Bad boys in the house and the coop

This is what we do every day when we think mom has been spending too much time on the computer. We tear all the blankets off the sofa, and then, when confronted with a camera, we act so innocent.

As I have no recent pictures of the chickens, I thought I would post these with a chicken update: I pretty much figured out that my basement chicken was injured by one or both of the 2 young roosters. I separated one of the young roosters in a crate in the coop, which calmed things down for awhile, but then the remaining youngster was still beating up my Big Roo.

So yesterday I sold both young whipper snappers to a gentleman who said his 12YO daughter wanted to add some roosters to her flock of egg-laying hens. I warned him of their questionable behavior, but he did not seem concerned.

I received a whole $7 as payment for the bad boys. Watch out dog boys, I bet there's somebody out there who would pay at least that much for the 2 of you!

Common Redpolls, Berkshires and Yorkshires

Sun and snow this morning, but the bench is standing proud and saying bring me some spring.

New birds are visiting, so it gives me hope there is an end to this long strange winter. MonkeyCat drew my attention to these little gray and white birds with a red spot on their heads. It turned out (after much discussion on facebook) they are Common Redpolls, a kind of finch.

We get a lot of interesting bird species here in Upstate NY, ones which may be in South Jersey as well, but not as easily spotted in suburbia with all those manicured, sprayed and fertilized lawns. We have no shortage of weed seeds for the birdies' dining pleasure.

Another interesting adventure today—we went in search of a bred sow. My Husband The Farmer has this idea he wants a litter of piglets this year. Instead of buying piglets as "feeder pigs" and raising them to slaughter, we will get a sow who is already bred and have her deliver a litter here. Then we can sell all the piglets and make back our money, or keep one or two for us.

As I prefer "pigs of color" I vote for the Berkshires, the black pigs. At the farm we visited today, his pigs are all Berkshire/Yorkshire crosses, but if we get a black female, even if she is bred to a Yorkshire sow, she will have some color in all of her litter (we think). Very nice older gentleman, also named Tim, who moved up here from Manhattan to raise beef cattle, but settled for pigs, and a goat, a sheep, a donkey, a coupla chickens...

Who knew we moved here from South Jersey to be farmers? Who knew? Not me.

A litter of Yorkies mostly grown up

Between winter and spring

There is a battle going in my kitchen window—the poinsettia and paper whites are still blooming from Christmas, and the daffodils are trying to say spring is on its way. It might be hard to see the snowstorm beginning in the background, but it has begun. The storm says spring isn't starting any time soon, no matter what Phil and the daffodils have to say.

Hen in the house, trouble in the coop

Three roosters are too many roosters: 2 troublesome young ones in the front, Big Roo in the shadows.

One of our young hens went lame starting in early January. I left her in the coop for awhile, but then a real cold spell came through, and she was often wet from knocking over her water bowl, so I brought her inside in the basement.

5 weeks of spa treatment and not much has changed. She he is still eating and drinking, but her comb is really pale which is a sign she is not well. I am getting to the point where I have  to decide what to do with her.

I had read that one of the possible causes of lameness in chickens is Marek's disease, which is contagious to other chickens and not curable. The only way to tell if they have it is to do a necropsy after they die. I was almost to the point of taking her to the vet to end her life and have her tested, but then yesterday I found a dead hen on the floor of the coop. Whatever happened to this one was sudden, no limping or lameness, just dead. So now I am thinking that large black and white rooster in the pic above could be the killer, not a disease.

I suspected we would have problems having 3 roosters at a time. Previous experience with multiple boys in the house led to full blown cockfights. Poor Big Roo, the oldest and most well behaved rooster, was chased from the coop by one youngster the last time we had more than one. And the last black and white roo was attacking the 2 of us instead of the other roosters.

This large youngster is rough having his way with the girls, I have seen him in action. When I removed the dead girl yesterday, he went right over and jumped on top of her. As much as he is a beautiful boy, not a murderer, just a big brute, he might just have to become Joseph's next dinner.

And if the girl in the basement is suffering from broken bones, there is not much I can do for her other than end her life as well.

I am waiting to hear back from a vet tech and the Cornell Cooperative Extension to see if they can shed any light on this, but I don't think there is a happy ending to this one.

Goats today, chickens tomorrow

L to R: Rosie our oldest girl, Bella one of the young ones, Blossom, and Rita, all 4 probably preggers

Elizabeth gets a kiss from Bowie

I will post a chicken update tomorrow, but we had 2 special visitors today who came just to see our goats and took lots of pretty pics while they were here.

(maybe they wanted to see us too, not sure...)

Elizabeth came all the way from Alabama just to kiss a goat. Well that was the first time she visited when David Bowie was still a baby. That's them holding the adorable Bowie boy 3 years ago? I am starting to lose track of who was born when, but I guess that's OK.

Tara and Bowie

We were hoping one of our 7 pregnant goats might have a kid to entertain our guests while they were here, but the girls just aren't ready yet. All 4 in the top photo are probably pregnant, the 3 older ones will most likely have twins, the younger ones probably one kid. I am saying a little prayer we don't have any birthing problems like last year when we lost Lucille.

Jack is our oldest goat now that Lucille is gone. He is still a well behaved and loveable boy. Rosie is the oldest girl, and Rico a year behind her. At some point we have to separate boys and girls, or we will have too many goats! Only The Husband doesn't think there is such a thing as too many goats...

Jack in the front, Rico behind him, Susan, Rita, and Blossom (pooping!)

Rita's closeup