As we mentioned before, we decided to rehome Chai. A harder decision for Christine because she gets more attached than I do, but ultimately the best thing to do in our situation.
We got Chai to be a livestock guardian dog. I thought I was doing everything right with her but in the end we were never a good match. The price of her was nothing compared to the amount of things she broke or destroyed…many of our new fruit trees, the plants and wildlife in our pond, the electric wires in the towing hitch on our farm vehicle, our backyard (she dug incredibly deep holes everywhere), tools, and probably more things I’m not thinking of at the moment. Puppies will be puppies, but we thought that on 5 acres of land she would be less destructive. She had so many things she COULD play with, yet she always went for the things she shouldn’t. I have always preferred older dogs and apparently even for an outdoor dog I should not have wavered here.
The good news is that one of my farm acquaintances bought her. She owned her doggy dad and she has a half sibling as well. She knows this breed (Anatolian Shepherd) well and she had no concerns with taking her in to work on her training. Whether she will keep her or sell her as a trained LGD is undecided. She picked her up Saturday and I got a picture this morning of Chai out in her sheep pasture with her sheep. She looks like a very happy dog! And she’s not eating her sheep, which we decided was because unlike my goats that haven’t spent time with dogs, her sheep are so used to dogs that they don’t run. She always liked a good chase. So it sounds like she’s found a good home for now and I’m sure she’ll have a good forever home once she’s got some more training under her collar.
We have been so relieved. It’s been so nice being able to walk outside and not worry there will be an attack, or something you’re setting down will be taken. There’s no fear now when we open the goat shed that a goat will escape and be badly injured or killed. It feels SO GOOD. Seriously, it felt like we had a tiger in our yard. It’s like I can breathe for the first time in a while.
So what are we going to do? Well, we came to the conclusion that fences and sheds, though expensive, are much cheaper than a dog is in the long run. Cost of dog, plus vaccines, wormers, heartworm prevention, flea and tick prevention (yes we do this stuff naturally, but no, that doesn’t make it cheaper), FOOD (6 cups a day she was eating!), spaying/neutering, medical expenses that arise…that’s just much more money than a good fence and shed. And most people get at least two LGDs, so double everything I mentioned above. I think people don’t actually consider how much that stuff really adds up!
Will we ever get another LGD? Never say never. I am guessing we will never get an Anatolian again; they just are not the right breed for us based on everything I read. I should have put my foot down reading all that in the beginning but a friend who loves her Anatolians convinced me they would work okay for us, too. Bad idea though :/ I could see getting a Great Pyrenees some day, but no time soon, and again with all the added expenses an outdoor dog makes, I’m just not sure.
There are other livestock guardians that are not dogs. Donkeys are commonly used, but I’ve read too many stories about donkeys one day turning on their sheep or goats and kicking and killing them. That’s a risk I don’t want to take. Llamas are another guardian animal. I LOVE llamas. I went to a llama farm last winter and actually tried to put a deposit down for a llama named Frosty only to find that he had been sold right out from under me. People think llamas are mean and they spit, but if you raise them right (I’m sorry, let me take that back…if someone with more experience raises them right for you!) then they are sweet, friendly, and curious pets. The llama farm we visited had about 50 llamas and you could stand in the barn and they would surround you, sniffing at you gently with their sweet llama breath. Alpacas are actually cuter than llamas in my opinion but they are far too skittish and shy to be considered for our farm. Llamas are good sized and tend to be brave and interested in what’s going on. So yes, maybe we will get a llama some day. But no, I am not too sad we don’t have a llama right now! We have enough going on…
And yes, I am relieved to see both the rooster and the dog rehomed. (Did I mention that a woman came to get Pompley? She took him to live with her hens and protect them from predators. Last thing I heard he was doing quite well.)
Currently I’ve been feeling like I could be happy with 3 chickens, 3 goats (of each sex, LOL), and our indoor dogs. I would love to sell some of the goats now that I’m realizing how little milk we drink and how much it’s taking over our refrigerator.
We are getting on average an egg a day from our chickens currently; we think three are laying and since they only started laying 2 weeks ago (19 weeks of age) we still have many chickens that haven’t quite matured into egg laying yet.
The nesting boxes got put up by Christine several days ago and one or two of the chickens goes in there to lay.
At least one chicken just plops out an egg into the dirt under the coop which is a bit annoying but it is what it is. Already from three chickens we get more eggs than we need since we rarely actually eat eggs. I’m not sure what we were thinking other than “So many cute chicken breeds…let’s get many, many chickens!” and you’d never expect chickens to be expensive to care for but actually they are not cheap to feed! So it really does add up.
We are learning as we go. A neighbor has offered to build us a spiral garden for our herbs which I’m very excited about. Also, three weeks ago we met a woman who travels around the country and volunteers on peoples farms. She has worked on a dairy goat farm, a mushroom farm, and a vegetable farm so far before landing at Serenity Yoga Farm. She’s visited us twice and spent the day doing whatever farm chores we need help with, which has been cleaning out the goat pens and putting up fencing in the new goat area (a work in progress, but should be done this week if the rain doesn’t mess up our plans!). It’s been so nice to have help! We are pretty much drowning in farm chores at the moment and there’s always a list of about a thousand things to be done. You finish one thing, you add 3 more to the list. Help is such a blessing.
My soap should be finished curing this week. I’m finally going to make a few more batches this week. Next week I’ll be trying my hand at ancient grain bread baking WITHOUT yeast. It uses something else cool instead…more to come! I’m also going to be making kombucha for the first time. I’ve been yearning to make a Youtube video of how to make raw goat milk kefir, too. Hopefully we can make that happen.
Blessings and love from Serenity Farm to our blog readers. <3
