chicken/duck cuddling pictures

Chicken Cuddling

This is a picture of me holding one of my chickens which was prompted by someone on the farm message board that I belong to. (www.maryjanesfarm.com). One of the members asked if any of us that raised chickens ever "cuddled" them. I admit it, I am one of those!! I'm also a duck cuddler as you can see from the other picture. The chicken is one of my newer ones and I haven't come up with a name yet, but the duck's name is Anna after one of my Great Great Grandmothers. I have another duck that we named Cally after the other Grandma, but she turned out to be a he and now goes by George. They are both kakhi campbels and have the sweetest personality. We have our animals for the obvious practical reasons, but I absolutely love each and every one of them. I love to hold the chickens and hear them chatter . They each have their own individual personalities.

We love to sit and watch our chickens go about their daily activity. They are actually pretty funny at times. It's hilarious to see a chicken stand in place and jump straight up in the air to catch a fly and the way they verbalize with one another and establish "pecking order" is so interesting. If one finds a worm then all the others will chase her around the run. We call it "chicken football!" I'll never forget the day my landlord came by and said he walked up to the chicken run and was shocked that every last one of them were sprawled out dead on the ground until they stood up when he got closer and started walking around. I reassured him that they were just sunning them selves and I thought the same thing the first time I saw them do it.

I have found that the hens are very particlar about their nesting boxes and for some reason all want to lay in one box. The first few days the newest batch of hens were here, they decided they wanted to use the same nesting box as well. One would be in the box and one would be on the ground telling her off. This went on for several days until they got their egg laying schedule down and go in shifts now. One day I walked in to see three hens crammed in one box together. All you could see were two heads, chicken fluff and one legg. You gotta love 'em!

Nature Walk

Today my six year old and I decided to go on a nature walk on the way to the mailbox. I did this a number of times with my older son when he he was in grade school. We always had so much fun and everything is so beautiful this time of year.

We collected different types of leaves, sticks, rocks, moss, a fir branch, pine cones and a few remaining wild flowers including one lonely little white daisy along side the drive. We got home and pulled out the construction paper, markers and glue and put together a wonderful nature book. He titles it "Fall is Here and Halloween". He included a picture on the cover that I took of him playing in the leaves in the infamous red rubber boots. It is the same one I added here. He was so proud of our work and after everything dries we will put the pages together with jute twine. He plans on taking it to share day at school. When he got to the very last page he looked at me and said," I know, I'll give this to my teacher so that she will always remember me." He has the such a sweet spirit and a loving heart. Both my boys amaze me every day!( and challange me of course! ha ha)

Here is a story about the goats that he wanted me to include:

Molly went Baaa Baaa. Bubbles goes Baaa Baaa really loud when she is hungry and when we leave home. They love bananas and alfalfa. Written by: C. W.

Our kids

This is a picture of our goats Molly and Bubbles. They are both around 6mos. old. Molly was the first that we brought home. Being new to this we started out doing pretty much everything the wrong way. We had done some research and got lots of advice. It's amazing how you can talk to five different goat owners and they will all tell different ways of caring for goats. I was kind of stressed out about the responsibility and wanting to do everything just right, but over time realized that other than the basics it is really a matter of personal preference and your own situation and environment.

Molly was sort of a quick decision at an auction that we had attended. We were there initially to sell a couple of our roosters and decided to stay after to see the larger animals. We had decided to go with Alpine Dairy goats as we loved their temperament and wanted a good milk goat. I was sitting their with my children and out comes about 6 alpine kids. They started going quickly and there were only a couple of does. The first one went quickly and my boys were both sitting there begging to have this goat and all the while I'm sitting there thinking, " my husband is going to kill me!" I decided to just go for it. We went to take her home and when we got a closer look, realized that she was quite thin. On the way home I was looking at this sweet little goat thinking, "what in the world did I get myself into?". We got her home and got her stall all set up for her and gave her some time to rest.

That day also happened to be my husband's birthday so we decided to call her his birthday surprise!! My Mom and sister came over that evening to join us for cake. They new about the goat, but my husband still did not. After cake we told him we had a surprise for him and had to take him outside. I really wasn't sure how he would react. When we opened the door to the barn we discovered that we hadn't goat proofed her pen very well and she was standing at the door to greet us!! My husband was actually excited about it!! Thank the Lord.

