The Flock and the Yak

So, this is about all that's been going on lately. It has been raining on and off, and we haven't had any sun since my last post. In the mean time I've been setting down and clearing out spaces for our new greenhouses to be built on as well as spaces for our future Orchard to be planted on. Other than that, I got a chance to take some photos of our flock of hens. Just a little note though - These photos show maybe half the population. Not shown are my Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, Buff Ameraucanas, and a few others. . .

We first start with the beginning. Cloudy day, middle of winter, yet there's still always chickens foraging about out there. So, I decided to take a peek. . .



So, getting a little closer, I can see a New Hampshire, a Brahma, some Wyandottes, and a Black Copper Marans. (who's the only non-hatchery bird there, and sadly bigger than the Brahma)



So, I decide to throw some sunflower seeds out there, attract some more. . .







Now remember, this is the middle of winter. . . Normally what you're looking at is solid greenery of grasses, daisies, thistles, blackberries, etc.

So, after that little get together, I finally decide to let our Yak, Djimon, out to graze the pasture. . .





After a little run-around behind their coop, I led them downhill and out to where Djimon the Yak was.





The big ugly pile of wood in the back is what happens when you cut down some forest and have yet to burn, chip, or simply move away the left-over stumps and twigs.



And, they've gone as far as they prefer for the day.

Now, time to fight over food!



For those of you who are curious - The black and white spotted chickens are Silver Laced Wyandottes. The white one with the black neck and tail is a Light Brahma. The orange ones that pop in and out are a New Hampshire and her crossbred daughter. The really light solid creamy brown ones are Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas. The light creamy brown ones with big fluffy bodies and dark orange heads are Wheaten Marans. The black ones are Black Copper Marans. The gray ones are Blue Ameraucanas and Blue Jersey Giants. There's also a couple others who pop in and out, such as a splash Araucana (white, no tail, has black polka dots on her body) and the solid white looking one is a splash Jersey Giant.


And, way over on the other side of our whole property, are some other free ranging, umm, birds? Raptors? Cross between people and chickens? . . . This here is our Shamo named Godzilla, though we often like to call him Gojira. He really is a sweetie though! Follows you everywhere, always wants treats, and always chit-chats with you. His mate's eggs are currently in the incubator and will hatch next week! His own crossbred babies are also in the incubator and they too are due to hatch next Monday.

COLD outside.

George, our one and only buck, says - "Happy New Year!!! It is FREEZING so far!"


Yes indeed, it is freezing. . . That photo and the following is really what it looks like throughout the farm lately. It has been beautiful, sunny, and clear. . . But also freezing, frosty, and completely shaded. Across from our farm, on the other side of the road, is a huge line of tall trees that always blank out our sunlight for the winter, and so in tough times like now, the only areas that get sunlight are the far end of the pasture and little tiny temporary strips through the Bachelor Pad, the Polish Pen, and the main lawn. Anywhere else, it is an almost eternal darkness, constantly coated then re-coated with thick blades of frost.







Even our Yak is frosted! And no, this isn't snow. .. It's frost. It doesn't bother him though. Yaks are originally a species originating and toughing out the cold Himalayan mountains.





And yes, he had the opportunity to sleep in a warm barn. . . He tends to enjoy the cold weather we don't often get, and spends a lot of late night time out in it.

But, in the short moments and small spaces of sunlight, even the least cold hardy animals survive. . . Our Shamos, for example, are naturally a desert-type chicken, and do not do well in cold, however our pair is doing pretty well.





And, the next breed of chicken to not like the cold sadly doesn't get much of a chance to get out in the sun, but when they do, they really enjoy it. . .




Well, I hope you're doing well and warm wherever you may be reading this! It normally isn't snowy or icy here, but we do experience what you're seeing for a few days to a week per year. We normally get frost, yes, but not this heavy except in a coldsnap or two per year. This is our second one. Well, technically half of it is in the new year, but. . . I count a whole winter in one year.

More about our Yak!

Okay, so remember our Yak? Remember him as a cute little curly-coated calf? Well, see him now!



Our Yak, running around. . . And yes, he's very athletic, even with all that hair.





At the top of the hill.



This is our Yak bull, Djimon. He's now over 7 months old, halter trained, and we're still working on training him to pack, and when he's older - Training him to ride. We're also still on the look out for a Royal (pinto) colored heifer for him.

He's doing great though! His horns are huge, longer than two hand's grasp, and he's tall enough now that if you stood over him, you'd have to ride him. And he's still growing! He's pretty lonely though, as he'll grunt constantly if he sees you or thinks he hears you sneaking around. Once you approach him, though, he's pretty social and friendly. Even if it means working with him, which he sometimes gets moody about. Working with him usually includes putting a bareback pad on him, getting him used to touches all over his body (desensitizing him) getting him to walk, stop, and turn on command, and stopping his terrible habit of grazing his head and horns against you when he wants things his way. Yes, Yaks can be quite stubborn and moody - And that is a dangerous thing if you don't get it behaviorally treated. Yaks grow to have very large horns that they will carelessly swing around unless you teach them otherwise.

