At least someone loves blackberry vines!

Weber and Traeger going to town on blackberry vines. Num num num!!

And yes, they're wearing old dog collars. We have a Rubbermaid tub full of old dog stuff, and the first thing we did, before we even put them in the pen, was dig out collars for them. Gotta be able to catch the buggers in case a coffee can full of grain doesn't do the trick!!!

What's a few more? Hello turkey eggs!!!

We have ENOUGH critters? Huh? What? Nah. Why not add a few more!

After work I picked up a dozen turkey hatching eggs from a gal I found on craigslist. Actually, 14, as she threw in a couple extra. Some are Narragansett/Bourbon cross, but most are pure Narragansett. Planning on sticking half under Smaug and half under Bellina. I really want a turkey pair so that we don't have to buy poults every year. Yeah, a closely related pair isn't the best thing ever, but I want to pick out the best behaved and beautiful babies that have been raised with the chickens and learned their manners accordingly. This is the only way I can figure to do that. No one seems to sell sexed poults, and I don't want to purchase (at $10-15 a pop) a handful of straight run babies to see what I get. Nor do I want mature birds that are more likely to not go to bed at dusk or respect the fence. So, there you have it. Turkey eggs. Wish us luck!

Oh, and the current list of critters?

Around 30 chickens
1 guinea
4 turkey poults (brooder)
3 pheasant chicks (brooder)
6 ducks
2 geese
25 meat chickens (to butcher on Tues)
1 meat goat
1 hair sheep (also meat)
22 duck eggs being incubated (16 under Maggie Muscovy and 6 under Goldie Ameraucana)
And tomorrow there will be 14 turkey eggs between 2 broody chickens

Fun fun!!!!

More goats in cars... This time it's personal

Actually... A goat and a sheep... And a truck, not a car. OUR truck.

Meet Weber (katahdin sheep) and Traeger (boer goat). Both are wethers (that's a castrated male, for those not in the know). The BBQ names are based on the condition I set down for hubby... We will NOT be keeping these guys forever. They go to butcher in the fall. They are currently installed in our front goose pen, mowing down the grass. They'll eventually go in the back pig pen, to take care of the grass and brush back there all summer. Omg... I have a freaking goat again... Doing my best to not panic... Lol.

Oh, and deputy guinea is NOT pleased! He will not shut up. He absolutely does not approve of the intruders. 

Weber doesn't want anything to do with us, so I wasn't able to snap any good camera phone pics of him... Traeger is all about the camera, though.

No home butchering this year

Hubby's schedule has been a bit up in the air, which could make getting the icky chickies butchered a bit of an issue. Especially since we try to schedule help from friends. So, he called our local poultry butcher and managed to get a spot! Ickies go to butcher the day after Memorial Day. I'm actually a little relieved that someone else will be doing it. Yeah, it's cheaper to do it at home and fun having friends over to help, but I was stressing pretty hard over whether everything would come together. This way, no worries and no mess. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders!

In other farm news, two scovy eggs in the incubator are due to hatch over Memorial Day weekend. Maggie is happily sitting on her big beautiful nest, and the chickens are sharing scovy egg incubation in the coop. Whenever Smaug gets of the nest, Goldie swoops in and steals it. Goldie! My freaking ameraucana is broody. First one we've had go broody of that breed. At least she's not a biter, and she's just big enough to cover those 6 eggs. Fingers crossed!

Maggie is finally setting!!!

Pretty little Maggie

Maggie, our chocolate Muscovy has FINALLY set! Woohoo! She's rather small, so I decided to keep her down to 16 eggs. Every day, we've pencil-marked new eggs with a big X on one side and the date on the other. She got up to 16 a week ago between her eggs and Frieda's, and every day since, I've been pulling the two oldest eggs and replacing them with the newer eggs. Finally, she accepted that 16 was her lot. Hopefully, a little more than a month from now, we'll have a batch of 'scovy babies. Fingers crossed!!

We're also debating sticking additional 'scovy eggs under Miss Bit€#¥ aka Smaug (LJ read The Hobbit last year and feels this name is quite appropriate) who is very bitey pecky broody and refuses to give it up. Couldn't hurt to try, eh?

I whacked it with a stick... Stupid llamas

Did you know that there are llamas in the woods? Well, there shouldn't be. Neighbor came up to the house last night. He and his daughters were riding horses in the woods near our place, and out of nowhere two llamas appeared and attacked their horses. The girls bailed off the frantic horses, and said horses took off... Followed by the llamas. One horse was still missing, so I grabbed a walking stick (critter whacking stick since I didn't want to get my pistol out) and headed into the woods to help search.

Ran into neighbor's wife, who was riding her stallion on the search, both because she could cover ground more quickly, and because he was hollering loudly every few minutes for his girls. Figured that might help locate the missing mare, I guess. She and I split up, and I walked round the long way back to the house. It was near dusk, and there's cougar and bear in them there woods. I wasn't gonna stay out til dark. I was rounding the last bend when I heard crashing in the woods to my left. Yay! I'd found Maggie! Nope. Two llamas came trotting out. They spotted me, and one of them laid back its ears and started coming at me. Wth! Good thing I had grabbed a stick. When waving my arms and yelling didn't shoo it away, I gave it a good whack. Pretty sure the stupid creature was planning on stomping me. Anyhow, didn't want ANYTHING to do with me after I smacked it.

I posted a lost and found on craigslist. Hope someone finds and catches those stupid llamas. And to think I'm usually on the lookout for cougars. Never figured I'd get charged by a freaking llama in the middle of the woods. Stupid llamas.

Beefy, the bath-hog gander

It's HIS bath. He's the biggest, so it's his, right? Waves must be made. Water must be sloshed. Pool must be nearly emptied via bath time play before anyone else gets a shot at it.

"Back off mud-demons! You will not soil these waters! MINE!!"

More goats in cars

Or maybe they're sheep? The one on the right looks like a sheep. This pic was taken in nearly the same place on the highway as the last one. Gotta love it!