One of our chicks developed a severely maloccluded, malformed beak commonly referred to as "scissor-beak" or "crossed-beak". She didn't grow very much despite us separating her from larger chicks, providing her food in deeper dishes, mashes and slurries, and syringe feedings. Luckily, we found a good "chicken mash" recipe with added vitamins and other nutritional supplements and have been tube feeding her 2-3 times daily. She comes running over to us anytime she feels hungry and loves being held and carried around. We love our little hen "Eleanor Crossbeak". 

We adopted a small backyard flock of hens last year from a friend of our neighbor. Sadly, this man was sick with cancer and has since passed away. Before he died, we assured him his hens would live a good life here at Feather Leaf. One hen came to us with a severely distended, impacted, and sour crop. With help from my mom, I performed a simple surgery to remove the crop contents and she recovered quickly. This spring, she became broody and has been for weeks. While at the feed store I came upon many chicks who were, sadly, on sale for 99 cents! I knew I wanted to take at least some home - I ended up placing 10 (!) chicks with her and she instantly took to motherhood. She has been a fantastic momma hen ever since and we are thrilled to see her and the chicks thriving. 

In September, we adopted 11 (yes, 11!) goats.  We adopted 2 from northern Michigan - Brady and Bella. These are a brother - sister pair and were born at a petting zoo so really love people. The other 9 came from Oinking Acres, a pig rescue and sanctuary, who had collected them from various situations including neglect, surrender and strays.  They are a sweet bunch and are settling in here at Feather Leaf Farm.  We are in the process of restoring this lean-to shed so they are nice and cozy this winter.

At the end of August, we finally were able to pick up these two pot-bellied pigs. They were born in late May at a fellow animal lover's house who took in the pregnant mother and older sister. The litter was 9 large and Gimli and Dot were the runts. Since arriving they have warmed our hearts and are certainly growing!  They are very sweet and now quite vocal around meal time. Their expressive eyes and clear intelligence make me re-think how we treat pigs in industrialized agriculture.