When farm animals attack!

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Okay, so the title of this post got you hooked, right?  You're thinking that I've been charged by a bull.  Well, we have no bull here at Wishful Acres Farm right now, only the goats and chickens.  Both of which have attacked me in the past week!

Last week, I was butted by a goat's horn in my ribs.  In all honesty, I'm not positive the goat intended to head butt me or not.  I was bending over, feeding the chickens, when I was banged by a goat's horn right in my side.  I straightened up, only to see this goat then rear up on his hind legs and head butt the other goat.  It also happened to be the goat who is the "bully" of the two.  Which, when all is said and done, does lead me to believe that this darn bully billy goat (say that 3 times fast!) really did intend to horn me.  I tell you what, if we ever do increase our goat herd by adding some females, and if the time comes for us to sell one of our male goats... well, let's just say I know exactly which darn bully billy goat is leaving this farm! VanGoat!  He picks on the other goat constantly.  Poor Merlin is always running away from him & I swear sometimes I see him shaking in fear.  And poor lady farmer (me!), while I'm not shaking in fear from this goat, I'm sure not turning my back on him either.  By the way, our goats are now very big.  When they're standing, theirs backs reach almost to my waist.  It's amazing how fast they grew, they're just about 1 year old now.  They are big enough with those giant horns to make me a bit nervous... let's just say that.

Okay, so the 2nd animal attack happened just this morning.  It was in one of our chicken coops.  Yep, I was attacked by a chicken.  Those of you who raise laying hens know... chickens are sure not friendly, cuddly animals.  Nope!  And I'm about to expose them as the vicious animals that they are.  I was crouched down, collecting eggs from the laying box, when a hen runs up & bites / pecks me right on the nose.  Vicious carnivore!  I guess my nose was resembling something it wanted to eat?!  To be honest, it didn't really hurt, but it sure did surprise me! I will admit that I'm not the hugest fan of chickens anymore... in my 2 years of raising them, I've learned that they are probably the dirtiest, most difficult, least profitable farm animal that exists.  And they require the most work from me on top of it.   Bring on more pigs, goats, and maybe even eventually some cows.  All of those are easier to raise than chickens... truly!  I'd rather raise a pig than a chicken, and I've done both so I can say that with all honesty and experience.  All winter long, I've been toying with the idea of removing chickens from our farm after this season.  It makes me a bit miserable to care for them in the winter.  And they attack!  Don't forget the attacking.  Anyway, I know that our egg customers truly enjoy the gourmet eggs, as does my own family, so at this point they will probably stay. 

You heard it here, farm animals attack.  Even in happy conditions.  Well, maybe they're sick and tired of winter as well.

Farming in below zero weather

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This morning, our farm thermometer read -10 below zero Fahrenheit 

The wind chill was predicted to be as low as -30 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Wishful Acres Farm is mainly a vegetable farm, but we do raise animals.  Right now, there are about 150 laying hens, 2 goats, 7 farm cats, and 1 farm dog (he doesn't count in this post, his life is currently spent lounging & sleeping in front of our woodburning stove).  But the rest of the animals live outside, in unheated barns and chicken coops.

What's it like to do the daily farm chores in this kind of weather?  Um.... not so fun.  It's not much fun taking care of chickens even when the weather is nice - they're the worst farm animal of all (that's for another post).

So, it's all about layering... long johns, jeans, multiple shirts, a hat with face mask, thick winter coat with hood, work gloves, rain pants, muck boots.  Only after all these items are on will I venture out.

The animals tend to keep inside their coops & barns when the weather is this cold.  In fact, it was so cold last night that we closed the coop & barn doors so the animals couldn't go outside at all (this kept that terrible wind chill OUT of their homes).  This is the first time this year we've completely closed up the coops & barn, usually we allow them outside access at all times, but it's SO cold!

The goats have both grown a thick winter fur.  Seriously, they're very furry right now, it's amazing!  It keeps them warm.

