Farmyard comedy.

I enjoy the farm so much. I especially enjoy just leaning against the fence watching the animals.

This morning I was in the poultry run, which shares a fenceline with the cow pasture up to the barn. As I stood there filling the duck pool with fresh water I was laughing to myself over the antics of our little male goat "Little Joe". Little Joe is one of our almost 5 month old Nigerian Dwarf goat kids. He might weigh 25lbs tops. He was head butting and wrestling with our 5 month old Irish Dexter bull calf! The calf must weigh close to 200lbs! It was a very Mutt & Jeff wrestling match. Once the calf got bored of the game Little Joe moved on to our heifer, Riona, who head pressed with him a bit before she just started giving him a good head licking that all but knocked him over. Still, not done with his desire to play he went over to the donkeys and tried to get them to play with him. The donkeys don't play by head butting or pressing so they didn't have much interest in Little Joe's advances but he tried real hard.

How funny animals can be!

Stuck Chicken

I had just finished up my morning chores (which almost always ends in the chicken coop/run) when I noticed that the tarp over the outside hoop house poultry pen had come loose on one end and it was blowing in the wind a bit. I went back in the barn to grab some zip-ties to anchor the tarp back down. I had finished putting the zip-ties in and was about to turn to go back to the house when I noticed that my Hill Roamer rooster, "Chip", was lying along the other edge of the hoop house. Chip tends to be on the flighty side and thinks he is a big guy (which he is not really) so I thought it was odd that he was laying so still. As I walked around the back of the hoop house it quickly became clear that he was not resting inside the hoop house but had wedged himself between the hoop house and the no-climb fence of the chicken run. I tried to reach in to shoe him out but I could not reach him and he didn't even flinch, which due to his flightly nature was again odd.

So, I walked outside the chicken run along the fence until I got to him. He was stuck for sure! He was lying almost on his side with both wings stuck through the 2x4 no-climb fence. I had to straighten his wings out and the push them back through the fence to free him up. I gave him a little nudge to get him closer to the back of the hoop house so I could reach him from inside the fence. So, I walked back around inside the run to get him and picked him up without even a little complaint.

I put him into one of the brooder pens which I often use for isolation pens when needed. He looked pretty depressed, was limping on one leg and just looked sore all over. I put some food and water down for him and he went right for it. I figure he must have been stuck all night and continued to struggle until he lost his spirit totally. After he ate he tried to hop up onto the roost but fell back down to the ground again. As I left the coop I could see that he had finally settled down in a corner of the pen.

I figure a quiet 24 to 48 hours and he should be ready to go back out with the rest of the chickens again.

Going on a goose chase.

Neil got out of work a little early today and I was waiting for him when he got home. I needed him to help me catch our female goose, who I have named Gertie. I had noticed a few days ago that she had a bit of black plastic tubing(?) that had gotten lodged over the edge of her upper bill. It didn't seem to be bothering her too much and I have seen her eating and drinking fine but I wanted to get it off if I could.

So, Neil and I headed out into the pasture where the geese were grazing and walked them back up to the barn. The plan was to get them into the cow stall so I could get my hands on her. Everything went smoothly and I had her in my arms in no time. With me restaining Gertie, Neil easily pulled the offending bit of plastic off her bill.

Gertie didn't seem to appreciate our good deed very much and was quick to be free of me and get back to Gossie, our gander.

Photo taken of the geese yesterday. Gertie is in the back water trough and you can just make out the black plastic bit on her upper bill.

Report on Cherry Blossom

So, it has been a few days now that I have been working with our Irish Dexter cow, Cherry Blossom, so she will get used to getting up on our new milking stantion and hopefully to start being milked.

Cherry Blossom, although not overly friendly, is very food motivated. On tuesday (day 1), I simply opened the gate inside the barn that opens into the area in the barn that has the stantion, shook her feed bowl and Blossom walked right up onto the stantion (which is about 10 inches off the floor). She put her head right through the head gate and ate her grain. That is all I did the first day. I didn't even lock the head gate.

On day 2 Blossom was more hesitent then the day before for some reason but in the end still couldn't pass up the grain. Once in the stantion I brushed her and rubbed my hand over her udder a few times. So far so good.

On day 3 I closed the head gate there by locking her into the stantion. Blossom did not like this and struggled a bit before calming down to eat her hay. Brushed her agian and this morning I actually expressed milk from one quarter! Yeah!

On day 4 Blossom was better about the head gate but when I tried to milk her she kicked at me.

Today is day 5 and Blossom did not come up to the barn this morning. Riona, our other Irish Dexter who is due with her first calf sometime this fall has been watching Blossom over the past few days and was more then happy to hop up on the stantion to eat her grain this morning! Riona is quite friendly and enjoyed being brushed while eating her breakfast.

Well, I was hoping to be getting some milk by now but I guess I should except small steps. I will just hope that Blossom decides to come back up to the barn tomorrow.

To be or not to be... that is the cria question.

Our oldest alpaca, Touch of Gold (aka Gigi) is due to have her cria out of superstud Kilimanjaro on Sept 14th but it is normal for alpacas to deliver 10 days before or after their "official due date". This would be the first alpaca delivery that I have seen in person (although not the first livestock delivery) and am very excited about it. This morning during chores I noticed that Gigi was cushed but slightly on her side. Her peritoneum area was distended and her vulva was dilated about 2cc. She appeared to be in labor as every few minutes she would hum, push and her peritoneum would distend out even more. I called Neil, who was in town running errands, that if he wanted to see the birth he had better get home.

Meanwhile, I moved Gigi into the pen next to where she currently was with the rest of the female alpacas. I didn't really want to separate her from the other females as I feel it is more natural to have "pasture births" but I felt it was in her and her crias best interest to not be with our 8 month old LGDs. This will be their first birth too and they are still young and playful and may hurt the cria without meaning too. Also, birth can be a messy bloody event and all that blood may entice the dogs to do something they would not normally do to a clean dry cria. So, Gigi got moved into her own pen with hay and water.

I spent most of the rest of the day down at the barn watching her and waiting... and nothing else happened! She seemed to have stopped her labor (or what I thought was early labor). I decided she was close enough to her due date that I would just keep her separated from the dogs until she had the cria. Hopefully it will be soon!

Milking Stantion complete.

Well, Neil got the milking stantion done. It took most of the weekend working on it since Neil had to scavange all the materials from the used lumber pile. It looks great and very sturdy since it is made out of solid oak timbers and boards.

Now I just have to see if Cherry Blossom will get up on it. I will try that in the morning.

More potatos from the garden today.

Dug up some more potatos from the tire beds today. I got "banana fingerlings", "All-Blue" and a few more red skinned ones. The "All-Blue" variety is a blue color all the way through the potato... it was one of the fun things I planted this season. I have never eaten a blue potato before so I am looking forward to eating them!