Sunday, June 09, 2013

With a loudmouth cow, who needs an alarm clock?

Normally I separate Jody's calf from her around six in the evening.  Next morning I take enough of her milk to fill Penny's bottle and, if we're low on milk in the house, a half-gallon or so for our use. Then her calf, Jenny, is turned out with her for the day.
Cows are creatures of habit who like a regular routine, so this schedule is approved by both Jody and Jenny.  However, we had to be at the parade lineup by 5:30.  We were a little hungry, and intended to go by our daughter's house in town and mooch eat some of the party food available there.  Therefore, I put Jenny in the stall at 3:30, two hours ahead of the normal time.
Shortly after midnight, Jody began to bawl for her baby periodically, right outside the stall.  Keep in mind that we live directly behind the barn, and the weather is nice enough now that we had a window open next to the bed.
Yeah, I didn't get much sleep.  I finally got up at 4 A.M. just so I could go milk, get mother and daughter together, and have some peace and quiet.

Chickie is growing steadily.  She has done quite will without having a heat lamp on her.  A chick can survive at household temperatures, it's just that if you have fifty or a hundred of them and don't keep them warm, they will pile up in a heap trying to keep warm and some of them will smother.  I throw a towel over her box at night.  When I remove it in the morning, the first thing she does is run to the mirror to say good morning to her image.  Then she starts eating.  I intend to move her to the little chicken house outside before too long, since I moved one hen in with the half-grown chickens and gave the other one, the mean one, to Cliff's brother.  I have a video so my readers can see just how mean she was:

 

My house chicken, Chickie, loves being outside:  She scratches and peeps and follows my big feet around, always staying nearby.  I imagine she isn't going to like being in the little pen outside all alone.  Maybe I should put her mirror in there with her.  I'll have to get a larger one, though.  She will soon be too big to see her whole image in the little one she has now.  I am also thinking about putting her in a cage inside the chicken house for brief periods of time so she can get used to the sounds of the older flock, because eventually that's where she's headed.  She is going to have to figure out I'm not actually her mother, and she isn't a human.

We have light sprinkles this morning.  So far it looks like we have about a quarter of an inch, just enough to keep Cliff from mowing hay.  And so it goes.  

1 comment:

  1. A bigger mirror outside might do the trick. But since Chickie has footprinted herself to you, she's not going to know what to do with real chickens.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!