The ram and the mare are working on their compromise. Every morning, she gets a little antsy and runs around searching for the ram in the long grass. He comes running out in front of her and she circles off. I think he is getting the idea that it is a bit of a game, because yesterday, he came out looking for her. I have seen them touch noses and then go running off in opposite directions. Tag, you're it??
Yesterday, I saw what a fabulous dressage horse this mare would make. She was doing a fair imitation of a passage as she chased the ram back to his pen when he came out to play tag. I wonder if that is how the first person asking for Grand Prix movements from a horse was inspired? Watching sheep tag?
The smaller compromise in the chicken run is also resolving nicely. At first the older hens and the rooster were chasing the adolescent hens unmercifully. They were screaming in panic, but no one was administering pecks, it was just adolescent hysteria. Now they still scream if anyone even looks at them, but everyone has enough to eat and is moving more or less freely around the run. The young ones tend to bunch up behind the coop, but I see some of the bigger buff orpington's moving around.
I like it when everyone gets along, don't you?
3 comments:
It's so much fun reading about your farm. Of course you know I am living vicariously through your blog. I just keep telling my husband, please I only want 6 to 8 lovely little hens. I don't know why I want them so badly. Maybe because my kids are all in college and soon they will be out of the house for good. Am I preparing myself for my empty nest?
Chickens are fun to have and a good starter farm animal. They are amusing to watch, and the eggs are really lovely. I feel rich every time I pick up the eggs - they are so perfectly contained and fresh eggs are MUCH better. Chickens are fairly easy to care for, easy to contain - although I think you might have more predators around than we do. All I have to worry about is my own dogs and the occasional mongoose.
I like reading your blog, too, but for some reason, every time I respond my computer freezes. :(
Now if the animals can work things all out, how come we can't? :oP
~Faith
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