Around the farm

This video was taken a few days ago. All the chicks are loose during the day now. I lock them all back up at night. They love to run around and eat grass and bugs.

Thyme, the duckling went to a new home where he'll have 3 other duckling buddies.

We took Eris and Orion for a walk last night. It was Eris first time on a leash, she did pretty good. She likes when we all run. Orion was a little bloated last night and preferred to walk. The neighbors think we are weird walking our goats up and down the road on leashes. Oh well.

Scissor Beak

Scissor Beak is trying to become a pet. He flies up to perch on my hand when I go in with the chicks. He follows us around. He is quite a little fighter!


Today he landed on Orion's back and hung out there for a bit.


Here is a video of Scissor Beak.

Update: The little bugger walked across 2 pens and through a fence to get to us! That is a LONG way for such a little guy. Then he followed us all the way back.

Plants around the farm

This is a garden/plant update.


The peanuts have come up.The corn is getting big.

Lilies in the front.
Hollyhocks in the garden. The previous owner had just thrown these seeds back there and forgotten all about them. They came up this spring.
What is this bush? We have tons of them.
The pea jungle.
Baby apples.

Meet Eris

We got a new goat yesterday! She is a mini-nubian and is 4 months old. She is very sweet and very tiny. She is smaller than Orion who is a month younger than her. She weighs probably half of what Orion weighs. Now, Orion is fat but...

Apparently she didn't show the colors the breeders wanted and she has airplane ears, so she was a good price. I think she is beautiful and will make a good milk goat in a few years. We will be getting another doe in a month who should hopefully be bred and then our goat herd will be complete until babies start coming.



Aurora is still adjusting to her, there is much chasing and banging involved. Orion loves her already. She hasn't met the sheep yet, I'm worried about Sweet Pea hurting her. She can be a little rough with the goats, and Eris is so small. So I will keep her away from the sheep for a few weeks.

Sweet Pea and Thyme

Nope not a recipe, a few of my cute animals.

Sweet Pea loves her scratches. She needs at least 10 minutes of scratches every day.

Thyme is getting huge. We let her/him out with the chickens today, but it didn't go well. All is fine, but Thyme is back in the dog pen for now.

Sheep

Just thought I post a few pictures of the sheep taken this weekend. I have some really cute ones of Sweet Pea that I'll put in another post soon.


Nebula and Andromeda
Nebula

Orion learns to read

My sister came to visit this weekend and took some great pictures. So, I'll be bombarding you with cute pictures of all the animals this week. But Orion gets top billing.

Logan was peacefully sitting on the back deck reading when...

Logan! What are you doing?!
I want to learn to read, teach me to read!
Go away goat, I'm reading. Smell my stinky foot.
Please Logan, teach me to read.
OK, Orion, I'll teach you to read.

Update

Just a quick update on what is going on around here. Orion is back to normal. Escaping the fence, eating the plants, all the normal stuff.

The snake that we assume killed the duckling, the snake we had been seeing all over the farm, including the barn, got mowed over the other night. It was completely an accident. It was a black snake and we knew having him around was good (except the duckling thing).

Our baby bluebirds flew away and these 2 eggs were left behind. I assume these were eggs that didn't hatch. We saw them in the nest even when the babies were there.
Some garden updates. Baby pumpkin.

Baby corn.

Baby sunflowers.

Thyme is doing well. The chickens talk to her through the fence.

I should get some chick pictures tomorrow. They've grown a ton! Everytime I go in there, they act like I'm going to eat them. I keep reassuring them I'm not, but they don't seem to believe me. I'm not sure why ;)

And one question, is a 2 year old sheep good eats?

First harvest

We got our first harvest at the new house today. It isn't much, but considering all the problems I had getting the garden tilled, having all my brocolli flower before it even made heads, and having all my strawberries eaten by the goats, I'm thrilled to get anything!

The pea bed is looking really good so I expect a bunch more peas soon. I just hope it doesn't get too hot and make them bitter!

Here is the whole garden, except the raised beds on the edge. I've got everything but the middle area planted. We added a bunch of compost to that area today and tilled it in. I'll plant tomorrow and then post my garden plan.

Orion seems to be feeling better. He actually got up and browsed for a few hours this evening. I hope he is better tomorrow. And just to clarify, he isn't allowed in the house usually. Today was special because he was feeling so bad. I hope it was just the banding and he is back to normal tomorrow.

