peacock – Peacock Orchard

Am I the only one doing this?

Alright people, if you’ve been reading my blog at all you’ll be surprised by what is to come. I’m starting to feel like a weirdo. Yup. All the stuff I’ve been doing and I’ve never felt particularly weird about it. This pig thing though, it’s starting to make me feel weird.

Am I the only one “free ranging” pigs with other animals? Am I the only one not having any problems with it? It’s so easy. I have the laziest system set up in the entire world. This is awesome, because I am essentially lazy at my core.

I have considered that it is the area that has made me so successful at this. We have 40 acres. We have wheat fields in front of our acreage. Our neighbors houses are placed so that there is maximum distance between our properties. Our road is only used by 3 families. Also, it’s Wyoming, old wheat fields that have been over grazed since being developed into residences. In short, there is pretty much nothing to eat off of our property.

So, perhaps I am not having any problems because there is nothing tempting my little piggies to wander. Maybe I’m just lucky. I don’t know. All I know is I open the gate in the morning and all of my animals come pouring out. Chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks and pigs. They all hang out together in the barn until release. Then the smarter chickens follow the pigs around waiting for them to dig up delicious morsels.

The pigs themselves wander here and there. We have no fences around our acreage that would keep a pig in except for those around the barn and yard. A few times they’ve gone to the end of our property to nibble the weeds around the road. We escort them back when they do. The neighbors are used to the sight of fat black pigs wandering about. At night they put themselves up and I shut the gate again. A few times I’ve heard coyotes close and have gone out earlier to lure the pigs back to the barn with a bucket of treats. This is, of course, not because I’m worried about the pigs. It’s because I’m worried about all the birds who would be left with the gate open until the pigs returned. The pigs can handle themselves. Our dogs are terrified of them.

As I watch YouTube videos and read blogs of various people I notice pigs are treated with suspicion. People seem afraid they’ll eat the other animals or escape to never return. I admit to being surprised by this attitude and it makes me feel…well….weird.

I should also note I don’t feed them except when absolutely necessary. We give them our food scraps but otherwise spring, summer and most of fall they are on their own. Get out and find food or starve!

I don’t want to mislead you all though. We had a dog break in and kill our chickens. When I went in and started making a pile with the bodies I woke the pigs up. They went to work destroying all the evidence aka eating the dead chickens. I don’t know that I would leave someone actively bleeding out there with them. However, I’ve seen them wait and watch a chicken die. They didn’t approach it until it was actually dead. Then they ate it no problems. Pig morals.

They’re just wandering in this picture.I took it from our living room. I love watching them meander.

Rascally Raccoons

Early spring we began losing chickens. Some of them were gone without a trace. Others were found partially eaten. We knew we had a problem, we just weren’t sure what form that problem was taking.

As we have a well fenced run area I felt confident crossing coyotes off the list. They have never made it over the fence before, it is unlikely they learned how now.

That leaves a few possibilities. Ok, tons of possibilities. raccoons, badgers, skunks and weasels to name a few. Raptors were not on our list. We have witnessed great horned owl carnage before and this was nothing like that. There were no holes dug anywhere under the fence so that pretty much crossed badger off the list. I did not think it was a weasel. We had seen a stoat about the property before but it was really small and seemed to be happy killing the ground squirrels we have plenty of. I didn’t think fox because what I understood about foxes is that they’d kill everything just for the pleasure of it. This led me down a raccoon path that was pretty much solidified by a neighbor confirming they had a raccoon family nearby.

So we started baiting a life trap, closing the gate on the barn itself and we bought and placed a trail cam to catch the culprit. The first night we caught a cat. I had wondered if it might have been a cat but I wasn’t confident this cat was our killer. So, after debating it we let the cat go and put the trap out again. The next night we caught…..something. It ripped the door off the trap so we had no real idea what it might have been.

Then we bought the pigs. We were worried, they were small when we purchased them. Still, pigs are ferocious when needed. The killing stopped for a time. I was hoping it had moved on, or the presence of the pigs in the barn was enough to discourage it. It wasn’t to last. Soon we lost a turkey. Our security doubled down. We were trying all different kinds of bait in the trap but never caught anything else. The trail cam never captured any useful photos either.

We went on vacation and I worried we’d come back to nothing. Thankfully everyone was still alive when we returned. We did have some ducks build nests outside of the run though. I had some hog panels I zip tied in a circle around the hens. Everything was going ok. The hens were set to hatch their eggs any day. Then I went out to find a wing and no other trace of the hen. The eggs were also gone. I was devastated but had hopes for the other hen. She was well hidden, it took me weeks to find her myself.

Around this time the peahens also went to brood. I saw them each day as they flew over to eat. Then, one morning, no peahens. My heart dropped and I went in search of them. I found feathers, so many feathers, and eaten eggs. No peahen. She obviously gave her attackers a struggle. We were hoping she was injured and in hiding. We searched everywhere. We’ve never found her. The other duck was also killed the same night. Her body was strewn about in several locations, her eggs eaten. At this point I called game and fish. I didn’t think a raccoon could take a peahen. I’ve seen those girls attack our dogs and win.

