Fox and the Hens......

 He's cute isn't he. Wily. Sneaky. Charming. Deadly. The fox. The fantastic fox. Sigh.

A few months ago here in the Midwest, we had a horrible storm... some say a tornado ( me being one of them, the trees on our property twisted...) some say straight line winds. Either way, we lost two huge pine trees that gave us shade. We lost some big old trees in the "forest" behind our home. Our trampoline landed on top of our shed and we had no electricity for nine long days.

During this time, one of the giant trees in the forest fell over, pulling up giant pieces of mud and earth. While the neighborhood worked together to clean up the debris, we all took turns walking down our back hill , covered in black raspberry bushes, and we dumped the branches on top of the massive tree, and the big mounds of dirt and earth.

A few days ago, we learned that we had created the most fabulous fox den. We learned this the hard way. We have now lost four chickens to the fantastic fox. One of them being our sweet little birchin cochin roo Elvis, known for his love of sitting on the eggs and protecting them. He had finally found his love. A brown leghorn named Brownie. They passed away together, we found the trails of feathers, and they led right down to the den. A big pile of feathers sat in front of the hold that leads in. My husband, so sad and hurt for his kids who are madly in love with all of our chickens, took a big branch and poked around in the den. Nothing happened, but for now we are setting live traps. Three hens that laid daily, and a sweet protective roo is quite a loss.

How do you deal with predators?  And why in heavens name is there a fox den in the middle of town. Yes it is a perfect little patch of trees and flowers and berries and a beautiful creek that runs thru.. but we are seriously in the middle of town. Which is why we call our home a "little urban farm".

 

Love you Elvis, Brownie, Rachel, and Rose.
JL~

BunBuns for Sale at Fruit Tree Hill!

It's that time of year.. time for a bunny sale here at the Hill. We have our beautiful babies from Violet and Sebastian, they are $20 a piece. They will come with a care sheet, a picture pedigree of them and their parents, and a small bag of alfalfa and food.

And then we also have some cutie pie juveniles for sale.. breeding age etc.

We have Foxy Cleopatra... she is double maned lionhead who has had two litters..

Not the best picture... she didn't want to pose for me : (   lol!

We have Silver... He is a cute inquisitive little lionhead/ netherland dwarf

 

We have Teddy Bear.... who has been a father to 27 beautiful babies. :) That was with one breeding... three moms... super Teddy Bear!!!  $10

 

 

and last but not least, we have one of Winter's babies, a buck, he is half lionhead, half netherland dwarf, and he is CUTE!!!! he has a Mohawk!  $10

 

You can get ahold of me at 573 795 9735 :)

 

Here is what bunbuns had for dinner last night.. along with their regular alfalfa and pellets.. they are so spoiled!!!

 

 

Yummy, kale, broccoli, and carrots :)

and just for fun, here is a silly pic :)

Have a super day!!!!!!!

Heigh Ho from Fruit Tree Hill !

Heigh Ho Silver! Our cutie pie lionhead boy named Silver say's hello! :)

Just doing some updating to the blog... I have so many cute pictures from around the Hill.... So this post is going to be a little .... random... but hopefully it will be fun!!

Rachel is checking out the peaches... she likes to hop on top of the big coop to get nosey... LOL !

Here is a new friend... a beautiful dragonfly came to visit me while I was tying up a tomato plant.

Shingling the big chicken coop! Dylan was a big help... thank goodness he was there to help :)

Kevin and Kate, our resident Polish couple have knocked over their feeder again... don't they look innocent tho ??

Hello Little Bear! He must've had to use the restroom.... he's on the wire... he's such a cutie!!! I love him! :)

Here's daddy resting in his new hammock he got for Father's Day !! Doesn't it look comfy ??

Chris and Pat, the two ducks here at the Hill, enjoy their swimming pool!

Another beautiful Missouri sunset :

And in July we had a beautiful thing happen.... say hello to mama Violet :

and introducing her beautiful babies!!!!!!

NINE beautiful babies!!!! Purebred Lionheads :)

And last but not least.... we are finally getting all different colors of eggs, White, Brown, Light Brown, Pink, and Green! YES!!!!

How has your summer been dear friends ?? :)
Love, JL~

July 2013 on the Hill

The weather has been beautiful! We did have one major storm... a tornado, and boy did it make a mess! We are all safe and the animals are all safe... just had no electricity for 9 days and also had two big pine trees knocked down. Other then that, the weather has been GORGEOUS!