Orion isn't feeling well

Orion isn't feeling well today. He got banded yesterday and seemed fine yesterday afternoon/evening but today he isn't feeling well. He did eat some grain and has pooped and peed today. He doesn't have a fever, he just has no energy at all.

So, like a good goat mom, I'm letting him spend the day on the couch.



The cat checked in for awhile to see what was wrong with him.
The vet is coming tomorrow to take care of Andromeda's feet, she won't put any weight on one of them. So if Orion still doesn't feel good tomorrow I'll get the vet to look at him.

First farm fatality

We had out first animal die today. It was Sage, one of our ducklings. I moved them outside 4 days ago. They have been in a large pen on grass with a dog cage to sleep in. They had shade and water, so I don't think he overheated.

He was lying on his side, he had a wet neck and a little bit of blood by one of his eyes. The only thing that could have gotten to him was the other duckling. So, I'm not sure if he was attacked, or got overheated or what.

So now Thyme is alone. He/she is too small to let out with the hens, but too big to put with the chicks. I'm not sure what to do if anything.

Any ideas on why Sage may have died or what to do with Thyme would be appreciated!

In other news, scissor beak is hanging in there. He is smaller than the rest but seems to be getting enough food to stay alive.

Today around the farm

Logan holding Dusty Miller and Sweet Cecily

Orion running to say hi to me.

Nebula with her new haircut. She got confused today and actually let me touch her. Aurora is in the background.

Sweet Pea and her new haircut. Andromeda is in the background. I need to get a better picture of her someday.

Baby bluebirds in our bluebird house.

The chicks today. They grow so fast!

Dislocated beak

It looks like this guy has dislocated his beak. Click on picture to make it bigger.

I can't tell if he is able to eat, I've got him separated from the others for now to see if he can eat. I'm pretty sure it is one of the meat birds. Is there anything we can do or should I just put him out of his misery?

Chicks

It's hard to believe we got chicks a week ago and I haven't posted about them yet! Man, I've been busy.

The chicks actually came in last Sunday, luckily the mail woman was at the post office when they came in. I didn't expect them until Wednesday so I scrambled to get things set up.

We got 11 meat birds (dark cornish) and 6 egg layers (a few assorted breeds). We ended up getting 2 mystery chicks.

We have 3 americaunas. This one is silver and very pretty. Since one of the americaunas is one of our mystery chicks, we aren't sure this silver one is a girl. I sure hope so! We named this one Dusty Miller.
Another Americauna that has tuffs of feathers under it's eyes. We named this one Sweet Cecily. I also know we have 2 speckled sussex, and 2 silver wyandottes who are with our friend right now. We split the order with a friend and wanted to make sure they didn't end up with any of our meat birds, so they have a few of our egg layers until they get older.

The ducklings have grown a lot! Look how big this one is. I think they will be moving outside in a dog kennel soon.

Here they are on their first field trip outside, this was a few days ago. They sure do make a mess in their brooder!

A great day!

We got the sheep sheared and made a new friend! It doesn't get any better.

I needed to get the sheep sheared. The woman we got them from said we could bring them back to her place when her shearer came, but he isn't coming for a few more weeks and I'd have to transport the sheep again. So, I started asking around to see if anyone knew of a local shearer. I asked a local homeschool mom that I know has sheep and she said she'd come do them. How wonderful!

So she came today. First we had to bathe Sweet Pea because her shears are smaller and can't get through dirt well. Sweet Pea was amazingly good through the whole ordeal.

After being sheared she looked really silly! She looks like a dog with horns. And her head is way too big for her body now. But she is thrilled to be sheared. She came up to me when it was over and asked for scratches all over her body. I scratched her for about 10 minutes all over and she loved it!

I didn't get pictures of Nebula after being sheared, I will tomorrow. She is very upset about the whole thing. She doesn't like us anyway, but now she really doesn't like us. She isn't a pretty little lamb anymore. Now she looks like a goat. Aurora actually thought she was Orion (the baby goat) after she was sheared and tried to get her to play. They are both white and have short hair now. It was funny!

Orion didn't want to miss out on any of the action and jumped right up on the table to be sheared too.

Thanks Tina! It was a great day.