Australian Shepard

Mollie's first day home

A few months ago, I purchased an Australian Shepard puppy from a lady who has shown Aussies for a long time. I bought Mollie (that's my puppy's name) to show in the 4-H dog show. She is to young to show this year, but I plan to enter her agility and obedience next year. Since it is very hard to find a purebred Aussie puppy at the Humane Society I bought my dog from a breeder.

One of my favorite things about Mollie is that I was able to pick her out of the litter and watch her grow. I knew that I wanted a female because all of our other dogs are girls, so I was able to find the three female puppies and chose from them. Two of the puppies looked exactly alike but Mollie had a patch of white on her head where the others didn't also, on one of Mollie's paws she has one white toe and the rest black. At first we kept her inside but as she grew she wanted to be outside more and more.


Asleep at the dog show

The first dog show training that I took Mollie to
she fell asleep at before I could practice with her.
I think that by the time I register for the next training, she will do pretty good. If Mollie sees anything in the tall grass, she will try to hop over the grass so that she can find it easier.

Mollie does have a couple of faults though,
 she likes to nip at your legs when you run, and she isn't friendly enough around other dogs.
I think that she nips because herding cattle is in her blood, and she is just trying to move us to where she wants us to go.

Waking up after a nap

If you have an active dog I would highly suggest that you train it  for agility contest because it helps your dog stay active and keeps it busy. Agility also allows for you to bond with your dog. 4-H has a non-profit program that teaches dog agility during the 4-H year and you can take you dog to the state dog show if your dog can
 meet the requirements.
I plan on showing Mollie next year so she has more time to learn what she needs to compete.

If you have any questions about the Aussie breed or the 4-H dog show, please feel free to comment with any questions. 

Mollie - my little angel

Kittens

Paws's litter

After our kitten bonanza last year I thought that we spayed all of our female cats. We weren't able to catch two of the mother cats at the time we spayed the others mothers;so now we have twelve kittens. Spot one of the original cats who is now tame had five kittens. One is a tabby and the others are orange. The mother had her kittens in the hay so that she could have easy access to food. The next cat who gave birth is Paws. She had three kittens, one gray, one black and white and later one that was a tabby. she conveniently had them on Mom's patio set. Mom is letting them stay there until their eyes open. Lastly, Grey baby who is Spot's untamed child from last year had three kittens in the horse trailer. She delivered three tabbies one which has a calico face. In an ideal situation we will keep two kittens and give away the rest. We plan on reducing our cat population down to eight by rehoming a few full grown cats. 

My advice to you is to spay or neuter your cats. If you want kittens adopt them from the shelter or a neighbor.

Andrew with his favorite cat.

Spot's litter

Life on the Farm

My flock of chickens.

 I'm so sorry that I have not blogged recently, and I hope to catch all you viewers up on what I've been doing. One of the activities that keeps me occupied the most would be taking care of all my animals.
Recently, raccoons have been raiding my cages to eat quail. My Dad and I set a trap for the raccoon and we caught him two nights later. After this incident I thought my problems were over. Three days ago six of my quail were dead.  For my poultry to be safe, I brought my quail, bantam and chicks inside our building. Again my Dad helped me set a trap. The next night, we caught the raccoon in the trap only after catching a cat. This morning when I went to feed the rabbits, their cage door was open. Upon further investigation I saw fur and blood on the ground. I also saw that one of the rabbits foot was hurt. Dad was trying to go to sleep, ( he was working night shift ) so I woke him up and told him about the problem. Two of the rabbits had to put them down so Dad handled them. I took the one that was the best and brought in to the building. Once again my Dad helped me set a trap for the culprit.

In other news our garden is doing good.The radish seeds have come up and we have our first green tomato. In our orchard we have small green peaches on the trees. Three of our cats had litters which you will see in the next post.

Quail

Rabbits

Ms. Fluffy Bunny is the oldest of the females.

Recently we bought four black Mini Rex rabbits to show in the upcoming HCLS show. We paid more for these rabbits because they came from a well known breeder. The rabbits we got are two males and two females. The male rabbit's pictures should soon be on my little brother's blog here.

My youngest bunny eating feed.

If your wanting raise to rabbits you will need a good cage to keep them in, food, water, feeder, waterer, a platform for them to get off the metal cage, and gloves to handle the rabbits with. If you get black rabbits, you will want to keep them away from the sun. If not, their fur won't stay dark black. Unlike the stereotype, lettuce and large amounts of carrots are not good for rabbits.

