A Quan Grumpy-Pants and Sheep Story

We now have a donkey.

My husband inventively named him Smoky - I call him Bartholomew when he's good, and generally Mr. Mokey.

He opens gates.

We left yesterday morning, at sparrow fart like normal.

I left Quan and Sadie (LGD) in the yard around the house.

The sheep are currently living in three breeding groups. One in the front of the house. One in the garage area. One in the poultry yard area. The donkey is with the sheep in the garage area.

The dogs are in the yard behind the house. You have to go through the yard behind the house, through the garage area and then onto the driveway to leave.

.....

We got home last night - the donkey is in the yard behind the house.

He brays in welcome. No sound of dogs barking in greeting.

I cringe and get a lump in my throat and tears threaten.

I envisage a dead Quan and slaughtered sheep.

Wayne says: "Look, there's Quan, he's ignoring the donkey!"

I fall out the car in relief.

I don't see sheep.

I quail inside again.

I head, hesitantly to the garage area. I see 3 sheep calmly chewing cud by the feeder. I don't see Petal.

Hubby spots a sheep hunkered down at the fence area. Its the wrong sheep.

I get closer, heart pounding and strain my eyes in the darkening dusk to find the body of the, (I presume) dead ewe.

I about die of a heart attack at the soft "baaaah" behind me. Little Dot-Dot appeared from wherever it was she was hiding.

I sag in relief.

Turns out that some Grumpy-Pants Belgians CAN get along with livestock.

Now if we can only trust him around the poultry.

:)

Pink and Black Potbelly Piglets

Ms. M-ah gave birth on Sunday, June 1st, at around 12 noon! She had 8 beautiful babies, 5 pink potbelly pigs, 3 black. She's being a good mother, and the little ones are growing. She's very protective and she's really hungry, not surpring with all those mouths to feed!

Ms. M-ah - before

This is Ms. M-ah, the day she joined us - a far cry from the ready to farrow girl she is today!

RIP - Henry

Henry, my bantam mottled cochin, was foolish enough to get onto the dogs side of the fence so that was the end of him - he's pictured here, with the bottom picture showing 3 of his lovely 4 ladies. We have a replacement for Henry, his name is Claude, and he's currently wooing the ladies. I wish him much success and more fluffballs!

Kweeba - The First Weekend

Well, she's a busy little thing!Hubby collected Kweeba (Lavendel Vorros) from the airport at 4:30pm on May 16th, 2008.She captured his heart, then and there.This is the man who tends to leave me to rear the puppies - this time, he's doing it himself. He's absolutely entranced with this little bundle of fur - I think he has a companion animal for the first time in his 50-something years.I think this is good for him :)

Pig Snoozing

Ms. M-ah, snoozing by the tomato patch that she prepared earlier in the year for us. All hard working piggies deserve an undesturbed nap!

Ms. M-ah - Pregnant Potbelly Pig

This is Ms. M-ah - she's our practice pig - a pink potbelly pig with spots. Try saying that in a hurry 20 times!

She's sweet - and I expect her to farrow anytime this week.

She's also our roto-tiller pig, very handy at preparing the garden for me, so I think she's here to stay :)

Das Squeaker...

The Squeaker peed on the bed at 1:30am this morning, as hubby was taking Kweeba out to go potty. So I had to get the cat enzyme, put that on the bed, put towels down to soak it up, and then hubby and I grumpily went back to bed.

Of course, he (hubby) just falls asleep in mere seconds, I'm the one laying staring at the ceiling for hours.

And I had a litter tray on my bedside table for the little beggar, as well.

Ducklings!

The ducklings are also 2 weeks old today - the littlest of the bunch is the wee Indian Runner x Rouen cross. The rest are Rouen x Pekin crosses and I'm hoping they will be tasty come time to butcher in the fall.

Goslings!

So the goslings are two weeks old now that my friend Jan hatched out for me in her incubators. We have another 6 due that hatched within the past 2 - 3 days, as well as 3 Speckled Sussex chicks, and another Barred Rock x Americauna x New Hampshire chick, that I'm hoping is a hen.

Poultry!

The Geese arrived, all 11 of them and its been busy ever since. We have hatchlings and 4 of the hens are currently brooding - they should be ready in probably another week or so, I'm hoping the hatch rate is good for these ladies.

Unfortunately, a snake got my broody duck's eggs, so now I need to figure out something else to do so she can raise a brood.

And we have, hopefully, a batch of Speckled Sussex, Marans and Delawares hatching within the next week, exciting times!

Kweeba!

The pup 4th from the top, Vorros, will be flying home to us on May 16th. Hubby and I are so besides ourselves!

An icelandic dog to go with icelandic sheep and soon to add icelandic chickens!

Now all we need is the horse :)

The Poultry Yard

Our current setup - this space will eventually be taken up by the Coop we are planning, complete with windows to let in light and for winter warming. We are arguing about the floor at the moment, whether to raise it up or just build on the concrete pad with concrete around the base.

