I've learned a lot over the past few years about how to work livestock from Emily. She instinctually knows where to be and where the animals want to go. "Watch their heads!" "Step into them!" She shouts out commands a mile a minute and I try to keep up.
Last week I put my herding skills to use in two unusual situations, both involving birds.
Herding birds? Is that like herding cats?
Wednesday on my way to feed the pigs, I crested the hill above pig village and saw a group of 20 wild turkeys intermingling with our gang of 20 extreme free ranging turkeys who had recently decided that life was better down in the woods by the pigs. This was free ranging gone too far. Action was needed before this gang went feral.
I strode back to the barn and grabbed our lunge whip. I knew the turkeys respected this whip. When they were but young poults, I'd let them out of their safe home in the barn into the yard for grazing during the day (back when the days were long, remember?) and herd them back home at dusk. The whip worked again last Wednesday. I walked back down the hill to the nearly wild gang of 20 and started lightly smacking the ground behind them. After 10 minutes of walking and whipping the pasture, I had the birds back in the barnyard with their domestic, unadventurous friends (the rest of our turkey flock).
My bird herding adventures weren't finished for the week...
Emily and I were finishing up our coffee on Sunday morning when we heard the call of a Carolina Wren. Her call sounded crisp and beautiful, so clear that I thought she might be in the house. Turns out she was.
We went upstairs, a dusty place where we rarely go, and our friend was frantically trying to find a way out. We opened a window and stood back. Our friend flew around the room, even into the window above the opening, but not out. Desperate, she flew right at me and squeezed between the door frame and me. At that point, Emily kicked into livestock working mode.
We followed the bird through two rooms, into a hallway and herded her back into the room with the open window. Once there, we gave her no way to go but out the window.
Emily always preaches that when working animals you have to make every way but the way you want an animal to go very difficult. I couldn't imagine that you could herd something as small as a wren, but as usual Emily was right and the wren found her freedom. We returned to breakfast and our Sunday.
