busy the last few weekends. We built a big ol' run for the wee baby chicks and ducklings so they are NOT in the garage any more! (And the peasants rejoiced!)

It's got a giant piece of cardboard in there on either side with a heat light in there to keep them warm at night since it suddenly decided to go all "below freezing" here in April.

It's about 8 foot long and about 3 foot high. And freaking heavy. No one ever listens to me about assembly closer to final destinations. But the 35 chicks in there have MUCH more room than the 2 Tupperware containers they were in before and... They aren't in my garage.


We did this:

It's a 2 gate entry way. The kids kept letting the animals out when they were helping feed everything. It's not as much "help" if you have to go retrieve a puppy, goat, duck, chicken every 3 minutes because it ran through the gate (and they were getting crafty). So, we got a play yard with an auto-close gate and zipped it up to the other gate and Viola! A double gate system. Oh my goodness it makes it SO much easier. 

These 2 big boys have certainly earned their keep today too! I heard them barking - rather oddly - so I went out too see why. 2 big stray dogs were getting close to the fence with the birds. Their barking scared them off. At the same time, a hawk had just discovered the baby chicks. And while they *should* be safe in their new run.. I'm all for a giant ol goof barking at the huge hawk.


Now, while these big boys were doing their business, this little guy was certainly watching:

Little Adams is just so small. He's just not going to be any help until he puts on at least 30-40 pounds. He's so tiny. But he's cute! Even better? He sleeps in the dog house. With the goats. And Doris. Yes, Doris of Doom, Lambie, Jack, and Adams come piling out of a medium sized dog house like a clown car. Never Gets Old. EVER.

Lambie is getting bigger. I can't say "Big" because.. She's a pygmy goat. But still. Bigger. Oh, another thing that Never Gets Old?? Watching goats run! Not the *I'm horrified* run. But the All 4 Legs at a Time run..The just bound along in their odd goaty way. Even better? When they start flipping their back legs sideways with excitement while they do it. I'm still trying to figure out how to record that one.

The birds are maturing nicely from our first batch. The Reds are maybe 2 months from starting to lay? I don't really have any idea, but they're getting fat.  We also have these crazy ducks that are currently making better watch dogs that the poor undersized puppy. The white ducks are HUGE. Giant, massive, enormous ducks.

Guardian Dog!

As soon as we started even talking about "livestock", we also talked about what we needed to do to keep them safe. A fence - Check. A barn  - CHECK (finally)! Ways to keep them warm or cool in the random crap weather we have - Check (ish) we've figured out the heat light issue for now and have plans for the cooling issues should we need them. We have our rifle and shot gun hand (ish - kid safety trumps animal safety) should we REALLY have something big come up and need it. The last thing we had thought of (and I'm sure I'm missing things, but ya know I do that) was a big ol dog to stay out there and just eat the crap out of anything that bothers the animals. Now, yes. We DO already have 2 big ol' dogs. But, seriously, have you MET them? They can't catch a freaking mole, nor do they bark at strangers (in fact one of them barks to get let out to be petted by them), and one tries to eat the birds. So, we found us a livestock dog.

The term "dog" is a little bit generous though. He's a smite bit undersized right now, to say the least. We found out - a bit late of course (is there any other way with us?) that he isn't as old as we thought or were told nor even fully weaned. The bastards were just bad people when it comes to that. I get so angry when people do that. They apparently were just *done* with puppies and got rid of them because they wanted to, not because it was actually best for the puppy. Both the big boys we have now were both thrown out like that though and turned out to be the most fantastic dogs we've ever had, so I'm not worried with it. It just pisses me off that people do that.

Anyhow, little guy is named Adams.

He's a Great Pyrenees. He stays out in the barn with the chickens and goats and ducks except when it gets too cold even with a heat light - because I'm a giant pansy. He's smaller, right now anyhow, than the Rhode Island Reds which is freaking hilarious. The long term goal is to teach him to round all the birds up at night and stay with them and keep them safe from the coyotes and snakes and stuff we've started to find. For now, we crate him in the barn at night and just keep him warm and are getting him used to that being "Home" and not chasing the birds.

Saturday Swap

We went to a Small Animal Swap in a somewhat nearby(ish) town this am. We sold our first successful hatched chickens. Turns out that the Silkie Bantams were giant pansies and afraid of the simplest things including rain, bugs, each other.. Yeah. Small things. We took them up with us and sold them mostly to free up the space since we were having to cage them separately since they were actually SUCH pansies. While we were there, we picked up another cheap little doe bunny rabbit. I don't have a picture of it, but it will complete our breeding sets of rabbits. It's a New Zealand mix and is a fairly good size already at 7 1/2 weeks old.

This weekend past we also did this:

Put up a barn! Ok, a shed thing, but it works really well as a barn! All the animals fit with more than enough room for future growth, and it seems very sturdy.

We had a decent amount of help.

Grandad.. Friends.. You know. Those people that have skills and whatnots.. But YAY!.

And THIS.

This is how the boy carries the goat. And the goat doesn't care. 

The Zoo is Now a Farm!

