Mystery in the goat pen!

Jack and Jill are contained in the front part of one of the orchards, where they have numerous trees, a purpose built house, a very high fence and lots of dirt. Often when I wander in there they come running over, to see if I have food, and once they realise I don't they go back to doing what goats do best...eating!! Now as you know wherever I go, a procession of animals follow, so quite often I am in the goat pen with two dogs and three cats.

Yesterday when I walked through everything was fine and there were no problems, however, when I came back to leave there was a huge hole right in the middle of the goat pen. I stood there starring at the hole wondering if we had experienced an earthquake, or the goats were trying to dig an escape tunnel to freedom. I also considered if my husband had finally killed the nosey neighbour and was preparing the shallow grave.

I considered if the other animals might have dug the hole, the cats looked at me with a disgusted look of why would we! Charlie looked at me as if to say do I look like i would be bothered to dig a hole.....however, Max bounded over to the hole and sat proudly in the middle, wagging his tale with the sheer delight of any small person wanting to show a parent their latest creation. The innocent look of "I have no idea how that hole got there" was short lived as he continued to dig, and play, and roll, only as puppies can do with such enthusiasm.

Mystery solved, and Max looked very confused as we filled the hole in, so no one falls in the crater that he had produced. However, I have a feeling this wont be the last hole that Max chooses to produce....

The male gene is strong....

Since being here we have had several batches of chicks born, which is great and will provide us with the next set of laying chickens, or so we hope. However, we have one issue that needs to be dealt with and sooner rather than later. The male gene throughout our chickens is strong, and we keep getting far too many roosters being born!

As the chicks are born, you have no way of identifying what sex they are, which often results in names being chosen wrong, and the roosters growing up being called sue, and the chickens Gareth! (G) Thankfully we have a 50/50 chance so, some roosters do have their strong male identity (mark) and chickens are happily called Ruth.....

Other than the wrong names when growing up, the roosters cause problems, maybe they are rebelling against the bad choice of name. However, they need to be dealt with, and removed before they caused huge social issues amongst the flocks. It is advised to have no more than two roosters in any flock, however, we have 4 mature roosters, 6 adolescent ones, and at least 9 smaller ones coming up through the growing process.

As they are growing, the orchards are beginning to resemble a school playground with fights breaking out regularly, as male hormones rampage. When the rooster fight it sounds as if someone is screaming, and I find myself in their trying to break up the fighting. I now know how my friend feels with her three boisterous boys!

Unfortunately, the only solution to the ever growing problem, is for the chicken man to come and remove some of the difficult roosters. This has to be done, and is our own fault for letting it go on for so long, however, he is now booked and primed to come and do the deed. I have no issue with this process being done as the chicken guy is experienced, quick and ensures that everything is done correctly. However, it does make every animal very subdued for a few hours afterwards, as they can sense that death is in the air!

Goodbye August

August has been a tough month for one reason and another, and to be honest I wont be sorry to see the back of it, and move on into September. The heat throughout this month has been relentless, which has brought numerous problems. Trying to cope with soaring heats is no fun, but to try and keep every animal cool and alive is a huge challenge.

During the month we have had two chickens die, a couple of chicks, which didn't make it and a massive drop in egg production. This has resulted in many loyal customers being disappointed, but sorry guys there is nothing I can do! The rate of mangos being produced due to the intense heat has resulted in many being thrown away as they are far too ripe, and not fit for human or even pig consumption.

August has been a steep learning curve in many ways, and hopefully as we move into September, I can put my happy farmer hat back on, and enjoy being here in cooler weather. There have been times this month when I have doubted why we are here, (in the finca, not on the planet!) However, determination is my middle name, and I knew this would be a challenge from the moment I walked in to the finca...lets just hope for cooler weather, and less stress.

Moving chickens

We have many discussions in our house about what is best for the finca, and how we can make it run smoothly and earn money. The chickens are a huge part of these conversations, therefore, they need to be maintained correctly. We have two main orchards and originally there were one set of chickens in one part, and another set down below.

My husband had mentioned on several occasions about moving the top lot so everything was in one orchard. This would make it easier to feed, clean and monitor the chickens, and I considered the prospect of attempting to move 30 chickens without disaster. I think the soaring heat must have got to me last week, as during one of the hottest days I declared we were moving chickens!