                              Beautiful Missouri Sunset...... pictured above

                              Missouri tornado coming in... this was around early afternoon, see all the lights on ? It got that dark! Pictured above..

We also had another visitor.... not a good one! This prairie kingsnake tried it's best to get into the vintage window banty coop.... but we were prepared!!! Keith killed it ( we don't usually kill snakes here on the hill, but this one was actively trying to get inside the banty coop ) and then we let the chickens look at the dead snake... they were very interested!

  Our new mini lop , Lavender, is getting so big! Here is a fresh picture of her and sweet Marlee :)

The banty chicks have finally started laying eggs.... they are so cute!!!!

Tune in for more blog posts on summer here at the Hill! <3 Urban farming... we are doing it!

So Much To Catch Up On !!! SUMMER AT THE HILL!!!!!

Woo Hoo! It's officially summer time here at the hill ! We have cutie pie chickens everywhere, dogs, and bunnies!! The baby chicks in the banty coop are getting big!!!

This is Lavender , our new mini lop .... isn't she darling ??

Here's Xander.... our blue cochin banty roo.... he's a sweetie ! The boy holding him is awfully cute too! :)

The honeysuckle smells heavenly!!!!!!! My favorite ever! This bush came from a teeny tiny start from my grandmothers garden!

The rabbitry is starting to look pretty awesome if I do say so myself.... we are cleaning out the cages etc in this pic.... so the doors are open lol. Behind where Keith is standing... is the big chicken coop that Keith built. I will be posting pics of all the different coops and cages and hutches that Keith has built!

Cherry pickin time is here!!!!!

Kids being silly and enjoying summer!!!!!!!! \

Enjoy your summer from your friends here at Fruit Tree Hill! <3

Animals Spring 2013

Here is some new pics of the animals here at Fruit Tree Hill....

This is the new Banty coop made from vintage window screens from the house at the end of the street.. the neat couple that live there are in their 90's and they save EVERYTHING... including all the vintage window screens from their home! Awesome! Cost us about 12 bucks to do this coop... paint and hardware. It's all screened in and lovely!
That's Lola in their... she is a silver laced Wyandotte.. she has a booboo back from being Hershey's favorite, the hen saddles are in the mail!

This is Porter... he's on loan from a friend's farm, he is our Ameracauna Dolly's new beau... hehehe.

This is Teddy Bear.. he is the proud papa of 27 babies!!!!!!! He is a lionhead.

The white and brown bun in the back is Sebastian, he is a lionhead. The cinnamon/black colored Netherland Dwarf in the front is Little Bear.

This is Kevin.... our crazy polish rooster. He is crazy. Seriously. and he's in time out. so there.

Hello Elvis! He is our little banty roo, the protector of the eggs. He is a Silver Birchen Cochin Bantam.

Hello Hershey! Our protector of all the chickens, he is a Barred Rock Rooster. He's handsome.

There's Dylan, working on his little "pond" for the ducks!

These are the ducks! Chris and Pat... because we don't know if they are boys or girls !! They are playing in a mud puddle under the swingset! :)

Introducing some of the new chickies at the Hill

Dylan's holding the two new baby bantams... and we also have two ameraucana's, a black jersey giant, and a buff orpington, oh and can't forget the golden laced wyandotte :)

Introducing Some of The New Babies at the Hill

Here are some of the baby bunnies.... and cutie pie Marlee :)

Fresh Footage at the Farm March 2013

It's spring and the house is full of new babies ( because it's still freezing outside!! so they are in the house yikes!!) Here is some footage of the new babies... I couldn't get Paris and Foxy's babies because the lighting was to dark.... but this video features Violet and her babies, Winter, and the new baby chicks!! Enjoy!!

Bottle Fed Babies!

So momma Foxy Cleopatra has rejected two of her babies ( the littlest runts!) but she IS taking good care of the three she has in there still. So, I am bottlefeeding two precious babies!! :) So far so good.... they were so skinny and puny and she kept throwing them out of the nest box. So for now I just tried to get some kitten milk replacer in them. Today I have started pedialyte also.. to get them better hydrated. Working hard! They sleep together all bundled up and I think.... it might be working. But, I try to remind the kids that bottlefeeding baby bunnies a lot of times doesnt work :( Hopefully it will be good! :)