Animals of White Stone Farm

With 10 acres of space, there’s lots of room for a myriad of animals.  They are the White Stone Farm lawn mowers, manure makers, fleece providers, eggs layers and provide Prue and Stace with hours of laughs and entertainment!

Meet the White Stone Farm comedy crew:

JESS

Jess the horse

An only child in the horse department, who actually behaves more like a dog. Part Quarterhorse with a touch of Clydesdale, Jess is stocky and slightly rotund and a very effective lawn mower and manure maker!

The first and original inhabitant at White Stone Farm, having lived on the property for 6 years with the previous owner before Prue & Stace bought the place and bought her too!  When the previous owner moved and took her other horses, Jess had a hard time adjusting without her other paddock mates.  But realising this, Prue let Jess roam outside the house, to make her feel more secure and part of the herd.  Each morning she can now be seen peering in the front window waiting for breakfast.  Jess is happy and now sees herself as one of the White Stone Farm human herd!

Jess has captivated Prue & Stacy’s hearts and provided lots of laughs and antics as they all get to know each other as herd members.

A constant companion and shadow when Prue & Stace are working on the farm, Jess likes to ‘help’, particularly when Stace is building raised beds from clay – although she tends to often eat the construction more than assist.  She can often be seen quietly grazing or nuzzling your pockets for hidden carrots.

BRITTANY

Brittany the llamaThis lovely llama was the first of the llama herd to arrive at White Stone Farm.  Named for the ancient Celtic peninsula in France (or a tumultuous pop-star…whichever you prefer), she is known for her long eye lashes and aloof, regal demeanour.

When Brittany first moved to White Stone Farm, there were no other llamas on the property or available for sale.  After a shaky start without any llama buddies and realising the importance of social interaction with other llamas, Brittany went to stay with some llama friends at Tiffen Meadows farm up the road.  When the llama herd finally increased it was time for Brittany to come home and since returning, Brittany has been finding her place amongst the other llamas at White Stone Farm.

A calm and thoughtful llama, Brittany enjoys heading out for a walk on the local roads and will one day make a fantastic pack llama!

LILAH  

Prue & Lilah the llama

One half of the newest duo to the farm and recent newspaper celebrity, Lilah is big brown eyes and a big, curious nature!  Looking like a mixture between a teddy bear and an Ewok, Lilah is the current leader of the llama herd at White Stone Farm.  Constantly eager for a treat, Lilah is the first to lead the charge when called for dinner.  She tends to be a bit bossy with the other llamas and gets slightly jealous if Prue dares to spend too much time with the others.

Lilah’s chocolate brown coat will be a fantastic addition of fleece to Prue’s weaving projects and along with her very curious nature, Lilah is great fun to go walking with – often humming in her llama way as she wanders along.

Lilah’s full official title is Red Lion Delilah, named from the llama stud at which she and Yuki were both born.

YUKI

Yuki the llamaNamed for the white snow of Japan, Yuki is pure white from the tip of her tail to her lovely white eyelashes!  The other half of the Yuki and Lilah duo, Yuki is more shy and reserved than her pushy chocolate-coloured counterpart.

With her playful nature and youthful enthusiasm, Yuki can often be seen wrestling with Lilah as they try to knock each other off their feet or neck wrestle to the ground.  With only 10 days difference in age, they are well matched.  Yuki also enjoys eating and has discovered a taste for carrots (much to Jess’ dismay!) as well as lucerne, alpaca pellet mix and anything else that she can fit in her mouth for an investigative chew!

Yuki loves to go for walks along the roadside verge and can often be seen trying to grab fortuitous mouthfuls of grass along the way.

Yuki’s full name is Red Lion Snowflake – but we think Yuki suits her better!

THE CHOOKS…

White Stone Farm relies on the insect foraging, manure making and hilarious antics of our feathered friends, Gallus domesticus…the humble chook.  Photos to follow soon…

The House Flock

When we first started with chooks, we chose a few different breeds to test them out.  Interested in heritage breeds and types that produce good egg and meat qualities, we are dabbling and learning about what suits us best.

In order to know who we were talking about when discussing their health and antics and aware that we would probably have a number of chooks over the years, we chose a thematic, alphabetical way of naming them – after models of cars…so meet our fleet:

Avalon

Is the first chook and top of the flock.  A Euribrid, designed for optimum egg laying, this is a derivative of the Hisense brown and great for egg laying – our neighbour swears by them!

