The Animal Politics of Our Farm

Good morning ladies. Rise and shine. Good morning geesey geese. Out you go. Release the quacken! Get back here! Usually I try to avoid getting political with you guys. But I feel a strong need to talk politics with you guys today. Barnyard politics. One of my favorite things about life here on our farm are just watching all of the animals and watching how the different animals interact with each other. There is a surprisingly complex social structure and order that exists across the barnyard. And if you observe really closely, you can absolutely see some reflections of human society within Goldshaw Farm here. Allow me to break it down for you. Here on our farm, we have five different types of animals. Dog, cats, geese, ducks, chickens. And obviously we have a plethora of other creatures out there, from insects to birds to mammals to nematodes. Nematodes. Toby and the barn cats are probably the animals that Allison and I care about the most. They definitely straddle that line between pet and farm animal. Although he's probably the most dangerous and lethal animal on the farm, Toby has probably the sweetest and most aloof personality of any animal on the farm. He's just good-natured, lovable, goofy, and loyal. He's very well-behaved around the birds. He usually listens to me when I offer him up a command. And ultimately at the end of the day, what he really craves the most is a good pat on the head and maybe a duck egg in his bowl. And I absolutely love him for that. You know, he keeps order around this place. He makes sure nobody gets out of line. If anything strange or unusual happens on the farm, he's the first one to bark his deep, bellowy bark. I feel like he's almost the town constable of the farm. You know, not really trying to be like an authoritarian policeman, but just really going around making sure nothing gets too out of line, doing good community policing work. Isn't that right, buddy? Isn't that right? The barn cats, on the other hand, are much more reserved and off to the side. They generally keep separate from most of the animals. They spend most of their days wandering the property, stalking rodents, playing in Allison's garden, but they usually like to try to keep separate. Sometimes Toby likes to have a little fun with the barn cats, and occasionally they'll tolerate it. For the most part, they are like their own distinct subculture within this farm. They are like the libertarians of this farm. They don't want to be bothered. They just want to have their freedom and do their own thing, and I respect them for it. The ducks on our farm are kind of like the masses. They have their own subculture within themselves, but then they also play a role within the farm itself. They move in a big flock around the farm, generally together. There's Mundungus Fletcher, who's the main drake who runs the show for most of the ducks. But then there's sort of like a subculture with some of the ducks, where you have ducks that weren't part of the original flock, who've been added over the years, that kind of stand apart. So there's Samson in the mini quack inn. Samson's that big white pecan drake you always see running around. And then there were two khaki camels that were hatched out last year with Samson, and those three ducks are tight. They're thick as thieves. There was actually a fourth duck, Delilah, who was Samson's sister, who mysteriously disappeared one day, and I think was the casualty of a bobcat. But those four ducks originally made up what was known as the mini quack inn. As we've added the two Cayuga ducks, they seem to have actually broken off with Samson and his crew for the most part. But even still, they also kind of stay separate and to their side. So it's interesting to see the different ducks separate out amongst themselves. They will group as one big duck flock, and they obviously spend the nights together in the duck house all together, but at the same time, there is a social structure within them as well. Our three chickens generally stick together. You know, I've made many videos about Margie the murder chicken and her cruel nature, but I've got to say, ever since the two leghorns showed up, she's chilled out significantly, and those three chickens wander the farm, kind of picking through and going basically anywhere they choose. They seem to have the most freedom of all the birds, even when I clip their wings. We have our two silkies that I keep very much off to the side. If I try to mix those silkies in with the other chickens, they would get picked on, and so I feel like I need to keep them separated. I'm working on some plans right now to house them long term in a separate structure. We also have 11 chicks right now in the brooder, as you guys may recall, and those chicks are going to one day be added to Margie and her crew. I really do wonder how that group's going to coalesce and how they're going to form their own little bird society, but that's going to happen in a future video. And then we have the geese. Yes, the geese. Hello, geese. Are any of you guys getting more friendly? Now that they're out of breeding season, they've gotten much less aggressive with me. I mean, I think if you guys recall, when they were hatching eggs, Justin would try to bite my finger on a regular basis. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, easy, easy. Now that the little goslings that they hatched out are getting to be young adults, that's becoming much less of an issue. The geese are like the aristocrats of our farm. They walk around here feeling a sense of entitlement and ownership for the place. They do what they want. They boss the other animals around. They don't like to let the other animals have anything. They take anything they want for themselves. I mean, even as you watch them walk around here, right, they've got this air of, hey, we are the upper class here. We control things. Mostly that control just looks like them walking around and eating grass. I know that in some of the comments of our videos, you guys have criticized the geese because they seem like jerks, but I really ask you to be more understanding of them. It's just in their nature, and they're doing what they're meant to do. Another funny thing to point out too is the two teenagers that they have with them now, they act like total rich kids. Like, they know their parents run the show, and they walk around looking all high and mighty. And then the second that they get separated from their parents, though, they freak out and start screaming and squealing, and really they hide behind mommy and daddy. I have to admit, even though I'm not supposed to play favorites, they are probably my least favorite geese on the farm. They just have this air of all the rich kids I used to grow up around, and I guess it just doesn't sit well with me. But at the end of the day, they are just good farm animals, and I shouldn't judge them too harshly, even though I do. We also have Ron Swanson and her crew, and these geese I have way more heart for. They are plucky, they are independent, they are scrappy, they are coming up from their bootstraps, and really when it comes down to it, they just