My animals have manners! I took out as a treat, mushy mashed potatoes for Chick Chick and her buddies who live in the main part of the barn. I put it down and before I could say “NO” to Dunkay, 3 chickens and 2 cats came running to see what mommy has brought out for them today. They all love tators and decided to share,. Oh how I wish I had this on camera! The black plastic container isn’t very big so they took turns taking a bite! First Chirpy our black hen who we hatched on our own 2 years ago, then Chick Chick followed by the boy kiddie (who is buds with the possum) then the rooster, after his peck, the black kitten took a bite and then they started over! A chicken, followed by a cat and so on!! There they were, 3 chickens, 2 cats, mining their manners by taking turns nibbling bites of food out of a tiny container filled with mashed potatoes. They were the envy of all the other animals who couldn’t get out of their pens to eat the delicious human food! Dunkay was not happy and HEE HAWED at me more than once.
Category Archives: Chickens & Rooster
FARM EXERCISE!
If you are a true farm woman, it is impossible to get fat! I was out in the barn, field and yard today for an hour and a half, climbing hay stacks, moving bales, filling up animal water bins inside the barn. I did my grain dance with the circling goats and horses. I then emptied out the turtle shaped sand box that the quackers use for a pool, rinsing it out as my impatient ducks flapped and squawked at me the whole time. I climbed over a bunny fence, taking part of it down to make their pen bigger. I swept, then hosed off the back porch from duck poop. I searched for eggs with Dunkay (only found 5..dang hens are getting sneaky again). I chased Llamas out of their pen into the back pasture so I could close it up and let chickens out to enjoy some fresh air and peck at the brown grass. I carried 2 large arm loads of hay to put out for the Llamas and the best exercise of all….I saw Dillon running towards the garage so I sprinted from the middle of the yard to beat him there. I just fed the kitties and left the door open because I wasn’t done with my cat chores when I saw him do a bee-line for the opening! Ha! I beat him! I got there 2 seconds before he did and I loudly said to him, “I win, you lose, no kitty food for you!!” He grunted at me and walked away to see if he could get into the bunny pen for rabbit pellets. Tonight, I’m going to be lazy and herd everybody back into the barn with my Jeep, window down yelling “YEE HAAAW!!..ROLLEN ROLLEN ROLLEN KEEP THEM DOGGIES ROLLEN, RAW HIDE!!”
Black bunny that lives with the chickens
the hens share their food with bunny, whether they want to or not!
Bunny lives with chickens (Nov 20th)
We have a black bunny who has decided to live with the chickens. Everyday I go in, I can see her sitting out in the open with them (I guess she likes cluck cluck food!). The chickens don’t seem to mind, they just strut past her & will peck at her if she gets in their way. Well, I think she is spending way too much time with them cause on Saturday, after she hoped away from the nesting boxes, that is when I noticed that she had been sitting on an egg. The rabbits are now taking turns with the hens to hatch chicks. I wonder if she thinks that is how bunnies are born?? Okay then!
Roosters (nov 26)
It’s 2:30AM and I hear two roosters taking turns crowing to see who is the loudest and can go the longest. So far the contest has been going on for almost 15 min! Why? Why I ask do they feel the need to wake everyone up within a 5 mile radius? I wonder if the axe is sharp?! Old Mc Addie had an axe, e i-e i,oooooooo
Winter
Ah the joy of winter…lots of snow with high winds that make the below freezing weather feel like the North Pole on a warm day! Then there is the morn, afternoon and evening ritual. I put on my pink Carhart jacket with matching pants, hat and gloves, pink rubber boots that go up to my knees with the little brown horse’s on them, a scarf to wrap around my face 4 times and a prayer on my lips. I fight my way to the barn as the biting wind slams tiny ice particles onto my exposed face I couldn’t cover. On the way to the barn I repeat to myself, “I love these animals, they are worth the effort, it’s good exercise”. I then proceed to push a horse or a donkey (usually both) away from the barn door so I can get in without slipping on the ice. My favorite word is now being heard by all…”NO” or “stop it”. The animals are now circling the feed bag, some grunting, some stomping and a few nips at each other! Then there is little ol me, in the middle trying to formulate an escape plan in case they go to war. I hand out food rations which is never enough, I sneak to the hay bale before Dunkay gets there and throw little piles of hay everywhere so they all think they have their own food that nobody else can see! I let out a huge sigh of relief because I just survived another feeding. Now it’s time for the chickens and the black bunny who lives with them, helping to keep the eggs warm. And the ducks? They are in the yard quacking making hundreds of snow trails from the back porch to their shelter waiting for me to fight my way to them,unhappy because I didn’t feed them first.