The chicken & goat waterers are frozen every morning, and when it's this cold they re-freeze again just a few hours after filling them.  The eggs have to be collected in the timely manner, otherwise they will freeze and crack.

Inside the coop, it's kind of nice that it's this cold, because the chicken manure is frozen & instead of mushing into it, I walk over the top of it.  We ran out of straw for bedding last week & it shows.  Haven't purchased any more yet, we were all laid up with influenza for over the past week... and let me tell you, if it's bad to care for the animals in this cold weather..... it's 10 times worse caring for them when you have full-blown influenza.  I had to drag myself outside every day to feed & water them, when really I just wanted to be inside by the woodburning stove, laying down with the rest of my sick family!

So there you have it, caring for farm animals in sub-zero weather.  Not fun, but can be worse.

Goats... crazy *randy* creatures afraid of 1st snow, new tales abound

Remember these guys? I haven't talked about our 2 male goats in a long time... many of you may remember that the goats came to our farm in March 2012 as tiny bottle-fed kids.

Here they are now, all grown up and lounging in their goat shelter inside the fenced goat pasture. These guys are really big now, their backs are almost even with my waist as far as height goes. And... I'm a bit scared of one of them. The boys hit 'maturity' this past fall and went into rut (smelly, goat mating season). They turned from snuggly babies into randy, smelly, amorous beasts!!! One in particular took to *ahem* jumping up on us & trying to have his way. If you think having a 150-pound goat with giant horns jumping on you sounds like fun... well, I can tell you it's not!

We tried to find another home for the goats but couldn't. So, we built them a shelter inside their electrified-fence pasture & I can feed and water them from MY side of the fence.  I haven't set foot inside their pasture for a month or two... really, I prefer to keep myself intact, and I find I actually *like* the goats again when I can feed, water, and pet their heads from MY side of the fence.

Well, this morning I wasn't so lucky.  I had to venture into their side of the pasture.  The blizzard that blew through yesterday left about 12" of snow here on the ground, and wind gusts reached over 50 miles per hour.  The goats were fine in their shelter, you can see in the picture that not a drop of snow blew inside their house (door is south facing).  But... they were completely freaked out by the snow.  They've never seen it before.  They wouldn't set foot into it!  They stood there inside their shelter, hours after the snow had finished falling.  Which wasn't good, because they wouldn't venture over to their water for a drink.  Being the crazy kind-hearted farmer that I am, I knew I had to get those goats inside a horse stall of our dry barn.  I had to venture in there with the goats.

I tried luring them out first, I tossed treats to them... they looked very interested, but after staring at me for a while & wistfully toward the treats, they glanced at each other and decided not to risk it.  I mean, after all, this snow would kill them.  Yeah, right.

So, I pulled out the big guns.  2 coffee cans full of goat pellets (we're experiencing a hay shortage here this winter due to the drought, so we just bought the goats their first bag of goat feed.... has some grain in it, but hey what can you do there is not much hay!  :-).

I walked slowly into their pasture, wielding my cell phone camera for all of you in one hand and 2 bins of goat feed in the other.  As you can see in the picture, they didn't venture out towards me until I got within 10 feet of them.  Thank goodness, once one came out toward the coffee can (oh, yes, believe me, he knew what was inside that coffee can)... the other, more *amorous* goat followed right behind.  He's the one that scares me most.  So, I'm wielding these coffee cans into their mouths, and walking backwards toward the barn..... oh, maybe 50-100 yards behind me.  It went fine.  No attempts on my person.  *Whew!*

The goats are now locked inside a large horse stall for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow will be warmer, and I hope to slowly introduce them to the fact that... really, it's okay to walk on the snow!  Jeesh... and here I thought goats were hardy creatures.  Our chickens are too scared to walk on the snow, either!  Maybe they're *wishful* for some warmer acreage?  :-)

Hope you're enjoying the winter season.  Happy Winter Solstice!

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What our farm animals eat, why they're fenced, your questions answered.

