Mine eyes, are weak. I can not see, babe, can you find my specs for me?
It's gotten serious when the glasses come out!
Our little Funny Farm is on one of the last agricultural belts in the scenic bay area. I am always late for the most unusual reasons. We have chickens (of course!) ducks, rabbits, goats, dogs, cats, and the occasional horse sitting for a few days. We are in a location that is blessed with drought and the agricultural lines are being managed federally. Two large orchards in our immediate vicinity are in the process of rezoning to become housing. We're loving our open spaces while we have them and will do our very best to hold on against becoming fully dependent upon civic infrastructure, via pressures to surrender control of personal wells, reductions in our water table and a city that does not support their remaining farmers and sees it's future as a shopping and dining destination. When we can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in modern art, but cannot seem to solve our water problems...
Our goats are pleasure goats more than anything. They are Nubian/ Nigerian Dwarf crosses. They are the first generation on the farm, so we have no idea what the eventual flock will become! Whether they come out stocky and wooly like their sire or looking like quarter sized boers like their mamas remains to be seen. We are increasing our herd, kidding (hopefully) in April. They keep our back fields from getting unmanageable. They are all named after baking ingredients. The girls got their names from the nursery rhyme about sugar and spice and everything nice. Our boy chip looked like a puffy little cookie.
The ducks are Pastor, our Swedish Drake and his two ladies, Mudduck. Animals here sometimes share names. The two barred rock hens are collectively "The Gibbs" (NCIS joke.. ) but one has been gifted by a neighbor with the name "Paige" My daughter named his gold hen "Clarabelle" so I suppose she shall be Paige. Paige Gibbs. The Wyanadottes are sort of nameless. We don't have that "connection" like the barred rocks. They look at me rather suspiciously and I'll be honest. I can't tell two of the three apart sometimes. One has a story though, and had an integration accident so now she can be picked out because of her lack of feathers on her neck. She seems the most likely to go broody, so I may see if she'll hatch the duck eggs if they wont go broody. I have to shoo her off the nest so the barred rocks can get in to lay. Everyone is in love with the duck nest right now and the Gibbs twitch around outside the coop because she wont just do her business and move along and they're all but egging on themselves.
The rabbits... have different names moment and cooperation depending. If I had any desire whatsoever to process and eat rabbit they'd be in trouble. They are fat, they are pretty, they are not very nice. The female is a gray double maned lionhead and the male is a blue harlequin. They seem to be the one animal that completely rejects my advances. They will not acquiesce and at about a year old, they still have the vacant jack rabbit on the run stare. Short of bringing them into the garage and making humans constant background noise for a time, I'm not sure there's much to be done about it. (imagine explaining that. I'm taking over your garage because the rabbits need more stimulation... don't mind those cages in your parking space... You can park outside, right?!) We're hoping that when we expand our hutches and breed them that we can socialize their offspring. Their colors and shapes are lovely, they just weren't handled before we got them at about 6mo. Lionheads have a rather enhanced kick like crazy impulse and they shred anything they come into contact with when their little kick motor comes on. You never know though. The ducks took their time about deciding I was duck enough to be trusted.
I would love to grow our own turkey this year, I'm still trying to persuade my spouse that this will be WONDERFUL. He's on the fence. haha.
I would love to add a goose to make my flock a little tougher. A white one. A really bossy white one. We all have dreams, right? Someday I'll also figure out how to separate my flock in a way that is both convenient and effective so I can breed spotty and stripey little hens and Blue Swedish (specifically) ducks in a way that I won't have to cull often but if ever the circumstances necessitated it I could remove the aesthetically based breeding restrictions, and have a sustainable meat and egg flock.
It's gotten serious when the glasses come out!
Our little Funny Farm is on one of the last agricultural belts in the scenic bay area. I am always late for the most unusual reasons. We have chickens (of course!) ducks, rabbits, goats, dogs, cats, and the occasional horse sitting for a few days. We are in a location that is blessed with drought and the agricultural lines are being managed federally. Two large orchards in our immediate vicinity are in the process of rezoning to become housing. We're loving our open spaces while we have them and will do our very best to hold on against becoming fully dependent upon civic infrastructure, via pressures to surrender control of personal wells, reductions in our water table and a city that does not support their remaining farmers and sees it's future as a shopping and dining destination. When we can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in modern art, but cannot seem to solve our water problems...
Our goats are pleasure goats more than anything. They are Nubian/ Nigerian Dwarf crosses. They are the first generation on the farm, so we have no idea what the eventual flock will become! Whether they come out stocky and wooly like their sire or looking like quarter sized boers like their mamas remains to be seen. We are increasing our herd, kidding (hopefully) in April. They keep our back fields from getting unmanageable. They are all named after baking ingredients. The girls got their names from the nursery rhyme about sugar and spice and everything nice. Our boy chip looked like a puffy little cookie.
The ducks are Pastor, our Swedish Drake and his two ladies, Mudduck. Animals here sometimes share names. The two barred rock hens are collectively "The Gibbs" (NCIS joke.. ) but one has been gifted by a neighbor with the name "Paige" My daughter named his gold hen "Clarabelle" so I suppose she shall be Paige. Paige Gibbs. The Wyanadottes are sort of nameless. We don't have that "connection" like the barred rocks. They look at me rather suspiciously and I'll be honest. I can't tell two of the three apart sometimes. One has a story though, and had an integration accident so now she can be picked out because of her lack of feathers on her neck. She seems the most likely to go broody, so I may see if she'll hatch the duck eggs if they wont go broody. I have to shoo her off the nest so the barred rocks can get in to lay. Everyone is in love with the duck nest right now and the Gibbs twitch around outside the coop because she wont just do her business and move along and they're all but egging on themselves.
The rabbits... have different names moment and cooperation depending. If I had any desire whatsoever to process and eat rabbit they'd be in trouble. They are fat, they are pretty, they are not very nice. The female is a gray double maned lionhead and the male is a blue harlequin. They seem to be the one animal that completely rejects my advances. They will not acquiesce and at about a year old, they still have the vacant jack rabbit on the run stare. Short of bringing them into the garage and making humans constant background noise for a time, I'm not sure there's much to be done about it. (imagine explaining that. I'm taking over your garage because the rabbits need more stimulation... don't mind those cages in your parking space... You can park outside, right?!) We're hoping that when we expand our hutches and breed them that we can socialize their offspring. Their colors and shapes are lovely, they just weren't handled before we got them at about 6mo. Lionheads have a rather enhanced kick like crazy impulse and they shred anything they come into contact with when their little kick motor comes on. You never know though. The ducks took their time about deciding I was duck enough to be trusted.
I would love to grow our own turkey this year, I'm still trying to persuade my spouse that this will be WONDERFUL. He's on the fence. haha.
I would love to add a goose to make my flock a little tougher. A white one. A really bossy white one. We all have dreams, right? Someday I'll also figure out how to separate my flock in a way that is both convenient and effective so I can breed spotty and stripey little hens and Blue Swedish (specifically) ducks in a way that I won't have to cull often but if ever the circumstances necessitated it I could remove the aesthetically based breeding restrictions, and have a sustainable meat and egg flock.