A Visit To A Franklin County Animal Farm

I began hankering for a couple of fantail pigeons to keep with my bantams. I've had pigeons several times before, but the fantails were tamest and easiest to care for. They are also the easiest to sell if the need arises. So I connected with a guy in Franklin County, just east of Malone, and drove there on Saturday morning. When I arrived, his son was working a former draft horse, reacquainting him with the business of being in harness and following directions:

There was a pony, a small heifer and a donkey there also, watching all the activity:

This horse came right over to the fence to be petted:

And then its pasture buddy came over to say hello as well. I paid no attention to any of these animals' genders, so I just use the word "it" when referring to them:

The pony's name was Cricket and there was a small herd of goats keeping it company:

A llama and another donkey:

One of the friendly goats trotted over to say hello:

And Cricket, the pony, wanted attention:

There were a lot of rabbits of various sizes, shapes and colors. Most were in individual cages but a great many had newborn litters, so clearly they hadn't always been alone:

There were also guinea hens, bantams and full sized Barred Rocks:

My fantail pigeons were waiting for me in that wooden crate on which a very friendly bantam pranced. Other fantails and another guinea hen watched from the overhead cage:

It was indeed a grand mixture of animals, most of whom seemed to get along quite well:

I got my four pigeons and headed home, where I put them into the chicken coop and closed the door to the outside to keep them from escaping. Only one hen was in the coop, and when I returned later to check on things, found her in a tizzy over these new residents. I also had to admit that I had no plan for how to open the door to let the rest of the chickens back in without the fantails escaping. So in the end, I moved the four pigeons into another room. They are getting used to me and their new surroundings. You'll hopefully see photos of them in upcoming posts:

Scenes From Around The Farm

Daybreak as I looked across the road at my neighbors' fields:

And daybreak with the rising sun lighting up my neighbors' barn. Their animals were still sleeping in the barn:

I was working on the fence line shortly after the north field had been hayed and captured this glimpse of the new bales with the barn and house in the background:

Wild grapes grew everywhere, causing much trouble with my brush clearing. They were beautiful, but terribly, terribly bitter:

I was working hard but enjoying it greatly:

I said "Howdy" to a Praying Mantis:

I'd sprayed the perimeter of the field to kill the weeds but they hadn't fallen down, so I had to weed-whack the entire perimeter of both fields. The entire operation from brush clearing, fence repairs, two sprayings, weed-whacking and hanging warning signs took nearly the whole summer:

Another view of the north field, this time from the woods:

The chickens finally began coming out and going back in on their own, but spent most of each day on that step. Well, you can imagine what happened when walking in and out of that door and the messy, poopy shoes which resulted. I got three sections of garden fence at Home Depot and solved the problem:

I netted 35 bales for feeding my cattle this winter. Of course they won't arrive until later this autumn, but I'll be ready for them when they get here:

I got to know a bit more about grasshoppers this year. This one, I believe, was a male although I don't know what species:

And this lovely creature seemed to be keeping me company in the field as I worked. I later looked it up on the internet and submitted photos to the Butterflies And Moths Of North America site. It was identified as a Bronze Copper, Lycaena hyllus:

And here's the page redording my sighting:

And lastly, a short video of my Bantam Barred Rocks waking up and coming outdoors for the morning:

Assorted Scenes From Around The Farm

It was a busy summer and a real learning experience for me. I spent a lot of it getting my little flock of Barred Rock bantams raised and teaching them to negotiate the outdoors. Yes, they had to be taught, first to go outside - and then to come back inside. But after awhile, they did learn to go in and out of their coop without assistance:


Alas, one of the lessons I learned was that a flock of chickens, however small and adorable, who hang out on the step in front of the barn door will poop so much as to make entering and exiting a distinct problem:

They learned to scratch, search for bugs and eat grass:

At first they wouldn't leave their coop so I put them out each day, one at a time. Then they went out by themselves but I had to catch and put them back, one at a time. But finally they learned:

I did a lot of fence work around both fields. The view across the hay fields toward the house and barn was one of the payoffs for getting outside and doing the work:

I had to haul pruned limbs and other brush back into the woods with the tractor:

And toward the end, I had to weed-whack the entire perimeter of both fields, a seemingly endless job. Here, you can see a section of trimmed fence line and then a section of untrimmed, just ahead of the tractor:

And this is what happens when weed-whacking thousands of feet of fence line:

But far out in the field working in a natural setting surely has its benefits:

I also had a lot of mowing and weed-whacking to do for the lawn area:

And once again, the payoff for doing it was a kind of rural, comfortable beauty - the kind which seems to put the mind and soul at rest:

And here is a very brief video of the chickens doing their thing:

Snapshots From Summer On The Farm

Here are some random scenes from summer on the farm, beginning with the newly mowed hay in windrows in the south field. And just look at that sky!:

Wild cucumber growing abundantly over an old stump in my lawn:

Hay bales drying in the sun:

Mowing hay in the north field:

He needed a wide turning radius:

I'd missed the cutting of the hay in the south field, so I watched with interest when they did the north field:

The chicks were growing rapidly and no longer needed heat so I turned off the light bulbs:

I kept opening their door to outside but they refused to go there. After all, they were happy and comfy inside. Who needed the outdoors?:

They were really beginning to look like Barred Rocks:

I put their food and water outside to tempt them:

It didn't work, so I took some of them and put them outside through their door to see how they'd react:

How did they react? The huddled, as if fearful, in a corner. I decided I was going to have to work on getting these birds used to going outside, but I'll post about that in the future:

Baby Chicks - Growing Up, Meeting The Dogs

I recently posted about the baby chicks' arrival. Well, one week later they were still in the spare bedroom, separated into two very large Rubbermaid bins. I pulled the heat lights out of the bins and began using them, farther away, to help control the heat by turning them on or off. I also opened and closed the window. During one cold spell, I had to put a small heater in the room:

I had 26 chicks after one week, 13 in each bin. Here's one set of them. When I took this photo, they were beginning to get tiny wing feathers and their beaks were growing. I think they looked like little vultures. They were passing out of the cute stage and into the gangly teenage stage:

But still the problem of getting the dogs accustomed to them persisted, so I introduced the dogs one at a time. Fergus was not impressed. He seemed to be saying, "Yech-Poo. Here's what I think of your chicks:"

"Please, Dad. I don't want to be in the room with these stinky birds any more:"

Madeline had a similar, tongue out reaction:

But she understood that she was not to harm the chicks. Her solution was to pretend they didn't exist and just look away:

Well, the dogs may not have liked the chicks, but I sure did:

I concluded that the dogs looking away was a good reaction, that it meant they knew the chicks were not to be touched - even when one tried to burrow beneath Clover as if she was its mama hen:

The chicks had no fear and Clover seemed to be OK with them:

My hyperactive, mouse killing Daphne was the big problem. She wanted to either play with them or eat them - I didn't let her get close enough to find out which. But in this photo, the opposite seemed to be happening, as if the chick was bullying Daphne. "Back off, dog breath, or I'll peck you right in the nose!":

The chicks were more hand friendly than my parakeet:

Seamus, ever the gentle and patient soul, even got to wear a chick for a hat. He did look entirely put upon, though, didn't he?: