Individual Animals?

First off, my apologies for the pictures. I can't figure out how I ended up with them all grouped together but my computer wizard isn't available so I hope you can separate the pictures into their proper segments since I can't. Chicken picture with chicken paragraph, steer picture with steer paragraph, etc. Got it? Great! Sorry about that.

My two granddaughters have decided that a special treat is spending the night with Grandma. A treat for whom? Anyway, I have now had occasion to observe each of them up close and very personal and it started me thinking.

Naavah, the 3-year-big girl, sleeps flat on her back with arms and legs splayed out. She may appear petite but somehow leaves Grandma a scant few inches of mattress. Alessia, on the other hand, curls up in the classic fetal position and its Grandma’s turn to spread out.

Two children raised in the same basic environment by the same parents and yet even asleep are very different. That goes for their personalities as well. And it goes for our animal kingdom too. Or mostly.

My hens are 6 distinct individuals. I have Dora who struggles with severe short term memory loss. Don’t look for her in the picture. She hasn’t figured out where the feed is yet although I have scattered it in the same place every day for 9 months. When it comes evening and I go to the coop to feed them again and shut them in, 5 are right there in the coop. Guess which one is crouched nervously in the path, head darting around.

 “Gee, Terry. I know the coop’s around here somewhere. I just can’t find it. Can I follow you? I just know I’ll be able to figure it out tomorrow.” But she never does. I secretly find her rather endearing.

The hen in the middle with the horizontal white stripe across the tail is  the Sargent-Major. She allows nothing and no chicken to interfere with the strict hierarchy under which the chicken kingdom thrives. All except Dora, of course. Even the Sargent-Major has thrown up her feathers in disgust and pretty much ignores her. Lots of personalities in the coop.

There are distinct personalities in the steers as well. We only have 3 but one is the leader with his tag-along follower (Gomer) who is glued to his hip. The leader has horns and this seems some sort of macho symbol for the abbreviated herd. He decides when they go to water, how long they drink, and when they leave. He calls time for morning breaks and bedtime. The third steer follows, but slowly. In the picture Mr. Horns has just moved away from the water hole, closely followed by Gomer. Lazy Bones will wait just long enough to make it clear that he’s a male with his own sense of importance and then he will amble off after Mr. Horn. They seem to have worked out détente.

Where my theory falls down is with the sheep. The Romneys are an amiable breed. They amble along each doing her own thing. They don’t even pay that much attention to their own lambs. They only time they work as a unit is when the enemy (me) approaches.

Along with the Romneys, we have acquired a flock of Suffolk. We were making the wise choice. Suffolk are meat sheep and very tasty meat it is too. They have narrow shoulders so lamb fairly easily and often have twins. In 3 years our Romneys have only given us 1 set of twins.

But these Suffolk are sheep of a different sort. They not only work as a team, they are clones of each other. They move as a unit – always! I never see one ramble off on her own. I admit to being somewhat intimidated by them. I have seen all 14 fan out across a paddock and literally munch in unison as they move in formation across the field.

I’m not the only one intimidated. The Romneys ceded the field within the first week of the Suffolk invasion. The Romneys drink when the Suffolk are done. They lie outside while the Suffolk hog the barn. And most importantly, they leave off grazing and lope away if the Suffolk decide that they want to eat there.

Next week we bring in the Ram for mating season. Should be interesting!