This is NOT Where Little Kids Belong!

While the other goats seem to be happy with their home, Miss Abigail and Master Asher have been exploring the lands outside their pasture. This morning, I woke to find them munching on the grass of my front lawn. Sean called out his usual greeting of, "Hey, You Goats!" and they beat feet back inside to their herd. In the time it took for me to throw on my birkenstocks, Abigail was playing on the top of the hay bale and Asher had jumped onto the top of the chicken nest boxes! He is a fearless and naughty lad! He won't jump to the ground, but will jump onto the hay and then back into his field. He is rather sure footed, but it still worries me with this stunt. Another behavior we are going to have to remedy.

Foul Fowl...

I wish I had scratch and sniff capabilities for your computer screen. No description of mine will come close to the reality of how foul fowl can smell. I cleaned their pen less than 48 hours ago, while they were bathing in the sink, remember? This is what their clean pen looked like. It smelled good, too, like fresh pine shavings. Now, it is bad enough to have me watching the clock for Sean's arrival with more pine shavings. This is what happens when you mix water with water fowl. The ducks "dabble" which gets the water all over the floor of their pen, mixes with their droppings to create a disgusting, sticky glue, add to this heat and you get the idea of what I am dealing with. The obvious solution, which my friend, Cherie supplied, is to move them outside. She was even kind enough to offer me a pen suitable for them.

So, why wouldn't I? Well, consider this; the ducks and geese get handled extensively each day. At night, they climb up my legs and body to settle onto my shoulder or snuggle under my chin. Because they are used to our voices and movement, they are very, very tame and friendly. Though I would still see them outside and visit often, I strongly suspect that they would be more like the ducks living in the chicken yard, friendly enough, but they have no interest in following us around, unless we have bread or some other treat to bribe them with. So, for the now, they remain inside and I remain occupied with cleaning one more cage each day.

In other news, we have 2 mallards with an eye infection in their left eyes. It started with one of our females having a cloudy eye about a week ago. Merck Veterinary Manual, here I come! The treatment suggested is an opthalmic triple antibiotic ointment. We brought her inside, washed the eye out with clean warm water and applied a triple antibiotic cream to her eye. She remained secluded for a week in a pen in our office while we continued treatments and seems to be recovering. Then, Angelus, our drake with "angel wing" started showing signs of an eye infection, yesterday. So, we began treatment for him, too. They will need to be secluded from the rest of the flock, treated, and the rest of the flock will need a close inspection and watching. It is never boring around here!

Sean just got home and we have some chicken tractors to finish, some veggies to get planted, and I need to tackle this duck pen! Have a great evening, friends! ♥

Sonja

Kitchen Sinks, the Perfect Place for a Bath

The black chicks survived last night with no problems. They are still much smaller than their counterparts, but they are thriving and doing well. I have moved everyone into an empty parrot cage. The floor is lined with newspaper, which makes changing it easy. And, there is plenty of room for the chicks to settle under the warmth or move to the cooler side to be comfortable and for their food and water containers. Plus, as the chicks grow, they will use the wooden roost at night. To help control the temperature, I have pinned a white towel to 3 sides of the cage and hung a heat lamp from the ceiling- far away from where they can reach and injure themselves- and placed a thermometer at chick level. The whole arrangement is very satisfactory.


 

When I had finish settling the chicks to their new home, I ran some warm water in both bays of my kitchen sink for the ducklings and goslings to bathe in. Each morning, we wake to find their water container (which holds over a gallon of water) empty and the nice fresh shavings soaked with water. Ducks are messy little beasts! Kristen and Meaghan stood guard over the bathers while I scooped out the wet pine shavings and added fresh dry shavings. This would be the goslings first foray into bathing, but they seemed to enjoy it and know what to do about preening. Guards are necessary because neither breed of fowl seems to be afraid of jumping out of the sink and onto my counter, falling to the floor or into the very interested mouth of Fenn... lots of dangers to watch for!




The ducklings have grown and no longer both fit into one hand. They are just over 2 weeks old and are filling out nicely. The goslings are only about 1 week old and are just a little bigger than the ducklings. They are still very friendly, though they do not follow me in the same way the ducklings did. The ducklings are growing more bold of being on their own and become less frantic if I walk away from them, which is how it should be. In no time at all, they will be ready to live outside all the time.

