Help Find A Missing Goat in Oklahoma!

This is Journey, she is a LaMancha dairy goat. Isn't she just beautiful? Sadly, her owner Carol is desperately trying to find her and I am hoping that by posting this on my blog and trying to get the word out in other ways that it will somehow help Journey to be found and returned to her worried owner.

Journey has a tattoo on the underside of her tail which reads, YJ/Y10. Carol was traveling home from the Texas Dairy Goat Show in Wichita Falls when Journey vanished. She was in the trailer when they stopped in Sherman and had vanished when they arrived in Checotah, Oklahoma. The only other stop was for fuel in Kiowa, Oklahoma and they did not open the trailer at that time. Though evidence of Journey near the convenience store in Kiowa, Oklahoma was later found. Carol is headed back to Kiowa today to resume the search for Journey.

Please help to find Journey by getting the word out about her. Reposting about her on your Facebook pages or different goat groups you belong too can only help. If you are at a goat sale in Oklahoma be on the lookout for this beautiful LaMancha. If you hear about a goat running loose in Oklahoma or see someone selling a dairy goat that could be her on Craigslist let Carol know!

If you have any information about Journey at all you can reach her owner Carol at 918-470-2592 and there are more pictures of Journey on the "does" page of Carol's website at www.goatsinme.com.

Photo courtesy of Carol Stafford.

Goat Races

A day at the err.. goat races? I just love the little stuffed jockeys on their backs. hehe

Festive Bean Salad

Fresh and colorful, this healthy side dish goes well with Mexican food or just about any dish.

1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup red onion, diced
1 can whole corn, (15 oz) drained
1 can lime & cilantro Rotel diced tomatoes, drained
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 can black Beans, (15 oz) drained
1 can kidney beans, (15 oz) drained
Salt and Pepper

In a large bowl, combine peppers, onion, corn, Rotel tomatoes and garlic. Add olive oil, vinegar, and lightly salt and pepper to taste. Add black beans and kidney beans and toss well. Makes about 9 - 1 cup servings. Refrigerate leftovers.

Optional: 1/2 of a jalapeno, finely chopped can be added for more kick.

Satan Called....He Wants His Weather Back.

Kansas is starting to feel like a desert. Normally I like summer, but this heat has been oppressive to say the least. The dry heat hits you in the face like walking into an oven and the brown grass crunches under your feet. I swore after the winter we had I was not going to complain about the heat in the summer but come on! Week after week of 100+ temps and I finally just had to give in and say something! I look at the drought maps on the weather website and see how this drought is spreading up from Texas like a cancer. It is 111 degrees today, I am doing all I can for the animals but still I worry about them. We need a break and we need rain, after our hay is put up I think I am going to Google rain dances....yes things are just about THAT bad.

Vegetable Garden Could Get Woman 93 Days in Jail

I can't help but think after watching this video that we live in a time where too many people are too worried about controlling every little harmless thing that everyone else does. This woman's garden is neat, clean, attractive and well maintained. What is the problem? I say prosecuting this case is a complete waste of taxpayer's money and the good people of Oak Park should keep that in mind when elections and time to vote for city officials comes around again.

Grub Eating Garden Helper

Wow, I did not realize it had been so long since I wrote anything on this blog. Time sure does seem to fly by when the weather warms up and you are busy writing new items down on the old "to do" list faster than you can check them off. We put in two gardens this year and that is one of the things that has kept both my husband and I busy lately. Luckily we did have some help from Cinnamon the chicken. When we first tilled up the old garden spot awhile back we found lots of grub worms just waiting for some new garden plants to unleash their evil grub worm destruction on. We do all agree grub worms are evil right?
What is one answer to grub worms when breaking soil before planting? A hungry chicken! Cinnamon went right to work eliminating every wicked grub worm her keen eye could find, she was ruthless. Cinnamon proved she was no dumb bird by following behind the tiller where the most grub worms could be found.

Then she went to work on the rest of the garden spot, scratching and pecking. No grub that dared peek it's ugly worm head out of the soil had a chance with Cinnamon the chicken on the job! When her hard work of grub worm control was over she took a well deserved dust bath and laid an egg in the horse trailer. Thanks for the help Cinnamon...and the egg!

Prayers for Joplin, Mo.

