Escape Routes and New Chicks

My mother pointed out that I never did update about the cows, well in short - they've gone back home. It's funny, nobody ever thinks about personalities, emotions or thoughts that a cow could have and we definitely don't think of them as having a strong family connection. Well, just goes to show you again how little we know. When my parents unloaded them at their farm each of the steers ran straight for its mother, all of the other cows surrounded them and they called to each other in greeting.
While we are on the topic of underestimating our livestock. Our pigs escaped yesterday; you would think with 10 acres at their snouts they wouldn't bother but nope, onto the neighbours property they go. I guess 6 full grown pigs running up to her looking for attention gave her quite a fright. This has definitely let us know we have a loop hole somewhere in our system and some immediate fence repair is going to be need, now all we have to do is find the time to do it.
About a month ago one of my golden laced wyandottes went broody, meaning that she wanted to sit on her eggs around the clock. Instead of discouraging her from this which most people would do as they stop laying eggs if you let them become broody, I got some fertilized eggs off of a friend and put them under her. Yesterday the first one hatched! I think it's so cool letting nature take its course like this!

Broody Mumma

First chick - hopefully more soon! I put 6 eggs in.

Trouble in Paradise

Well, things have been going quite well on the farm. In most respects.

So far I have planted, corn, sunflowers, swiss chard, a herb garden, asparagus, carrots, lettuce, pak choi, cabbagem chicory, celery, tomatoes, peppers, jalepenos, radishes, peas, beans, brocolli, cauliflower, onions hahaha. Now I think I just wait.....oh right and weed the garden every 5 minutes. We have some sort of bamboo growing in our garden that is absolutely nothing but a nuisance and completely invasive.

Today when I was working in the garden I had let all my chickens out. My baby chicks are now growing wonderfully and looking great lately. I went into the house to grab a drink and bam......fox attack. 4 chickens got killed. My gorgeous Light Brahma hen, my little cute blue cochin girl, a barred rock and a white crested black polish. So sad. It was terrible.

On another note one of my chickens that went broody I put some eggs under her which should hatch this Wednesday. You never know what is around the corner. Today was definitely a setback.

Oh yes, a little bath time fun!

 

Pigs are by far the best farm animal I have ever owned. They are such a joy everyday!

Thank God for Neighbours!!

              I have to first apologize for being quite lax on my posts lately. To be honest I had meant to do a post on my mum and I electric fencing our huge 3 acre paddock. My mum spent the majority of the day on it and I joined in when I got off work around 2pm and then we worked again until 8pm. Long day! Then the next day her and my dad came down again and worked all day, this time they brought two of their dexter cow steers. They were the original reason for setting the paddock up. We have so much area of pasture that is just going to waste so why not! Well, to say this hasn't gone smoothly is an understatement. After all the hard work and good intentions put into the paddock the cows still got out.
             Yesterday morning I got a call from another superintendent at Hy Hope farms that our cows were on HWY 23!!!! Great! He said that they had been on the highway the night before as well. I hadn't thought too much of not seeing them out in the paddock cause there is so much brush for them to hide and blend into we haven't seen them unless we go looking. Okay, back to how we got them back. Well, obviously the day the cows get out is the day that Steve takes the truck so getting them onto a trailer is out of the question. First things first though, I now have to find them. So I drive down hwy 23 and into a neighbouring property that they had apparently been on the night before. Obviously they're no where to be seen on this million million million dollar property. After quite some running around I get back into my car and head to their neighbours to see if there is anybody there with some information. Although she hadn't heard about the cows she let me borrow her golf cart so I could tour around looking for them! So now back to the million dollar mansion I go. This place is an entire gated area, main house, pool house, gorgeous pool.......video surveillance...lovely. But what can you do, so I start touring around on the golf cart and find the cows right by the pool....oh brother.
             Now that I have found them what am I going to do...I guess I didn't think that far ahead. I drive back to my car at the neighbours praying that the cows stay put and call hy hope farms to lend a hand which they were more than happy to do. So I get back to the cows and then the two guys from hy hope come over in their golf cart. In my golf cart touring previously I did make a discovery that this property backs onto my neighbours. So our game plan was to get the cows onto my neighbours property and then onto the road and down the road to my place. First off, we need grain to try the luring technique. I jump the fence and run back to my place to get some grain...it wasn't TOO far. Just a couple trips and somersaults down the hill on the way. When I get back we try our best but cows always seem to do the opposite of what you want and start running through the forest, the opposite way - naturally. Our best bet at this point was to follow them and try and run them in the direction that we want. Which worked to a degree. Getting them out on the road was a bit nerve racking but all in all we finally after 2.5 hours got them back onto my property and in the pigs old smaller paddock for safe keeping.
           My parents came up last night to work on fencing or take their cows back, I wonder which one will happen. Next job- - finding presents for my lovely neighbours that stuck by my side for 2.5 hours.