Not your typical place
I have not posted photos in awhile. So I uploaded these to share.
I was going through photos and stumbles upon these. I figured that these are share worthy. The llamas in the red halter was when we where trying to get them to behave for a photo shoot. Then the cat pictures where, well there is no need to have an excuse for cat pictures. Look how majestic they look! Also, everyone needs to hold a a chicken every now an then. Either raw and kicking or fried….
The new baby bunnies have now moved out of the nest. Now they are hopping around the hutch. I was shocked when I noticed they are running all three levels of the hutch. I thought for sure I was going to need to add a cover so they would not fall down the openings. But they showed me. 
With the bunnies hopping all over the place, it has drawn the attention of some of the other animals. Now I have Sid hiding and stalking the hutch. He is very interested in the little ones.
This was the most shocking as I never had an issue with him and the adult rabbits. I guess we are running low on mice for him to hunt.
Also they have gathered Chatty’s attention. Now he has always worried me with the rabbits. I have seen him stalk them from day one. He will sit on top of the rabbit run waiting for a chance to attack. Chatty surprised me when we opened the hutch to fill the hay feeders. He was very genital with the two adult rabbits. First thing he did was give Val a kiss and then he wanted to pet them. Yea, I thought this was strange as well. 
Luckily Lucy, Mr. Purr, and Tiny have not shown too much interest in the baby bunnies yet. The babies are the cutest little things. I find it hard to describe them. They are a small rabbit with stubby ears, scrubby fluff balls. The little ones are very active and rambunctious one moment then they are huddled and napping in a instant. They are now starting to forage for hay and starting to drink from the waterier. These little ones are growing so fast!
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Now this is the biggest surprise I have had in a very long time. I know the ducklings, but this really knocked my back. I was cleaning out the rabbit hutch and noticed that in the main three tiered area, which normally never has droppings, was building up a good amount of poop. So I cleaned each tier. Then I open the “Hide box”, area that has no windows. 
I find a big nest and it was moving! I looked down and I saw a bunch of baby rats!! Just kidding they were baby bunnies (Kits) but I was in shock at first as I did not know what it was and how. We always believed they were females and sexed them ourselves as well as the breeders.
We found that Bell was the mother and Val was the father. Of course we are wondering what to do now. They already look to be a week old and the mother can be pregnant again within hours of giving birth. We do not want to have 5000 bunnies. Well maybe we do, but most diffidently do not have a big enough hutch for that many. They do have the bunny mansion ( 😉 Not the one in LA.)
We know we have to build yet another addition to the hutch to keep the babies from falling down the ramps.
 I built the screened room with droppings pan on the third level, it is almost identical to the first floor addition. Now the hutch is 7 foot wide but 6 foot tall and 2 foot deep.
Now that we have a secure area for the new little ones they are about 15 days old and just starting to open their eyes. This is when I was able to get the full count on just how many babies their are. We lucked out and only have four little ones. A typical litter is between 4 and 12 babies.
But we are not out of the woods yet. Bell may have another litter soon. She needs to nurse these for 8 weeks and may give birth to another litter in the meantime. This is why we are getting Val neutered ASAP. One to stop the reproduction and secondly is for Bell’s health. She should not give back to back births.
With the addition in place and the little ones are fluffing out. They are becoming more adventurous. All of them are exploring outside of the nest for short periods and it is just one of the cutest things. 
They are so small and three look like their dad, Val, a rex mix and one is a spitting image of their mother Val. This little one is just so darling with its little lion mane.
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We were contacted recently from a friend who needed to relocate their outdoor cats. The previous owners where moving and could not take them with them. We initially agreed to take in 2 of the 4 cats. We ended up taking in 3 of the cats. Two where brothers and another is an adopted brother. The last one the original owner was able to convert it into an indoor cat and take it with them.
The three we have we kept in an accumulation stall for two weeks. Normally they should have been kept in there for six weeks but these guys seem friendly enough and are no stranger to people. We decided after two weeks they are fit for release.
 Also our current barn cats have seen them when they come to eat every night. I watch to see and ensure that our current cats and new cats have had several meetings. Last thing anyone wanted was to have our current or new cats get chased off.
Soon after we released the new cats they went into discovery mode. They climbed the cat stairs, went into the chicken and duck coops. Chatty (fluffy cat) went playing in the straw room climbing the bales. Tiny (gray cat) found the access hole in the first stall that the other cats use as a hide out. Also Mr. Purr (Chatty’s brother and twin, not fluffy) went on an adventure looking around the barn and walking with the chickens.
