As the Barnyard Turns

I thought I'd update you on the comings and goings of all the animals here. You can never have too many animal pictures, right? Right. Let's start with the chickens, shall we?

First, I'd like to show you what I find every day when I collect eggs.

This is Wanda. Wanda was given to me at the end of August by my friend Lindsay. Lindsay had gotten her from a lady that found her on the side of the road. Wanda was just a little thing...probably only 5 or 6 weeks old. She lived with the broilers until they went to the big freezer in the sky, then she moved into the coop with the adults.


Look what's happened to her. She's gone broody! She wants to be a momma and boy is she dedicated. Every day for a week I took the eggs out from under her and the next day she'd be dutifully sitting on more eggs. Today I decided to let her try out her brooding skills. I left her with 7 eggs: 2 green, 2 big brown ones, 1 smallish brown one that I think is hers, and 1 little bantam egg. We'll mark today as day 1 on the calendar and see what happens!


I opened the coop today to see if the chickens wanted out. Poor birds have been cooped up for over 2 weeks now because of all the snow. A few of them got brave and ventured out, but they didn't stay out for long.


Remember this guy? He is the free exotic chick McMurray Hatchery sent with my broilers last summer. He's finally growing out of his ugly stage. Took long enough! He also earned a name. Chickens have to be able to stand out if they want a name, either with looks or personality. This guy's looks make him stand out. He is now dubbed Fabio. I think it fits, you know, with his long blond flowing locks and all.


He and my other rooster make a nice pair I think.


And check her out. She's the only white chicken I have. Well, she was....


Until this girl hatched out of the Thanksgiving chick batch. This is the only chick that hatched that I'm darn sure who the mom was! They look exactly alike.


And remember this one? Another Thanksgiving chick. I couldn't tell if he was a she or a he. He's definitely a he. See his pointy saddle feathers growing in? I think I'll probably keep him for a while. I'm curious to see what he looks like all grown up.




Ok, enough about the chickens. Let's move to the ruminants. Poor June and Darla have been feeling left out with all the lamb posts.

June is due exactly one week from today, on March 3rd. Her belly is still growing and so is her udder. I'm going to be starting the night-time checks now just so I don't miss the kidding.



And last but not least, Darla has some news....


Got the lab results back this evening. She's PREGNANT!


Her expected lambing date is June 22nd!

That's all the news for now! Oh, guess what's in our forecast for tonight and tomorrow? SNOW. As if we haven't had enough of that this year. :-)