Wandering Peachicks and Mourning Peahen

Remember the new little peachicks from a few days ago?  (“Peacock, Peahen, Peachicks!“)  They were doing well, but they were a little wayward.  All the little peachicks seem to like to wander.  Instead of sticking close to their mama like the chicken chicks do, they want to go off exploring.

This distresses the mother peahens when the peachicks crawl through the wire and get outside the aviary.  However, most of the time they come right back in.

Not the latest two.

Nope, they got out and would run around until the managed to get over into the chicken pen, then they couldn’t figure out how to get back to their mother.  Friday night I caught them and put them both back with the mama who had been running up and down the length of the aviary crying.  I’ve never heard the peahens cry like that.  Anyway, I thought they’d stick close to their mom through the night.

Well, I was wrong.  Next morning one was back in the chicken pen and the other, well, who knows where it ended up?  I fear it because some predator’s dinner.

I had thought to leave these little peachicks with their mom a few days longer since she was so obviously attached to them.  However, with one gone and the other still prone to wandering, I went ahead and put it in the birdcage with the other peachicks.

That left us with one majorly mourning peahen.  She walked up and down the sides of the aviary.  And she cried.  Lots.

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Now that like to have broke my heart. She sounded sooooooo pitiful!

The surviving peachick is doing fine in with the others…

The mama peahen has had a couple of days to adjust and isn’t crying continuously any more.

People who don’t think animals have feelings just flat out do NOT know what they’re talking about.

Friday the 13th & Phobias On The Farm

Another Friday on the farm, this being Friday the 13th.  I don’t see any black cats and I guess I don’t walk under ladders even if it’s not the 13th.  And I don’t really suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia anyway.  How’s that for a mouthful!?  It’s a big word that means you’ve got a phobia about Friday the 13th.  (From frigga meaning “Friday” and triskaidekaphobia (or paraskevidekatriaphobia) which is derived from the combination of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning “Friday”), and dekatreís ( meaning “thirteen”) attached to phobía ( from phóbos, meaning “fear”)).

I do not suffer from probatokaunlophobia . . .

Or a fear of llamas.  And obviously, she does not have hydrophobia (fear of water).

Nor do I have alektorophobia. . .

Nope, no chicken phobia.  I don’t even have apiphobia!

Oh, I don’t want to get caught in the middle of a swarm of bees, but that’s not apiphobia, or fear of bees, that’s just good sense!

Thankfully, I do NOT have anthrophobia either.

That would be sad to be afraid of flowers. 

Don’t really have to worry about nyctophobia or selenophobia either.

(If I did have a fear of dark or any other real phobia, I’d go on over to someplace like the Fear Of Dark and learn how to get rid of my phobia!)

I will confess, however, that there might be a smidgen of the well known arachnophobia lurking in my psyche.

But while spiders of a certain size give me the heebie-jeebies, I can live with the fear.  … mostly.

So not a lot of phobias here on the farm.  Happy Friday the 13th!

Peacock, Peahen, Peachicks!

I went out to do chores a while ago, and there were the usual 2 peacocks, 4 peahens… one of which is still sitting on a nest.  When I got closer to her, I saw an eye staring back at me where eyes shouldn’t be.

Can you see it?

 Still too hard to see?  Well, let’s look a little closer. . .

 And an even closer look….

The little peachick got restless and moved forward where he (she?) could look at me in safety from right beside mama’s front. . .

Mama peahen wasn’t thrilled with me being there and humming and agitated.  Finally she got up off the nest for a minute.

Oh ho!  Not only was there one peachick active enough to be peeking around at me, there was another newly hatched!  I threw the feed in the bowl and beat a quick retreat so she’d go back on the nest.

That brings the peachick total up to 6 this year… 4 in the bird cage on the back porch, and two under the last sitting peahen.  Cool!

Rooster and Rabbit

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ve got a fondness for alliteration.  So when I get a picture of a rooster and a rabbit, that’s pretty cool.  Although I couldn’t come up with a title that ALL the words started with “R”….

Anyway, here’s the picture!

We’ve got a plethora of rabbits running around here.  Toby likes to chase them, but I don’t think he’d know what to do with one if he ever caught it.

Of course, we also have a plethora of roosters.  Once the chicks get big enough to figure out which are roosters, it’ll be time to gather them all up and get rid of them one way or another.

“An embarrassment of riches” indeed.
Rabbits and roosters.  You CAN have too many.

Ever See A Llama Drinking Fountain?

Our lady llama has a new trick.  She’s discovered she loves drinking from the water hose.

She just started doing it a few days ago.  She was too impatient to wait for me to refill the little wading pool we use in the back yard as a watering trough and ended up slurping water coming directly from the hose.

Obviously, she discovered she likes that really cold water coming straight out of the well.

Or maybe she likes it because she can’t smell any other animal in the water.  She’s persnickety that way.  If any other critter eats from her food bowl, she won’t eat from it until you wipe it out.

When she gets enough water on the inside, then she wants me to spray some water on the outside!

Did you notice Toby (to the right)?  He’s waiting for his turn so he can chase the water spray.  The weather isn’t a factor for him.  He wants to chase water if it’s hot, and he wants to chase water if it’s freezing cold!

Who needs a tv for entertainment when you’ve got looney llamas and daffy dogs?