Currently he shares a large pasture with countless chickens, several goats, and he used to also be with our Sebastopol geese, but we've decided to move those on up to the main front lawn.

Oops, a little late

So I've been busy. Again.

Well, this time it is because of goats! We've got some new babies! We went back up to the same amazing, lovely place where we got Coralbelle and Angelica, the Kinder goats, to fetch us 2 more doelings and one VERY handsome buckling! (pics soon, still working out camera issues)

Aside from that, I now have 31 girls laying and over 20 still expected to lay within the next few months from now. And then what next? Olive Eggers!! The only color of egg I now do not have in my basket are olive green and grass green eggs. Aaah just imagine. This winter I'll be setting up a breeding pen to temporarily pair off all my F1 Olive Egger parents, so the chicks will lay eggs come spring-early summer. We're talking Olive Eggers with tufts, feathered shanks, crazy colors, and no tails!

Anyway, here's some photos of our Yak and Araucanas just a month ago.

Update for All!

So it has been a while since I've updated the news on the farm. . . Well, let's start from the biggest animals down. :)

First, Djimon the Yak. You heard it, he's bigger than the goats now! He's maturing quite well now, and is quite the "man" . . . Okay so not really, but he thinks he is!



He's so hairy now! And it doesn't stop there. . . He's still got a LOT more wool to grow. Speaking of growing, take a look at how his horns are coming along. . . They used to be little stubs, now they're becoming longer, and I can actually hook my hand around them!



And of course, there's the other black four leggeds. . . Here's Jugs, previously named Zing. She's sooo close to birthing a kid! Look at that belly. . .



And then look at that pretty head.



But, what about this "3rd Goat" of ours? When did that come into play? Well, yes, we now have a 3rd addition to the four leggeds. . . We recently (two weekends ago) got ourselves a Nubian buck. I normally don't care for Nubians, but this guy has a most interesting color, hard to tell in photos though, of creamy tan with big white spots here and there. Also, he's very needy and an absolute sweetheart! He even wags his tail when you pet him.




Now, past the four legged animals, are the chickens. . . Here's our first Ameraucana and Marans chicks we got a while ago, back in February. They're 2 months old now!

The first photo is of our "keeper" Black Copper Marans cockerel walking a long the chicks' new permanent perch, just across from our current layer's perch. He has some undesired traits such as mossiness and a red chest coming through, but we're keeping him for Olive Egger production. "Mossy" Marans, those who have too much copper or golden feathers scattered around their bodies, are often known to lay darker eggs. So, we're keeping him to give us some beautiful Marans-Ameraucana crosses, so his traits won't affect the offspring, as they're going to be hybrids anyway.



Next is our Ameraucanas, who have really grown! We do indeed have some cleanfaced ones, (no muffs and beard) which is also undesired, but the cockerels we're not keeping and the hens will only be used for egg laying. The boys in this photo though are our keepers - One black, and one blue from this particular batch of Ameraucanas.



All 12 Marans and Ameraucanas that are 2 months old are now living with the adult hens. Eventually all of our chicks, including the ones in the incubator right now, will be introduced into the main flock once they're a month old. Then, when everyone hits laying age, the cockerels will all be put into their "bachelor pad" and the hens will all have free range until a month later. . . Then, the breeding programs begin.

And speaking of chicks, here's the Araucanas I got just a little while ago:



Full wing feathering!! They're also getting feathers in on their shoulders and back now. Of course, this photo may look like a chick you can get from the feedstore or hatcheries, but believe me - It isn't. These are true Araucanas, not the "Americanas" and "Araucanas" sold at hatcheries. They're the real thing; The rumpless, tufted, blue egg laying breed from South America.

And to further prove it, here's a gorgeous white one with amazing tufts, with another amazing blue just to the left, also with a lovelt set of tufts coming in.



And, here's the most interesting color of all - blue cuckoo. It isn't a true "barred cuckoo" color, but close enough. As a chick, it is completely convincing. But as it grows up, it is more of a blue tipped splash color. I got my Araucanas from a lovely guy named Gary Ramey, and he mainly works with this weird color as well as splash. I'm hoping to continue work on this color, and especially get some tufts in that genepool, because so far - I have two of thse. One with a clean face, and another with only one tuft.



And then past the Araucanas are our own recently hatched Black Copper Marans, Wheaten Marans, and BBS Ameraucanas. They're maturing very well! Here's our only three Wheaten Marans. . .

