Bantams at the Staten Island Zoo

(I posted this on my other blog, so if you follow me on both blogs, this will be a repeat.)

Two weeks ago, we went to the Staten Island Zoo for the first time. One of the coolest thing about the zoo was that they had a lot of farm animals on the premises, that were part of the "petting zoo" area. They had information about how to raise and care for them. This is not something I often see at the zoo and I was so impressed that the Staten Island zoo had these animals here so that us "city folk" and their kids could see horses, pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. These animals maybe common place if you live near farms or on a farm but here, most farms with farm animals like sheep or pigs are a good 1-2 hours drive away.  I know people who grew up in the city and have never seen these animals in person! Even myself, I grew up in surburban New Jersey, and the first time I "pet" a pig, goat, horse, chicken, was on my husband's family farm, 3 years ago. LOL, boy have I live a sheltered life!  This is one of the bantam chickens that was living at the Staten Island zoo.  Isn't she beautiful?  I love her "hair".  My husband's family has a few bantams and they are so small and cute.  They also lay the cutest little eggs.  I think if we do decide to raise chickens, I would like to try bantams.  They seem very manageable. 

We decided that before we take the plunge to getting chickens, we are going to do a lot of research.  I've been looking onine for informative books, and wanted to ask the blogosphere if you have any recommendations.  Does anyone have this book?  On Amazon, there were a lot of positive reviews, however some readers said there were better books out there.  I'm looking for a guide book, that a beginner could use as a reference for all things about raising chickens.

Homemade Living: Keeping Chickens with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Care for a Happy, Healthy Flock

I also pulled some photos from the vault (circa 2007) so you could see my first visit to the family farm.  This is the first time I've ever visited a working farm.  My husband's family about 5 years ago, decided to leave Poughkeepsie and start a homestead / family farm.  I thought this was appropriate to share these photos because next week we are going there for "vacation".  I normally don't like posting pictures of myself, but I thought these photos were pretty funny and decided to share them and share a laugh.  Here I am feeding the pigs for the very first time, but the chickens gathered around me because they love pig feed too.  LOL.

 

In this photo, I am feeding Grace, the Belgian Horse.  She was a youngster in this photo, just about a year old if I remember correctly.  She used to be my height, but not anymore!  Now she towers over me.  She is so beautiful.

 

I included this photo because its so adorable.  Baby ducks and chicks.  So cute!  This sounds so silly, but I had no idea that ducklings were yellow!  I mean, I've only ever seen yellow ducks as toys as a kid or in books.   These are white ducks when they are full grown but the babies are bright yellow. 

And this is what I mean about sharing a laugh.  This is me holding one of the baby pigs.  My father-in-law asked me if I wanted to hold one and I was so excited because they were so cute! He said pigs "squeal" when they are held, it's not because they are hurt, but that they are scared.  Okay, I wasn't prepared for this even though he warned me about the squealing.  This little piggy SQUEALED!!  My face says it all!