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I am a 42 year old woman that is about as happy and content as one person can be. My husband of 21 years and our 15 year old daughter live on five and a half acres out in the country. We moved from the city four years ago and never looked back. I homeschool our daughter. We also love our animals. Our daughter has a miniature horse and two rabbits. We also have a border collie, two cats (again), two pot belly pigs, four peafowl, three emus, 2 llamas and an undetermined number of chickens, lets just say ohhh about 200. I have many breeds, from layers to fancy chickens. I love poultry shows, I love fowl in general as I have come to find out through having more than just chickens. Chickens will always be my first love though. I do show some of my birds occasionally.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Misbehavin' Chickens

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Tip is pretty happy about her new job as of late. She is a border collie...bred from working stock, so any chance she gets to work is like candy is to a kid. She needs no reward for working because being able to work is a reward in itself for her.

For about two weeks now we have been having the new brood of hens jumping the fence, the fence that we paid 12,000 dollars for to keep our animals safe from roaming dogs or whatever may come up on the property.

Early in the morning they want to venture out and tear up the flower beds, something I broke the old broods habit from...and these will learn too because Tip is relentless.

I taught her herding commands early on in her life with a soccer ball. She knows Away To Me, Come By. Walk Up and Lie Down is especially helpful to help control the speed in which she pushes the chickens back through the fence wire. She loves it, and it saves a lot of hollering and yelling and frustration to have her go out and tend to business. She probably does a better job at it than I ever could anyway. ;)

She lives to keep these chickens in check. We have gone out four times already this morning. Last chicken check they were all still in the fence...they will learn, Tip will be sure of it.

The picture above is of her pushing the last chicken back..this one was a stubborn gal, but she finally relented and went back.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Job Tip. You should print and frame this one. Helen

Anonymous said...

when I was a kid, we lived on a farm for a while and there was a border collie named Zipper...and Zipper thought it was his Job to keep us kids in line!  LOL he was always trying to herd us!
Becky

Anonymous said...

Kelly that is such a lovely Picture of Tip herding the last chicken in ~ Border Collie's are such beautiful and intelligent dogs ~ I am sure she will teach those chickens who is the Boss :o) ~ Ally x

Anonymous said...

Tip is worth her weight in gold. What a good job she is doing. Paula

Anonymous said...

What a good dog Tip is, how did you go about teaching her?  Linda

Anonymous said...

Kelly I love that picture.  Tip is a beautiful animal.  Did you have her when we came to see you that day?  I don't remember seeing her.

Hollie

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!  I love to watch Border Collies in action!
Traci

Anonymous said...

Awesome!  They are amazing dogs, I love to watch them work.  You've done a great job.
Lisa

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