This is day 5 of extreme cold temperatures. The ducks have wads of poop frozen to their butts, because when they sleep, they poop and it freezes instantly to their feathers. Bathing in the icy water does not thaw the poop enough to remove it. If the wad grows too large, the ducks have to be submerged in warm water, brought from the house, to thaw the poop, or it could obstruct further poops. Gross! The chickens roost up higher, so they do not have that issue. The geese do, though, but not as bad as the ducks. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to go all the way up to minus 25, whoo hoo. I will definitely have to bring warm water for the ducks several times to thaw those bottoms.

I noticed the fat tailed Karakul sheep, Dora, has been off by herself the last two days. I did not see anything amiss with her, but today there was some blood near her tail so I grabbed her and had a very close inspection. Her tail, that is the inside of it, was missing - gone!. The skin was flapping without the tail. It is not the way the dogs or coyotes normally would eat a tail and has me puzzled. I think the livestock guardian puppies must have eaten it somehow from the top to the inside, but why would she have allowed that to happen? Dora is a submissive sheep. So I moved Dora in with the Icelandics, away from the pups. I did not see any blood on the pups either, which is strange. I am miffed and so sorry for Dora. How painful that must have been, whatever it was, that ate her tail while she still had it on her. Now, what do I do with the remainder?

Oh, yes, and the rest of the animals are doing OK. The three Blue Faced Leiscester sheep have been treated for pneumonia, but one was still shivering today. I will have to call the vet again and see what I should expect from the very expensive drug he gave her. The other Dorset ram lamb that had diarrhea was treated at his farm prior to his arrival, but maybe he was missed. I have been in a dialogue with the previous breeder. If he kept good records, he might be able to tell me more. I will have to take a fecal culture to the vet and find out what his problem is and get it fixed so the other sheep do not contract it. He and his wife are confined to a small enclosure pen away from the sheep, but the llamas are on the other side. They do not have fence contact though.

And, the rest of the birds, the guineas and other chickens are just trying to stay warm, which is not easy when there is no let up in the frigid cold this week. Brrrrr.

This is day three of minus 30 weather and the animals are starting to feel it. One of the Blue Faced Leicester lambs that just arrived has pneumonia and is shivering. I know what it is like to have a fever and feel cold, but when it is minus 30, it must be awful. I gave her a shot of antibiotics today and will give her another tomorrow. Hopefully she will recover without too much discomfort and the other two with her won't get it.

The little ewe lambs are faring quite well. They have never been fed grain except a few kernels as a treat for training purposes, so the grass hay is managing to keep them warm, that and their wool of course. The two Cotswold ewes do not have the same thick wool coats and they feel the cold much more. All of the ewe lambs have been spending more time in their shelter to stay warm.

The two baby goats in the ram lamb pen have their own little shelter and they do use it, but today, one of the Icelandic lambs was inside. He was shivering a little too. Once he lays down and gets warm, he will be fine. Icelandics have a long wool and a short downy wool to keep them warm. The llamas are shivering too, and have only come out to eat a little, then retreat to their shelter.

It is hard to stay warm when there is no reprieve in the frigid temperature. The weak succumb and simply cannot continue. So far, only Captain Morgan, the chicken whose feet froze last winter, has died. The other chickens are able to roost and they put their downy bellies over their feet. Numbers together also help them stay warm, but I did notice a few spots of frostbite on one of the little rooster's combs. He will be fine though, as it was very little. The ducks and geese are possibly they least cold, with their down covering under the feathers, but even they are tucking their feet up under their wings and sleeping more.

After the chores today, even though I had more layers on than usual, I could not warm up. It felt as though the cold had permeated my being, but when I was outside working, I did not feel cold. It took several hours to feel normal again. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as cold. I am thankful we do not have to deal with this weather all winter long and that it only comes for a few days and then it is much warmer. Brrrr.

