I haven't been on for a while til today due to a hectic season. We finally lost 7 year old Penny, the crossbeaked hen I wrote about last year. We are not exactly sure from what. When we went out to shut up the coop and close the barn door for the night, we found Penny in with the goats. This was odd because she always slept with the chickens in the coop. The next morning she was lying beneath where she was perched - dead. We are assuming a heart attack since it was so sudden. This was back in October. The past year I also went from rescuing just poultry to taking the plunge and rescuing goats and sheep as well. It is possible to end up with bred females. I have so far managed to find permanent homes for 2 Alpine goats and one Pygmy. However one of our two rescued sheep DID give birth to twins - go figure - while my husband nor I were home and we lost them to hypothermia. Mother Nature hasn't been good to us and we have had the coldest temps in 20 years so far this winter. The ewe also wasn't producing any milk when I checked her which could have also contributed to the loss. As of now we have a Nigerian Dwarf goat that was bred in October and the other rescued sheep may possibly be bred so we are (impatiently) waiting for more babies. Fingers crossed it goes better this time or we may consider no longer taking in anything other than poultry.
