Oh the farm life... NEW PICS Pg 2! :D

[Sunshine]

Okay not really the FARMING life... or a really big farm... but, I just thought I'd share some pictures of my small hobby farm and all my critters who I love so much (We call them 'lovestock', not 'livestock'.) We started the farm because we bought a house kind of out in the country on a small piece of land and realized we basically bought a chestnut farm. We have something like 28 chestnut trees on the property. We also raise chickens, turkey, geese, and 2 goats. The birds are mainly for egg production, and incubation in the spring, and the goats are just pests. Oops did I type pests... I meant pets... no, I was right, I meant pests.

So I have like a bazillion pix but here are some that I actually had a chance to upload to photobucket...


This is Jive turkey. He's our star on the farm. He's the absolute nicest, funniest turkey in the world. He's a Royal Palm - on the American Heritage Breed Conservancy list. He just follows you around all day and hangs out outside. When you laugh, he gobbles. He's quite funny. We love him.
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This little guy is named after one of the new FIM ponies - Drama Pony! He's a silkie chicken... and he's really a funny little guy. I don't know how he sees out of those feathers on his head!
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Here is a shot of part of our gaggle of geese. This is when the young ones were still small! Now they're all huge! And so noisy! We have American Buff geese, Tolouse, Chinese Crested, White Chinese Crested and some mixies. There are also 2 drakes who hang out in with the geese. They have no idea they're ducks and not geese, and the geese don't seem to notice either!
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Here's another shot of some of the ducks and geese:
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This is Qui-Lo - my male Chinese Crested purebred. He's hilarious - and acts as a sentry for the rest of the group. Sadly, he has no mate yet (though I know some of the young ones - none of which are related to him - are female, so he has a chance yet!)
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These two goofy creatures are the dogs Sorta farm dogs, they're inside dogs... Quorra (blue heeler mix) and Spencer (lab).
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Jive struttin' his stuff (this was before his tail feathers all grew back in, he's practically perfect now!)
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Our two goats - AnnaBelle and Felicity - known more commonly as Annie and Feli (Annie - white, Feli - brown, Feli is Annies daughter)
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Annie say WHAA??
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This was the first duckling we ever hatched here from our own flock - his name is Lucky, he's still around today, and he still eat out of my hands.
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This is Redbird - our Leghorn Rooster. The first bird we EVER got. Red is an old roo now...
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And a picture of some of the chickens:
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Okay sorry for cluttering up the wall but posting this but I just thought I'd share. I love taking pics of the animals (haven't done so in the winter, need to get out there), and I just love sharing what I've learned about them, etc, from living here so far. Don't know what the point of this post was really other than an excuse to share some pictures of farm animals, hehe But I'll share knowledge I have too if anyone wants to know, lol! (I'm no expert by any means!)

[Spike]

I really love the pictures you have shared! Especially the pretty crested birdy!

[achab1984]

You do have yourself a small farm there

[Kiwi]

Love the pics!!

[RandomPony]

WOW! Everybody seems so happy The little ducky is cute :3

[kaoskat]

So cute! I always wanted a farm myself! That or a zoo.... You are so lucky!

[Aadra310]

WOW!  I'd call that a farm!  Jive Turkey is beautiful!  I'd love to get some chickens for fresh eggs (we have one acre) but I'm not quite ready for that yet, but I know who to ask if I have questions!
Great pics.

[Ginger]

Jive is beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing your pictures, I really enjoyed your post. Having a little homestead is a dream of mine and I love seeing them.

Congrats for the lovely place and all your hard work!!

[Eviecorn]

I love your fowl!  Serious chicken love here. 

[Sunshine]

Aww thanks everyone!

And yes... maybe it is more of a zoo than a farm, haha! We always joke that we should charge admission to see all the animals!

WOW!  I'd call that a farm!  Jive Turkey is beautiful!  I'd love to get some chickens for fresh eggs (we have one acre) but I'm not quite ready for that yet, but I know who to ask if I have questions!
Great pics.

