Happy Halloween!

It's all treats and no tricks around here!  Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween!

Nana and Mrs. Kluck

My sister and I grew up watching the classic Disney movies, I'm pretty sure we can still quote a few of them word for word!  

Like most little girls, we watched all of the princess themed movies, but our favorites were Robin Hood and Sword in the Stone.  

Considering these movies were on repeat for a big chunk of our childhood it's not surprising that my Mom and I instantly noticed that Mrs. Patmore reminded us of someone...

I'm fairly certain whoever created Mrs. Kluck from Robin Hood based her off of a Light Brahma.  Especially when she runs, Mrs. Patmore is only missing the blue dress!

Our other similarity has just recently emerged since the kitties joined us.  We now have our very own Nana from Peter Pan in the barn.  

Denali definitely thinks she's in charge of taking care of the kittens!

Her morning routine has completely changed since their arrival, she would typically go to the barn with me and then run around and explore while I cleaned the stalls and runs.  She'd check in with me periodically, but for the most part this is when she got her morning exercise.  Not anymore!  Once she's in that barn she will not leave the cats for even a second.  

Tig is starting to play with her now, and it amazes me how gentle she is.

Chibs is still a bit cautious, but he is definitely warming up to her.

At first I thought she was just fascinated by them and excited to have two potential new playmates, but yesterday I saw her full on "Nana" side.  I put them in the yard to get a little bit of sun and Denali watched over them the entire time!

I had to actually move Schumi to another part of the yard because she would growl at him if he came near their cage.  

I think they were equally happy to have her nearby.

I guess life around here does sometimes feel a bit like a Disney movie...

but I never saw even one of those Princesses shovel horse poop!

The Happening Spot!

Not surprising, the favorite room in the barn for all of the animals is the feed room.  Not only are there bags of great smelling feed, but that's where the treats are! 

All of our animals are very spoiled when it comes to treats, the chickens aren't the most obedient animals in the barn, but throw them some mealworm & corn party mix and they come running!

Tig and Chibs also have a party mix, but they prefer Beachside Crunch.   These two learned about treats in record time and are big fans!

The horses don't realize that their treats are actually good for them, but we swear by Probios for healthy digestion. Denali also gets one of these a day, in addition to her many treats in the house :) 

The horses are also extra spoiled and often get apple treats from my Mom and mints from my Dad.   All of our horses are "wrapper trained" and can hear a mint being opened from across the pasture.

Being such a popular place, I always have a lot of help when I'm scooping feed.  Tonight was especially crowded!  

Tig was very interested in what I was doing and had to check out each bucket that was scooped.

Chibs decided to sample a bit of Dolly's mini feed.

Chibs moved on to check Sadie's bucket while Tig checked out the feed ball.

Denali waited patiently for her treat in between her "who gets to stay in the feed room" game with Lady Mary. 

Mary won this round, such a tough little bird!  

Mary standing her ground after victory.

After sampling all of the feed, the cats decided the senior feed was their favorite.

There's also lots of good spots to take a little "cat nap" when you have a full belly. 

Getting all the animals out of the feed room is always tricky, but that's where the treats come in!  

They're all tucked in for the night, but they'll be waiting patiently in the morning to do it all again.  

I finished up feeding just in time to catch this beautiful sunset tonight

Winter Wonderland

I knew it, I was tempting fate by even saying the word Spring!  No more 70 degree days, we are back to full on winter!

Having the animals can definitely be challenging during wintertime.  They have to eat twice a day and need fresh water whether the sun is shining or it's a full on blizzard!  

Luckily this past week I've had my snow-loving sidekicks to make those cold trips to the barn more fun! 

They aren't the only animals enjoying the snow though, strangely, my Arizona horse loves the snow and cold weather.

Sadie has the least shaggy winter coat and spends the most time standing out in the snow!

Just looking at her makes my ears cold!

A little snow won't stop Dolly from her constant food hunt! 

Daisy has definitely become an indoor dog, but she even enjoys a little playtime in the snow!

Schumi is definitely an Arizona dog, he has very little tolerance for the cold and does not see much fun in it!  A few flakes and he's done!

The girls, like Schumi, opt to view the snow from their nice dry barn!

I'm ready for the warmer weather, but don't want this little snowball to grow up too quickly!  Nothing cuter than a puppy playing in the snow!

Happy Valentine's Day from Sadie Acres!

With the variety of critters that we have here at Sadie Acres, it's quite amazing how they all co-exist pretty peacefully.  

Sure, Dolly and Penny have their morning food battle, the chickens pick on the rabbits, and although Rowdy adores Sadie in their stalls he will chase and kick her when they are turned out together (I guess you always know the boys like you when they pick on you!), but overall there is a lot of love in our little barn.

No bond is stronger than the bond between Chloe and Oscar.  Before we got them we had planned on only getting one rabbit, once we started researching we quickly learned that these guys form extremely close bonds and live much happier and healthier lifestyles when you have them in pairs.  Watching these two together I can't imagine them ever being separated!

Sadie and Rowdy are best buds in their stalls, although Sadie paces a little bit less since we got Dolly as her companion, she's still happiest when Rowdy comes back in the evening from turnout.  

Penny and Rowdy are definitely the most bonded of the horses, they were together in their previous home as well and their behavior definitely mimics an old married couple :)

Since Dolly was purchased to be Sadie's companion (aka BFF) I had high hopes that they would bond right away. Unfortunately, Sadie preferred hanging out with Rowdy and Dolly preferred tormenting Penny, but with more turnout and trail rides together these two finally seem to be enjoying each others company more and more.

