I’ll admit – the title of this blog is deceiving. It is really more of a funny story about our boys than about free ranging chickens, but it does relate to the title if you hang in there until the end.
If you haven’t met our boys, we have 3 boys that I refer to on my blog by initials – AJ (5), CJ (4), & JJ (2). They have been described by various people as “all boy.” I’m never quite sure if that’s a compliment, but I take it as one. They were being “all boy” on a day last week… AJ and CJ were playing outside on one of the beautiful fall afternoons. JJ and little sister MJ were napping, and I was working inside the house. I always keep my “mom radar” on when the boys are outside. Usually a window is open somewhere so I can hear them, and I frequently look out the windows to see what is going on. My mom radar picked up that they were playing with the chickens. Our chickens have a fenced in area, but in the late afternoon, we open up the coop door and let them free range. We have several reasons for doing it this way, but that’s a topic for another post. At first, they were just catching the chickens and putting them under a crate. No chickens were being harmed, and they were having a delightful time. As time progressed, my mom radar sensed that the delight level was increasing. Before I had time to investigate, a breathless and excited CJ burst in the door saying, “Mommy, Mommy, come look!” Now, I should’ve taken a picture, but I didn’t. I’ll try to paint the picture the best I can. Two boys, one stroller, one chicken, one wild ride. The chicken was hunkered down in the stroller – its simple world of eating, drinking, and egg laying totally shattered by this new experience. Indeed, the chicken was actually strapped into the stroller (for safety reasons, I assume) as it was pushed around our driveway at breakneck speed. The boys were all smiles about their new idea of giving chickens rides in the stroller. Feeling sorry for the chicken and worrying how long this “trauma” would prevent it from laying an egg again, I calmly suggested that they go back to catching and trapping the chickens rather than providing entertaining rides for them. So, in case you’re considering free ranging your chickens and you have little boys around, beware that you never know what they might do!
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The old saying goes that, "You can't have just one goat," because goats are herd animals. They will become lonely (and most likely vocal) if they don't have a buddy. The buddy, I've been told, doesn't necessarily have to be a goat. It could be a sheep, cow, horse, or any other animal the goat could form a "herd" with. But, in our case, we couldn't just have three goats. That is, we couldn't just have three goats because we were lacking in the male gender. To back up a little in the story, we started our goat herd in 2013 with two sisters, Penny & Nickel. We added Vanilla in 2014. (All three of these goats are does.) In both the fall of 2013 and 2014, we "rented" a buck from friends to breed our does. By "rent," I mean that we paid a small fee to have the buck come live in our pen for about a month and woo our ladies with his antics. This year, 2015, we planned to do the same thing. However, the buck we were going to rent, unfortunately passed away the week before he was to come to Russell Homestead. So, we were left scrambling for a buck. Though I never blogged about it in my "Things I Said I Will Never Do (And Now Do!)" series, I could have done a post on how we said we will never own a buck. If you've never been around a goat buck, you may wonder why we are so prejudiced against them. Well, they don't smell very nice (mainly due to their habit of urinating on themselves to attract the ladies), and they can be aggressive. In addition, we don't need one, except for once a year. And then we REALLY need one. Back to my story, we were eager to get a buck because we have dried up our does, and we are eager for them to "freshen" again. (Freshen is a goat and cow term which means to begin giving milk again after giving birth.) We also didn't want just any breed of buck; we wanted a Nubian buck to provide us with kids that will be good home milkers. We didn't know of anyone we could "rent" from, so we began looking to buy. The fall isn't the best time to purchase goats because dairy goats typically kid in the spring. We didn't want a kid anyway, we wanted a young buck who was ready to get the job done. After much online searching, we found our buck, and brought home a doe as well. (We goat people just have a hard time resisting more goats!) We wanted to grow our herd a bit to have more milk for next year to experiment with butter or soap. Who knows? But, if you're milking 3, what is milking 4? So, without further ramblings from me, here are the newcomers to Russell Homestead... Prince Charming Nubian Buckling Prince is a young buck, born in March of 2015. He is polled, which means he naturally doesn't have horns. He is very gentle, and a bit shy, but he is warming up to us and the delicious sweet feed we offer him. (And he really doesn't smell too bad yet because he is so young.) Moondancer Nubian doe Moondancer (or Mooney for short), named for the crescent moon on her side, is a meek & mild two and a half year old doe. She was bottlefed, and she loves people! She is the only goat we have that will stand at the gate and beg to be petted. The boys enjoy leading her around the yard. She gave birth to twins in the spring of 2015. She was exposed to a Nubian buck before coming here, which means we are hoping for kids in January!