Staring animlas
12:30 at night here and the Llama’s are doing their warning call. I go outside on the back porch to see what’s going on and they are staring out into the back pasture. Both goats are outside not moving a muscle, almost like statues, they won’t turn to look at me. I don’t know if a coyote is out there or what. I’ve never seen the goats not move when I come out. Usually they are in bed for the night at this late hour, after all, they need to rest so they can have enough strength to harass me for food. I woke Chad up and told him something weird is going on, the Llamas & Alpaca are doing their alarm call…so he ask me, “did you go out to the barn”? Heck no! I’m not gonna get attacked by a coyote! You go out there, your the man, our protector! Did he go? Nooooooo…he said, “I’m sure they’re okay” and shuts his eyes! I hope those Llama’s do what God created them to do…protect the flock! Of course, it could be that escaped donkey or pony or whatever it was earlier that ran down the road.
Animal Love Song. Nov 15th 2013
My animals love me so much they are singing me a song! First Dunkay does his louder than a jet plane HEEE-HAAAAW and the goats who are standing beside him, staring at the house of course, do their high pitched BAAAAAAAA…then Dunkay hollers again, followed by a rooster. The only thing that would make this choir perfect, is if the Alpaca would do his alarm call! Now that would be farm sweet music!!! I gotta get cameras up!!
Chickens By The Road
Early morning…dogs wake me up barking, I drag my tired, half asleep bones out of the bed, go to the brick ached window, squint my now forced eyes open and what do I see? 5 or 6 chickens outside the gate standing next to the road. I throw my hand to my head releasing a loud “why me’ sigh and get dressed as fast as I my old body will let me so I can chase birds back into our yard before a car hits them. I refuse to run out there in my red furry robe with the cute puppy dogs on it, fuzzy blue slippers and glasses! I already scare the neighbors enough with my weekly tirades running down the street waving and yelling at something bigger than myself! By the time I got out there, no chickens were standing around. I look between the bushes, I go around the front yard, I look long & hard down both sides of the road nothing. Of course a jeep comes down the road and slows down, nobody knows what the crazy farmer lady is going to do next, therefore it is safer to slow down to a crawl and go around her leaving 20 feet between! I smile and wave, she looks nervous and sort of waves back, I think it was a more along the lines of telling me to stay away from the vehicle! Still no chickens. By this time every animal in the barn knows I’m up early and outside…they call to me, all of them, at once. I go to the barn and who do I see? Yep, it’s them chickens! All together looking at me with their heads cocked with a look of, ‘why are YOU up so early? you gonna feed us or what’? I had a vision flash before my eyes! I saw 5 cooked chickens stuffed and ready to eat!!
The escaped horses!!
So what’s new in the farm life you ask??? Well, let me tell ya! I was making the bed when the dogs started to go crazy barking and running in circles. I could hear multiple car horns honking in front of my house…my Farmer Nancy instinct screams, “OH NO” and I quickly look out the arched window just in time to see Sparky our white horse running down the street with 3 ladies chasing her! Following close behind them is Lacie the fat brown horse! I run downstairs, put on my now running shoes and out the door I go! I run to the gate as the horses are now galloping full speed along the outside of our fence. I have a brave lady running after them and 2 more ladies standing in my driveway, a look of amusement mixed with , ‘man it sucks to be you right now’ on their faces. I ask a smiling lady to please watch my gate so the Llamas won’t join the escapees in the ‘free-for-all….Dunkay was running back and forth in the field following the horses while the Llamas were at the gate stomping their feet waiting for their chance at freedom! Oh woe is me! I sprint from one end of the field to the other as the horses kept changing direction. A brave neighbor was chasing them, frantically waving her arms at the horses who were ignoring her at the opposite side of the pasture from were I was! I grabbed a cup full of grain on my way to the other field as the horses were still doing the zig-zag dance. Oh but the tasty goat food is always too much for Sparky, she will follow it anywhere at anytime, she gave up her freedom for a handful of food and Lacie, well she followed Sparky cause that’s what she does! I realized something today…I’m too fricken OLD to be running with horses and keeping my dignity in front of ladies who I don’t know!
ONLY AT ADDIE ACRES 