Ewes Look A Little Ragged

A few weeks ago we sheared our sheep.  We are not professional sheep shearers.  We’re not even SEMI-professional sheep shearers.  Okay, so we barely make it to amateur status!

The best I can say is the sheep are cooler since we sheared off most of their wool.

Part of the problem is our shearers.  I positively, absolutely HATE that machine.  When I called to order the shearers a few years back, well, I didn’t call to order shearers.  I wanted to order clippers.

I was ordering from a company I trusted, having ordered a lot of sheep supplies from them in the past with good results.  I listened to their representative tell me all the reasons why I ought to order shearers instead of clippers. 

Bottom line, I let him talk me into buying the shearers and I’ve regretted it ever since.  I thought I’d get used to them, but I never have.  They are heavy to hold, get hot, and are very finicky about getting just the right tension, and it’s waaaaaayyyyyy too easy to cut the sheep.

I wish I had bought clippers.  Yes, I know it would make shearing go slower.  I don’t care.  At least I wouldn’t be worrying about cutting the sheep,  It would make the whole process a lot less stressful.

For all of you who love to use shearers, more power to you.  But I still wish I had clippers.

A Chick, Chick Here

Right now it’s like Old McDonald’s Farm around here, on the verse:

“with a chick, chick here, and a chick, chick there,
here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick, chick!

Yep, if you look outside, it’s a pretty good bet you’re going to see at least one chick.  The first chick that hatched out is getting pretty big, half-grown at least.  Here he (or she) is stretching his wings.

This little guy wanders around on his own these days, until evening comes and he roosts with the chickens in the sheep shed (one of the three main roosting places for chickens here).

You can sort of get a feel for his size in comparison to the chickens in the background, which from left to right are a Buff Orpington hen (probably his mom), the Silver Laced Polish Rooster, and the Sicilian Buttercup hen.

Peepers was next to have a chick.  It looks just like she did when she was little.  This picture was taken May 12th, 2009.

And this picture was taken about 2 and 1/2 weeks later.

As you can see, these little chicks sure grow fast!

One of the white hens was the next to have chicks.  She started out with 5 chicks, but lost one somewhere along the way, so now only has 4.  (Are you impressed with my great math skills?)  Here she is showing one how to peck at cracked corn.

It doesn’t take those little chicks long to get the hang of pecking around for food.  They already come running when they see me go outside, figuring I’ll throw out some cracked corn.  And of course I do, because I woudn’t want to disappoint them after all.

Here she is with her chicks about 2 1/2 weeks ago:

And here they are more recently: 

 They have also grown quickly!

I discovered another hen had been sitting on a nest I didn’t know about.  She was hidden just inside the quonset hut where we store hay. She found a little opening she could scoot into and be well hidden, so we never saw her.

She ended up with 6 chicks, and she still has all 6 chicks.  Go Mama!

These weren’t the last of the chicks to hatch, however.  Not knowing we were going to have so many hatch “naturally”, I put a few chicken eggs in with the peafowl eggs in one of the incubators.  The first one hatched out May 24th.

You can see the chicken eggs are much smaller than the peafowl eggs, so I can squeeze them in-between.

It didn’t take long for the little one to get out.

They’re a little bedraggled looking when they first hatch!  But it doesn’t take long for them to dry up and fluff out, as you can see with the three here in the incubator I use as a brooder box for the first few days after they’ve hatched.

 A chick, chick here!

Hidden Assets

Do you know the answer to this riddle? It describes our hidden assets.

We like to hide our assets around here where they’re not easily found. For instance, see this nice enclosure?

The Farmer put this pallet fence up to protect the trumpet vine and lilac bush inside from goatly depredations.  They seem to have a special fondness for lilac leaves and bark.

But there are other things in there as well…. something is hiding.

Do you see them? Try looking in the weeds from this angle:

It’s easier to see them in that picture.  I can see one head peeping out.

One of our hiding nesters got aggravated with me being so close to them, and moved away for a while.

The weeds and pallet fence hide these guineas quite nicely.  They are also protected from predators since there are two dogs patrolling around outside the fence.  I guess they’ve got it figured that this is a great place for hidden assets.

Two guineas can lay a lot of eggs, and of course eggs are our hidden assets and the answer to the riddle.

Mama Hen Protects Her Chicks

Hens with chicks are very protective.  I’ve seen them go after our sheep and even the dogs if they are getting too close to their chicks.

Well, remember how our silly little goat was trying to get our llama’s attention without success? When he got fed-up with her bugging him, he just kushed down and ignored her.

I guess she decided to see if she could get somebody’s, just ANYbody’s attention, and decided to get frisky with our Mama Hen and her chicks.

Mama Hen was NOT impressed. She got all huffy and let Cinnamon know she was NOT to get near her chicks.

And did you see that look she turned around and gave Cinnamon right before going around the corner of the building?  I’m not sure if that was a “Back off!” or maybe she was thinking, “What an idiot!”

Whatever that backward look meant, it’s clear she didn’t want that silly goat messing about with her babies!

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Seems like a lot of the critters around here like to hide. 

Our parrot loves to hide under the couch and behind the curtains.

If she can hurry into the kitchen and get in a cupboard before I close the door, that’s one of her favorite hiding places.

She gets in all kinds of hidey holes: under desks, in the pantry, in boxes… just any place she can find.

But many of the outside critters like to hide too.  For instance, can you guess what’s hiding in this can out in our feed room?

Did you guess a mouse?  Naw, come on now, that’s too obvious.  And it’s not a snake either, though it’s happened before and I’ve reached in and grabbed one by accident.  (Trust me, I wouldn’t grab it on purpose!)

Well, think about it while I show you some other animals in hiding.

Our cat likes to hide under shrubs or other flowering plants.  Here he is hiding in one of my flowerbeds under some hostas.

Toby would like to know what the cat is doing in there.

However, the cat is unconcerned with what Toby wants to know and ignores him.

He continues to peer out from under the hostas totally oblivious to what the dog is doing.

Sometimes animals can hide in plain sight.  You know, blending in with the surroundings, a sort of camouflage kind of thing.  Just look at this picture:

Maybe this rabbit figures if it grazes with the chickens, the dogs won’t notice it’s there and chase after it.  Frankly, the rabbits around here seem to think this a safe haven anyway, and don’t get too excited when we’re out walking around.

Of course, little chicks like to hide under the Mama Hen.

You can only see one little derriere still sticking out, but there are 5 little chicks under the hen.  Here they are before Mama settled down so they could scoot under her.

My favorite hen, Peepers, has a little chick peeping out from under her too.

She had 4 little chicks last year, but for some reason, only came out from under the shed (her nesting place) with one this year.

The adult hens like to hide under The Farmer’s utility trailer.

 Toby occasionally likes to hide out under the back porch.  The goats hide behind the llamas at night.  There are even little Southeastern Five-Lined Skinks with their bright blue tails hiding in the crevices of the retaining walls around the rosebed.  Critters are hiding all over the place!

Oh, and as for what was hiding in the can. 

Did you guess it was a rooster?  He jumped in there while I was getting feed, and managed to knock the lid back over top of him on his way in.  When I took the lid off, he was contentedly munching up on all the cracked corn.

You just never know what you might find hiding around here… so come out, come out, wherever you are!