Joplin, Missouri was hit with a devastating tornado yesterday which has resulted in terrible damage and many lives lost. The people of Joplin are certainly in my thoughts and prayers today and I hope they will be in yours as well. Joplin is only about an hour's drive from our farm and I have been there many times. I don't even recognize it now in the terrible pictures and videos of the town that have been posted since yesterday.

I don't believe the people of Joplin had much notice of this tornado at all. It is very scary and my heart goes out to every person that has been affected by this terrible disaster.

If you would like to help you can donate to the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army. There has also been a Facebook page set up at http://www.facebook.com/helpjoplin and a website at http://www.helpjoplin.com/. Blood donations, especially Negative O blood are also needed. The helpjoplin website says to go to the Springfield donor centers to donate blood.

And the Winner Is...

There was supposed to be a video of my husband picking the winner here but after he picked the winner's name out of a bowl and I tried to load the video on to my computer it would not play. I could not figure out what the problem was. So sorry about that but the name he drew out of the bowl was Lydia! So congratulations Lydia, you are the winner of the two bars of goat's milk soap!

I want to thank every person that took the time to suggest names for the baby goat! We went over the list of all the names suggested and it was hard to pick one out of so many great names. (many of which I am sure we will use for other goat's names in the future!) In the end I decided to use Flartus's suggestion of "Zoe" and add a Y. I have been calling her "baby" (what all unnamed baby goats get called here) and she comes running for her bottle now when she hears it so I thought "Zoey" sounds a lot like "baby" so she should still come running when she hears it. The name also seems to fit her very well.

I also want to apologize for being a couple days late announcing the winner! Things have been so hectic with new baby goats and trying to get the garden going with some pretty strange weather this year.

There had been lots going on here on the farm with new baby goats, the garden and getting ready for the farmer's market not to mention remodeling the kitchen and dining room. More on all of that later! Thank you all!

New Goat Baby and a Soap Giveaway!

This is a video I took last week of one of the newest goat babies born on the farm. She was the smallest of triplets and was only a tiny 4 lbs at birth. I just weighed her today and she is now up to 11.5 lbs and growing. These are her mom's first kids and even though "Red" is proving to be a good mother she only has two teats, (some Boer goats have more than two.) That doesn't always work out the best with three pushy kids, especially when two are much bigger than the third. This little girl's two big brothers tend to push her away from her share of mom's milk.

My original plan was to pull one of the bucklings as a bottle baby and leave this doeling and the other brother on their mom. Goats don't always like to cooperate with our plans. The little doeling took right to a bottle easy as pie, but her two brothers wanted NOTHING to do with that bottle. They are two of the most stubborn kids I have ever worked with and it didn't make a lot of sense to keep messing with them when the doeling was more than willing to take a bottle right off the bat, no fuss. So for now I have left all three kids with their mother and am supplementing the doeling with a bottle 4 times a day as well. This seems to be working out very well as all are growing and seem to be doing just fine.

She is a 50% Boer doeling with spots. She is not nearly as wildly dappled as her two brothers (you can see them in the background at the very beginning of the video) but she is very sweet. Maybe in a couple years we will be able to get some nice percentage Boer kids out of her and our spotted Boer buck Frost.

Now I just need to think of a name for her! That is much easier said than done considering I am pretty much terrible at thinking of good names for the animals. I would appreciate some help with this. In fact I would so much appreciate some help with naming this new baby goat that I am going to give two bars of goat milk soap to one lucky person that offers a name suggestion for this new little addition to Shiloh Prairie Farm! My non-biased husband will draw the winner's name randomly from the names of every person that offers any name suggestion in the comments below.

Important Info about the giveaway.

1. The giveaway will be open from the time this is posted to May 9, 2011 at midnight. So you have plenty of time to think of some great names! The winner's name will be posted on this blog after May 9th, 2011.

2. The winner will be drawn randomly from entries in the comments below. To be eligible you must leave a comment below and submit a possible name for the goat baby in the video above in your first comment. (Don't worry if you can't think of any great names, the drawing is random from all entries. So you could submit "Mud" as your name suggestion and still be entered in the giveaway but remember that my husband and his quirky sense of humor does have half the vote in the name we choose...do you really want this baby goat to go through the rest of her life with "Mud" as a name??)