I have marked my calendar and plan on putting the next batch of 36 eggs into the incubator. I will hatch out a mixture of americaunas, cochins, rhode island reds, and black sex links. I am planning on having them hatch for July 6th, while our niece, Abby is visiting us. (I think she will really enjoy playing with the new peepers.) This is perfect timing, too, in that our inside housing will be empty by then and ready for new occupants- after a good cleaning, of course! 18 of the new chicks are already spoken for, but I still have (potentially) 18 available for purchasing. If you are interested in adding to your flock, feel free to email me and we can connect. You can read about buying chicks and our pricing on that tab at the top of my page.

The rain is coming and going, but the sun is shining through. I hope that tomorrow clears so I can mow this lawn!

Thanks for visiting!
Sonja ♥

A Dilly of a DeLLama...

I had intended on writing yesterday between appointments and meetings, but the day rushed by so quickly and to be completely candid, I just could not bring myself to do it. I was glad of the business of the day, which had me driving all over creation and the immediate need of thoroughly cleaning both our home and the various critter homes residing therein. That didn't stop the tears from escaping in the car as I drove from one appointment to the next, but at least the drives were long enough to get me sorted and back into some semblance of capability to carry out my work. I know how foolish that seems. I understand that loss is sometimes part of this life we are building, but it doesn't make it any easier for me. And, in some ways, I hope it never gets easier for me. At least, I feel and I care, really care about the lives entrusted to us- for however short a time that might be.

So, wide awake (and wishing I were not) at 6 am, I give you the tale of loading an angry llama into a horse trailer. Go ahead and laugh at us. I did as I was retelling it to one of my friends. It is good to find the humor in things, when you can. To set the stage, you must understand, that Dilly had progressed over the past week to the point where the moment he saw Sean, the ears went back and the hissing began. If that was not a proper deterrent to Sean's continued existence, Dilly began charging at the fencing. Sean, determined to win Dilly over, at least to the point where he was not in peril providing fresh water to the goats in the pasture, offered Dilly some grain each time he approached. Dilly, being rather practical, accepted this offering so as to have more ammunition with which to spit at the offending infidel, who was breaching his herd's territory. We had made arrangements to meet Mr. Farmer to return Dilly to his care. The only question left was, how do you load a 350 pound beast, who wants nothing more than to castrate you on the spot, into a trailer 100 feet outside his enclosure... without leaving some necessary bits of your anatomy behind?

Sean's assurance of "Sonja, stay inside this morning. I have a plan." did nothing to ease my mind. But, I cared for some chores around the house while I waited to see what Sean would do. As for what he did do, I don't know in detail. I understand there was some attempt at Sean's haltering Dilly which ended with Sean's jeans being bitten and Dilly remaining halter-free. On to plan B.

Plan B came to me Sunday night while I was trying to get some sleep and instead spent hours agonizing over our decision and praying. I thought if we could slide the handle end of a dog lead onto a rope and attach the clip to Dilly's collar, we could tie the ends of the rope to the stall and to the inside of the horse trailer. With a bucket of grain for bait, Dilly might walk of his own volition into the trailer. The only part I could not work out was how to get the gate opened without the loss of life or limb to anyone. Sean liked plan B and modified it into plan C.

Plan C was this:
Sean tied a dog leash to a rope and secured the rope to the inside of the horse trailer. I grabbed a scoop of grain and Sean and I approached the paddock gate. While I cooed at Dilly and fed him very, verrrry slowly to distract him, Sean clipped the dog leash to Dilly's collar. This took a few tries, but finally succeeded in tethering Dilly to the horse trailer. I scooped more grain for the goats to keep them occupied and to lessen the probability of their escape when the gate was opened. Sean ran inside to grab a pillow case from the linen closet. (Horses quiet markedly when their eyes are covered; it is how you can get a spooked horse out of danger. Sean thought it was worth a try.) I grabbed the bucket of Dilly's grain and ran to the trailer to untie the rope and prepare myself to start pulling on it at Sean's signal. Sean took advantage of Dilly's willingness to shove his face into Sean's space to bag himself a llama's head and deftly unbolted the gate. The blind folding of the llama did not have the desired effect in that Dilly panicked and began screaming from inside the pillow case and thrashing his head to and fro to remove the offending bag. In his distress, he smacked his mouth into one of the wooden posts! It did make it nearly impossible for Dilly to bite Sean and sufficiently distracted Dilly's attention so that Sean could help lead him into the trailer. Once inside, Sean tied off the lead rope to the trailer, making sure it was long enough so Dilly could lie down, but not so long that he would tangle his legs. Then, Sean tugged on the end of the case, removing it and himself from the trailer all at once. Sean added a little hay for Dilly to eat and closed and secured the door and all was done.