Game and fish came out and confirmed it was a coon. They’ve told us to stake it out and shoot it. The chance of trapping it is so slim shooting is our only option. So we have the game cam out, baited, trying to figure out which days and times the coons come around. So far we haven’t caught any pictures of them. We did get an entertaining coyote chase though. You can see the rabbit racing away in one shot and the coyote chasing it in the other.

We are nearly out of chickens at this point. We have a single turkey left. We also only have one peacock left. The male peacock went missing during the night a week ago. The ducks seem ok. Other than the ones who were nesting no ducks have been harmed. I’m guessing it’s their alert state at night that has kept them safe thus far.

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Goings on

Life has been moving quickly around here. I’ve began digging mini-kraters for fall seed planting. It has not been going well as the ground is hard as a rock. I’ve began making the new kitchen island butcher block. It’s going poorly to say the least. Hopefully it turns out well!

The animals are all doing well. The babies are growing. Unfortunately at least half of the baby chickens are roosters and will be culled this fall. The ducklings and peachicks genders are still indiscernible.

Mama pea has been buys teaching her children how to break into the food and how best to tear up my garden for dust baths.

We got a new puppy. He is a great pyr/Anotilian shepherd. He is adorable and prefers to be outside. Can barely keep him in the house. He is learning to like the poultry, though he was initially terrified.

We named him Ramsey after our two favorite people, Dave and Gordon.

If he’s like his mom he’ll be a hyper guard. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.

Prince is losing his tail now that mating season is over. I’ve been collecting it from all over.

We rescued all the tadpoles we could from shrinking water puddles. They are non-existent puddles now but the tadpoles are doing well in their swimming pool.

Our oldest is starting school in a week and we have been busy preparing. Life, it is busy!

Life and Loss on the Farm

We have had an eventful few weeks. So many new babies around and so many more in the works that it is rather exciting. The peachicks have finally hatched and momma pea is doing a wonderful job with them.

In fact, she has kept them quite hidden most of the time. So much so that I had a hard time figuring out how many she’d had. Seven, I now know. She has finally gone into the barn where I have locked her up in solitary confinement. Don’t feel bad for her though, her confinement is approximately 300 sq ft. It did take some talented staple gunning though. I had to chicken wire the area between the run in portion of the barn and the tack shed, where the chickens sleep every night. I didn’t want the chickens getting into the pea area and drinking the water, which I have to medicate for coccidosis. I hope that by keeping her confined in the barn with the medicated water I can save the peachicks. In years past the momma peas have always lost every single baby to coccidosis. When I raise them I manage to medicate them enough to get them through but then they die as soon as I release them as, for some reason, they are mighty attracted to the dogs, who think they are delicious.

She has two blackshoulder babies and 5 india blue. I’ve never had a blackshoulder survive. I am very hopeful this year around.

Daddy has been quite occupied running about screaming his awful scream. He is the worst sounding peacock I’ve ever heard. It sounds like he has something stuck in his throat.

In other baby news, we had 2 chicks hatch. The mama has been taking very good care of them.

The ducks have eggs all over the place. Four of the hens have taken to sitting, two on a single nest.

They do an excellent job of caring for their eggs, even when they get up to eat.

I had to post this photo of Son helping me with feeding time. Now that he has discovered he can carry feed in his dump truck he is all in for feeding time chores.

Now the loss part of this post. Our twelve year old weimeraner has passed on. He was in awful shape for some time and suffered an injury that he was unable to recover from. Being blind he injured himself quite often but this last one was rather horrific. He is buried with his brother, Louie, and our dearest Celsus. This has been a great comfort to the children who are happy to know he is not alone. I like to remember him as a younger dog. A dog that caused havoc wherever he went and proudly caught whatever we sent him after.

Beauty Abounds

Our property is in bloom. So many blooms I can’t even fit them all in one post. We have the usual alfalfa and sweet clover. The blooming weeds, erm, wildflowers. The beauty is everywhere but for me, it’s acutely in the plants I’ve planted myself. The acres of sainfoin blooming in all their pink glory. The cider orchard full of vetch, poppies, clover and more.

Enough talk, enjoy the beauty with me.

The sainfoin is such an object of fascination for us.

Let’s not forget the beauty in our animals either. Unfortunately only one of them would stand still long enough to get a good picture.

My glorious Prince the blackshoulder peacock.

Peacock Hatch 2016

We have had awful luck hatching peacocks over the years. The first year they each hatched 2 only to have them both die. I later learned it was from Coccidosis. So, the next year I took the eggs right before hatch. I medicated them and when they were old enough, released them. They all disappeared for one reason or another. This year I’m going to let the moms hatch again. I haven’t quite decided how to give medication yet. Do I pen the lot of them up? Seems foolish. When the moms are too close they peck each others young.

Regardless of my indecision the babies are coming. At least 3, I hope more.

My best hen is setting in her usual spot, atop a moldering alfalfa bale. I daren’t move it lest she pick a more coyote accessible spot.

Prince has been quite attentive to the eggs. Frighteningly so. He was guarding them in between her visits to lay. Whenever I would go to have a peak he’d fly over and give me a look of displeasure. He’s still on guard, now over his hens.

This silly little girl is determined to stay on top of the board we put up to keep them off. Best laid plans and all. I suppose it’s high off the ground so at least she’ll be safe.

Here is hoping for a few blackshoulder chicks this year. Mostly hoping for chicks that live.