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I've had a few people question me lately on what our farm animals eat and why they're fenced in.  So much news & media these days focuses on the pitfalls of feeding grain to farm animals, but let's remember that it's only the ruminant animals who can thrive solely on grass / pasture.

There is a certain category of animal, Ruminants, whose stomachs & digestive systems are designed to eat only plants.  I'll borrow an answer I found online here:

A ruminant is a mammal that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first stomach, known as the rumen, then brings back the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chews it again. The process of again chewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called "ruminating".  Ruminating mammals include cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, bison, yaks, buffalo, deer, camels, gazelles, dik diks, mouse deer, hartebeests, wildebeests, etc. 

So, the only ruminant animals we currently raise on our farm are goats.  I say currently, because who knows what animals we're raise in the future!?  Our goats are not fed grain, they graze & prefer the really scrubby stuff... leaves, brush, and they get hay in the winter.  (Except when they steal the chicken's feed, which they love to do... so much so that we've had to move the bags of chicken feed into metal trash cans to keep the goats out!).  So, given the chance, goats love grain.  I try my best to keep them out of it.

Currently, here is how our goats are raised.  We have a large fenced-in area, and I hope to expand that area as we increase the size of our herd.  Ideally, I'd love to have the portions of our farm fenced-in that are really scrubby & overgrown (the goats would LOVE that).  Since we're new to goats, and have just recently fenced in a large area for the 2 of them (I'd say it's about 1/4 acre), there is no shelter within their fence.  We're working on that.  But for now, what we do for shelter is very high-tech.  It involves opening the fence and leading the goats back into their shelter.... a very nice horse stall inside our barn.  I do this every night.... lead the goats back inside, usually by attaching a leash to their collar, but sometimes they'll simply follow me.  And then, each morning, I lead them back outside and into their fence.  If it rains, or we have bad weather, the goats stay in the barn and have access to the attached outdoor barn area (fenced in as well).  The goats are fenced because they would eat our vegetable crops.  A bite here & there, poop in the gardens.  Plus they would leave our farm & wander off down the road.

We raise chickens.  Meat chickens as well as laying hens.  Chickens are omnivores.  They are not ruminants.  They eat plant and animal.  Crazy carnivores!  Given half a chance, I think they'd eat each other.  No, don't get any ideas, the chickens here at our farm don't eat each other, it's just a joke, no need to call the animal rights groups.  Our chickens are fed primarily chicken feed, which is grain-based and perfectly balanced with the amount of protein they need.  When I give them freshly-ground grain, they also need grit & oyster shell.  Grit is fine rock or cherry pit, which chickens store in their gizzards and it allows them to grind their food before digestion.  Chickens don't have teeth.... so this is how they grind their food.  Oyster shell is a source of calcium, which they need for the egg shells (the shells of eggs have a lot of calcium, and producing those eggs can sap a chicken's calcium supply).  Our chickens are also supplemented with some farm veggies, occasional weeds (when I hand weed the farm fields, which isn't too often), and they adore kitchen scraps.  This applies to the egg layers.  We raised a couple hundred meat chickens (yes, they are totally different, meat chickens & egg layers), and the meat chickens would barely touch anything besides chicken feed.  Some of them would forage around, but mostly they wanted to simply eat the grain.  They're bred for this. 

Our chickens are not allowed unrestricted access to our farm because they would destroy our farm gardens.  They would eat all the vegetable crops, scratch the vegetable plants to death, and poop right there on our crops (No way!  Huge no-no, fresh manure on the vegetables.  Not only would their high-nitrogen manure kill the vegetable plants they would poop on, but really fresh manure on food could lead to sickness.).  Thus, our chickens are fenced-in.  They have a very large chicken run (fenced in area), which is attached to their coop.  So, chickens are not grazing animals.... yes, they adore eating grass & weeds & seeds, but can't thrive on it alone.... if allowed to range unrestricted they would also eat things like bugs, snakes, & even small rodents (I have heard stories of chicken catching a mice or two, but I've never seen it myself).