3. Get an extra entry by writing about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, or twitter with a link to the giveaway. (one entry for each). Just leave a separate comment below with the link to your post for each extra entry.

Prize will be two bars of homemade goat milk soap made by me and sent to the winner.

Thank you and good luck!

New Kids on the Farm

"Japan" (named Japan when she was born because the marking on her side sort of looks like Japan's flag. She was named before that country's recent tragic troubles) is a 75% Boer / 25% Nubian doe and she just had two new kids a little bit ago, both girls! One black and one light red one. These two new girls might be keepers, time will tell. These are Japan's first kids.

Suspicious - Farm Photo of the Week

Yea, the other goats wanted me to ask what you are doing? And why did you not bring treats??

Eggscellent Eggs

"Cinnamon" the chicken must be eggshausted these days. She has laid an egg every day but two since she suddenly started laying the last week of January. So far we have got 36 eggs and I find that to be eggstraordinary considering they are all from one single chicken. She has only missed two days since she started but she even made up for those days by giving us two eggs the day after one missed day and a large double yoked egg after the other.

We named her Cinnamon because according to the people we got her from she is a Cinnamon Queen chicken. She is our first chicken so we don't have a lot of experience with them yet but I would definitely say if you want lots of eggstra eggs this would be one of the good breeds to get. We were not even sure if she was going to lay eggs since we didn't know how old of a girl she is. You can read my other post about when we first got Cinnamon by clicking "here."

She is really an eggsceptionally calm and friendly chicken and will even take food from our hands. So what is on the chicken menu today? Let's see, there is always chicken food from the feed store available but we have also been giving her some other treats. Today it looks like a tomato, some salad mix, a handful of multi-grain cheerios and a piece of whole wheat bread (I only give her bread every 3rd day or so and not too much.) Oh and her yogurt, I can't forget that because it is her favorite, she loves the stuff.

All her veggie treats are under the bread and cheerios but she goes straight for the yogurt first.

I am a little concerned about her because she has had a persistent "messy" bottom, though she seems healthy otherwise. She has a good appetite, is active and laying eggs every day. No rattles to her breathing or discharge of any kind. I read on the backyard chickens forum to try giving her some plain yogurt for this but so far even though she loves it and eats a couple spoonfuls almost every day it hasn't helped the messy bottom situation. I read it could be mites and all chickens are very prone to them so I bought some powder for that. We have washed off her backside twice with warm water when it got more messy and smelly (add "washing a chicken's butt" to my list of things I never thought I would do before country life!)

She is really a wonderful chicken and we like her so much and are very happy to have her around. I never knew chickens could be so personable. We would like to figure out what we need to do to help her with that little back end issue. So we could use some help from all you experienced chicken owners if you have any suggestions or know what might be causing this, any advice would be very much appreciated. I try to avoid using antibiotics if at all possible but could it be time to try something like that or is this not that abnormal for certain individual chickens? Her eggs are always very clean.

Goat council bill gored in House says CJOnline.com

Not long ago I wrote on this blog about bill HB2099 which was for the creation of the "Kansas Goat Council" and a new check off fee for every goat sold in Kansas. You can read about it by clicking HERE. I am relieved to report that as the bill was written it does not look like it is going anywhere. I wrote KS Representatives and got the following email statement back from Rep. Jerry Williams.

“Jennifer:: The hearing was held on H B 2099 today in AG Committee. One for the Bill and several NOT for the Bill. I can NOT see this Bill going anywhere. My feedback has been NO to H B 2099 and I agree with the NO group. Rep. Jerry Williams “

Quite a few goat breeders braved some very bad weather that day to go to the committee meeting and have their say about this baaaaaad bill. According to several of them there was only one individual that testified in favor of the new bill and that was the district representative of Jerry Miller, Mr. Seward. Mr. Miller, who is the Kansas Meat Goat Association President was not able to attend the meeting but apparently submitted amendments, the details of which I do not know. Several Kansas goat breeders, both of meat and dairy goats testified against the bill, all making some very valid and good points.

They must have made quite an impression as the following article (link below) was written about the meeting over HB2099 and this writer did a very good job of highlighting just how strong the opposition to this bill was.

