Animal update
May 24th, 2008 - Posted in chickens, ducks, self-sufficiency, sheep - by Sarah|
Winter is on it’s way now and while it may mean that we have to wear our woolly hats and long johns while watching South Park in the evening it doesn’t seem to be bothering the animals at all.
Apartheid has finally ended in the paddock as the youngsters have reached puberty and realised that although they look different they are still anatomically compatible. Mittens has wrested control of the flock from Cardigan and poor Singlet gets chased away whenever any of the ewes are on heat. I have been learning things I never guessed about sheep courtship. Mittens starts by hassling each of the girls until they pee in front of him. He then has a good sniff and sticks his nose in the air and wrinkles it up (he looks a lot like a hairy anteater at this point;-)). This ritual seems to enable him to decide whether it’s worth pursuing the sheep further. And when I say pursuing, that’s what I mean, as the ewes tend to spend a lot of time running away from him. Singlet on the other hand just sneaks in there whenever Mittens attention is distracted (eg by a handful of sheep nuts) and gets right on with it.
Mittens with Hat and Scarf.
The chickens seem happy too as I have changed the chicken run around so that they have a new area to explore. They have found a perfect dust bathing area and scratched out a hole that is currently about big enough to bury a whole chicken.
Queueing up for the dustbath.
We are still getting an egg or two every few days as well. One less observant hen has not realised that the seasons have moved on and is still trying desperately to hatch the 3 plastic eggs that I keep in the nesting boxes.
We are currently duck-less until we get some more eggs next spring. They roasted up beautifully and we even shared them with Brendhan’s eldest brother and one of his nephews.