Some one is picking on Jemimah. She is a friendly, gentle Muscovy duck. Most of the summer she sat on one or another nest trying to hatch some babies. The second time she was successful, but the new puppies played too rough with the ducklings and they were killed. Jemimah did not give up, even though her eggs were not fertile, since the drake was eaten by the pigs earlier in summer. Finally, in late October, I destroyed her eggs and nest and forced her to go home. Poor Jemimah. She was not in good condition and has a delayed molt, but I suspect the hens picked on her emerging feathers until there was blood. Once there was blood, the cannibalistic chickens would continue to pick on her, possibly even kill her. So, she was removed to the hospital next door, aka, the rabbit cage. There is a shelter there for her and grain and water, and of course lots of grass hay. The bunnies get some carrots and lettuce from time to time, too and Jemimah loves lettuce. She will have to remain there until her wound is completely healed. Tomorrow, I will bathe her wing and remove the crusted blood, then put some healing salve on it and leave her to get better on her own. Unless she shows any signs of infection, which ducks rarely do, she should recover in a few weeks. Poor Jemimah.

I love to watch the geese and ducks. Their love of water is the most fun, after their conversations. The female ducks are the talkers. They bob their heads and wag their tails and chatter to other ducks. The ducks have a winter routine. They move around in the morning looking for food and water. The water is frozen, so they eat some of the fresh snow. There is not much interesting to eat in winter, unless I bring in some kitchen scraps. They are particularly looking for something green, but in the interim, they do nibble on the grass in the hay. It is not quite like fresh new grass, but it is better than nothing. Their dirt pile is now frozen so they will have to rely on commercial grit  and oyster shells. The geese, ducks, guineas and chickens all eat the shells, mostly for calcium, but also for some grit, which helps them grind and digest the grain. The highlight of their day is when the water arrives. They simply cannot wait to have a bath, but with only two tubs for a flock of geese, waiting is sometimes hard. Maybe there is room for two? Ah, yes, there is!

One,  of the Muscovy ducks has been perpetually hatching eggs this summer, only for some unknown reason, she had no babies. The first time she brooded was with another duck in the dog house. They attempted to sit on a bout 30 eggs, some of them chicken and the rest theirs and other ducks. Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days and duck eggs in 28, so that was already a problem, but as it turned out, there were too many eggs for the two ducks and most of them got cold and none hatched. I finally took them away and fed them to the pigs. There were chicks at various stages that had quit developing, likely because they got a chill. The next time Jemimah tried to nest under the chicken coop. She managed to hatch two ducklings, but the puppies played too rough with them and they died. Then Jemima went under the old chicken coop that has been abandoned for a long long time, long before I got here. The problem is that the drake got eaten by the pigs, so her eggs were not fertile. She had four in the nest. Two fell out and she sat on the other two for well over a month. She is scraggly and bedraggled. She has spent most of the past 4 months hidden under buildings and in the dog house, away from the sun and fresh air. She ate and drank only once a day, enough to keep her alive, but certainly not enough to thrive.
So, I took the two eggs out of her nest, broke them and let the dogs lap up the contents. They were not fertile and the yolks were watery from being old and warm. Poor Jemima went back to her nest and tried to find the eggs and fix the nest. Finally she gave up and ambled back to the other ducks. Hopefully she will not go broody until next year and she can recover over the winter. It is wonderful to have a duck mamma raise her babies, but when her own health suffers, then it is time to intervene. Poor Jemima. I sure hope she will have enough strength to stay warm over the winter.

Captain Morgan is the Japaense Bantam rooster with no feet. He was the low rooster in the pecking order and was not allowed to sit on the perch during winter, thereby freezing his feet. He was put in with the Flemish Giant rabbit, Petey and a lady for him, Sheila. Sheila and Captain Morgan bonded well and still hang around together, that is they did,  until they Ameraucana rooster grew up. Then he was relegated to very low man in the pecking order, so he hid in the back of the dog house where the Muscovy sisters built a nest. It was warm in there and safe from being terrorized by the other roosters, since the broody ducks protected Captain Morgan. In fact, they adopted him and he sleeps under the breast and wings of the ducks, along with the one little duckling they hatched. During the day his peg legs around the farm, feeding himself and avoiding the roosters. Sheila seems to have divorced him since he became a duck, but he does not follow the ducks around. They simply move too fast for him. On his own, he is fine and appears healthy and relatively content, though every night, now that the ducks are off the nest, he finds his way to where they sleep and gets tucked under a warm spot with the little duck. Now that is mother compassion at its height!