Goat council bill gored in House | CJOnline.com

The article is very well written but is wrong about one thing, that the fee would just be for goats going through slaughter houses. As the bill was written it would be for all goats sold, even private person to person sales. If I hear any thing else about this bill I will pass that information on but as it stands right now it does not look like it will be passed. Just another example of why it is so important that people get involved and let their represenatives know how they feel and that we need less government in our lives.

Arby's Goat Commercial

Just thought I would share another funny goat commercial.

Attention KS Goat Producers!! New Fees and Laws Coming Your Way!

I apologize for this very late notice but I just learned about this Bill myself. There is a new and important bill in the Kansas House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources which needs your input, pro or con as a goat producer. It goes to committee tomorrow so contact your representatives today! I would also encourage goat producers and hobby farmers from other states to read this bill as something like this might be proposed in your own state in the near future if it gets passed here. Here is a link to the bill:

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/year1/measures/hb2099/

HB 2099 is for the creation of the "Kansas Goat Council" and a proposed check off fee for every goat sold in Kansas under possible penalty of legal action, fines or imprisonment.

From Bill:

(2) "Any person who unreasonably fails or refuses to pay any assessments due under this act may be subject to legal action by the Council to recover the assessments due, plus interests and costs."

AND

"(e) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be

guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to a

fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or to imprisonment for not

less than 30 nor more than 90 days, or by both such fine and

imprisonment."

The proposed fee is .50 cents per head at this time but that can be changed (in other words, raised) once per year by the Kansas Goat Council as the Bill is worded now. Right now this Bill does make a provision for a refund of these fees if they are more than $5 and you fill out a form. In my opinion, while it sounds good on the surface, this possible refund, (after you fill out the proper form, etc) is STILL an unfair hassle that could be taken away in the future as some people might look to remove the so called "voluntary" status of this goat check-off. I personally have to wonder just how voluntary a program is that threatens lawsuits and fines if you don't pay their fees upfront??

It is true that if a goat is sold through an auction facility or slaughter house the record keeping may not be as burdensome because the facility will likely deduct the check off fee, proposed in this new Kansas law at that time but it will be different for those who sell breeding stock and person to person sales. It will increase paperwork and force breeders to disclose their customer information. (This is a business for many people and that information should be considered proprietary and confidential.)

Of course there will always be that person that says "Well it is only 50 cents per goat sold, is that going to break you?" No, of course not, but the point is we need less government and regulations in our lives, not more. I also think it is wrong that this goat check-off was proposed and created by ONE single goat association, "The Kansas Meat Goat Association" with no input from other goat clubs, associations or long time breeders outside of the KMGA and no input from dairy goat producers before hand. It is particularly unfair to dairy goat breeders who will help support this check-off with fees for every goat they sell but nothing in return as this is a check-off to promote meat goats in the state of Kansas.

Do I think the promotion of meat goats (and dairy goats and their products too which this bill won't do) in Kansas is a good thing? Absolutely, and in theory if written properly and with the input off ALL kansas goat producers a goat check-off could be a good thing, BUT this is a bad bill the way it is written in my opinion and needs to be tabled at least or stopped so it could be looked at further and discussed with the knowledge and participation of all goat producers in KS, not just the board of the KMGA. I have never personally been a member of the KMGA as one only has to talk to past members or go to their website and read their meeting minutes to get a hint of the strife and disagreements with-in the association.

More from this Bill:

"Section 1. (a) There is hereby created the Kansas goat council.

5 (1) The council shall consist of seven members who shall be elected at the annual meeting of the Kansas meat goat association. The board of directors of the Kansas meat goat association shall act as interim council members until council members can be elected and qualified. Vacancies which may occur shall be filled for unexpired terms by the board of directors of the Kansas meat goat association from among the producers of the state."

I just do not think it is right that this Bill is the brain child of only the Kansas Meat Goat association alone with no input from other non-member breeders of goats in Kansas. It appears from what I have read that no effort was made by the KMGA too include or even make producers aware of this bill as according too even some past members of the KMGA (including a past President of the association that is still actively raising meat goats) that the KMGA never made an effort to contact them or make them aware of the proposed Kansas Goat Council while it was still being discussed by the KMGA. (As these past members have posted this themselves on goat yahoo groups over the past few days.)

