I swear, it's a soap opera around here with all the drama surrounding these animals. They fight, they escape, they mate like crazy, they eat things they shouldn't, they destroy. Did I mention they escape? And the males on the farm? Oh. My. Goodness. Those guys have one thing on their mind, ALL DAY.
We have a lame duck who unfortunately for her, is a female. Keeping the male duck off of her has been a real challenge. That poor thing. She's missing feathers because of him. The other females run too fast for him, so he gets her. Many times a day. Thankfully though, he grew too big to fit through the fence. So she sneaks out to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Back in March, before the female goats gave birth to their babies, we had to separate them from the buck, Adam. You have never heard agony until you've heard a lonesome goat. Goats are companion animals and should never live alone. Ever. Even for ten minutes. They are so needy, it's pitiful to witness. He was so loud, and so miserable, we quickly jumped online to find another goat to keep him company. That's when we added our second Nigerian dwarf buck, Oreo, to the herd. They get along great. And they smell. Really bad. It's the cherry on top of the other farm smells.
"Pastured" pork? Hmmmm, yeah. Nope. These pigs who we have tried to put on pasture, find ways of escaping their fencing in no time at all. We search for them, hoping they didn't get too far, only to find them sleeping in their pig stall. Every time. Laziness, I tell ya.
And don't get me started on the chickens. We've got Bloody Mary and her boyfriend, Blue, the blue cochin that was getting beat up by the dominant rooster. Mary broke her drumstick so she is an outcast, too. They're living happily ever after in the suburban coop. Then we've got the free-rangers who escaped from their coop and won't go back in. They like their freedom and eating the goat's sweet feed and the pig's slop, and once in a while, the pigs like to eat them. They don't go after them, but they're opportunists and will snag them up if they get close enough. That's fun. But do the chickens ever learn? No, because they're dumb.
We've happily accepted the challenge the animals have given us. We are learning as we go, and doing the best we can to keep them well-fed, fresh-watered, contained and alive. But man oh man, it's always SOMETHING.