Rabbits top front teeth should be hanging over the bottom two teeth. Rabbits teeth are constantly growing so it's good to put a block of untreated wood or a pine cone in their pen for them to chew. Another important thing is to put a small piece of untreated wood or drywall in the rabbit pen so that the rabbits don't have sore feet.

If you have any questions about raising rabbits, please leave a comment on this post and I will try my best to answer it.
  

Rabbit scratches from not wearing gloves.

Snake Suprise

July 11 started as a regular day. I ate breakfast and went to do the pets. I had just finished feeding Tuffy. (That's Andrew's pet Dominique chicken, who fell in the dog pen yesterday. It's okay though.) When I went to open my quail pen to  feed them; I noticed a snake curled around the waterer, and there was  only one quail still alive. I had six quail in the pen and the snake had killed all the hen quail in that pen; two were just laying there dead. There was also a dead Buff Orpington pullet dead on the ground. I ran inside and called Dad at work. He said to try to shoot it or wait until he came home and he would kill it. Naturally, not wanting to put my other poultry at risk, I took my bb gun and fired 15 bbs . I was determined that no snake would steal by poultry without paying for it. Five of them hit him in the head and six went unto his back. When I saw blood leaking out of his head, I went inside the house to wait until the undertaker (dad) to come home from work to remove the dead. Dad said that he was at least seven feet long. Dad hung the snake from a tree and we got a anatomy lesson did you know that snakes only have one lung due to the design of their body?

What is a good way to keep snakes away that won't harm poultry?  

My quail inside of the snake.

4-H Round up

Bobwhite quail

Recently, I placed 1st place at Round up. If you are wondering what Round up is, it is a 4-H contest which is a lot like a talent show. You can also talk about a topic which you are passionate about. This year, I talked about how to raise quail. At the end of my speech, I showed some quail taking a dust bath; this helps get rid of bugs. Now I am able to go to district with this competition. I had great help in preparing the speech. Mom and my great uncle proofread my speech and my dad helped me with my props. Without these peoples' help I wouldn't have done as well.

Helpful tidbits about raising quail;

• If they fight put a tomato in their pen to distract them.
• Let them have dirt in pen.
• Give Bobwhites tall long pen so they can fly.
• Keep Coturnix quail males away from each other 

Christmas

                                          Merry Christmas

To celebrate this Christmas season we decorated our house for Christmas. Some of my favorite decorations are our ceramic Christmas villages, stockings, and nativity scene. I also really like our Christmas ornaments. This year for the first time we bought a fake Christmas tree from Hobby Lobby.The tree is a nine foot Montana Pine.
On Christmas Eve we open the presents that we got from each other. I got a coupon book for game time, books, and a dice game called Farkle from my little brother. My sister gave me Temple Run the board game ,and candy. From my parents I got the Lego camper, Lego minifigures, Bobwhite quail, books, and an awesome pair of cowboy boots. My favorite thing(s) from my parents would be the Bobwhite quail. I really like the quail because: I can take them to the local livestock show, hatch their eggs in my incubator, and release some of them in the wild. I will keep you updated with the raising of my quail.

Bobwhite quail

The next day we got to see what Santa had brought us. I received more Lego products, a replica of the wild west playset, clothes,candy, and a bunch of other really neat items.

What did you get for Christmas ? Please comment and let me know.

Our newest pets

Callie

 The newest addition to our farm is four new kittens. We recived these kittens from some good friends of ours. Their names are Smokey, Spot, Indiana Jones, and Callie.

Smokey has a kind, shy personality and loves to play. Smokey's favorite game to play is tag, where he chases Indy and bats him with his paw, then runs up a tree. 

 Indiana Jones is an easy to please, loving, friendly, active, all around cat. He loves to explore, climb trees and play. Indy likes to play fight, where he wrestles and bites the other kittens playfully . 

Indiana Jones 

Spot's personalty is shy and secretive. Spot loves to hide, climb, and explore. He loves to play spy, where he sneaks up on people and kittens. Also he likes to pounce on bugs that he never catches.

Callie is one of the friendlier kittens who will follow you around everywhere. Her pastimes include playing, batting kittens tails, jumping, exploring and chasing things. Her favorite game to play is when you drag a string and she pounces on it.

I hope you've enjoyed hearing about our kittens. 

Callie with Smokey in the background. 

Smokey 

 

My incubator

My quail chick.