want to stick with their friends. I really respect that. That, to me, is the type of attitude I want to see from my goslings. They've integrated in pretty well with the ducks. They spend their nights now in the duck house here. During the day, they don't really hang out with the ducks, they just keep to themselves. But overall, they're pretty happy, they enjoy their days, they're really getting on well, and I think they have a pretty good set up going. Hey, Dotty. Hey, Blanche. Did you go in Toby's house? Yeah, so I put this bar up so that Toby can get inside, but the ducks and geese can't get in foul of the water, but the chickens still get in every single day. Come on, come on, out you go, Blanche. Then you've got Margie, she just hopped the fence again. See, this is what I'm talking about. These chickens seem to run the show, they do whatever they want. And geese, look at them, they're just like, they're disapproving, they're like, we do not approve of that one bit. The gall of Herg jumping that fence, I don't understand it, it makes me so mad. The chickens and their chick saw, it's working out pretty well. I actually ended up fashioning, though, this nesting box, I was having so much trouble with the milk crate nesting box, it kept falling out, the chickens didn't seem to like it, so I just ended up building this more traditional nest box. You can see it here, just sits right off to the side, it actually even gives them a little extra square footage in there, so it's all good. There's actually something I saw this morning as I first let the animals out that I wanted to show you guys. Look at this. Looks like we have one, two, three, four eggs. So when I put these birds away last night, I don't know, around 7.30 or so, there were absolutely no eggs in this area whatsoever. And as I came down here and let everybody out around 5.45 this morning, these eggs were here and they were placed exactly like you see. Now this is not the first time this has happened, I've noticed this has happened a couple of times in the last week or two, and here's how my theory goes. My theory is this, the ducks are starting to lay their eggs around here in the grass. I'm noticing that I'm running short eggs in my morning egg count, I think because I'm letting them out so early, because daylight's so early right now, that they are laying in places that I wouldn't necessarily want them to lay. But at night, everybody's locked up, so something's happening overnight. So my theory is that the ducks are laying their eggs during the day in the tall grass, and then at night, an animal is taking those eggs and depositing them here, like in this area, making it very easy for me to find. Now that would sound weird, right, because what animal just picks up eggs and redeposits them? You know, like a raccoon or something could easily move eggs around, but the raccoon's gonna eat those eggs. And so it's definitely not a raccoon. But the thing is, there really is only one animal that has access to this place overnight, and that's this guy right here. So Toby, I need to ask you, do you have something you need to tell me about these eggs? Is this your handiwork? Yeah, so my theory actually is that Toby is gathering the eggs up at night and leaving them here, like a good boy. I know sometimes you guys worry that when I feed Toby eggs, it's teaching him to eat eggs, but I have never ever seen Toby eat an uncracked egg. He will devour it the moment it's cracked. But he seems to want to wait for me to be the one to crack it. Oh, yes you do. And so that makes me suspect Toby is gathering up all of these eggs and depositing them here, knowing that I am going to pick up the eggs, and since they've been outside and on the ground, I'm just going to deposit them in his feed bowl, and he's going to get to eat them. That was a pretty clever plan you've hatched there, buddy boy. And you know, the good news is, it's probably going to work. You guys got so messy over here. How'd you do that? So our youngest batch of goslings are doing really well. They're getting bigger and bigger. They're just about three weeks old now at this point. They're starting to outgrow the brooder. I only lock them in there at night now. Given that these guys have gotten so big, I think I'm going to actually expand out where they're going to start grazing. And so last night I actually set up this poultry netting and have it mostly ready to go. Go over a couple areas and make sure the grass isn't too tall for them to slip under the fence. But yeah, my plan is to actually let them out and wander around here today. You guys want to watch? All right, guys. You get to be free. Come on out. Yeah! Move along, little geeseys. Come on. Out you go. Come on. Read them. Look, there's so much more grass. Admittedly, that was much less epic than I expected it to be. I was hoping they would be happy and overjoyed with their newfound freedom. But they sort of struggled and weren't quite sure what to do with it. So check this out. I was just feeding our chickens here, our little silky chickens. Hey, Bernie. So that's Bernie, and that's Penelope. And look what we got. That's right. A little tiny silky egg. I think this is Bernie, because Bernie's a little bit older than Penelope. Penelope's still, I think, only about 10 weeks old, so she's way too young. But I think this is Bernie. She's about 5 months old now at this point, so she should be laying. This is an exciting indicator. This means that my plan to start hatching ducklings is probably not too far off. Because once she starts laying is when she's going to start getting broody pretty soon. We'll end up probably getting a couple more silkies. And it all should be a pretty nice setup for these girls. I'm really excited about it. Are you girls excited? At all? Penny is. I need to actually get their permanent coop set up. My plan is actually to take the old chicken coop that you maybe see it way out there in the barn. That's where I was housing Margie and the leghorns. I'm actually going to move that and put it right here. So this is going to be the new spot where I keep the silkies. So they're going to live inside this coop. They will move out of that one. I'll end up housing some other birds in that one in the not too distant future. My plan is that I'll put somewhat of a run right about here. It won't look that different than the run on the brooder house. And that way I'll be able to let the birds out easily. And they can have a space outdoors to peck around and do their thing. And they won't be at risk of falling prey to the barn cats. Which is admittedly a big risk for them. I probably won't get around to building their run for a couple of days. But stay tuned. This one's a work in progress. Food time! It's not that the geese even like the grain all that much. Generally speaking, they prefer the fresh grass over the grain any day. I think it's like a power thing with them. Where they want to make sure that they're exerting their dominance over the rest of the barnyard. Like I said, I see reflections of human behavior within the animals. I love watching them drink water in unison like that. It's pretty hysterical. Thanks for watching!