The Great Poultry Adventure, Part 2

So, hubby gets home before me. He calls me to find out what he needs to do, I said see if you can put the chickens up or get the ducks in their crate and I'll help you when I get home, I'm about 20 minutes behind him. He rings off.

He calls me back 10 minutes later in a flat panic, "there are no chickens! Only ducks!".

So I ask if he sees any blood or feathers, do the ducks look disturbed? No, they are fine, just quacking away.

"Well, maybe they are in the duck crate?" "No, I can't see anything in there."

"Put the ducks up and I'll help you look when I get home", "OK, I'm going to check the trees and the pond area, just in case."

So we conclude the call and I'm driving along, 5 minutes from home now. The phone rings.

"Hello?", "The blasted chickens were in the duck crate! They are all huddled up together and upset with me because they fell over when I moved the crate!"

"Did you close the door first?" "Yes, so what do I do with the ducks? I don't think I'm up for a duck rodeo!"

"Get the other crate and herd the ducks into it, they should zip in without a problem.", "That's what you think, alright, I'll try."

The phone rings.

"Hello?", "I can't believe it, I put the crate out, stepped behind them and they zoomed right in!"

"See? You are getting to be quite the duck wrangler.", "This is less stressful than I though it would be."

I get home and everyone is peeping and quacking away quietly.

This morning, I dragged the crates into what hubby calls "The Exercise Yard", as he is spraying the Prison today *lol*. I propped the camper top open with a handy stick and got the food and water out, "chick, chick, chick, chick" and the mottled cochins come running out, eager to see something new. The smaller roosters don't want to come out so I close the camper top and leave them be after replenishing water and throwing in some food for them to scratch around and find. I let the ducks out, and then the roosters and everyone immediately gets busy scratching and searching. The ducks got some zuchini floating in the water bucket, and tonight I'll set up the little paddle pond for them. I got some free 5 gallon jugs so I'll load those on the wagon and fill them up, then haul them to the garage and have them ready to fill up the paddle pool.

I think they are quite enjoying the change of scenery :)

The Great Poultry Adventure

Hee hee, hubby is being amazingly good natured, he's a really good guy :)

We compromised and the ducks are sleeping in the plastic dog house, with another cage attached to the front to give them extra room - I put lots of shavings in but I did NOT put water in with them. I made sure everyone had a lot of water to drink once we got home and they looked none the worse for wear this morning.

The chickens are all comfy sleeping under hubby's camper top *snicker*. I put a layer of cardboard boxes down on the floor so they didn't have to stand on cold concrete, then I put down a thick layer of shavings and threw some scratch in there. Then we started the great rooster round-up *lol*. Went quite well actually, I was lifting the door of the camper top and hubby was stuffing them inside, one at a time. The RIR rooster was out first and he was actually well behaved. Probably an aberration and he'll turn out to be the rooster from hell tonight *lol* The big Orph crosses were out last of the first crate. Then hubby took a break and had a smoke while I got the duck bed ready, then he put the cochins and the americauna crosses in the camper top. Everyone was quite happy, clucking contentedly and busily scratching. I also put two 'nesting bins' in the back section, just in case. I put the waterer in (I need to put it up on some bricks so he doesn't get so much shavings in it and everyone was quite content.

The duckies, bless their little beating hearts, were scared to death but I needed them out the dog carrying crate (made sure they had water before moving them) so we popped them in the spare one while I put shavings in the dog crate, then we lashed the two together and gently shooed them into their crate.

This morning, I threw out some scratch and some pellets and the big roosters all rushed out, the cochins and smaller roosters didn't want to come out so I left them in the camper with fresh water and pellets and a little scratch.

For the ducks, I had a big bucket of water, plus a smaller coffee can with some cut up greens in it for them. This week they are not allowed access to the pond until they know where home is. Over this weekend we'll let them roam and see how it goes. I'll put the kiddy pool out tonight, I just didn't have time last night and no water available :(

Last thing we did last night was to use a cattle panel to section off the part by the pecan tree on the concrete. We put a tarp over the one side and a door on the other *lol*. I've post some pics - will have to get pics of the camper top hen house later *g*, didn't have time this morning.

Anyway, our great adventure begins!

We also are probably going to go with building a hen house and a duck house on the concrete area because we never use it. We have a large Pecan tree there which throws the smaller wild nuts which will provide shade and the extra protection provided by 2 sides of the garage should work well. We have enough room to make two separate sleeping areas that are probably 16 feet long and 10 feet wide, or thereabouts. This will be just for sleeping and protection as they will be able to free-range during the day. Also, its nice and close to the garage which has outdoor electric plugs so I can run lighting easily during the winter time AND, hubby said its not a problem if I use the bathroom area (there is a full bathroom built in the garage) for a chick and duck brooding area, which is great!

So I think hubby is actually starting to enjoy this a little - he had this little smile listening to the contented cheeps and quacks last night, after everyone was bedded down.

Did I mention what a fabulous husband I have? *smile*

Anthea - rich in ducks and chickens, in Oklahoma.