Night Life

Herb came in tonight after putting Misty in the Home Pasture and shutting up the chickens in the barnyard, and he told me what had happened out there.  I decided I needed to check on everyone, so I got my strong flashlight and headed for the barnyard.

Misty heard someone moving near "her" pasture and came to see who it was.  She is one alert livestock guardian!  When she heard my voice, I got a friendly tail wag, and she came to the gate for a pat on the head.  Then she was off to patrol the pasture, barking thunderously at all and sundry.  I could follow her path through the black night by her resounding barks.

When Herb brought the horses up earlier this evening, he put Julie in the round pen and Angel and Brandy in the barnyard as usual.  Who should I find in the barnyard but Julie?  She was nibbling on the well-eaten grass.

Disturbed by my flashlight, the ducks came to catch any bugs that might be attracted by the light while Julie headed back toward the round pen.  She set off the motion sensor on one of the floodlights, and it flashed on.  (It was still pretty dark for my camera, though, so I helped the floodlight out a bit with iPhoto.)

I moved along to the round pen and said hi to Angel and Brandy.

Just then, Julie came into the round pen.  After all, it's been "hers" ever since she joined us in March!  Every time we tried to bring her into the barnyard for shelter from storms, Brandy attacked her and we had to put somebody in the stalls to keep them separate.  "But wait," you may be asking, "if you were separating the horses from the pony, how did Julie just come into the round pen from the barnyard?"

Hold your horses!  I'll tell you in a minute.  First things first . . . My camera was slow to focus in the dark, but here's the tail end (sorry!) of Brandy acting like a horse's patootie and chasing Julie out of the round pen.  It's Brandy's round pen now!

Done being a horses's rear end, Brandy joins Angel for a pat, ready for me to come into the round pen and inspect their remodeling job.

Here is Brandy showing off their handiwork, although according to Herb's eyewitness testimony from a couple of days ago, this is all Angel's work!  Yes, my sweet Angel finally managed to kick down the gate between the round pen and the barnyard, between Julie and the big girls.  Why did she do it?  For the greener grass on the other side of the fence?  Or did she hope Brandy might let her be with her little pet, Julie?  If you want the answer to that question, you'll have to get it straight from the horse's mouth!

At least I know now that Julie won't be murdered in the night!  I know from playing "CSI:"  A small, round, manure-y hoof print on each of the big girls' sides explains why everyone has settled down in the dark.  Julie has finally defended herself!

Good night, Julie.

Good night, Brandy.

Good night, Angel.
(Did you hear the one about what the black horse did in the middle of the night?
I didn't either--no one could see it to come up with a punch line!)

Good night, Sterling, man of leisure.

 Good night ducks, still catching flies.

Good night, Rascal, busy girl.  Good-bye, little mouse.  (If you show your face!)

Good night, pigs, somewhere down there in the dark, blissfully unaware that Misty just cleaned out your food bowls.  Good night, Misty, on the watch; you deserve your bedtime snack!

Back to the warm lights at home.  Good night, barnyard.  Good night, pasture.  Good night, noises everywhere.  Good night, animals, sleep tight.  Good night, farm, I love you.

Be Kind to Your Mother, Web-Footed Friends!

This happened on April 29, right after the storm, but I didn't have a chance to post it until now.  The chicks were 6 weeks old on April 27 and ready to go outside in the chicken tractor.  But, the chicken tractor was serving as a Duck Mobile in the barnyard, so we needed a new plan for the ducks.  Enter my (first) Gypsy chicken coop which Herb built a couple years ago on a wagon so that it could be moved around (thus the Gypsy).  Now THAT'S free-ranging!  Since  the three remaining chickens who used to use it have been integrated into the new coop, the Gypsy coop was available for immediate occupancy.

Herb helped me clean up the feed area in the barn and roll the Gypsy coop in.  He also built a nice large ramp for the ducks to get up and down into it since they seem too clutzy to handle the narrow ramp the chickens used.  He thought we could get the ducks in the evening after they settled down and move them in, so he went in to eat lunch.

I, however, was impatient to get the ducks settled into their new condo, so I started carrying them one by one and putting them in.  Unfortunately, I learned several things about ducks.  1)  They may look laid-back sitting around during the day, but they are not as tranquil as they look!  And, most importantly, 2) ducks are related to hawks and eagles!  Well, at least they have claws on the ends of their cute little webbed feet that resemble talons, and when they hook into you, you have to rip them out like giant cat's claws!  Fortunately, Kara came along to ask me a question, and I pressed her into service.  I also put on some long leather gloves!  While I carried each duck with two hands, Kara opened and closed the coop door so I didn't have to try to juggle ducks in one arm.

Eventually all 13 ducks were safely settled, and I was the only one who was the worse for the wear!

Here's the new Duck Mobile with its ramp propped up on the right.  The ramp fits neatly under the large green door for the ducks to get up and down into their home.

It makes the feed area a little crowded, but it also forced us to organize to make it work.

After several hours, I couldn't wait to see how the ducks would handle the ramp, so I opened the door.  One brave Jemima Puddle-duck hopped up in the doorway, followed by her Sir Francis Drake, and while he hung out, she examined the situation.

That is a l-o-o-o-o-ng way down!

Jemima and Francis discussed what to do while Gypsy (one of the original inhabitants of the Gypsy coop) came by to see what had happened to the neighborhood.

