our animal family

we have added to our animal family in the last two weeks. some lovely friends have a poultry business + were kind enough to make a road trip from perth to deliver some chookies, goats + ducks. the girls were so excited + miss t said "now we are almost a real farm mama, we just need some horses!" i love how much the girls are into their animals, they have an affinity for them + are not remotely scared, regardless of how big they are.
so our days now go like this... we feed them vege + fruit scraps every morning with the chookies having lettuce, celery tops, apple + tomato which they fight over! it must be the equivalent of chook candy! the ducks have lettuce + celery tops at the moment (we're still finding out what they like) + we put it in their water bowl as ducks like to wash their food down. we give both the chookies + ducks chicken feed at the moment but we will be changing to soaked grains asap so we are not inadvertantly feeding them gm feed. you can't be sure what is in standard feed as you don't know where the crops come from. we want our food to be as organic as possible so that includes what we feed our chookies, as we will be eating their eggs. our goats eat pretty much eat anything + they like browsing which means eating leaves off trees + shrubs. we have heaps of these scattered over our 7 acres so they will be kept happy. it's funny watching them balance on fences + rocks to reach up + eat. they are very agile + we have rock piles + dead trees here + there, which they like climbing. we then feed them, goat pellets in the afternoon + top up the feed for the chookies + ducks if it's running low + check for eggs. we are averaging 2 eggs a day at the moment which is brilliant so more will be a bonus.
now to introduce them properly (+ when i finally learn how to upload photos on here) you will be able to see them in all their cuteness. our goats + ducks were already named so that influenced our name choices for the chookies, as the other animals have vintage names, which i love. so... mama goat is called doris (she is a piggy when it comes to food + a bit bossy!), her son is percy, he is very sweet + shy but is warming up to us. betty is our other girl + she is shy too, although i think this has a lot to do with doris pushing her out of the way all the time! my duck boys, who are best buddies, are bert + ernie. they are white pekin ducks + follow me everywhere, quacking madly! they are very cute + funny although the girls are a little wary of their 'love pecks', telling me they are bossy as they sit on the gate out of reach!heehee... our chookies are various breeds, we have 3 mature, already laying hens + 6 teenagers. they are effie, pearl, angelina, eliza, posy, evie, mabel, lucille + flossie. miss s adores the girls, we call her the 'chicken whisperer" as she can pick several of them up + eliza (one of the teenage black ones) is very tame + even went to sleep on her perch while miss s was stroking her!
we already had 5 sheep, 2 rams, 2 wethers + 1 ewe, who we haven't named yet but we will now as i know what direction we are going in. it probably seems a little over the top to name all our animals, but we won't be eating them, they are pets. this weekend will be a busy one as we will be building a shelter for the goats + a pen + house for the ducks. they roam during the day but need to be locked up at night to protect them from foxes. we were lucky to already have a good size, secure chookie house for the girls on the property, so we just need to fence off an area around it so they can be outside during the day. i am thinking that is enough animals for now! as we also have a dog, milly, 2 cats, bellacat + dahlia + 2 guinea pigs, harmony + rhapsody.
i am responsible for feeding them all + i have not done this much physical activity or been so dirty (ever picked up a duck??) in my life! it is great though + i'm sure we will get into a nice routine. i will keep you apdated as we build things + will say thanks for visiting + bye for now my lovelies xx