Quote:
Originally Posted by Living_Dazed
Wish u could have seen my face as I read this.  . Oh please post pics if you can. Eggs daily? Do you worry about predators? How about their personalities?
My vet, wonderful woman, lives on a farm. She takes the chicks that the kids hatch in classrooms every year. When I'm ready she will give me buf Orpington's. I don't know where my fascination came from. Maybe it was dormant in my brain.
Have you ever heard of fainting goats? My pup in the above picture came from a family that loves animals. They have mini cows, mini horses, and fainting goats.
Sheep herders would keep fainting goats so when predators came around the goat would faint when it got scared and the sheep would get away. Sad for the goat. They do startle and faint easily.
Jace |
Jace,
I'll try to remember to get some pics later when I go out and post them.
We get eggs almost daily, especially this time of year when the days are long. Their laying is tied to daylight hours. So in the winter when its darker, they lay less.
We do worry about predators. They have a very secure coop that they get locked up into at night and during the day I turn them out into a fenced area for them to forage for bugs, grass and worms. The fence deters many predators, but not all. I've had hawks swoop in and take a hen before, but the fence keeps out the coyotes, foxes and stray dogs.
They do have personalities for sure. One of my current hens is super friendly, almost annoyingly friendly if you are busy doing something. She will peck at you until you pay attention to her. The other is a bit more stand offish, but both will eat treats out of your hand, no problem!
I have heard of fainting goats and while this is probably not the place to get into a big debate about it, I don't find it funny to laugh at a genetic condition /disorder or to breed for it. I personally find it sad and irresponsible and one of the many ignorant things that we as a society do to our animal friends.
While breeders and supporters of fainting goats or myotonic goats insist this condition is painless, I can't imagine that actually falling over and hitting the ground is. And since goats are a prey animal and this happens when they are startled and they remain conscious when they fall, I would also imagine that they must feel pretty vulnerable and exposed every time it happens, even if there is no actual danger, since they can not use their normal defense of running away.
I just imagine what that would be like in human terms, you're walking along a dark street at night, you hear a noise and get startled, all your muscles tense and you fall over and you can't move but you are entirely conscious and all you can do is lie there and wait for whatever scared you to come and get you. To me, that's what happens in horror movies... but if you're a goat, it gets put on youtube and millions of people laugh about it.
Oh and by the way, myotonia congenita does happen in people too, not nearly as funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llmgLi_cJjA
Sorry to say as much as I did about fainting goats, but its something I feel strongly about and I think people should be aware there's more to it than they might realize.
Please don't think I'm picking on you or anything though. I just love goats and wish they got the respect they deserve.
Starr