Angel, Nora and Mau (Pronounced Moe)
A few weeks back I was busy working at my desk and needed a break. My windows were open so, from my third floor perch, I looked out the open window down towards our barnyard area and saw the strangest sight. So strange in fact I had to grab my camera and the longest lens I have to record it. Yeah, it’s a chicken laying on the ground next to a couple of goats. It was hot that afternoon and apparently everyone was a bit sleepy!
It dawned on me then that I haven’t done an update of our barnyard animals since . . . a long while. There have been some changes in the animals we have around (we’re learning that you become very familiar with life cycles when farm animals are around). Before we left on vacation earlier this year we were down to one goat and one chicken. When we arrived back from the US it was two goats and a chicken. And then a few weeks ago (ok, a couple months at this point) it became two goats and three chickens.
Let me introduce the newcomers.
On the goat end of things, we’ve got Mau. That’s pronounced “Moe” because we were told that Mau was a male goat. After only day, I looked out from the kitchen and said, “You know, that white streak on the new goat’s head makes it look like he has a mohawk. Let’s call him Moe, like from the Three Stooges.” And so it was Moe for a few weeks until one day I thought I saw that Moe had . . . nipples. I didn’t think much of it until a couple of days later Ann comes in and says, “I think Moe is actually a Maureen.”
Yeah, Moe is a girl so now she’s Mau as in “Moe-reen.”
A little while after we got back home, after Brandon and Lauren had left, two new chickens arrived. At the time, they were very young - 12 weeks and 18 weeks. The baby of the bunch is Angel. She’s quite different than any of the chickens we’ve had; we think she’s a White Leghorn (like Foghorn Leghorn as in, “I say, I say, boy, what did I tell you about . . .”. You can tell by her tall, vertical tail feathers. When she arrived, the comb on her beak was still yellowish and instead of clucking, she pepped like a baby chick. Angel is undoubtedly Ann’s favorite, in part because from early on, whenever Ann showed her face Angel would come running over to greet her. She still does.
The other new chicken is Nora. We (Ann) named her Nasty Nora because, indeed, chickens have a pecking order. And they establish that order by pecking at each other. Since both of the chickens were young, there was no question who was queen of the roost, so Nasty Nora quickly established herself as number two, in part because she’s 6 weeks older. The Nasty has largely dropped from her name - she’s just Nora now, although every so often she still lets Angel know who is boss, especially if there is food around.
Since we named the two new chickens, we decided we needed to give the existing chicken a name. Earlier we’d named her “white chicken” given that her companion the previous year had been “brown chicken.” Given that Angel is all white, a new name was in order. Her name is now Ginny, short for “Original.” Yeah, she was the original chicken. Still beautiful as ever, though showing her age.
You might wonder why there’s not a photo of the other goat. Well, Boots is still around, but he’s a grumpy sort, not very friendly to Mau and totally doesn’t give a damn about the chickens. They’ve learned to get away when the goats start running towards them because Boots will run them over. We’re not very happy with Boots (we think he’s the one who ran over one of the previous chickens and broke her wing), so we’re not showing him off.
The chickens seem to get along, so long as everyone is minding the pecking order (and yes, Ginny will occasionally put Nora in her place).
They have all come to associate us with food (or something more interesting than just sitting around). And to be honest, there’s a reason for that. As much as Ann complains about the goats (she is very protective of the chickens), Ann will still bring out carrots and apples for the goats. So the goats also come running whenever they see us.
As for the chickens, we’re both guilty of being suckers. And in case you’re wondering, yeah, the young ones know how to hop the fence and explore the bigger yard. I guess it’s an easy way to get away from the goats.
Starting a couple of weeks ago we noticed first Nora was wandering the yard, and then a couple of days later, so was Angel. We think Ginny is just a bit too old to make the big jump (maybe we’ll let her out of the gate some time if we can keep the goats separated).
And naturally, they know who does them right. It’s gotten to the point that we have to sneak out without them seeing us, because if they’re in the yard, Nora and Angel will come running to us as fast as possible and then follow us around the yard.
And occasionally we’ll be sitting eating breakfast and one of the girls will do something . . . interesting.
I guess when you need a drink of water you need a drink.
Yeah, it seems like the chickens have gotten used to our early morning routine - the girls are usually up and walking on top of the fence by 5:00, Ginny comes out about an hour later.
As you can see, as long as we’re not out there feeding them, they all pretty much get along.
We’re glad to have a good mix of animals to keep us entertained, and yes, we’ll worry about them while we’re gone for 2 months.