Now in my insane moment I believed that with some corn, the chickens were simply going to follow me out of the orchard, like the pied piper of hamlet, and into the bottom orchard...yeah right!! This "small" task took 3 hours, 4 rakes, a huge amount of swearing, and some stressful moments. Eventually they were all down the bottom, and I thought it would get easier.

The next morning as I bounded down the stairs (OK, I don't bound, but you get the picture) my heart sank as I saw that a huge proportion of the chickens were back, smugly starring at me waiting to be fed. It then dawned on me that this was habit for them, they knew no different, and had to be taught where to go. We repeated the process, and in all fairness it only took just over an hour this time....why I am not the size of a pencil I do not know the amount of chasing animals I do on a daily basis.

After 3 days of this I was pissed off, and demanded the scissors...no not to slit their throats although this had crossed my mind, but to clip their wings! So far this seems to have worked, and they are enjoying their new nesting boxes, and the new environment. Lets hope they remain where they should be, and begin to get back to normal.

Animals in the house...

I have always considered myself to be very house proud, and try to keep everything clean and tidy, to the point that I have some OCD issues. However, living here is a whole new meaning to bringing the outside in, as my children love to do on a daily basis. I appreciate that with animals comes dirt, however, my children have a habit of arriving in my office with animals that should be outside.

There is a place for every animal here, and that is where they should stay, however, I often turn around to see chicks, rabbits and chickens being held out for me to inspect. There is some logic there, as I often tell my children to stop screaming "mummmmmmmmmmmmmiiiiiieeeeeee" when I am trying to work. However, they see the next best thing is to simply turn up in the house with some form of animal.

My son is the worst for this, and will often appear with chicks, which need examining, cleaning, or in his world simply mothering. This leads to the chicks remaining in the house for far longer than they should, as he explains that they do want to watch Star Wars, or play with Lego. I will often turn round to find a chick sat on his lap watching the TV.

This may seem cute to the outside world, however, animals bring mess, mud and often poop in with them, therefore, doubling my workload. On top of the typical amount of dirt and grime that 2 children create, multiply this with dirty wellies and boots, makes my job far harder. Therefore, I am trying to create a no animal zone in the house, however, it doesn't appear to be working very well, as my son has just appeared with another chick, claiming it wanted to share his frosties!

Chickens jumpers...

I have a small dog and have often been tempted to buy him a little jumper to wear, however, every time I pick one up my husband pulls a face that indicates that if I purchase one he will pack his bags. Therefore, the doggy clothes remain on the shelves, but I have found a really cool website that sells jumpers and hats for chickens. Now you may be questioning why, you would need a jumper for a chicken, however, if you see the condition of the batteries you would understand why.

There are many charities all over the world that rescue battery hens from the poor conditions of the factories. However, many of these chickens have no feathers, and this leaves them exposed to the elements. Therefore, knitted goods are required to ensure that the chickens remain warm, which is not as silly as it may seem.

With further research I discovered that there are dedicated websites to chicken clothing, and you will be amazed at what people dress their chickens in and how much time they spend on this process. Now I think the whole thing is slightly silly, however, there is something tempting about dressing all of the chickens in little Santa suits at Christmas, or as Leprechauns on St Patricks Day. Therefore, watch this space, as I go in search of a vast quantity of Santa suits for the Christmas photo shoot.

Chicken moat...

I have decided that I either read far too many strange websites, or I have an incredibly active imagination as my latest idea proves. We still have a few chickens which are determined to leave the POW camp regardless of what I do, therefore, I am searching for ways to keep them in their designated areas. When I stumbled across a lady that had built a moat around her chicken enclosure!

Firstly this extreme idea posed the question whether chickens can swim, as I for one have never seen them swim anywhere. However, it seems that yes they can swim, although this is never through their own choice, more for survival. I begun to study the designs for the moat, and could imagine little bridges, turrets and look out posts for the chickens.

At this point I was brought back to earth with a bump when I realised how big our orchards are and how much of a moat we would need! I didn't even bother mentioning it to the hubby, as I could imagine this idea would push him over the edge. However, you never know he might build me a drawbridge to enter the orchard, if I smile sweetly at him!!

So, for the moment we have no moats, no turrets, and escaping chickens that are driving me mad. Back to Google to see what other crazy ideas, I can come up with to contain the chickens and prove I am going slightly crazy!