Cattle

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June on the Farm

It’s been a while since I’ve posted photos of our farm animals, so here are a few scenes of spring from the farm this year. I hope you’ll enjoy my photos, it’s so much fun to have so much new life around our farm!

In May, I collected eggs from some of our hens and put them in our incubator, the chicks hatched last week. The chicks are a bunch of crosses as the four roosters I had in with the hens are a White Cochin, Ameraucana, Brown Silkie and a Buff Orpington x Red Rock Cross (I hatched this rooster out last year). Six of the hens are ISA Browns and one is a Buff Orpington x Red Rock Cross (I hatched this hen out last year too). The chicks are very cute and I can’t wait to see what they’ll look like with all their feathers.

The father of the chick is the Ameraucana, but I’m not sure of the mother,

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I’m not sure of the breed of the chick on the left, but the father of the chick on the right is the White Cochin,

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This one’s a Slikie cross,

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This year is the first year we’ve had lambs born on our farm — it’s been very exciting to have 11 lambs bouncing around our yard! The lambs are a Southdown cross and Southdowns are also known as Babydoll sheep,

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There’s almost nothing cuter than a lamb sleeping,

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A couple of our Shorthorn cross calves born in May,

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Mother and baby,

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Spring Calves

It isn’t officially spring yet, but once March calves start coming on the farm, spring is just around the corner. Our herd of cattle started this Sunday and we have five calves so far. The calves are all Black Angus cross and as calves are always, very cute! On a birding sidenote: I saw the first Canada Goose yesterday too, another sign of spring!

This bull calf was born yesterday and was quite frisky, jumping and bouncing around, even chasing after our dog.

You can see the calf chasing our dog in this video,

A sleeping calf,

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Cow and calf,

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On a Cold Winter’s Day

The last week has been very, very cold here, -29C (-20F) with a wind chill of below -40 some days.

Today is just cold, no wind, which is nice. Two days ago it was incredibly windy and bitter cold. The wind is hard on the animals, especially the cattle and horses. We have wind-breaks and bales set out to provide a bit of shelter from the wind for the animals, though the wind seems to blow from every direction. Our laying hens and rabbits are spoiled in comparison, living inside an insulated building that keeps them cozy and warm.

Our hens: the brown ones are Isa Browns and the others are White Leghorns,

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We have 49 hens and they lay about 40 eggs a day,

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My steer, Marco,

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Our dog, Lady,

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The redpolls and Black-capped Chickadees are quite puffed up, and the Downy Woodpecker who usually comes to the feeders has been absent for the last couple of days, probably due to the wind. When the wind was at its worst, only five Common Redpolls were at the nyjer feeders, but when the wind died down there were 32 Common Redpolls and 2 Hoary Redpolls at the feeders.

A Hoary Redpoll,

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I’m cold too, though I’m not spending the night (or even all day) outdoors like the birds and mammals, so I don’t have too much to complain about, but once the cold snap is over (supposedly tomorrow) it will be easier on the animals and more fun to go birding.

Common Redpolls,

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Happy Easter!

I’m having a wonderful Easter and hope you are too! Here are some photos for your Easter.

We even had an Easter baby: our cow Becky gave birth to a healthy heifer calf  named Candy,

A Western Meadowlark,

Our Easter table;  I made the paper mache eggs from a not martha tutorial,

Easter eggs I colored yesterday, chicken eggs on the left and goose eggs on the right,