On “The Farm” Life Is Certainly Entertaining

This morning was one of those mornings that held a delightful surprise for me. It wasn’t yet dawn when I crawled out of bed, got dressed and started my morning farm chores. The morning was rainy and damp and I didn’t relish the thought of getting out in it and experiencing the ambiance of a cold, wet day. Morning farm chores. Sounds positively dreadful, doesn’t it? Well, let me explain…


My mom started calling the acreage I bought “The Farm” from almost the first day she heard about it. The name stuck, even though, in fact, it was not a real farm. We have always had dogs and cats but up until this year we had no livestock. Three hens, a rooster, and three guinea fowl are now my livestock. Livestock!

Since I am now an official farmer I have official farm chores, which include letting the birds out of their coop in the morning, giving them feed and water, and closing them up in the coop at night. These chores are not something I shirk or try to avoid. I know from owning dogs and cats that they need daily attention to not just live, but to thrive, and I happily try to give them what they need to be happy dogs and cats. And now I do the same for my chickens and guineas.

In fact, I enjoy working with the birds, especially the chickens. Each time I approach their covered yard they run to the gate to greet me. I’m sure they are expecting a treat but I prefer to think they are happy to see me. As I work in their yard, giving them feed and water, they follow me around and two of the hens come up close and watch me. I pet them frequently, thinking that they will be used to human contact when it comes time to clip their wings and then remove the netting from the yard so the guineas can roam freely, eating the dreaded ticks that plague the other animals on The Farm.

This morning it had started to rain so I decided to open the coop up early in case the rain got harder and I wouldn’t have to go out in a downpour later on. I figured that the birds weren’t even awake yet since I hadn’t heard Crowlee (our rooster) crowing. I grabbed my raincoat but didn’t grab my camera because it was too dark to take pictures anyway. The dogs and I made our way to the yard and I opened the door to the coop. The chickens weren’t too anxious to get out of their cozy coop and into the rain, and I was ready to get back into the house. Then it happened. Crowlee crowing. What’s special about a rooster crowing? This time it wasn’t an ordinary crow, the one he crows regularly. No this was Crowlee making his trilling crow. He was still in the coop, but he was crowing and trilling. I wasn’t sure if he would still be crow-trilling if I went back to the house to get the camera to record it, but I decided to try anyway. When I got back to the chicken yard with the camera he was nice enough to crow for me a time or two. Thank heavens I was able to catch it.

What’s There to Crow About?

I’ve mentioned before that I started keeping chickens and guineas. I bought them as one-week-old chicks and keets from Atwoods. There was a very helpful and knowledgeable lady there that answered all my questions and guided me on what I would need to start my chicken-guinea adventure. Four of the chicks I bought were ‘sexed’, meaning that they were supposed to be all female. I bought two others that I told the lady I didn’t care if they were male or female because I did want one rooster. The keets came as straight-run, meaning they were (probably) 50-50 male/female.


Fast-forward 15 weeks.

My routine each day starts with a walk up to the road to let the birds out of their coops and then on to collect the newspaper. The dogs and cats usually make the trip with me. It’s not a long one in distance but time-wise it can take quite a while, depending upon what I find to slow my progress. I have paused on my route for sunrises, flowers, birds, turtles, and anything that sparkles on the path.

This morning started like most others. I let the chickens and guineas out of their coops and checked their food and water and then made my way up the driveway. Anna, our beloved Pyrenees, was ‘guarding’ the driveway from a depression in the grass, so I made my way over to pet her and say good morning, and the other dogs joined me, nuzzling her to say ‘hello’.

Then we heard it; a strange sound. Something I had never heard before. I paused, and the dogs did too. Waiting to see if the sound happened again. Yes, there it was. What was it? It was coming from the chicken yard. Could it be? But that’s not what it should sound like. And again – the sound. Yes, yes, yes!

Crowing!

I walked up to the yard and watched as one of my ‘guaranteed female’ hens was crowing. I have wondered about this particular chicken for a few weeks because it was much larger than the other hens and it’s comb and tail feathers were larger. I have read that if one has only hens that one of them will take on the role of the rooster, crowing and acting more rooster-like and giving up their egg-laying role. But I don’t think it alters their physical appearance and starts at this early age, and especially since they haven’t started laying eggs yet.

Crowlee

So, I do have my rooster. It’s not one that I expected, but I’ll take what I can get. As to the crowing, I think it’s one of the sweetest sounds I could ever hear.

What a way to start the morning!

My, how time flies!

It’s been almost exactly a year since I posted and I can’t claim any great endeavor that kept me from it. Just life. A busy life. So much has happened that it can’t really be condensed into a paragraph or two, so I won’t even try. And while it does seem like that might mean great, or life changing, or catastrophic events, it wasn’t. It was just life.


So, here is another attempt at keeping a blog. I have questioned my motives, wondering why bother, but in the end I would just like to share. Some of my insights and techniques and thoughts. It might not be interesting to anyone but me, but who cares? If you want to join me on this venture, please do. If not, have a great day. So here goes.

I started keeping chickens and guineas this past year, and while there is a lot of information on the web about that, there are little things I’ve learned as I went along that I wish I had known. One of our cats had a litter of kittens, which are now almost grown. Even now I’m trying to type with two cats in my lap. Big, purring, male cats. More on all the antics of the animals as the blog progresses.

Dolly

Gretchen

Anne

Guineas enjoying their millet

Also, I would like to share some of my thoughts on the creative process and share how I go about creating, be it a guinea house, a piece of jewelry, a lampwork bead, or another artistic effort.

One of my hand blown Christmas ornaments.

So, come and join me as I sip my coffee and muse about life.