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.

The Marans & Ameraucanas - Grown up!

It's been a long time since I've updated on these guys too. They are what create the colored eggs on the above photo. Also, this will be a good time for me to show the difference between Ameraucanas and Araucanas. (but remember, hatcheries and feedstores do NOT sell either of them, no matter what they say!)

Here's my Ameraucanas so far. . . My Blues, Blacks, Wheatens, and Blue Wheatens.

This is my main blue cockerel, Poseidon.







This is my main black cockerel, Hades.





This is my currently broody blue pullet.



And here's another blue pullet, but she's so dark of a blue she's nearly black.



This is my black pullet, enjoying the vast reaches of our pasture.



Also, here's our current Blue Wheaten pullet who's laying. . . Her tail was taken by a goat.



Here's a Wheaten pullet.



And here's a gorgeous example of a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana egg! (it is small because it was her first)



Last but not least, this is "Sultan," an odd "White Wheaten" cockerel as I like to call it - He's white, but hatched from a wheaten/blue wheaten batch of eggs.




Now onto the Marans. . .

Almost all of my Marans are now laying, and at the moment I'm typing this, I'm collecting every single egg and putting it up for sale. So, to take a quick tour through the colors of Marans I have. . . We'll start with the Blue Wheatens and Wheatens.

Here's my Blue Wheaten cockerel. He's lanky and really needs to fill out, but otherwise quite nice.



Here's my Wheaten cockerel. He's quite an eye-catcher, and always takes good photos.





And now, the girls. . . I used to have the most gorgeous Blue Wheaten pullet around, but she went broody far out in our pasture and one night got dragged off by a raccoon. So, I've got Wheatens left. Most are okay, one in particular is stunning!









And last but certainly not least - My Black Coppers. These are the "big prize" Marans who lay the darkest of eggs. I have three different breedings of them, and am in the works of improving both egg color and body conformation and color. Some of my girls hardly even have copper on them, while one of my boys has a side-spring on his comb.

Here's the boys. . .

This is Guitard (pronounced goy-urd)



This is Cacao (His tail was eaten by a goat)



This is a cockerel currently nicknamed "Five Pointer."



These two are the bothers, "Five Pointer" and Guitard.



Two Black Coppers and my Blue Wheaten




And here's a small sample of the girls. Note the lack of copper.