I took a minute to hyperventilate with giddy relief. Sean stood grinning from ear to ear, looking pleased at his plan's success. Then, all seven goats chose to celebrate with us by escaping the pasture through the still opened gate, to see what we were doing. Jasmine decided she did not want to be left behind and proceeded to head for the opening in her fencing, too. Sean headed to stop Jasmine. I grabbed the grain scoop and lured Pepper, Leah, Rachel & Jedi back into the gate. Sean led Ellie back to her pasture with Asher and Abigail following behind.

And, that was it. Sean drove Dilly to meet Mr. Farmer and I went to work to worry and fret and cry over whether or not we were doing the right thing. I will let Sean describe the reuniting of Mr. Farmer and Dilly, but I can tell you that Sean thought Dilly acted very pleased to see his human's return. We don't know if Mr. Farmer auctioned Dilly yesterday or if he returned home with him. We asked Mr. Farmer to call us to let us know what happened. I really need to hear that Dilly is safe and happy and in a good situation so that I can stop worrying about it. I hope he does call.

No pictures, no video of this adventure. I was too busy to stop for footage. I do have some video I took last night of the chicks, ducklings, and goslings, which I will upload and post later today. For now, I need to get out of this bed and on to work!

More rain in the forecast. Hope you all stay dry!
Sonja ♥

20 Multi-Colored Peepers Greeted Our Arrival Home

CAUTION: GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHS. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.

Compare the messiness from hatching with clean environment
of the last post, before they hatched. Sean had his work cut
out for him cleaning it again!

20 out of 27 eggs successfully hatching is not a bad result according to chicken hatching web sites, the average hatch rate being around 70%. Our eggs hatched at a slightly higher rate. That doesn't change my heart aching for the little lives that weren't. We had 3 eggs pipped through to the outside air, but the chicks inside were dead already when we got home. And, when we candled the other 4 eggs without pipping, there was no movement inside them. One was clearly dead and not developed with black spots throughout. The other three, showed no sign of life and no breach of the internal membrane. To be absolutely sure, we carefully breached the air sac to see if there was any sign of life or movement. There wasn't. Sean removed the dead chicks and buried them in a box in the woods. It seemed the decent thing to do.

I am trying to find comfort in the active and thriving 17 multi-colored chicks in the brooding tank. They are eating, drinking water, and peeping. I will post close up pictures of the different types tomorrow. For tonight it is best for them to stay warm, dry and safe. Additionally, I have 2 black chicks and 1 yellow chick wrapped in a warm towel, tucked into my shirt. The yellow one seems weak, which is worrisome. They are all so much smaller than the others, that they are getting trampled on. Sean cleaned out the incubator of the eggs and nasty water. It is heating the inside to 100 degrees again and these littlest guys will spend the night in there, to give them the best start possible. If they survive the night and seem more active, we'll put them in with the others. I hope and pray they will. (It is morning. The little yellow chick did not make it and died in my hand this morning, but the others are doing just fine. What a sad start to the day. The rain which has been abundantly present this weekend does nothing to improve my mood. Sean has asked me to remain inside while he "tries something." I suspect this has to do with Dilly. I just hope he doesn't do anything that could injure himself. I think a hot shower and redirecting my thoughts to focus on the 19 chicks that are alive will be more soothing to my heart.)