Sterling, the barn cat, investigated, too.  The ducks hid from him, but he was too lazy to climb up and bother them.  Finally, I gave up waiting to take a picture of the ducks waddling down the ramp, and I went inside.

Just like children, once I was out of camera-range, they performed!  When we went back to feed them that night, they were all down enjoying the barnyard.

As you can see, their wings are nearly feathered out, so it shouldn't be long until they can fly up and roost on the stall walls or round pen rails.

The ducks are very curious about their new territory, checking out the wheelbarrow and Rascal.  They really stick together, and it's quite cute to see them "consult" each other about things!

We do hope they will consult with the chickens and figure out how this up-and-down-the-ramp thing works because for now they put themselves to bed over in the corner where the chicken tractor/duck mobile used to be.  And every night we have to carry them one by one, and put them to bed.  But now I wear long leather gloves or a jacket to protect my arms from claws, and they seem to be used to the routine--although they're starting to get creative about running away from us at bedtime!  What did I say?  Just like children!!

Good for What Ails You

Sara says, "My mama always told me, 'It's good for what ails you.'"
According to The Free Dictionary http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/good+for+what+ails+you
this is a rural idiom meaning something is "able to cure any problem or illness. (Usually used to describe food or liquor.) Have a sip of this whiskey. It's good for what ails you. Sally's beef broth is good for what ails you."

Here is Zephyr Hill Farm's non-alcoholic, non-caloric version of  things that are good for what ails you.  Photographs by Jenny Lea, prose by Susan Lea.

A good, fast running walk across the pasture.

Getting the right end of the stick.

An afternoon snack.

Making a new friend.

Taking a walk with a friend.

Hanging out doing nothing with a friend.

A nice, long streeeeeetch.

Scratching it where it itches.

Pushing something around that doesn't push back.

Listening to Mama's advice.

So if you've got something that ails you, why don't you follow our animals' advice and try one of these "good for what ails you" remedies?

Good Night, Sleep Tight (Wednesday, Sept. 15)

I went out at 7:45 the other night to finish up evening chores and thought, "What a beautiful view!  What a privilege to look out at this from your front door."  And who is it that enjoys this view?

The chicks!  I told you we wanted to give them a good life!  :)

We come out every evening to turn on the brooder light and make sure they still have some food left for the night.

(Now that we've been moving their tractor for a week, you can see the path they've grazed.)

Once the light is turned on, the chicks begin to drift toward the warmth of the brooder box--either inside or on top!

After the chicks are settled, it's time to shut up the big chickens.  At dusk they go up the ramp, hop on their roosts, and wait for me to come shut the door.  Once in awhile an errant chicken wants to stay out late, but all I have to do is move toward her and shoo her up the ramp.  They know when it's time for bed!

Finally it's time to feed Rascal and Sterling who have been meowing all through evening chores because their food got put away early in the day when the chickens were let out.  (If we ever forget to put away the cat food, the chickens eat it!)

Twenty minutes later the chores are done and everyone's tucked in bed as I head for the house and Sterling heads out for a hunt.  In a few minutes the security lights will go out and everyone will sleep tight.

The Low-Down on Feathers (Tuesday, Aug. 24)

I went out to feed the animals this morning still half asleep.  I got all the way to the barn and realized the scoops I needed were sitting by the back door.  I had remembered my camera, though--bad farmer, good photographer!--so I took this picture of my tracks in the heavy dew with the dogs waiting for me to come back.

This sight is all the reward I needed for doing the chores!

Coming back to the house, I marveled over the beauty of row upon row of mountains fading into the distance from our front door.

Sterling enjoys an after-breakfast catnap on the Kubota tractor.  Rascal's been keeping herself scarce since I chased her off the top of the chick brooder.  I think I hurt her feelings.  Lucky for Sterling, he's too lazy to hunt my chicks!

The Ameraucana chicks are feathering out more smoothly than the Naked Necks.  Perched on top of the concrete block, Pepi-two shows off her new feathers . . .

. . . and what she can do with them as she flutters down to the floor.

I've discovered why my hens are hardly laying lately.  You may think, "No wonder!  It looks like something killed them!"

That's exactly what I thought when I opened the coop door on this sight.  My second thought was that Victoria and Esmerelda had attacked Gypsy.  A bit of research on the internet revealed that my third guess was correct:  They're molting!  Apparently it is quite common for chickens to begin molting in August as the days begin to shorten.  It is also common for them to stop laying while they molt.  Unfortunately, it can take anywhere from two to six months to finish growing out their new feathers!  Gee whiz!  By then my new chicks will be ready to lay! 

Here's Gypsy enjoying a dust-bath in the barn.  You can practically see her "rootching" (a good old German word I learned from my Grandma Tritschler) her way down into the dirt.  Ahh!  While it may not be my idea of how to get comfortable, Gypsy was obviously loving it.

I've noticed the girls don't eat much and aren't ranging very far from the barn.  They're spending a lot of time nestled down in the dirt . . . just growing feathers, I guess!  It turns out that my "mistake" of buying unmedicated 20% chick starter is actually serendipitous, because the high-protein food is exactly what they need to help make new feathers. Feathers are almost 100% protein, so it takes a lot of extra protein to make new ones.  And that's the low-down on feathers, so you're "up" on them along with me!