# What was the most interesting visitor you have had?



## HerdQueen (Oct 15, 2012)

One day we were at the local fireman auction when we came home we had the most interesting visitor. He stayed a few weeks then moved on. He seems to travel around visiting other farms. Every once in awhile he will stop by fly to the barn roof let everyone know he is here then move on again.

When he was here he mostly hung out in the buck pen, but when he would go into the doe pen, Bonnie would go up to him and nuzzle his feathers.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

That's neat. We haven't had anything that exciting. Do they live wild in your area? Or is he a domestic Peacock that is just farm hopping?


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## animalfamily (Nov 23, 2012)

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this picture!!

I guess the most interesting visitor we've has at our place was a coyote. I saw it one morning out the back door from a distance it looked like a dog. We have many coyotes here but they usually have that scrawny kind of mangy look. This one almost looked like it could have been someones pet. I was filled out, nice fluffy coat. Anyway, it walked right on up to our picnic table [tail wagging] which is only about 10 ft, outside our back door. Yea, I was freaking out, as was my dog. I let her out [our dog] and she ran that coyote all the way to the road, about 1/4 mile. I guess she thought one _dog _on the place was enough. I have to say I agree with her !


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Wow! I only get the feral cats coming around.


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## HerdQueen (Oct 15, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:


> That's neat. We haven't had anything that exciting. Do they live wild in your area? Or is he a domestic Peacock that is just farm hopping?


He has a sad story. His owner had a beautiful farm. With all of the typical farm animals, plus peacocks. This year she passed away from cancer. Well they sold off all of her big livestock, but the peafowl were left to fend for themselves. So they went searching. I can only guess that he heard the goats in his wondering around and knew that noise meant food. We found out his story after talking to some people around. Our neighbors flipped a nutty when they saw him here, including an episode of banging on the door and demanding we get rid of him because he didn't want "that bird" eating his garden. So he got an education on what they eat which did not include his precious onions. So he farm hops, but he is always welcome here.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

I think it was Fall 2010. It was cold outside so I decided to make some turkey soup. While the soup was simmering on the stove I looked out the kitchen window to see a flock of wild turkeys walking by.

Then on a Friday, Nov. 2011, I once again was cooking when I looked out the kitchen window and spotted a Boer doe walking by. I immediately put my shoes on and ran outside. She wouldn't let me grab her but she did happily follow me into my vegetable garden. I never did find her owner and so she still lives me me. Based on photos everyone guessed she was born March or April 2011. I named her Lawn Mower, who is my avatar.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

Oh, I live about a 30 minute drive from the intersection of two county highways. At that intersection is a convience market. A could peacocks hang around the place. They are beautiful birds but noisy.


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## animalfamily (Nov 23, 2012)

Are they noisier than Guineas? We always thought about getting some Guineas, until....the neighbor next door got some. These Guineas have apparently adopted us. Maybe because they like our little 'commune' here. Whenever we take the goats out, our chickens, cat, and dog usually come along for the ride. Well, now the Guineas have started to join in our outings with the goats. I don't know if it's all Guineas or just these, but they are the noisiest dang creatures I have ever heard. You have to talk very loudly when they are around, and it's this repetitive screaching that gets stuck in your head. It made me very thankful that I have lovely cooing chickens, Even our rooster isn't THAT loud.


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## HerdQueen (Oct 15, 2012)

animalfamily said:


> Are they noisier than Guineas? We always thought about getting some Guineas, until....the neighbor next door got some. These Guineas have apparently adopted us. Maybe because they like our little 'commune' here. Whenever we take the goats out, our chickens, cat, and dog usually come along for the ride. Well, now the Guineas have started to join in our outings with the goats. I don't know if it's all Guineas or just these, but they are the noisiest dang creatures I have ever heard. You have to talk very loudly when they are around, and it's this repetitive screaching that gets stuck in your head. It made me very thankful that I have lovely cooing chickens, Even our rooster isn't THAT loud.


It is my understanding that peafowl are noisy when it's breeding season, but he wasn't that bad. Guineas are really loud all the time. But they are great at alerting intruders.


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## WillowGem (Aug 3, 2011)

We had an Emu walking around our propery a few years ago. 

I was taking the dogs for a walk and saw it's head sticking up out of the weeds. I rounded the dogs up, got them back home, running in the house all excited to tell my husband there were "ostriches" in the field...LOL!!
We went back out with binoculars, and by this time it had gotten up and was just walking around checking everything out.
We kept our distance, those things kick! 

We read in the newspaper the next day that there had been many emu sightings over the weekend.
Someone was raising emus in the area, but wasn't making a profit andd couldn't get rid of them...so he turned them loose. 
Animal Control had the worse time rounding them all up.