Oh man, it's so wonderful to have your own chickens for eggs - you'll never go back to store eggs. I consider myself an "egg snob" (jokingly) now - because I never realized that 1) eggs have a shelf life of over 100 days (yep! from chicken butt to fridge, they can last 100 days), and because of that, 2) most store eggs are a few weeks old at least. This is why they're Grade A eggs, and if you raise your own birds, you'll be getting Grade AA eggs (if they're fresh, they then go down to Grade A, Grade B etc..) and the yolks are SO YELLOW. It's amazing! We made some homemade vanilla pudding the other day using our duck eggs, and I was like "Wow it's so yellow!" because of the yolks from the duck eggs. So I would certainly look into getting birds... if you had a half dozen birds you'd probably get 2-4 eggs a day, and you don't need a rooster for it, so if you want to cut down on noise you can get by with just hens.

I love your fowl!  Serious chicken love here. 

I hope soon we will have a few more varieties of chickens - our flock is now between 1-2 yrs old, so some of the hens are probably going to lack on egg production soon, and that leaves an opening for new hens to come into the flock and lay for us. I'm hoping we can get some Jersey Giants, as well as some additions to our Araucana (the green egg laying chickens). Right now I just have 2 hens (and no pictures of them apparently) that lay green eggs, so I want more of those! I also love some of the crazier looking birds - I'd like to get a mate for D-e-r p (his name is /not/ Drama Pony, lol) so a female silkie, and maybe some Polish Crested or something of the sort. We had 2 guineas (1 just got eaten by a fox a few weeks ago, so we're down to 1) - and I think this spring we will get more of those. They eat ticks, so it's AMAZING to have them around the farm because we have lots of ticks in this part of the state.

Oh yeah, and I love chickens too! I used to think birds (esp. chickens) were all just stupid, drone-like creatures... you know, never had much exposure to them. Once I got the chickens, I spent so much time watching them, and now I realize, especially the roosters, all have individual personalities, quirks, behaviors, noises... (the hens kind of tend to all act the same, some stand out...) and the ducks, omg the ducks and geese I've learned SO much about. Ducks and geese have friends. Like for real, like you and I, friends. Friends that they would stick with through thick and thin and put themselves in danger to be with their friends... I never knew that! I had no idea! But it's VERY obvious when you get to watch them all the time. And they have cliques. So not all ducks are friends with each other... it's crazy!

I will say, it's super fun, but so much work! We also try to grow veggies in the spring/summer so that adds to the fun... but I would certainly recommend having a couple birds and growing some of your own food, even if it's a little tiny window garden, it's quite satisfying to open a pantry stocked with home canned goods or eat an omelet from home grown eggs.


Again, thanks for letting me share!

[Vintergatan]

WOOOOW!!! I absolutely LOVE your pets it is so wonderful to see these animals treated the way they should be You're basically living my dream

I must admit I didn't have a high opinion on birds until I rescued and nursed my pigeon, and then I realised just how intelligent and full of personality birds actually are! Now I see them in the same light I saw cats and dogs ^^

I think one day maybe I could get myself a farm here with all the birdies but I wonder how well they handle the cold :O I'd also love to have a bunch of Icelandic sheep, I love sheep and they could support themselves by producing wool

Anyways, lots of respect from me to you, and lots of love for your lovestock

[brightberry]

What a nice farm! I love your animals. They look so happy.

[Yurusumaji]

Meep! I LOVE GOATS! Any time I find a petting zoo I head straight for the goats.

You have a beautiful critter family. I am seriously jelly!

[babylicketysplit]

your animals are beautiful! they look so healthy and happy. especially your goats    are they dwarf nigerians? oh and they dont have to pests, if you breed and kid you can milk them

[SourdoughStomper]

Dawwww! I just love the pictures. *wants to pet/hug/pat/feed/whatever all the cute farm animals*

*and makes sure not to get goosed by the geese*

That one fellow really looks like he's struttin' his stuff.