As her beak is a little skewy, she’s not great at grabbing bugs quickly, but is fantastic at muscling out everyone else to get the best treats!

Bentley

Another Euribrid and a gorgeous chook, she is also a fantastic mum with her second batch of youngsters doing really well.  Very cruisey and protective of her babies.  Although Euribrids tend not to be too broody, Bentley is the exception to the rule and is steadfast when she wants to start a family!  The rooster is happy to oblige…

Commanche

Our third Euribrid, Commanche is our biggest egg layer and committed to the cause.  She is yet to go broody and is known for laying a double yolker that weighed 112gms.  Phew!!

DeLorean

Delorian is a Pekin Bantam with gorgeous feathered feet and beautiful scalloping patterns on her feathers.  Techically Prue’s mum’s chook (a birthday present last year), DeLorean likes to travel at 88 miles per hour…well, not really – but she is quick!  Not quite as biddable as the others, she tends to keep to herself and avoid the bossy Euribrids!  She is also a proven mum, having raised our first set of fertilised eggs.

Eldorado

Another Pekin Bantam, Eldorado also has those distinctive feathered feet and likes to keep to herself!  Flighty and quick to cackle loudly if you disturb her, she like raising a ruckus if she thinks you are getting too close.  A very proven mum, Eldorado has successfully raised 3 ducklings and adapted well to their ducky ways, taking them swimming in the nearby pond while she watched and waited patiently at the side like a good mum!  Eldorado disappeared a while back and we thought her lost to a fox…until we found her quietly sitting on a clutch of eggs she had hidden in the wood shed.  She emerged with ten gorgeous balls of fluff soon after!

Ferrari

With her glossy black Australorp feathers and Elvis hair style, Ferrari is quite the character.  More round than a sleek styled Ferrari, our chook loves fruit and having a cackle.  She’s also quick to put any young chooks in their place and as yet hasn’t raised a brood or gone clucky.  But I think she’d make a good mum!

Galaxy

Snow white and soft feathers, Galaxy’s look harks back to her Light Sussex heritage.  A large chook, Galaxy is a big, protective mum when she raises young.  Suffering from Paranoid New Mum syndrome, Galaxy would attack us if we came too close and Stace has developed a healthy respect/fear for her pecking and scratching.  Her second brood has seen her more relaxed and carefree but still a really good, caring mum.

Henry

We got to the letter ‘H’ when we got our rooster – and decided to name him Henry – for Henry Ford, the Father of all cars!  Or King Henry…as we know we’ll have a few of them (possibly even IIX).  We are currently up to Henry II – a gorgeous, young Araucana that is learning quickly how to woo the females!

Henry I was a ‘bitsa’ rooster – part Light Sussex, part Silkie, part Who-knows-what…so we never really knew what characteristics would show in his offspring.  He was a very kind and protective rooster and an absolute sweetheart.  He is sorely missed.

THE PASTURE POULTRY

Based on Joel Salatin’s pasture poultry concept, most of our chickens will be free ranging or in broiler pens in our back paddock as part of our free range egg production or persoal meat production and integrated into our pasture systems and grazing regimes with our other herbivores.

The accommodate them at night and protect them from foxes and other predators, Stace is building a range of different mobile chook houses that can be moved around the paddock to provide fresh foraging grounds when needed.  It has inspired a range of innovative constructions!  Meet some of the chicken groups enjoying life on the back paddock…

The Araucanas

Hearing that they lay green/blue eggs and supposedly have a lower cholesterol level, we sought out some Araucana chooks and got an entire family!  The main rooster, Aragon and his wife, Hen (we broke from tradition on the car names this time…), have 3 daughters and had 5 sons.  Four of them ended up in the freezer when they grew up…and one lucky boy became Henry II.

The Misfits

Our newest recruits to the pasture poultry world, the Misfits came from a cage egg business with a whole heap of physical and psychological problems.  But they are now settling in nicely and enjoying their newfound freedom.  It’s been very interesting watching them learn how to become chooks again!

The A-framers

This group of 19 incubated chickens see us as Mum and Dad.  Born in an incubator (a number of them needing assistance), raised in the laundry in a brooder box, then transferred to increasingly larger foraging cages outside, these chooks now reside in an A-frame sled construction in the back paddock.  A mixture of varieties, including pure bred Light Sussex and Araucana, Euribrid cross, Indian Game and Light Sussex cross birds.  They are also enjoying their freedom foraging in the paddock by day.  Until we work out what genders we have, we are not assigning them names (only girls get names now).

 

 

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