Thursday 17 March 2011

Chicken love, muskrat love, squirrel love

In the light of all the sad stories these days, I'd like to write about something different.

Hubby keeps whispering about chickens, I'm not sure Oliver would tolerate them.

Haven't seen muskrats on our property here, but I have a few photos of them. I took a walk about and spotted some fisher tracks in the remaining snow. They are distinct with their 5 toes.

The critters are on the move.


Oliver managed to climb on top of the shed yesterday.
He is a character. This is where the bird feed is stored, and the mice quite like it.

He brought home red squirrel #4 this morning. I managed to squirrel away the body before he began to eat it. The deer were quite keen, standing 6' away from him as he stalked two red squirrels who were doing the muskrat love dance. Round and round the trees.

The deer followed Oliver to the house, as he ran in with his prey. It's quite a drama out there.

muskrat in bog
This story is rather interesting. The author of the article [not the true research study; Cambridge University neurobiologist. Dr. Jennifer Morton was involved in research into the debilitating neurodegenerative disorder Huntington’s disease when she rescued seven Welsh Mountain ewes from the abattoir] wrote about integrating a new chicken into the brood. A delicate process as any with animals will attest.

Chickens are capable of empathy - not to mention jealousy, selfishness, love and lust

A study has found that chickens are capable of empathy. What about their other emotions, asks Carla Carlisle.

My friend, Nancy Tapley, at Bondi Village Resort, is the chicken whisperer!








4 comments:

Carolyn said...

Good morning Jenn, Yes the critters are definitely into spring whether the snow is gone or not.
I am housesitting a small organic farm at the moment and have 100 free range chickens, two emu, a gaggle of geese, a dog and three cats. The cats and dog are what I expected but the chickens are really more enjoyable than I thought. A hundred is a little too many but the smaller coop has about 12 birds and they could be handled nicely and oh those beautiful fresh eggs both for me and the community! One of the cats looks just like your Oliver and he comes with me everytime I feed the chickens, they pay no heed to one another even though they are inches from each other. I posted about them on Tuesday.
Thanks for sharing and I am glad you are enjoying your new place.
Smiles and blessings

Kay said...

No kidding? Chickens? That's incredible! It's going to make me feel even more guilty when I have a craving for fried chicken.

It's so neat to see the muskrat. I've never seen one in the wild.

W.C.Camp said...

We had a pet chicken once and loved it. Would follow us like a dog. We had a dog too and seemed to just lick the chicken but not eat it. I'm not sure about cats and chickens but maybe ok? W.C.C.

Jenn Jilks said...

Chickens are domesticated for eating, Kay!

Dunno. WC. This cat eats everything: frozen muffins on the counter, hauled them to the floor and started gnawing. Snuck into the closet and stole the kid's chocolate kisses, for their Xmas stockings...what a mess.