Triton's Farm

This post is about my cooking experiment to see if I could taste a significant difference between a Heritage turkey and a Broad Breasted Bronze turkey.  [Read More]

Have you ever felt you missed something significant when you walked by your animals? I had this the other day. Hector our Pyraneese dog was barking, not his alert bark but his annoying "hey" bark. The one where he just barks till you look at what he's barking at and say that's enough there's nothing over there.

I was in the house cooking and the dogs were in the run that wraps around the house and includes the front porch. It was a hot day and the porch is nicely covered and cool. Hector started with his barking so I went outside to see what was going on. All three dogs were on the porch lazing and Hector was at the top of the steps seemingly barking in to space. I went back inside.

 About 15 minutes later the same thing. Hector was barking again. This time I went outside and about 20 chickens flew off the porch. The dogs were all off the porch and laying in the dirt at the foot of the steps in the sun.

I didn't think anything of this at the time since the chickens wander up on the porch, but usually stay down below next to the house were they can dust themselves.

 I think I just missed a planned military take-over of the porch. I checked and there wasn't enough poop on the porch to account for 20 chickens so they had just deposed the dogs and taken over the porch when I popped out. The chickens are not allowed on the porch because when they are on the porch they poop, when they are on the ground they fertilize. The dogs know the chickens are not allowed on the porch, but they also know they are not allowed to touch the chickens.

It makes you wonder sometimes if what we see is really what's happening on the farm. I think there may be bigger things going on than we think.

 

 

My American Buff Geese and Chinese geese are almost a year old now and really beginning to terrorize the farm. I think they will have to be confined to one of the cow pastures. No more free ranging for them. I think it's getting to be breeding season and since it's the first year they have not paired up with the girls yet and are trying to show off.

So far we have had one fight club. With the two biggest geese fighting each other will the others stand around shouting fight. The dogs let me know when that was going on because they knew that wasn't allowed. 

Since then in retaliation for being told on they are goosing the dogs every chance they get. I see them going way out of their way to goose the dogs. It's become a battle zone. The geese were always the farm thugs, but at least before they weren't going out of their way to annoy the other members of the farm. Right now they are always ready to start a fight.

Interestingly enough Big Bertha (the LARGE white Orpington) can still chase the geese away from their feed in the mornings.

I think it's just time to lock them up. We are still talking about free ranging over half an acre, but just not all 20 acres. The rule out here is that everyone has to get along and right now the Geese are not following that rule.