The following information was posted on a goat yahoo group and I am passing it on for those that would like to contact the commitee members or testify before the committee tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------

House Bill 2099 – Creation of the Kansas Goat Council – will be heard in the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee on February 8, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 783 in the Docking State Office Building.

If you would like to testify before the committee, please call Kay Scarlett, Committee Assistant, at 785-296-7694. Please provide 35 copies of your written testimony by 8:30 a.m. the day of the meeting.

---------------------------------------------------------------

HB 2099 is pending before the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Included below are all of the names and email addresses of the committee members. Please contact them today if you have the time and let them know your opinion on this.

Larry Powell, larry.powell@house.ks.gov

Dan Kerschen, dan.kerschen@house.ks.gov

Mike Peterson, mike.peterson@house.ks.gov

Bob Grant, bob.grant@house.ks.gov

Jerry Williams, jerry.williams@house.ks.gov

Ponka-We Victors, ponka-we.victors@house.ks.gov

Vince Wetta, vince.wetta@house.ks.gov

Caryn Tyson, caryn.tyson@house.ks.gov

Willie Prescott, willie.prescott@house.ks.gov

Charlotte O'Hara, charlotte.ohara@house.ks.gov

Tom Moxley, tom.moxley@house.ks.gov

Kyle Hoffman , kyle.hoffman@house.ks.gov

Brett Hildabrand, brett.hildabrand@house.ks.gov

Gary Hayzlett , gary.hayzlett@house.ks.gov

Rocky Fund, rocky.fund@house.ks.gov

Dan Collins, dan.collins@house.ks.gov

Bob Brookens, bob.brookens@house.ks.gov

Elaine Bowers, elaine.bowers@house.ks.gov

Tom Arpke, tom.arpke@house.ks.gov

Kansas Blizzard

My Grandmother used to say if you don't like the weather in Kansas, then wait five minutes and it will change. I don't think she was too far off with that statement for the crazy weather we have had this past week. Just three days ago it was well over 6o degrees and the weather was so nice that I was almost too warm in a light jacket while outside. That was Saturday and this is Tuesday so now we are under a blizzard warning with temperatures predicted to drop well into the negative digits tomorrow night, maybe even down to 9 below! Wow, what a difference three days can make! These first pictures were taken at 8 AM this morning, at that point it had only been snowing a few hours.

Blowing snow early this morning but I could still see the very tops of the tall grass and the black 55 gallon barrel the goats liked to play on last summer. It has been blown over by the fence (look between the tree and shed in the picture.)

This picture was also taken at 8am this morning. The haziness is all the blowing snow. Notice the extra large, orange water tub by the gate. That tub is one of the very large ones with the rope handles you can sometimes find at Wal-Mart, it is taller than my knees.

I feel so sorry for the wild birds in weather like this, I don't know how they survive it. I could still see all 6 strands of this fence this morning.

Here I am trying to open the back door only 8 hours later at 4 PM today!

We live in a mobile home with the tall, wooden mobile home steps but I can't even see the steps below the back porch!

The high winds seems to have kept the snow from drifting too deep in most of the back yard but our burn barrel is still almost half buried in it.

Remember that black 55 gallon barrel I pointed out in the earlier picture, it is not even visible anymore.

The top of the big orange water tub is still visible, just barely! (Don't worry there are no goats in this pasture right now)

That poor, cold, little bird flew off to hopefully find someplace warmer to roost and the fence got a lot shorter today since only the top three strands are now above the snow.

I worry about the animals in this type of weather. Cinnamon the chicken had to be moved to a smaller room in the old farm house so that two of the Boer bucks could be moved to her room for the night. She found a mouse living in her new room and so I don't think she minded. (Do chickens eat mice? She seemed very determined to find that mouse!) The bucks had shelter but a room in the old farm house/shop will be much warmer for them. Tarps have been hung on the front of the doe's sheds and the heated water buckets and stock tank heaters are out and working. I am so ready for Spring!

I don't know how people that live up north deal with all that snow and cold weather! Copied below is the blizzard warning issued by The National Weather Service for our area and information about the storm and weather here! Brrrrrr!

"Issued by The National Weather Service
Wichita, KS
4:02 pm CST, Tue., Feb. 1, 2011

... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST WEDNESDAY... ... WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO NOON CST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO NOON CST WEDNESDAY. A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST WEDNESDAY.

