Greta Vigren, a Swedish farmer noticed that her 5-year-old pet rabbit, Champis, had a new talent when she let her sheep out to graze for their first time in pasture after a long winter. In her interview with the Huffington Post, Greta says, “He just started to behave like a sheepdog.”
Her friend, Dan Westman, who breeds and trains sheepdogs, shot this video of the rabbit doing his job. He was amazed at what he saw saying “It’s really incredible. I mean I work with sheepdogs and know how hard this is. There are very few dogs that could do what this rabbit does.”
Unfortunately, for those interested in their own herding rabbit, Vigren has no pointers on how to get started training a bunny to become a sheepdog. He picked up the tricks of the trade on his own, perhaps by watching the dogs.
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the coop, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse (for fear he would be eaten.) The chicken sweaters were hung in the feed shed with care, in hopes the crazy chicken lady soon would be there. The hens were snuggled down deep in the straw, dreaming of mealworms stuffed in their craw. The dog in his collar and I in pink jammies had just settled down for some cocoa and sammies. When out in the yard the r
Legend has it that when I was young, we were the proud owners of a surrogate poultry mom. I didn’t know this, I recently learned it when discussing a similar case with my mother. When I was around five or six, we had a huge flock of Rhode Island Red hens. That’s the only breed we had back then and I spent hours a day with the girls when I wasn’t in school. I’m still partial to the breed today. They’re good layers, friendly, bold, and most importantly, amazing mothers.
I’ve always been one to root for an underdog (or underduck?), so when Topper of Topsy Turvy Duck came across my social media feed, I contacted her owner Lisa Guckelberg to learn more. My first exposure to Topsy was a video of her getting into mischief with a tough-looking dog, Buddy, who is an unlikely companion of hers. The two were following Lisa around while she did chores, and Topper was sassy and talkative. Somehow, it’s always the sassy ones who win me over. While I
Red Star Hen Failure to Thrive Eighteen-month-old Red Star hen was found hanging off by herself with fluffed-up feathers. I immediately isolated. On exam, she showed no signs of being egg-bound; her keel bone was very sharp with obvious weight loss; she had no interest in eating and loose stools with pungent sweet/sour odor. No worms presented on the last fecal exam one month ago. I have 48 hens in the flock and the others appear normal. I am feeding 22% layer pellets a