Caged,
free run, free range or just plain free. You may be familiar with the
first three terms, but “just plain free”? Raising livestock and
poultry on a farm can be done different ways, depending on the
facilities available, the inclination of the farmer and the market
demand. Codes of practice in raising livestock and poultry are
currently being revised and would also influence how animals are to
be raised. But sometimes the animals take matters into their own
hands (or hooves or wings).
Last
year we had a visitor fly into our farm. She was a lovely young
Muscovy duck. Our two aged Muscovy drakes suddenly started to take
better care of themselves, eating better, getting more exercise and
grooming their feathers more. Their heads took on an Elvis
Presley-style “pompadour” look.
The
female Muscovy eventually gave in to their charms, and in the spring
she began to take on the nesting look and sounds – a bouncy waddle,
puffed-and-fluffed up feathers, and a “ping” to her voice. We
didn't know where she was nesting, but my husband found out on
Mother's Day. She had hatched out fifteen babies on the porch above
our deck. Glenn carefully gathered up the babies and brought them
down a ladder to the ground below. Each time he went up the ladder
she was waiting for him, attacking his head as he gathered more
babies. Finally, she joined them on the lawn below, mothering them.
We grew concerned as each day she would show up with one baby
missing. It seemed that either a wild cat, or raven, or mink was
snatching her ducklings. Out of desperation and with some
encouragement by us, she started to sleep at night by our door, her
wings gathered around her young ones. Five young ones survived –
three males and two females. For quite some time they stayed each
night by the door until they were big enough to fend for themselves.
One day another female flew in to join them, and another male as
well. I don't know where they came from. That is where the “just
plain free” comes in.
One
of the challenges of “just plain free” is determining ownership.
We did provide feed and protection to the ducks, but by the way they
would go wherever they wanted I wasn't sure they belonged to us, or
anyone. When the young ducks were big enough their mom spent a few
weeks teaching them to fly. It was kind of a “OK, watch me do it,
now you try” kind of trial and error. The mama duck would fly
around the farm gracefully. Soon, the young ones would tentatively
flap their wings and lift off for short runs, then longer ones.
Sometimes they would fly over the ridge, sometimes into the
neighbour's farm. One day I spotted a male and female looking lost
on Port Washington Road. Somehow, this form of “just plain free”
makes management a challenge. There are still three young ones that
are by the door each morning, a bit hesitant about being so free.
Some have been reported further down on Port Washington Road, hanging
around at feeding time at one of the sheep farms. Yes, we could clip
there wings, but should we? That would make them more vulnerable to
predators.
The
same problem happened last year with our turkeys. All spring and
summer they would stay close to home, eating lots of blackberries and
such. At one point the females move far away from the males, as the
females nest and go about raising their young. As fall came on they
would move further afield, becoming an annoyance to some neighbours.
I ended up gathering them into the barn and sending a batch at a time
to the poultry swap and sales. The heritage turkeys have a way of
getting up into trees, onto fence posts, or will go high on a hill to
give themselves more range to fly over. I have spoken with other
heritage turkey producers who occasionally need to go to the
neighbours and gather up their stray turkeys, walking them home. At
least I am not the only one.
Even
hooved animals can be in the category “just plain free”. A few
years ago I took a healthy group of Border Cheviot sheep to a nearby
farm of good size. That was my first mistake, because Border
Cheviots have a wild nature. They settled into grazing, and as fall
came it was quite a challenge to gather them and separate the lambs
for market. The next year, it was impossible as a dog had chased
and attacked them, so they would not be gathered by our Border
Collie. I soon declared them “feral”, or back to wild sheep, and
tried various ways to get them back to the home farm where I could
use our corral to gather them up. As luck would have it, one evening
the sheep decided to graze near the driveway, were spooked by a car
on the driveway, ended up on the road, and the RCMP put them into our
driveway and farm. Yes, the Mounties always get their lamb.
