Shelter Up

7:49 PM, Monday, 1 February 2010
Temperature: 42 F, raining

Slept in a little; woke up to all cats on the bed. Got out of bed despite this, checked all livestock. Rabbits were mostly fine but buck needed more water. He keeps knocking over or urinating in his water; of the rabbits his need for a larger space is apparent. Minnow also keeps knocking over or urinating in hers but relocating her water dish seems to mostly have helped. All were given more water first, then the poultry were fed. Ewes in the poultry pasture show a remarkable fondness for the poultry feed even over their hay. Of course, these ewes also show a remarkable fondness for eating evergreen branches over even their hay, so it's possible that these ewes are just plain strange.

Hay was then given to all rabbits and then to all sheep. Later in the morning we set to work erecting a shelter for the ewes in the poultry enclosure; water containers and the sandbox/wading pool were rinsed and refilled during the course of this. The one lonely gander continues to want to mate with his imprinted human, with as little success permitted as usual. Hopefully the two geese on order for some time in April will convince him that his future lies in producing goslings, as his current aims are less than fruitful.

Minnow received some grooming in the early afternoon. She enjoyed it, but it is definitely a learning process and long-term we may choose not to go with angoras; the fiber is a good profit crop but the maintenance to profit ratio may not be feasible in the long term. She is however a sweet rabbit, if still getting used to us and vice versa.

Hay was provided in mid-afternoon in order to gain a photo op.

Unfortunately, one of our rams, Bolivar, chose the middle of this photo op as the perfect spot to get in some bullying on one of the lambs. Someone call Lamb Protective Services, stat.

Evening feeding was relatively uneventful aside from placement of hay under shelter did not convince ewes to use said shelter. They still also prefer the birds' feed. The geese are none too happy about this. Day's end saw tax preparation; rabbits were checked on and were deemed fine. They will receive one last check when the barn cats are put to bed, which may take some time - barn cats were allowed into main body of workshop for the afternoon and will take some coaxing back into their smaller space.