New Birth

Since the beginning, it's kind of been our family tradition to own Australian Cattle Dogs. Though the official state of Texas dogs are the agile hard working Lacy dogs, there's a Texas feel to the Australian Cattle Dogs. And since our state is all about some cattle business, the Blue Heelers are commonly owned by ranchers for their stock working ability.

The Australian Cattle Dogs, also known as Blue Heelers, started long ago in the land down under.  Though many still debate to this day the heritage of the Blue Heeler,  it is said that they began from the aboriginal Dingo.  The Dingo is Australia's version of a coyote. It has been said that the Dingo's were taken from their mom's at an early age, hand reared by the aborigines, and taught to hunt and track.   

Dingo 

In the early 1800's the first settlers had limited availability for laborers and were having difficulty controlling the large herds of cattle that grazed on wide open unfenced land.  So they decided to give the Smithfields a chance at herding the cattle.  The Smithfields could not tolerate the heat, were slow on their feet, scared the cattle with continuous bark, and bit the cattle too severely.  

Smithfield 

Then a man named Timmins came up with a plan to cross breed the Dingo with Smithfield.  Which resulted in a great silent cattle herding dog with one fault.  If the dog wandered out of the owners sight, it would chew the cattle to pieces.

After introducing a rough haired collie into the mix, they soon realized the new breed was going for the cattle's head which caused them to run wild.  That soon died out.  

Then came the imported smooth haired blue merle Highland Collies who were bred into the dingo blood infusion from above.  The new breed resulted in the Dingo's trait to creep in from behind, nipping at the heel until the stubborn cattle decided to rejoin the herd without the tearing them to shreds part!  Instinctively the new breed would flatten itself out on the ground after nipping the heels to avoid any kicks lashed out.  Alas, the perfect cattle dog. 

Smooth Haired Blue Merle Highland Collie

So why not leave well enough alone?  The cross breed wasn't all that friendly with horses or humans.  There is always room for improvement, right?  The Dalmatian was soon bred into the mix to give them a good rapport among the horses (and humans).  Once this gene was introduced, it created a friendlier dog that was born primarily white only to obtain markings at around 3 weeks of age.

Dalmatian
Picture Credit

As much as the Dalmatian's influence improved the working relationship with humans and horses, it didn't come without consequence.  Some of their working ability was lost with this new cross.  No problem, they had a solution! After admiring the working ability of the black and tan Kelpie, they decided to add them to the mix.   

Black and tan working Kelpie
Picture Credit

All of these breeds together in perfect balance obtained a line of hard working, friendly, agile, high stamina, highly intelligent, beautifully marked, controllable, dogs that could tolerate heat.   

Whala!  And now you have an Australian Cattle Dog.  Interesting huh?

Australian Cattle Dog
Picture Credit

So why the title new birth?

 Female Sissy (left)     Male Charlie (right) 

1 Mom + 1 Dad 

Equals 9. (that's homeschool math) 

Born on Sept 19, 2014, we have reserved homes for all puppies! (the darkest puppy didn't make it) 

Yes, we have new puppies!  

Is all of this part of homeschool lessons?  Heck yes!

 

***Update on Pete****
The new baby kitty from last blog.

He is off meds and doing great. Eating crunchy food.  Though we are pretty sure he will be on the "Baba" forever.

Pete got to meet new puppies.  New mom (Sissy) was welcoming and also in booty-licking-bathing-the-litter-Mom-mode-so she gave him a good bath.  (Which he really needed!)  He wasn't too happy about it.

"I really enjoy having the new puppies.  The most interesting thing is that they have Dalmatian in them! It was sad when we took them to the vet because I could hear them yelping when they had their dew claws removed.  Some of the new owners wanted their tails docked.  I like them with tails!"~Katie 8 years old

Oh all this fuzzy baby goodness going on around here is just good for the soul!

Picture Credits

A Vision All Her Own

For a while now, we have known that Katie has a special gift with animals.

It's like she instinctively knows what to do and how to train animals.  At 8 years old, Katie has a healthy respect for animals but doesn't fear them.  So since her gift and vision for the future is to work with animals, we are doing all we can to pursue, encourage, and build up her skills to follow that dream. 

Cleaning up after and caring for animals isn't really my idea of fun. But since Katie's enjoyment is contagious, I find myself having a good time alongside her.   

We arrange our school schedule to take Tuesdays off so she can volunteer during the day at the animal shelter.  Clinic day happens once a month.  It's during the day and it's basically the biggest event in her life. She has many jobs on clinic day. Her favorite job is monitoring and crating animals in recovery room while they are under anesthesia.  Because the animals can react to anesthesia, it's important for her to check their breathing.  She helps prepare lunch for everyone including volunteers, docs, and nurses.  Also, the adoption center undergoes quite a transformation to accommodate the monthly clinic so she sticks around to help put humpty dumpty back together again.    

At our most recent clinic day at the adoption center, a lady brought in a newborn kitten found in a parking lot.  Since a newborn kitten has a schedule of eating every 2-3 hours on bottle and has to be stimulated to use the bathroom, this lady was not able to provide this kind of care.  Apparently, she could see the word "SUCKER" written on our foreheads because as soon as we laid eyes on him, we decided to take him on.  

It was too early to tell the sex so a friend of mine called him Herm. (Her/Him) My husband called him Gato.  I called him Kitty.  Katie called him Boo.  

 Here's Gato Boo Herm Kitty  

It's amazing to watch my little 8 year old become responsible.  When she told me she would care for him, that's exactly what she meant.  Bottle feeding, stimulating, medicating, and all! There are days that she has to be cheered on, but for an 8 year old, I can't complain. 

When the word was out that we were fostering a newborn, we were asked to foster another newborn kitty.  We accepted.  What's another one, right? 