Sean and I have also come to a decision that Dilly must return to his home with Mr. Farmer. This has been a difficult decision to make. On one hand, I feel so badly for this animal. He needs the right home, situation, and attention to live the best life possible. I strongly feel that the only responsible thing to do is to have him castrated, which will cost about $390 and to let any prospective buyers know that he must be watched and cannot be added to any herd with females in it. I think that Mr. Farmer plans on bringing him to auction to resell him. I can only hope that the next owners are more qualified and better able to provide for his needs. On the other side, after doing more research, checking with our vet, and calling and talking with several experienced llama owners to potentially adopt him, we are convinced that we cannot keep him well here. This is not a good fit for him, and castration is too expensive an undertaking for us to pay for, only to find him a different home. I wish that we could, but we have other lives we are responsible to care for and money is tight. This decision was hard to make for both of us, but the thought of him dying of loneliness, being separated from having a herd or "pasture buddy" or his possibly injuring someone is too big of a risk to take. He needs to be castrated- he should NEVER be bred to pass on this aggressive tendency to his offspring- and find a home with an experienced handler in a herd of male llamas. I hope he finds that. Tomorrow is going to be hard.





It is late and we have a long day tomorrow. I'll write more later. For now, here is some video of fluffy chicks to make you smile. The top video is of the chicks doing well. The lower video is of the youngest, more frail chicks.
Goodnight, friends!
Sonja

The New Chicks are Hatching!

I knew it was bound to happen (under the premise that anything that can go wrong in your absence, will) but still I was hoping I was worrying over nothing. I wish I was worrying over nothing. But, alas! No. *Sigh* Our animal-sitter texted me that apparently Jasmine noticed our absence almost immediately and made an escape attempt. Daniel (our animal control guy) got a phone call at midnight last night that Jasmine was running up the side of the road. He went and put her back in her field. We know this because he kindly left a note in our door to inform us. When our farm-sitter, Charle checked on Jasmine this morning, she was outside her fencing again, munching on grass in the growing orchard. At least she wasn't off our property, so Miss Jasmine is locked into her stall for the night and we hope she will remain there until our return.

And, two chicks decided to hatch 48 hours early! They weren't due until Sunday night!!! Then, another chick hatched this morning and six more have external pipping on the eggs indicating their immanent hatching, too! This is what they looked like when we left on Friday afternoon. Sneaky peepers! I will worry about them until I am home to check them personally.

I don't have any pictures to update of the new chicks, since my camera is with me. But, I will tomorrow night. Only 24 hours before we will be back on the homestead. I am enjoying all the wonderful spiritual food from our convention, the new releases, and associating with the brothers and sisters, but I will confess to looking forward to getting home to our critters and my own bed tomorrow evening!

Goodnight, all!
Sonja ♥

Gardens and Goslings

I am of two minds. On the one hand, the idea of going away from the farm for the weekend, especially to a Christian Convention with over 5,000 of my dear brothers and sisters from the New England area is exciting, soothing, and just plain wonderful. No stalls to muck, no llamas to tame, nothing to build. On the other hand, we will be away. And, though we have a capable friend caring for our homestead in our absence, we will be... away. No pigs to love, no goats to greet us, no goslings snuggled in my shirt. And, I am completely sure that in the 60 hours of our being away, all the fencing will fail, the basement will flood, the bunny will escape, the chickens will revolt and stop laying their eggs, the ducks will make off into the wild... you get the picture. I am not a pessimist by nature, but I have some little experience in these things. It is almost guaranteed. Things will grind along just fine, as long as we have nothing else on the agenda. But, the second we have plans... that is just asking for trouble.



A sampling of the 36 sweet and hot peppers started and living on our porch.

I was planning on updating you all to our gardening and how the water fowl residing in my living room are faring in great detail, but I still have to pack and get this show on the road. So, for now, I will leave you with some pictures with the hope that each of them speaks the 1,000 words they are rumored to and hope you all have a bright and sunny weekend.

See you soon!
Sonja

Last years onions wintered over in a garden bed. We'll eat the greens, since we have never had any success in growing the onions themselves to full size after a winter's rest. They will be delicious, though! And, I might count this as our first harvest of 2012.

I was playing Momma duck/goose with the babies. They all snuggle into my arms and settle to sleep.