We also raised a handful of pigs this summer.  Pigs are mammals, but not ruminants.  They are another example of an omnivore.  They root around, foraging for food, and tear up the ground with their strong snouts.  Ours are raised outdoors, with a shelter from the elements.  They are fenced.  Why?  They would tear up our gardens... literally.  And then run away to the neighbors yards, and tear up their gardens.  Then they would poop all over our vegetable crops, and then run to the neighbors houses and poop on their gardens. And trying to catch a runaway pig is a horrible experience (ask me how I know!!!). You get the picture.  They look cute & innocent, but that snout is like a small bulldozer!  And of course, our farm animals are not potty-trained!  :-)  So, what will pigs eat?  Just about anything.  Grain. Ours loved any farm vegetables we gave them.  Kitchen scraps are a great treat.  Small children (kidding, just making sure you're paying attention).  Again, they're kind of like a chicken this way, eating just about anything.

So, now you have it.  This is what our farm animals eat, and how they are housed.  If you have any complaints, please contact me first with questions before reporting us to animal rights groups (joking, sort of... I've had a bad summer with people out here, and that's all I'll say about that).  Thank you. 

Getting into goats... fencing installation in progress

Installing new fencing today at Wishful Acres Farm. After much deliberation, we decided to increase the size of our goat herd this upcoming fall. Many of you have seen the few blog postings & pictures here relating to the 2 male goats we adopted as bottle-fed babies last March. We all enjoyed the goats so much we decided to make them a permanent fixture on our farm. We hope to bring about 10 females to our farm soon!

For now, only a small area will be fenced. We hope to gradually increase it, and by next summer we should have a full acre or two of ground fenced in. Including a good portion of our overgrown, timber, shrubby land... goats love that type of land!

Just walking the goats!

Ha!  Thought you'd all get a kick out of this picture.  I'm moving the goats to a new pasture, and we have them trained to walk on a leash.

Dressed up to attend my future sister-in-law's wedding shower, not my usual farm clothes, which I thought would make for a hilarious picture.

Smile & enjoy your weekend!

Escape artists.

Van Goat reaches high for tasty treats

Van Goat loves to eat leaves from young trees. Look at his reach! Our farm intern, Stu, is seen in the background.

www.WishfulAcresFarm.com
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Merlin the goat makes the morning rounds

I have a shadow this morning for farm chores! Merlin, one of our baby goats, has decided to follow me around & keep me company this morning.

He's a cutie!

Row cover: another reason organic costs are higher

Ever wondered why organic fruits & vegetables cost more? The main reason is increased labor and more costly materials.

One reason shown here in picture. We have a problem in this part od the country with an insect pest called the "flea beetle". It's not really a flea. Anyway, it loves to eat the delicious leaves of brassica crops... think arugula, mustard greens, all the asian greens, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. On a conventional vegetable farm, a low-cost insecticide chemical would be sprayed, taking a few minutes, and that would be it. On an organic farm, we use no chemicals. Instead, we fight flea beetle attacks by using "floating row cover", which you see pictured. Costly to purchase, and takes a lot of time & labor to lay it over the beds.

Pictured is just one of many beds being covered now at Wishful Acres Farm.

www.WishfulAcresFarm.com

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Goats, video & better picture

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As you have all seen over the past several months, my cell phone takes horrible pictures.
I got out the REAL camera today for the first time in... well, a long time! (I'm horrible about pictures, I know, I know).
Anyway, I wanted a few real pictures for our photo albums, so I've been snapping away.

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How about a video of my youngest son, age 4, bottle feeding a goat?  Hahaha.

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Alex & Tristan bottle feeding our 2 baby goats tonight in the barn. So darn cute!

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We've adopted 2 kids!

Baby goat kids, that is. Ha, did I get you?

2 male baby goats were introduced to our farm today, they're both about a month old.

The boys are loving this, baby goats to care for & play with.

Goats?

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To goat or not to goat... that is the question!

Thinking goats... our sons would love to have them around, they can graze some of our areas out here.  Not looking to milk or meat at this time.

Advice???