Guard Chickens!

Folks have often asked us what we do for guard animals? Llamas? You mean larger camelids that don’t produce an alpaca cria? Uh, no. We’re an alpaca farm.  LGDs? While we gave it some thought over the years, the idea of having something on the farm that could bite our kids far outweighed (read: was never on the table) any safety benefit to the herd. That and we knew one person too many who had had their guard dogs turn on their alpacas as well.

You knew something had to give though.  So after years of having only alpacas (with all due respect to our kitties Maya, Chloe, Penny, Jewel, and Crystal who really have lived with us in the house) on the farm we broke down and purchased  14 chirping newborn chicks this past April that have all grown into the mighty CCNF Guard Chicken Brigade! Led by their fearless leader, JoJo Burger (note to all, this is what happens when your kids get in on the naming of animals: you get a rooster named after a Caribbean hamburger stand), the flock now makes itself at home off of the east end of the Main Barn and has spent at least part of the summer (see photo at left) cohabitating with our juvenile males.  The plan is for their mobile hutch—they’re called chicken tractors in the poultry trade—to be hauled up to the Arena when the snow flies. Of course in addition to striking mortal fear into the hearts of every ant, tick, cricket, and grasshopper on the side of Mt. Ascutney they have the added bonus of also producing 8 to 10 eggs a day now with yolks that are the most beautiful, deep orange/yellow. There see…we’re diversified!