New Guard Dogs and the rest of the menagerie!

Neighbours across the heath used to keep peacocks. I loved their cries and miss them now they are no longer around.

Another neighbour used to give me goose eggs. My sponge cake was big and a bright yellow!

Thank you Eirlys for reading my blog. The peacocks certainly make a noise when they decide to! My neighbour across the road was brought up in India and when I apologised for the noise (and the fact they sit on her roof!) she said she loved to see and hear them as it reminded her of her youth.
Lily and Gracie both lay eggs in the Spring and we tend to give them away - sadly my OH is not a great cake eater and it's me who eats all of it when I do make some - not good for the waist-line!

How I enjoy your blogs, HG. Would Lily and Gracie's eggs be fertile? ..or is Boris too fat for that?
You're blessed with your neighbour. Imagine! peacocks on your roof! love it.
I think I'd like being your neighbour.

Thanks Lori. Luckily our neighbours have no objection to the noise of the peacocks, geese or guinea fowl. However we have some new neighbours just moved in down the road, I just hope that they inspected the bungalow enough to hear the boys in full cry!
Lily and Gracie both lay and always want to brood, but sadly Boris is either too old or too clueless for them to have fertile eggs. My neighbour, who has geese (see, we are all mad here!) said that we could have some of his eggs so they could sit. I didn't take him up on that this year, but may next. However that would just mean an increase in the flock as my OH wouldn't want to part with them once hatched!
The young GF have now been moved down into a run on the field so that they can get used to the chickens, geese etc., and the theory was the original two GF would be interested and they would all eventually merge into one flock. However the chickens gather round the run and pace up and down trying to get in to filch their food, Boris just goes and shouts at them, but the older Guinea Fowl have so far ignored them! So much for my theory of amalgamation!

When I had an acre or so garden I divided it into areas, one was the goose garden, we kept 5 girls & a gander. Dolly, Molly, Polly, Dotty, Daisy & Denzil, but Daisy turned out to be the gander & Denzil a goose, lol. Dotty fell victim to the fox so we kept a few goslings to raise out of which came Pru (another gander). They were wonderful guard geese & enormous characters.
At the back of the house we kept a couple of Aylesbury's, Dilly & Dally but Dally would wander round to the geese & try to mount them, he couldn't resist those big 'ol gals, we were often chasing him back in.
A neighbour had 4 peacocks which would come & visit & also sit on our roof - fabulous sight.
I'd keep the dogs in when they came.

Thanks Green finger for your comment, I loved your story about Dally trying to be over friendly with the geese. I
thought the name for the geese and the ducks were very appropiate and I might utilize some of them if we get any more!
Sadly the five young Guinea Fowl fell prey to the family of stoats which live on the field. I thought they were OK in their run, but one day they were gone and the stoats were the only thing that could have had them. A few days later odd 'bits' were found on the field. Nature is wonderful, but cruel in it's necessity to survive.
We just feel guilty that we got it wrong about how safe they were!

Unfortunately, if you keep livestock you have to protect them from predators. Foxes, Stoats, weasels, rats & even hedgehogs will predate especially on poultry.
My ex m-i-l heard screaming from the hen house one night, she suspected rats but when she (with shotgun in hand) investigated she found a sitting hen impaled on a hedgehog whilst it devoured its innards. Horrible, I know & she was a country woman all her life & had never come across such a thing.
I, too, felt guilty when I lost a goose or a duck here & there & blamed myself but when next door lost all 6 hens & pet rabbits from there hutch one night to foxes we felt something had to be done.
At around 4am one morning I saw foxes lurking so my ex laid on the duck house roof & waited. He shot 2 that night & 2 more the following, they were all dog foxes. 2 others remained but we hoped they would go for the plentiful rabbits & pheasants around & felt balance would be restored.

Thanks for your comment Green finger, country people understand all the predators and the need to control them, but city people tend to think that the foxes are cute! One of the Estate owners around here was saying that urban foxes were being dumped in the countryside when they over-populated the city. More cruel than putting them down as they have no understanding of hunting food unless it's put out for them or comes in a bin!

Agreed. They are cute but we don't have game keepers any more to control a troublesome, sick or just too many anymore.
To relocate them is cruel indeed, it's the same with rats when caught in so-called humane traps & 'kind' people relocate them too. Most don't realise they are condemning them to days of suffering before they die or are killed.