For my birthday I received a circulated air incubator and an egg turner that fits in the incubator. A little later in the day we set the incubator up and we put thirteen duck eggs, three Buff Orpington eggs, two Old English bantam eggs and fourteen Coturnix quail eggs in the incubator. All of the eggs we got from our farm. Yesterday my first quail chick hatched! He is doing well. Right now as I type, another chick is trying to hatch from its egg. It is a slow process as he chips away at the shell.
 These chick's parents are the ones that won Reserve Champion at the fair.I hope to be able to show their chicks at the next fair. All of my quail eggs will have hatched  by the fourteenth of this month.
It's really neat to see the quail hatch and it's a great
reminder of how amazing God is.

Quail's eggs

Duck's eggs

Rabbits and Ducks

The ducklings are hiding between the duck and the wood pile.

  Baby bunnies and ducks at last! Our mother bunny had third litter and her first living litter of surviving babies. The mother rabbit is named Sherry after my Mom. We got Sherry the rabbit at the Livestock show last year she was somebody's show rabbit that didn't make the sale. The father rabbit named Buck after one of our best friends was given to us at the Livestock Show last year also. Sherry had five kits which are baby rabbits. Two of the kits passed away but three of them lived which is our record. We used pillow batting for the nesting box and some got wrapped around one of the babies’ foot and it cut the circulation off so it lost the use of its paw. It is very healthy and not in any pain but we are still going to take it to the vet so it won't get infected. The baby bunnies’ favorite food is greens from our garden.

 We have not been as blessed with the ducks as the rabbits. Two of our ducks had laid twenty eggs in a nest and were trying to hatch them but a snake got a few and some were rotten so only five eggs hatched. Three of the ducklings disappeared and we don't know what happened. The next night we put the two ducklings in the building. They survived a couple of days and learned how to swim but then 

they went missing. I think a turtle might have ate them but I'm not sure.

 

Pictures above are taken by Laura Ashley ,my sister; Pictures below are taken by Dad. 

 

Baby ducks are wet when they hatch.

Chick and Garden Update

I'm writing this post since I promised to keep my blog updated with the chicks and garden growth. My Quail have grown up and have started laying eggs. They have laid almost forty eggs in nine days. I'm hoping to get a incubator and try to hatch some of their eggs.  The broilers are fat and lazy, they have grown a lot. Dad has been butchering some of them and we've been eating them. The Buff Orpington chicks have gotten bigger and have became free range. Our garden is over grown with weeds and has lots of grasshoppers. We've been getting LOTS of squash, a few zucchinis, one cucumber, lots of okra, and about twenty tomatoes. I love having a garden, the produce you get from a garden has lots more flavor than the kind at the store. I would really recommend 
having a garden. 

Broilers 

Cucumbers 

Henderson County Livestock Show

    April ninth to the fourteenth has been the Henderson County Livestock show. Here at the Livestock show I showed several of my animals and projects which I've been working most of the year on. April tenth we brought all of the animals we were showing (we didn't bring the broilers as they came another day). After we got all of the animals in their pens with food, water, and bedding we went to look at the other chickens, goats, and lambs. 

The next day when we were done with taking care of the animals my sister and I along with our friends showed goats. I got DEAD last with Houdini (because he didn't weigh enough). But I got fourth place in my class with Rusty. My sister did pretty good with her goat Hearts also. Then we went to look at the rabbits we ended up taking two of the Grand champion wining rabbit’s babies’ home. That night we got to see the results of how our projects did. I got two red ribbons, nine blue ribbons, four best of selection ribbons, and two best of show ribbons.

The next day after taking care of our animals, we showed our broilers. I made the second cut but then I lost. There were tons of broilers this year. Soon as the broilers judging was over, the poultry judge started his judging. Then, we looked at the rabbits again and bought two more rabbits. After that we ran and brought all of the projects home that we weren't selling. Next, we went back and saw how I did with my chickens. I got Reserve Grand Champion for my breeding poultry, Reserve Grand Champion for my quail, first place with my bantam rooster, and third & fifth with my bantam hens. Lastly, I got second place with my large hen. 

Then, after everything we went to help get the projects that people were selling ready for the auction. After hours of waiting, (we were on one of the last pages) my sister and I auctioned of our items. I ended up selling my cactus planter to a man who owns one of the feed stores that we use for three hundred and  seventy-five dollars. I sold my cross mosaic picture for thirty-five dollars. Then after feeding the animals we went home.

The following day, after feeding the animals their breakfast we had to sadly take Houdini and Hearts to the floor which means I had to sell him to a meat processor it was extremely sad. Then I sold my quail to a man who said he was going to release them. After that, we met some of Andrews’s friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Next, we showed them around and when the tour was over we ate lunch. To end the day I sold my goat rusty for six hundred dollars plus add-ons. Lastly, we took our animals that we have left home.