Molly had scours very bad and was very thin. I was frantically researching and found a wonderful sight for beginning goat owners. He told his story about how they got started and how they did everthing wrong as we did. From this experience we learned, never buy a goat from an auction, because more times than not they are sick and never buy just one goat as they need companionship in order to thrive well and not be completely dependant on your attention. It can cause a noisy goat with a lot of behavior problems. We were able to get some wonderful immune boosting herbs for her and I immediately put her on probiotics. We made sure that she was able to browse, have plenty of hay and gave her a good grain with a lot of protein. In the beginning I wasn't sure if she was going to make it, but we pulled her out of it. A majority of her problem was worms and not being fed properly. It also looked as though her feet had never been trimmed. When we got our second goat "bubbles" a couple of weeks later she showed us how to trim her hooves.

She has gained weight, her hooves are in good shape and she has her buddy that she loves to antagonise into playing with her. When we first brought her home, I was a little frustrated and wished we had gotten the healthier doe. But I know now that she was meant to be with us. If she had gone with anyone else, chances are she would have died. She is our little rescue goat and has the sweetest spirit of any animal I have ever been around. When I kneel down to love on here, she looks into my eyes and I know she's telling me she's grateful.

My Girls!!

This is a picture of one of my 18 happy hens! I don't know what it is about this picture that just makes me smile. Raising chickens has been quite the adventure for my family and I. It is something that I dreamed about for such a long time and was so excited when we were able to rent a home with property and lucked out with a land lord that really likes us and lets us have our animals. I started out visiting the feed store with my kids many times and just browsing the isle with all the poultry supplies. I also bought a book called, "Raising Chickens In Your Backyard" that was wonderful. It was very practical and geared towards those that are just starting out. We bought a little at a time in anticipation for delivery of our chicks. The first thing we purchased was a chick feeder that my 6yr old picked out. He left the store feeling as though he had quite a treasure. There is a smaller section to our little barn that we turned into quite a large chicken coop and only had one outside wall when we moved in. We were lucky enough to purchase some old barn boards from a man up the road. They call him "Barnboard Tom". We spent weekends off and on for a couple of months. I had gone on a trip to illinois to visit relatives and when I got home my son and husband surprised me with a finished chicken coop!! They were so proud of themselves. They used materials we had on hand such as old crates and wooden dresser drawers for nesting boxes and the roost was made from limbs they found on our property. They did a wonderful job. It felt as though we were preparing to deliver a child with all the book reading, planning and purchasing we had done. My husband was as excited as I was and picked up five free ckicks from a feed store in Oregon and surprised us with them. The kids were ecstatic! The picture of the chicks I posted were four of the first five we brought home. The white one was named Peeps by my 6year old. Peeps grew up to be a beautiful rooster and I will add a picture of him later.

Over the next few months, we added seven buff orpingtons including on rooster, six rhode island reds, and two sweet little khaki campbell ducks(that's another story!). Just a few weeks ago we purchased six full grown laying hens from a local farm that are a barn yard mixture. My favorite of that bunch is a barred rock hen that lets me pick her up and then sits there and chatters at me. They have all been such a joy and we are now getting about 5-7 eggs a day. The rhode island reds were the first of the ones we raised from chicks to lay. They were about 5mos. old when I found the first egg laying on the ground in the corner of the coop. I was so overjoyed it almost brought me to tears. My girls and I had worked so hard and the first egg was finally here!!

My First Blog!!

Well, as computer illiterate as I am, I decided to join the blog "band wagon". My plan is to share my experiences and photos as I experience rural living and small live stock raising for the first time in my life! I am also delving into organic gardening and my goal is to have a self sustaining farm. My future goals are to expand on dairy goat raising, chickens for eggs, raising our own beef, a large organic CSA garden, and the ability to teach others of the importance of eating organic foods, avoiding anything processed, and buying locally and when things are in season. I have only canned jam at this point and plan on doing some applesauce, but next year I hope to can and freeze alot of fruits and vegetables. I'm trying to take it in baby steps though to prevent myself from becoming completely overwhelmed.

I'm so thankful everyday at how much God blesses our lives. There are always struggles in life, but it is through these struggles that we gain knowledge, understanding, and perseverance.

Many blessings to you!!

Missy