Sid and Lucy did go to them and say “Hi” but they did not and still do not share food and water bowls. I have setup another feeding area in the big barn for them. It did take a couple of days before all of the cats were comfortable around each other. Now they will play and share. But they will not share food bowls. This is a huge no no. Give it time and they all will be best friends.
Keep up on the latest barn cat news here
The ducklings we hatch which we sexed at 9 weeks as 4 females and 1 drake, turns out to be 5 drakes! I started to notice that the 4 “hens” head started to get darker and look more like Louie (the father). Also I noticed that one of the “hens” started to get a curled tail feather. That was it. I knew it was over. They all look too similar and that first curled tail feather said it all.
As the next couple of weeks went I one by one gained a raspy quack and a curled tail feather. 
Funny thing is that the mother duck still sticks around them and follows them everywhere. Of course the “wild duckling” is just the cutest thing. He looks like a mallard but the size of a jumbo pekin.
We had initially stated that we would sell the drakes if we had more than one. But like all the other animals we have fallen in love watching these not so little anymore guys waddle around. 
They have curious personality and love to say hi but run away.
This little one to your right I have been trying to come up with a good name. He will stay with the flock if we decide to sell off the others. He is just too neat looking to give away.
The ducklings we hatched are a extremely bonded. They stay in their group no matter what. They have each others back. Once goes “Oh NO!” because they did not realize we are in the pen they all will run away. I try to pet them every night when feeding them. But I still have not been able to get them. I can get all the other ducks but these guys are more agile.
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Tulio and Miguel’s birthdays were this past week. They both turned one. To celebrate we had a birthday party! The guys received yum yum’s and new halters. They went for a ride to a local park to go hiking.
The llamas received new halters. Their original ones are getting too small. Tulio’s was on the last notch and even that seemed too tight. We ordered two medium – large, we thought they were fixed ring, halters online. When they came in it was obvious that these are just too large and we are unsure about the slip ring.
Now we found another site online with llama halters. This time we chose to order medium halters that state fixed ring in the description. We also decided on the color red over the original black halters. The halters fit great. Tulio and Miguel are very pleased with their new halters.
With the weather turning colder with hot days here and there. The grass is not growing as tall. We moved the guys to the front fenced in pond to allow them to have new grazing grounds and eat all the pond weeds. To my surprise the ducks did not mind Tulio and Miguel up there. I know the llamas enjoy it.
We recently purchased a used two horse trailer so we may travel with our llamas. The trailer needs some work but it works for our use. We took the boys to a local park. There we hiked with them on the bridle trails. That was an adventure. The look on Tulio and Miguel’s faces when they seen the large horse walk by. They where stunned, Miguel more so than Tulio.
After a successful long hike they where ready to go home. They are difficult to load in the trailer but after that hike I think they went in easier. With their excitement Tulio and Miguel stayed standing instead of laying down as normal llamas do when traveling.
Stay up to date on Tulio and Miguel and their travels here.
Ducklings update is long over due but better now than later. All five ducklings are full grown and huge. Out of the five babies we have 4 hens and 1 drake. Thank goodness, anymore drakes we would have to re-home them. Actually the only drake of the hatch is the only one with a name. He was named Bubbles.
Two of the ducks look to be part wild mallard. One for sure as she has full blue/teal on her wing tips. The other duckling that I believe is part wild mallard is Bubbles, as he too has blue/teal on his wings. Also the strangest part is they are both huge ducks. By size alone you would think they are Jumbo Pekin but in reality they are Buff/Blonde/Wild Mallard.
It does seem odd that the two part wild ducks are the largest. But they are Beautiful. The ducklings do have a very nice set of feathers. The personalities are showing. All 5 of them stay in a group and the mommy ducks keep with them.
In the past weeks we have had three other ducks become broody. Two where looking real good but one of them lost their nest when we needed to keep the birds locked up for a day. I guess some ducks and chickens became restless and tore her nest apart. The duck tried to rebuild but she quickly found that the eggs have failed.
Luckily we have one hen who kept her nest and is doing a great job on sitting on it. She is a couple weeks into her brood. I am just hoping she is not wasting her time like a chicken we had, sat on a unfertilized nest for a month! Hope to bring good news next week!