* TIMING... LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL DIMINISH TO FLURRIES THIS EVENING... WITH BLOWING SNOW AND BITTER COLD WIND CHILLS PERSISTING OVERNIGHT.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE... BRINGING STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 15 INCHES OVER SOUTHEAST KANSAS.

* WINDS... STRONG NORTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH WILL AFFECT THE AREA THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS.

* IMPACTS... THE STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW... PRODUCING GROUND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IN OPEN COUNTRY AND MAKING TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ADDITIONALLY... DANGEROUS WIND CHILL READINGS AROUND 20 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED!

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS... MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED... STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROSTBITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS... MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES."

One Smart Goat

I found this video online. Talk about one smart goat!

The Unplanned Chicken

So we have our first chicken. I have no idea how old she is but according to her previous owners she doesn't even lay eggs anymore, so I guess she is a pet chicken. We had thought about getting some chickens for a couple years now but the goats keep us so busy we just never got around to really deciding on chickens or not. I am afraid our farm has always been chickenless, though a few wild turkeys did decide to make our place the local turkey hang out a couple years ago.

So why did we get a pet chicken in January? After spending almost $15 on chicken feed and grit I am not so sure anymore myself but she has a nice personality and surprisingly this one I think I can blame on my husband, at least for the most part. See the unplanned chicken is actually Jamey's chicken.

The new guy that baled our hay pastures last year (and did a much better job than the hay guy before him) is also a person that used to work with Jamey. I think it was around the time the hay was baled that Jamey went over to his house for some reason and came home talking about some chicken that roosted on their porch. I didn't pay too much attention, I was probably thinking about goats at the time.

Several months went by and we were invited to these people's house one evening to play board games. I had not been there before but as soon as we got out of the car Jamey pointed out the chicken roosting on their patio table and proceeded to tell me all about her again. I guess she refused to stay in the chicken coop because the other chickens picked on her and so she roosted on their front porch every evening instead. She did seem pretty friendly for a chicken, softly clucking "hello" (I guess that is what she was saying) at everyone that walked up to their door like their own little feathered Wal-Mart greeter, all she needed was a tiny blue smock. Jamey even had to go pick her up and show her to me that evening. I watched him carry that bird around and started to wonder if he was smitten with that chicken.

Our friends told Jamey he could take the chicken home on several occasions, personally I think they were getting a little tired of the chicken poo on their patio table and porch. I can't say that I blame them one little bit, if the greeter at Wal-Mart pooed in front of their store I am sure Wal-Mart would fire her pretty quick too.

Jamey wanted to bring her home at that time but I said "no, no" and reminded him we had no place to put her since we have no coop and the room in the old farmhouse/shop was occupied by Cookie the goat expecting winter kids at the time. I was also afraid with no place for her to stay at night some coyote or owl might get her, we have lots of both around our farm.

So we didn't bring the chicken home and time went by. Our friends graciously invited us back over to their house several times and there was still always that chicken sitting on their front porch table.

Then came January and our mild winter turned cold, really cold. It snowed and the weatherman said it would get down in the negative numbers that night. The goats all have shelters so I knew they would be OK and we now had a place in the old farm house to put a chicken since Cookie and her two maturing kids had since been graduated back outside with the other goats. I called Jamey when he got off work and asked him if he wanted to go get that chicken, so he did.

It was all last minute and not thought out at all. So that night we fed her some all stock grain, sunflower seeds, some lettuce (which she turned her beak up at) and some seedless grapes which she did like. We also made her a temporary nest box and perch. The video was taken that first night, the room is actually well lighted and not dark at all when the light is on but for some reason my cheapo camera just makes indoor pictures or video all look dark like this unless I use the flash (which I can't do on video.)

They said she was a Cinnamon Queen chicken. I assume that is a breed like a Red Star or Red Sex Link chicken? I guess we will call her Cinnamon. I know goats but chickens are new for us, so feel free to offer advice! Maybe in the spring we will get some more chickens, some passive ones so they don't chase and bully her out of the coop again. Oh yes I guess we need to build a coop too!

Winter - Farm Photo of the Week

Winter on the Farm