The first is feathering out straight brown so far, and a cockerel. It has a very well sized comb, and displayed the proper behavior just days ago.



This one I'm unsure on sex of, but has part black, part brown wings:



Another one I'm unsure on, as it has solid black wings:



And then, there's the Black Coppers. Some are getting some beautifully developed cockerel combs, some are just plain nice looking, and one is solid black. There is not a white feather or bit of down on it - Even its feet and beak are black. Very interesting.



Here's a group bunch of them, with the biggest combed Marans in the middle:



And last but not least: My 3 BBS Ameraucanas, being the biggest and heaviest of the bunch. They're only hours to a day older, but that can change a lot. Pictured is one of the blacks.






Hope you had the patience to look through all that! It sure is a lot, and don't worry. . . There will be more!!

My next post will be all about eggs. I'll be showing pictures of what we currently have in the incubator, what we eat and sell, and what we have that hatched out already, and we're just waiting for to grow up and give us more beautiful eggs! :)

The rest of them

Well, a couple days ago I had the time to actually be out with all the animals in the pasture. It was really nice - I got to watch Djimon wander off, almost to the burn piles and itch his horns on a stump; I got to fix up a nice, huge pit of dirt for the chickens to dust bathe in, and I was able to actually take a photo of all the Wyandottes in one frame. Oh, and I got to stare at my Easter Egger rooster and take in all the beauty that he is! I have a most beautiful Easter Egger.





Here's Djimon now. He's really grown since our first couple days! He's loose now, has been for some number of days. He's really really good with people, the only thing he still needs work with is halter training. Oh, and I actually had a chance to photograph the size of his horn. When we first got him, they were practically non-existent. In a matter of hours to a day, they were visible bumps. Now, they're getting shape, and starting to curve up and out of his fuzzy forehead.






Now, of course, there's two animals left that I have not spoken of since perhaps the day after we got them. They are the goats - Our LaMancha dairy girls. Zing, the black one, is due in less than 2 months, and Zest, the yellow-striped one, is due in June. Zing is still a sweety, and Zest isn't really as playful anymore but still quite distant. Sometimes it takes chasing her around until you catch her to actually put her to bed in the barn at night. One new thing that I have yet to catch on camera though is their almost daily "fights" now. Not sure if it is play or not, but during or after their breakfast, I have twice now caught the girls ramming their heads. Zest is always the one to pack the most punch, rearing into the air and coming straight down - But Zing is the one who resists the most. I just hope it doesn't hurt the babies inside them!



^ Zing and Zest approaching me, with all the chickens foraging behind. You can just see the bratty look on Zest's face! She always gives a sharp look at you. She's pretty bad right now - Her favorite thing to do is go up in the corner nearest the chicken coop and stand up on the fence. It tears down the chicken wire that lines the bottom of the fence, allowing the chickens to get loose from their pasture.

Glug Glug Glug!

The first Yak in Clallam County / the Northwest Peninsula drank his first milk today! It took an hour or so to actually make him drink from his bottle, be he eventually did - And here's my shot at capturing the event. The amazing, warm, and rare sun, though, warmed up our new goat barn so well that our baby yak needed something to cool off with. We couldn't just let him out to the pasture (He has and will be locked in the goat barn for a number of days) due to his slowly decreasing need to run away, charge at, or jump up/over things, so Ï drug out one of our plastic pools, put it in the barn, and filled it a couple inches with water. He jumped in there, walked around in it, then drank quite a bit. After that, he would often go in and out of it for short bits.

In a short story, today was his first full day away from his previous life, and for the first several hours of the morning - He took it pretty bad. By noon, he calmed down but still grunted a lot (Yaks grunt, they don't moo) and afternoon I was able to touch, pet, and itch any part of his body without him being bothered. If I left him, he grunted a lot. A good sign.





Outside the goat barn, the goats were pretty good today. They didn't cause any trouble today, which is amazing! They have been the worst brats ever, and even killed one of our New Hampshire hens! The chickens have been fine since that incident, though. They're still finding ways out of their pasture, though. I blame the goats and my not finishing the chicken wiring. So, I finally fnished and fixed it all today. Hopefully tomorrow will be the first day in which not a single chicken will be found loose!




Oh, and of course - With the amazing sun today, I let the chicks in their brooder see the light of day by opening the building's doors, and let the sunlight shine right into their area. They had fun.



So, the day itself was one of those "This is the Life!" days, The sun made me just want to lay somewhere where it was warm and the animals were nearby, but instead I had plenty fun work to do. The only problems, honestly, were that Djimon skipped his last two bottlefeeding sessions, and he seems to have a serious case of rainrot.