You don’t need a reason, you just need a starting point

We did not have any reason for why we chose the animals we have. We just knew what we liked and started there.

Ducks

My wife always loved ducks. So before we had our first coop built she purchased 4 pekin ducks.

This was the start of a long line of animals to come.

We currently have 18 ducks. 11 hens and 7 drakes.

Chickens

I always loved the idea of having chickens running in the yard and the rooster crowing.

I made a mistake the first time brooding chickens and purchased straight run chicks and pullets from the local feed store. We ended up with 6 roosters and 4 hens!!! 2 out of the 4 pullets where roosters, which one of those roosters was not the correct breed! Now a single rooster can handle and maintain 10 – 12 hens.

I quickly learned of a breed that are sexed by their color at hatch in lieu of traditional methods. This breed was a Red Cross. The females are reddish brown while the males are mostly white. This became our breed of choice when brooding chicks.

We currently have 38 chickens. 36 hens and 2 roosters.

Llamas

Another favorite of my wife’s is Llamas. It took her a couple years to have me agree we could raise them. Though her reasoning was without merit and proper research.

She tried to use the reason for having them to be guard animals for the birds… this would be great if the birds and Llamas shared the same barn or grazing grounds. But that is not the case. I still love them as does my wife. We do take them for walks and try to integrate them with the other animals as much as possible.

We currently have 2 Llamas, both are males.

Rabbits

I have enjoyed keeping rabbits. They are not as simple as one would think. They do have individual personalities and are very entertaining to watch. Some rabbits become a great companion to have in the barn with you.

Due to unknown reasons and several attempts along with our veterinary’s advise  we lost our rabbits to disease. They could not determine the disease but it was sudden and unforeseeable.

We are planing to raise new rabbits this summer along with modifications and changes to how we are raising them to see if this will prevent complications in the future.

The future is now!!! We have two beautiful little girls who have joined our farm. Bella and Valerie.

Two female rabbits – 1 Rex mix, 1 Lion-head mix

Cats

We love our cats and it was hard at first to keep two sets but after a year we can see we made the correct choice. We have indoor cats and barn cats.

Our indoor cats are your typical house cats full of love and personality. Some have very very strange behaviors. They love water and like to drink from the sink and jump into the shower.

Our barn cats we rescued from our local humane society. We receive them spayed/nurtured  with all their shots for free! They are great mousers and any other moving critter that roams the barns.

We currently have 3 house cats. 2 female, 1 male.

Barn cats we have 6 of them as well. 2 female, 4 male.