Some furs and feathers have work to do. They don’t just live with humans.
Goats are premier weed-whackers. They also love it when we toss them the weeds we have pulled up. (we won’t mention the young trees they also eat...)(or the bizarre fact that they ate the hair off the mini-horse's tail when they shared pasture)
Bunnies like it too.
Angora goats also have soft, spinnable wool. And baby Angora goats are so fuzzy!
This Angora bunny gives wool too.
The boy goats have also learned to be pack animals for hiking. They like hiking because it means they get to nibble anything they find, and climb hills.
A flock of foraging turkeys can really cut down the earwig problem.
Of course there are always openings for apprentice rodent control engineers.
Hens are supposed to lay eggs for sale. Of course, they don’t agree on the reason for laying eggs. This was the winner of the hide-the-eggs contest, with fifteen peeps hatched.
Sometimes hens share setting duties in a single nest box. Then when the chicks hatch, all the hens try to mother all the chicks. It gets a little confusing.
In cold weather, ducks and chickens are playing off different scripts. Ducks are out in the snow, and any time a human is visible, they are playing Oliver, shouting, “Food, Glorious FOOD!”
Whereas, in the worst of the cold, the hens were hunkered down in the deep straw in the coop doing My Fair Lady: “warm beak, warm wings, warm feet, oh wouldn’t it be loverly”
Sometimes animal moms abandon their babies. Then humans have to help out with warmth and food.
Babycakes the lamb came over to be lamb-sat for a few days. His mama only wanted one lamb, not twins.
and baby bunny found a friend and a snuggly spot.
Sometimes we have guests for lunch.
But most of those seeds are saved for the chickens in the winter, when they need fat to stay warm.