Initially, I had an agreement with Katie that I would take night shift feedings for our first foster and she would take days.  When we agreed to take on the other foster, she offered to help with night shift feedings.  She was true to her word.  She was up with me every 3-4 hours feeding the kittens at night.  

This was at 8am after a long night of feeding 

I couldn't feel more blessed to have a mature, hard working, and loyal young 8 year old by my side to live life with.  She didn't become this way without some elbow grease and sacrifice on our end as parents.  She became this way because she has been provided with a lifestyle of learning and experiencing at a schedule that works for her goals in life.  She never has to ask if she is needed in our family because we couldn't do it without her.  

So how are the foster kitties now?  

The black kitty went to a new home that was a purrrfect match.  Gato Boo Herm Kitty turned out to be a male and we all decided on the name Pete, Pete is now a part of the family.  

Katie has trained Pete to use a litter box and he just started eating solid foods today. He's a chunky little guy.   

Here's Pete and a day old ducky in my farmer's daughters lap! 

"It's been a fun challenge (yet for the black kitty a noisy challenge!) raising Pete.  He's a sweetie.  He's cute.  He's like a sit in your lap cat. Also, very weird at times.  He fights for the bottle a lot.  I'm glad he's starting to eat solid foods because-man-that was hard! Though I didn't like the stimulating part." ~Katie

The Broody Hen

We are expanding the chicken house!  Well, ok. We already "expanded" the chicken coop to make more room but now we are filling it up!  Well, trying to anyway.

We have a variety of hens and one rooster. Our main flock is a breed called Production Reds which has proven to be an excellent layer of large brown eggs.  They do exactly as their name...produce.  We want to expand our flock by hatching some new chickies from our Production Red eggs.  Good? Right?  Yes?

Sounds great! But not so easy.  We are learning there are a lot of factors to consider before a baby chick can be hatched if you are doing it the old fashioned way. In order for a chick to form, a rooster must have first fertilized the egg. The hen must lay the egg.  Mother must sit on egg providing the perfect temperature and humidity during incubation period for baby to form and hatch.  

BUT these gals wont sit on their eggs!

What gives?

From reading countless chicken forums I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the experienced chickens owners believe that Production Reds are basically a hybrid type chicken with the mothering instinct bred out of them.  Besides that, Hens get to choose when they go "broody". Something we can't force.

So what is broody anyway?  We are also learning about broody hens. Hens go "broody" when a certain hormonal change takes place.  Mothering instinct kicks in.  One day they are pecking around and the next they are sitting on eggs, rocks, tennis balls, or anything round while refusing to get up. They go in a trance like state only getting up 1 time a day to take care of business and stretch their legs. They will talk to their eggs, (or round objects) and rock them.  The broody hens are even famous for "adopting" eggs from other nests to sit on as many as possible. They will stay this way for 3-4 weeks (incubation period) and if they are really good mothers, until some babies hatch!  During this period they stop laying eggs and are even known to lay more than usual right before going broody.

So why not get a broody nanny hen to help us populate? That's just what we did.  Waaay cheaper than an incubator.  Plus, she will mother them.  No dealing with heat lights and fussy eaters!  Not to mention the chick will not feel orphaned.

We bought a Silkie Chicken from a friend! Silkies are known for their egg-celent mothering skills.
My husband calls her Tina Turner.  I call her Nanny.  Katie calls her Sugar.  She was named sweet beak by the former owner.

Sweet Nanny Tina Sugar Beak Turner.  Whatever you wish.
As custom around here, nothing really ever has one name.

Our broody Nanny hen, 

It just so happened that she was broody when we brought her home.  Since we got a sweet deal on sweet beak, we decided to purchase some of her flock.  Which are quite the uncommon breed. Sizzles is what they are called.  They are a cross between a Silkie and Frizzle. Both fuzzy and frilly.  Froo froo birds really! All of em.  They are also known to have strong mothering instincts.

Grown sizzle

Sizzle Chick

Since they are bantam (smaller) size they are not really practical for egg laying or meat birds compared to our much larger Production Reds that lay large brown eggs and are hearty in size.  We decided not to purchase a rooster to breed the flock.  Our main purpose was for these gals to mother our eggs.


So we gave Miss Sweet Nanny Tina Sugar Beak Turner 3 eggs of our Production Reds.  And 21 days later.....

Oh Yes!  We have a chick! 

Oh wait!  We have 2 chicks! 

The most exciting day was when we walked out and saw 2 new lives here!

Katie and I jumped up and down and celebrated!

When the baby chick is born, it absorbs the yolk which gives the baby 3 days to live without needing food or water.  Since the mother hen has a duty of raising the baby chicks such as teaching them how to drink, keeping them safe from the flock, and helping them gather food it is difficult for her to continue to sit on the unhatched eggs past the 3 days.  On about day 4 she abandoned the unhatched egg.

We waited patiently to see if she would sit on it again.  No go.  After 12 days of the unhatched egg being without an incubation environment, we decided that either the baby chick had chilled and died or the egg was unfertilized.  Katie and I decided to experiment by opening the egg. When the egg opened we heard a "cheep". I had not considered that a living chick would be present!  We tried to keep it warm but after about 5 minutes, it died.

What an emotional time for us.  We went through the "what ifs".
We buried the baby chick and chalked it up as another one of life's experience.  Life experience is what homeschool is all about anyway.


"It was a sad experience loosing a baby chick that was hatched too early. We know that it's ok.  We go through bad things in life and that was unexpected. At least we have the two other chicks that lived! I am having a fun time seeing chicks and how fluffy they are.  Oh they are so cute!  I am thankful for my broody little hen." ~ Katie 8 years old

Mr. Handsome Rooster