Hurt Chicken

Sometimes animals get hurt. I'm not sure how it happened, but I found this chicken's foot caught under a gate yesterday. She looked terrible! It's been so cold and she had been stuck there for hours!

The other chickens had been pecking at her head because she couldn't get away. Sometimes chickens aren't nice to each other. 

I got her out from under the gate. I put her in a warm spot in the barn with some food and water. She couldn't walk because her foot had been frozen to the ground under the gate.  I didn't think she would live. That was sad.

When I went out this morning, she was missing from her warm spot!

I searched around the barn and found her sitting on the cold cement floor. That didn't look comfortable, but she is alive!

https://youtu.be/0JRTaYMKprU

She's walking, but she limps. You can see which foot she doesn't want to use.

She likes to sit, and not move much.

This is where she hid. I put food and water near her so she doesn't have to go out with the other chickens unless she wants to.

I hope she gets better! She's a good hen. Not many of my chickens have names because I have so many. A few of the special chickens have names.

If you would like to tell me your ideas for a name for this hen, please write me a note or leave a message in the comments.

It seems like many of you have ideas for names for Sadie's calf.
The calf is due around March 28.
Save your ideas for names until I show you pictures of the calf in a little over 1 month.

I don't really have a favorite animal on the farm.
I like them all!

Sadie loves me the best out of everyone.
She comes for hugs every morning.
She loves it when I rub her neck under her chin.
She lays her head against me and snuggles me.
It's a bit tricky for a 900 lb cow to snuggle.
I don't mind. She's gentle, and she's very sweet.

Right now I only have one goat.
River is the only goat we have.
I milk her every morning.
She gives about 3/4 gallon every day.

Have a great week!

The Turkeys

 

This is our tom turkey.
A tom turkey is a boy turkey.
I love his feathers!

https://youtu.be/VEsgmxRnn9Y

Did you see the rooster walk through the video? We have one rooster and one tom turkey. We have two turkey hens. You saw those in another post. 

Baby turkeys aren't smart. 
Sometimes we have to take them away from their parents because they aren't smart enough to do what their mom tells them to do.
Sometimes they jump into buckets of water and drown. It's really sad!
I leave small water feeders in lots of places when we have baby turkeys, but they forget where they are. 

One year we had 16 baby turkeys born to our turkey hen.
Only 3 lived until they were grown up.
The tom turkey in the video is one of the babies that lived.

If you want to read more about turkeys that aren't smart, you can read this post.

I really hope that you are smart enough to follow what your mom and teachers tell you to do! They are trying to keep you safe and healthy!

I'm not sure what you mean by 'colder'
We live about 30 minutes away from your school.
It's usually close to the same temperature here as it is at your school.

The weather doesn't bother the animals. 
The sheep have warm, wool 'coats' on in the winter. 
They are very warm even though they have snow on their backs!

All of our farm animals have shelter. Some have stalls in the barn, some have sheds to get into out of the rain and snow, some have small shelters to snuggle inside when it's cold.

No, we don't have any pigs.
The city we live in doesn't let us have pigs.
Sad! We would love to try to raise a pig or two!
We've never done that before!

I bet you can figure out the age of each of the dogs if I give you their birthdates.

Mishka is on the left. Her birthday is April 14, 2019.
JJ is on the right. Her birthday is January 3, 2010
Scout isn't in the picture. He wanted to stay inside today.
His birthday is October 30, 2010

We have 2 cows, 1 milk goat, and 3 sheep. 
We have 3 turkeys, 6 ducks, and about 20 chickens.

We get 4-5 dozen eggs a week right now.
We'll get more as the weather warms up, and the sun is out longer.
Did you know that chickens need about 14 hours of daylight each day to lay eggs?

If you have dogs or cats, you might be noticing that they are beginning to shed their winter coats. You might have a lot of fluff and hair around your house. That's because the days are getting longer, and the dogs' bodies know that more daylight means that it's getting warmer.

Chickens are similar. They already got their new feathers in the fall. New feathers will keep them warm. But less daylight also tells their body to slow down on laying eggs. Now that we have more daylight, their bodies know it's a good time to start laying more eggs!

We are hoping that we get a chicken and a turkey to sit on some eggs and hatch them out. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens. It's so much fun to see the babies hatch!