Every once in a while you'll even find an unusual pairing.  The hens are usually pretty inseparable, but on this day shortly after Dolly came to Sadie Acres Lady Mary opted to spend a little time with her. Worried she was looking for an escape route I almost rushed over to move her, but I soon realized she was perfectly content hanging with Dolly, she perched there for a good 15 minutes, and Dolly hung out just as happy to be with her visitor.

Hopefully Mary will warm up to Denali like she has to Dolly, poor Denali didn't receive quite the same warm welcome from her!

I guess we can't win them all! 

Chicken Run!

When we first got our chicks we tried to handle them a lot so that they would be comfortable with people and nice and tame.  It was so much fun when they began walking onto our hands voluntarily, they really appeared to be warming up to us. We seemed to have done everything right so you can imagine our surprise when we seemed to lose ground with them. As they got larger and moved out to the barn they went back to being very skittish and not very people friendly.

We didn't know at the time that once they reached maturity everything would change again.  Lady Mary was the first to warm back up to us.  One day we went out to see them and she did this little squat as we approached her.  As we always do, we went to work doing our research.  We found out that this is a sign that they've reached maturity (also coincides with when they start laying eggs), it's a sign of submission and our girls do it when they want to be pet or picked up.  

Mrs. Patmore followed shortly after, and then Edith.  Lavinia still has not, and based on her breed (Golden Spangle), she may never warm up to us like the others.  Her breed tends to be very standoffish and independent.  That's ok though, we have our hands full with the other three!  

Now that the girls have matured they want to be with us constantly, they literally follow you everywhere!   I go into the feed room, they go in the feed room, I go into a stall, they try to go into the stall.  They are never very happy when I shut the door on them, but they wait patiently on the other side.  

Today I decided to have a little fun with them.  I needed to let Sadie out so I was trying to shake them off, no such luck! This is also the sight you see when you open the barn door, it's quite the greeting to have 3 chickens run full blast towards you!

And now one in slow motion because what's funnier than chickens running in slow-mo?!

These girls are made for sprints definitely not distance.  Mrs. Patmore immediately found the highest perch to celebrate her come from behind victory in that last race.

Spa Day at Downhen Abbey

What group of girls doesn't enjoy a nice relaxing spa day?  The girls of Downhen Abbey certainly do, but it looks a little different than your typical spa day...

This is what you call a chicken dust bath, chickens use dust baths to clean themselves, to relax and to socialize.  

Clean themselves?!  Sounds odd, but it's true, chickens care for their feathers by digging down into the dirt and rolling around and tossing it onto themselves.  The dirt settles next to their skin and absorbs excess moisture and oil.  It also prevents parasites and lice from finding a home in their feathers. 

Our girls then stretch out and nap in the sun before they shake off and groom their feathers back into place.  

Lady Edith is very proud of the end result!

Oh, I did forget one rule of the Downhen Spa...no rabbits allowed!  Poor Chloe :(

** no rabbits were harmed in the making of this blog post.  They do, however, need a bath now!  **

Happy New Year from Sadie Acres!

I've been amazed at how many people have expressed that they miss the Sadie Acres blog posts, so with the start of the New Year I'm starting up the blog again.  

For many of the Sadie Acres residents it is our first Colorado winter!  I'm happy to say that we are all managing the cold quite well, despite some record lows in October and another dip into negative numbers over the last couple weeks.

A frosty day in October where we reached record lows

We did our research early on to ensure that all of the animals would be safe and secure for the cold temps.  

We expected that we would be blanketing the horses, but upon further research we found that horses that are able to acclimate during the fall and have access to shelter are actually better suited to manage their temperature than we are. Horses have the ability to loft and lower their coats to 17 different levels, so it's like exchanging 17 different thermal weights of blankets off and on them all day and night, depending on what they need.  We were pretty nervous those first few nights, but sure enough our horses have done great in the low temps and often choose to be in their runs versus their covered barn stall.  They have also enjoyed many romps in the snow!

The girls of Downhen have adjusted very well to the cold, they spend a lot of time huddled together.  The only change has been that they are laying eggs less consistently, but that is normal when the temps drop.   

The girls have become so friendly, the 3 big ones Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Mrs. Patmore all squat to be pet and picked up now.  Lady Mary is especially fond of attention, I usually get a strong peck to the shoe if I ignore her when she wants attention.  We are still waiting for the little one to catch up, Lavinia is still pretty standoffish...not to mention fast and hard to catch! 

I thought we would definitely be bringing Oscar and Chloe in from the barn on those super cold days, but once again we were surprised by the results of our research.  We found out that we would have actually caused them more harm than good by bringing them into warmer temps after they have adjusted to colder weather.   Major temperatures changes like indoor to outdoor in the winter can be fatal to these little guys.  As you see below, they are happy as can be with extra hay for bedding.

Our biggest challenge is swapping out their water, on a cold day their water bottle will freeze multiple times (this is a challenge for all the animals actually, there is a lot of ice breaking going on at Sadie Acres!). We were shocked to find out that the average rabbit consumes between 50 and 150 milliliters of water per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight per day.   

Schumi has adjusted quite well to Colorado life, his napping has not been at all impacted by the cold temps, there are just a few more blankets involved :)  

I'm off to brave the cold and feed these critters!  Signing off from a very snowy Sadie Acres!