Lots of animal adventures happened here on the farm in the last month.
Our sweet barn kitty Strawberry broke her leg. It looked bad from the start. I thought maybe the vet could pop it back into place and splint it for her. Alas, they said the same thing that they did for poor Smokey W: 5K + for orthopedic surgery or amputation. We went ahead with the amputation for Smokey W. and she died of depression shortly thereafter. So this time I determined to go again the doctor's orders and try my herbal remedies instead.
I made her a comfrey salve and have been putting it on her twice a day for the last 2 weeks or so. She mostly licks it off, but it works internally as well as externally. She is already putting some weight on the leg and seems worlds better. I am so glad it's working. Mother Nature is an amazing healer when we know the right plants to use.
We have hatched two incubators full of ducklings and sold all but 9. Two more incubators are due to hatch in a couple weeks. We will keep selling ducklings all summer long.
They started in the livestock tub, but quickly outgrew it.
A friend let her kids have a pair of Khaki Campbells over Easter break and then gave them to us. I already sold them on to a new family.
We built a bigger brooder for the ducklings since they are selling a lot slower than they did last year.
While giving the front walkway a sweep I found this fellow. At first, we thought it was a juvenile copperhead, but it lacked the bright green tail. It was just a young rat snake so we shooed it off into the underbrush. Hopefully it will kill lots of pesky rats!!
We found a nest of guinea eggs and I tried to hide it from the dogs, but they are too smart by half. They found it, broke through the defensive branches, and ate them all up.
Our fellow homeschoolers gave away these budgies/parakeets, including the cage and a big bottle of food. The girls were excited to get their own house pet. And I, of course, am a pushover when it comes to pets.
Now M & S have a lizard and fish and the girls have parakeets in their room. It's a zoo.
Last month, the kids did a service activity for 4H. They brought their bunnies to display and talk about at our local chick-fil-a.
M brought Alexander - a chocolate Silver Fox buck.
A's bunny Cedar is a little Polish buck.
Some of our bunnies came home from the PaSRBA rabbit show with snuffles. There is no cure and it's highly contagious. Luckily, we seem to have it contained to the barn bunnies. But we are still so sad! I am planning to butcher a large number of rabbits the first weekend in June. Hopefully we can keep it from spreading.
The kids have been helping exercise our friends' German Shepherd, Kirche. We all love her. She is beautiful and very energetic. She does all the fetching and catching that our dogs are not interested in doing.
She catches the frisbee or soccer ball right out of the air.
We think she loves us too. When we get ready to go, she jumps in the car and wants to come along home with us.
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