We received new chickens! There are now 13 new laying hens added to the flock. A friend of a relative informed us that they are looking to re-home their flock. So of course we agreed to take them in. Our coops still have plenty of room.
I was excited to find that the flock had multiple breeds. Since our current flock was mostly Red Cross and Rhode Island Reds, it is a pretty red flock. The new birds did have about half of a red breed, but it also had Barred Rock and Wyandotte. It is nice to see these white and black speckled hens running around.
In order to get the new hens acclimated to the existing flock we added them to the coop after dark. The next day we kept all the coops closed. We did not allow anyone to free range.
Later that night I opened the coops to allow them to forage for about two hours. The new hens did not want to adventure far from the roosts. They stayed close in the barn/coop.
After the first day we felt it was comfortable to let them free range with the rest of the flock. The first week was a little difficult to put some of the new hens away. They would walk into the hardware cloth wall between coops when going in for the night. I little sad but I would just pick them up and move them to the correct coop. We plan on adding a door in the corner between the coops to allow the birds to venture between coops on days they are stuck inside.
We received new chickens and it is great. Currently all the hens are getting along with very little bullying. Yes, a pecking order is real and the hens tend to fight a little bit to establish the pecking order. Now they are all in line and get along fine. They do seem to enjoy the bean field and shy away from the llamas.
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The ducklings are 5 weeks old and oh have grown! They are almost the same size as their mother. This past two weeks have really been a joy to watch them. But with bigger ducklings comes bigger messes and stronger orders.
It has been two weeks since the last update. I thought they were big then. Now they are almost the size of their mother. They are eating a lot more and becoming more adventurous. Sometimes the ducklings will wonder around the pen away from their mothers. As well as let me clean the pen without being threaten by their mothers.
The ducklings love to swim in their kiddie pool. We have to change the water on this every other day as they are pooping in the pool. The pool water brings in a whole new world of smells. I wish to add a fan to keep the orders down. I currently do not have a drain system in place for the pool. So we have to empty it with buckets since I do not want to flood their pen with duck poop water.
I turn their bedding and add fresh every couple of days as to keep the ground elevated and the old soiled bedding turned in. I am maintaining the coop this way for two reasons. 
One the birds need to stay in fresh clean bedding and two so I may have good composted to removed and add to the garden this fall. The digging and scratching by the chickens and ducks turns this old bedding into great garden soil quickly. Â As the manure has not aged I cannot add to the garden while it is planted.
Yesterday was the first day we allowed them to leave their pen to explore. The ducklings where very excited to waddle on grass and forge with their mothers. Surprisingly they did not want to swim in the pond. Instead they went around the barn eating bugs. Once the pen was cleaned out and the chickens turned up all the fresh straw, the two mommy ducks went back into the pen and left the little ones outside! Took a little bit for the ducklings to notice that they were along outside. But as soon as they did notice they waddled back into the pen.
Three more weeks until the ducklings are officially adult ducks. The ducklings will be fully feathered out and hopefully we can figure out the sex of each duck. We would like all hens but can accept if there is one drake.
It has been another exciting week for the new baby ducklings. Â They have grown so large now. I can find personality differences in each duckling. Also this week we had no prison breakouts but someone did break into the prison! But over all it has been a wonderful week.
We have filled up the baby pool this week. It took a little while to convince all the ducks to go for a swim. The mother ducks hopped right in. They loved having a proper bath after all this time. The little ducklings used the ramp to get into the pool but wanted to try to hop in as their mothers do. That did not go so well. Some did copy the adults by dipping their head into the water without getting in.
A few of the kiddos could dive under the water and pop up at random locations. This scared the mothers as the ducklings would dive under them and chase the mothers out of the pool. I guess that is one way to get more room to swim.
One morning this past week I did find a chicken who broke into the prison. One of the Buffs decided it was nicer on that side of the fence. I guess it wasn’t all that nice as she was fine with me throwing her back to the right side of the fence. But at least the ducklings had their first face to face encounter with a chicken and not through a prison fence.
Finally the ducklings are starting to get used to us. They are not hiding behind their mothers as much. I can be in the pen to change the water and some of the ducklings will come close to me.
The ducklings are getting big! They seem to be about 1/3 the size of the mothers. The little fluff balls are now entering that awkward stage. 
Tail feathers are starting to come in. Next it will be the wing feathers. Soon they we will get to see the final color combinations. I still wonder about that black/yellow one. It must be mixed with a wild mallard.
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