The Family Zoo has now become a Farm! With our recent move to a place with land, we have acquired  some animals. Ok, several animals. The kids are LOVING it. We're just starting this little experiment at animal farming, but so far we've only had the loss of 1 chick. 

Our original small collection of random animals now has a defined purpose. The bunnies will be raised for pets and meat. The chickens for eggs and meat. The ducks for whatever purpose they dispose themselves for - if they are nice duckies then eggs, if they are mean duckies then meat. The goats are mostly pet animals but may branch out into milk.

Part of what I'm going to attempt to have the kids do before we have things ready to sell is sort the website out so it's organized better. Which, obviously, it's not.  Anyhow. There are pictures of all the new aquisitions because they're cute!


The Rabbits:

Thumper - A Netherland Dwarf buck - about a year old. Will be a breeder boy for the pet rabbits.

 Oreo - A Netherland Dwarf Buck - about a year old.Will be a breeder boy for the pet rabbits.

 Anne - A Netherland Dwarf Doe - about 8 weeks old. Will be the breeder female for the pet rabbits.

 Hazel - A Flemish Giant/Holland Lop mix. About 2 months old and already BIG. She will be the female for our meat rabbits.

I'm calling this one Sausage, the kids have him named something else - but I don't know what it is. He is a New Zealand/Lop mix and is about 2 months old. He will be the boy breeder for the meat rabbits. He's going to be a little smaller than Hazel (who he's going to be *umm* friends with, but we figured that the female being a smidge bigger can't all that bad).

The Goats:

 This is Lamby - She is almost 2 weeks old. She is bottle fed and freaking hilarious! She follows us around like a puppy and baaa's (which is how she got named Lamby - it sounds just like a lamb) when she's unhappy. 

This is Jack. He is about 3 months old and is quite a bit more shy than Lamby, but is warming up nicely. He's kind of into the quiet, stalker mode right now. He's definitely got his own personality. He and Lamby seem to be getting along pretty well though.  Hopefully, when they both get to a reasonable age we'll have some more baby goats because these 2 are fun. 

The Ducks:

 These are Goldie and Herbie. They are just starting to get good and feather-y. They are starting to get shy so they may turn into eating ducks or egg ducks depending on if they are male or female (don't let their names fool ya, we have no idea.) 

These 2 ducks are Wilbur and Blackfoot. I couldn't tell you which was which without looking at their chest and feet and well, I don't care that much. They fall into the same category as Goldie and Herbie. Eating or eggs if they don't straighten their act up. Heck, we don't even know what kind of duck these 2 even are. 

The Chickens Of Doom:

 Meet Doris of Doom. She is a hen of doomic epic amounts. She clucks and squacks and poops. She is a dark Cornish chicken and would be a tasty addition to someones Sunday Dinner. She will be one of the founding member of the meat breeders unless she keeps being evil, then she'll be dinner.

 This is Dark Meat. It's supposed to be a pullet - though we have no idea. We have a total of 5 Rhode Island Reds that are supposed to all be pullets - I'm guessing we probably have at least 1 that isn't but, ehh Dinner it will be. 

 These are our first 2 successful egg hatches!! They are Silkies. The kids like them because they're fluffy and fuzzy. I don't know why we have them other than that. Egg hatchers I guess if they are hens.

These are the 5 Rhode Island Reds. They are all feathering nicely and currently in the garage until the coop and fence get built. They don't really seem to mind their big dog crate so.. These 5 (assuming they are all hens) will be the founders of the egg layers group. Why this kind? Heck if I know. It's just what we ended up with I suppose. 

The Dogs:

 Rupert 5 months ago.

 Rupert Today. He is about 6 1/2 months old and over 80 pounds. He's such a good boy though! 

Here's Bear. I couldn't get him to look over at me, odd - I know - not being able to call the deaf dog to get his attention.. He's still right around 65 pounds and is probably full sized now that he's just over a year. 

The Cats:

 Fuzzy - the biggest and most congenial of them all. He lets the kids drag him ALL through the house. Literally. His real name is Jinx though.

 Squirtle - Named after a Pokemon character. One of my favorites after Merlin.

 Merlin - the grandpa of the group at 13. He is my all time favorite of all the cats ever.

 Toby. Garfield would have been a better name for him as we have him on a continuous diet.

 Vinny - the only girl of the cats. Yes, her name is Vinny. Wow, she's loud too.

Ulee - The most cat like of the group. 

Random Leftovers:

 The Hamster - I'm sure it has a name. I just can't remember it. 

 

 The fish tank. It DID have 19 frogs in it earlier today. The frogs are now helping the chickens grow stronger by being their dinner. So now there is 1 lone fish in the tank. 

The eggs in the incubator. I just candled them the other night and all but 2 (which I threw away because they looked nasty) are showing veining and positive growth signs this time! That's the highest count so far!! Hopefully we'll have a high hatch rate this time. The 2 little Silkies above are the first hatches and the kids were SOOOO excited, so if we can get a higher rate, that would be cool.

The Help:

 This little helper boy will be 7 in just 1 more month! He complains less about cleaning and helping with the animals than brushing his teeth. He likes the chickens and goats the most so far.

This little helper girl is almost 8 1/2 and loves the bunnies and goats. She is great and getting them all cleaned up and fed every morning!