Bucks, Does, and An Injury

After 4 weeks(!!) of no farm news, I am finally bringing you up to date on what's been going on.

First up is Mr. Black  

 

The old boss, Sultan. He and Mr. Black are getting along great right now, but once rut comes, I bet we will have to separate them.

 Our youngest buck, Brody, who is out of Bunny. He's a beautiful kid, but pretty wild to handle.

Polly is pregnant again and almost due, so she is locked in the kitty condo to prevent her from having them in the haystack again. One died last time, and I want to prevent that this time.

 Her surviving kitten from earlier, Indigo.

 

 Even though the runt escaped from the nest box and rabbit cage several times, he managed never to chill or get eaten by cats, so all 7 of Spruce's babies made it-at least until now. I plan to keep one doe for breeding.

Mackenzie's litter is doing great as well. The bigger black and grey ones are the females-I'll probably keep the black one, depending how her temperament turns out.

 Bugsy's litter is weaned. We butchered some other rabbits and got more pen space, so they will be moved to the large grow out pen as soon as it gets cleaned.

 Tulip had 5 babies last week. 

 Minx.

Bluebelle has matured beautifully in the last year! If her udder weren't so ugly, I might buy her myself!

 My useless freemartin, Li, was put to work babysitting the weanling babies. She is doing a great job being their rock(as they are stressed from losing their moms) and showing them the rules, without being overly mean.

 

My Antonia is getting big and pretty too.

 All we have for a garden this year is corn and potatoes-they are growing great, even though they were planted late.

Jinger had a bit of an accident on Monday night. To add a bit of context, Jinger is a strong biter, but as she has figured out the concept of pressure, she has calmed down her biting a lot. Most of the time she just uses that legendary Border Collie stare, and walks in on them. However, sometimes the cows still won't move, at which point she stops walking in on them and just glares nails and broken glass at them. When this happens, I typically give them up to a minute to figure it out on their own, and if they don't, then I sic Jinger on them. The thing is, the cows know what "get em" or "sssssss" means so they listen to that command faster than Jinger and dodge or run, so that they won't get bit. Most of the time that's fine, but every 10 bite commands or so, Jinger gets sick of being cheated out of her enjoyable bites and chases them down to get her bite, in spite of them trying to be tricky and dodge. 

So, she was head to head with a calf a minute into our training session on Monday, and I sic'd her on it. The thing whirled and ran, as Jinger was diving in, which put Jinger directly under its brisket, which caused her to get rolled and come out limping. She didn't make a sound, and kept working away. Because we had been working on a difficult concept for the last week and she was finally beginning to understand, I continued gently working her for a couple minutes, and then called it quits. 

When the limp didn't clear up by Thursday, I brought her in for an x-ray. A broken toe or two is what we have, and the vet said on leash and no running or other activities that could further injure it, for at least 3 weeks. 

(I blew the picture up super big so that you can see the break-I hope it doesn't cause problems with viewing on mobile devices. 😒)

  

This, and her crate, are her living quarters. I'm trying to keep her busy with bones, puzzle feeders, and other toys. No balls though, as she gets too crazy, even playing with herself. 

 

She got done with her bone and decided to try burying it-without digging a hole first. 

Hey Jinge; how do you like it in your little cage?

 

Eh, she doesn't look too impressed. Heal fast-we've got cows to work!