This is Part 2 of a series on schnauzer hair. Read Part 1 here. We were told that miniature schnauzers do not shed. We read that miniature schnauzers do not shed. But we didn’t fully believe that they don’t shed until we had our first mini schnauzer for a few months. With all their hair, one would think they must leave some behind on clothes and furniture, but they don’t. The other day I had a moment of panic when I found a lone white hair on my clothes after holding Cocoa. Then I remembered she had a hair cut just a few hours before I was holding her. So, yes, after a haircut, you may find a stray hair or two, but, other than that, schnauzers don’t shed! (Good news for the one who does the cleaning in your house!) I’m going to attempt to answer some of the common questions we here about schnauzer hair. I’m answering from our experience, which is not representative of all mini schnauzers. In case you haven’t read all about us on our website, we have two mini schnauzers – Jolly & Cocoa. Jolly has a traditional coat, and Cocoa has a super coat. 1) What is the difference between traditional, super, & mega coated? There are two basic differences – the amount of hair and the texture of hair. Traditional has the least amount of hair, then super, then mega. Traditional hair tends to be more wiry, and super & mega are more soft. As to the difference between super and mega, I’ve never been able to find much information on this topic. Basically, the mega coat is even thicker than the super. I suppose breeders who specialize in these coats and see many of them in a year develop an “eye” for it. (Cocoa’s mom was super coated, and her father was mega coated. From looking at pictures of Cocoa, her breeder felt she may have inherited her father’s mega coat. We know she is at least super coated; so we have chosen to call her super coated.) 2) What are the pros/cons of the traditional coat versus the super or mega coated? Pros of Traditional -Less hair to comb and clip -Easier to maintain -Fewer mats and tangles Cons of Traditional -More wiry feel -Not as showy or stylish Pros of Super or Mega -Tends to be softer -Beautiful when groomed properly Cons of Super or Mega -Requires more brushing -Mats easily if not brushed weekly 3) How often do you brush your mini schnauzers? Ok, confession time, I rarely brush our mini schnauzers. I brush them about once a month. Jolly’s traditional coat is fine with once a month brushing. Cocoa’s super coat could use weekly brushing. (If I were diligent with brushing Cocoa weekly, I feel we wouldn’t reach the point where we need to clip her entirely and start her coat over, as I discussed in my first post.) 4) How often do they need to be groomed or clipped? We do our grooming here at Russell Homestead. Mr. Russell is our self-taught groomer. We clip them every other month. Over winter, we allow their coats to grow longer. 5) Which type of coat – traditional or super – do you prefer? We like both of our miniature schnauzers, and it feels a bit disloyal to say we like one’s coat over the other. But, if I had to choose between the coats, I would choose traditional. Yes, the super and mega coats can be soft and beautiful, but with our outdoor-loving family and homestead environment, Cocoa’s super coat needs more attention. That’s just our opinion. We still love our little Cocoa, but must admit that her coat isn’t our first preference. On a lighter note, no matter what kind of coat you have, sometimes you just need a nap with a buddy… I know many of my blog readers are mini schnauzer fans, and I’d love to hear from you! How often do you groom and brush? Which type of coat do you prefer? If you are reading this and considering a schnauzer, I’d love to hear any questions you have about their care.
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AuthorVanessa from Russell Homestead. Follower of the Lord Jesus, wife of my knight in shining armor, mother of 5 wonderful children, and joint-keeper of the Russell homestead. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
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Vanessa Russell
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