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## MOgoatlady (Oct 23, 2012)

My funnest visitors were 3 domestic turkeys and a little white chicken who thought she was a turkey too. They had escaped from their home, came wandering over to our house and hung out all day. Their owner showed up in the evening and took them home, but they were back the next morning. The owners moved about a week later and took the turkeys, and the little white chicken now lives with us.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

First watch out for that thing getting on your roof and pooping all over the place lol....Now for my little visit, one day we were standing around, the whole herd of cow were at a dead run and ran right into the corral, we were confused till we seen a big ostrich running down the road, jumped the fence and kept running, never seen him again but did hear someon telling us about a ostrich that rand threw his place 15 miles down the road lol.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

We had a baby runaway donkey that ran into our back yard, probably because we had horses and he was looking for his momma, who had also run off. He ran off before we could lure him with food (I was so upset) but his owners caught the momma, and her calling brought him back home, phew!

We also had two huskies. I got in trouble that day because they were by the horse fence thinking about chasing and harassing them, and I ran out to protect the horses. My dad was upset at me because they were strange dogs, but I tend to think of my animals first  I hope they found their way home -- their owners came by looking for them but we hadn't been able to catch them.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

The most amazing visitor I have ever had was when I lived in Mississippi. It was a visitor I'm sure most of you are not going to believe. I was laying in bed thinking about getting up at around 6:30am when I heard a yipping howl that sounded similar to a coyote outside my window that raised the hair on my neck. I went running outside grabbing the hoe by the door for protection and headed toward the goat pen prepared to scare off the coyote that was most likely trying to make a meal of them. When I rounded the corner of the house I came within ten feet of a red wolf pair. They were headed away from the goat pen toward the forest at a long strided walk. They were not really afraid of me and the male even stopped turned his head and looked me in the eyes before trotting off into the forest with his mate. 

I know for sure they were not coyotes. I had studied the wild pack of coyotes in the area for four years and knew all its members. Their howl was different, much larger body, thicker muzzle, bigger paws and they didn't have that coyote gait. Unfortunately a few months later one of our neighbors was bragging to us about how he shot this mammoth coyote but it got away and he lost the blood trail. I was(am) so furious at him you have no idea. They had never bothered anyone and he was one of those people that shot hawks, other endangered animals, dogs and cats for sport. Half the time while trespassing on our land(we had 132acres so we couldn't patrol it all but we could tell he had been there).


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

I'm so sorry about the wolf ... that bugs me and I wasn't even there to hear him brag. They're beautiful creatures. Even a creature that isn't endangered, I wouldn't hurt it for the fun of it. I would only kill an animal for meat, or if they were a real danger to someone. I do understand the sport, but you need to be responsible as well -- even if that only means killing them quickly.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

We have box turtles here that wonder onto the property.
One of my dogs usually finds them and lets us know. 
Once my Beagle Kelly found one and she was very surprised to see a "rock" moving , so she did her little Beagly bark and I went over to see what she was so excited about ...she kept touching the turtles shell with her foot and looked at me like , "what is it mom" ? lolol
Another one of my dogs , a young Border Collie , had found her first turtle and she was extremely surprised and a bit afraid of it too.


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

We had a Female Moose that would come to our house and in the fall hang at the buck pen fence line - so I would put out hay and water for her and her yearling calf. She was adorable - but scared the [email protected]@ out of me the first time i saw her - she was HUGE! Thankfully I had 10 foot game fences as they used to raise elk on that land.

We also had a bear cub that we would frequent the farm for the first couple of years. No issues - just came to play


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Kelebek , I think moose , bear are really stunning creatures , but I couldnt not live knowing those animals could be outside my door !!!
Not this chicky !!! If I opened the door and a moose was standing there I would most likely pass out , lolol.
Going dowwwwwwnnnnn


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Strangest visitor I've had here was a medium sized snapping turtle.... not strange to see one but very strange to have one in my doe pasture and there's no water around here anywhere unless you go 1/2 mile down through the neighbors cow pasture to the crick or 3/4 mile down the hill to the big crick.

Hubby relocated it by means of placing it in a plastic milk crate and strapping it to the rear rack on his quad to take it down the hill to the big crick...he didn't know exactly how far those stinky things can stretch their necks til it got hold of his shirt! It made it to water rather quickly after that happened.


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## onehorse_2000 (Sep 17, 2012)

Well, when I first moved into my house, I met my neighbor's one night, because "my horses" were out and had just run across the road in front of them. They weren't my horses, I had just come in from last check, but 3 draft horses from another neighbor. Definitely, not something you want to hit in the road. Then, one morning, one of the mares hestiated going into her stall for breakfast. Look around the stall wall and flying out comes a little goat, this was before we had goats of our own. I don't know who's he was, but he decided he wasn't stay. Last fall, this spring, we had a beautiful pheasant hang out with the chickens. I thought he was a game commission release, they will release farm raised birds for hunting season, but my SO said he was too big for a release. The pheasant would eat, hang out with the chickens, show off a little, and then move on, but he would visit every couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we haven't seen him in a while, so we think he might have met the wrong end of a hunter.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

Oh wow he is beautiful! Our neighbors have peafowl and I looove the noises they make!
I think the strangest visiter was a sheep. We caught it and tried to find the owners but no one claimed it, and no one around us has sheep. We ended up finding her a home at a farm that does petting zoos.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

For some reason ever horse that ever gets out always comes to my place. That is about all I get as a visitor.


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## Texas.girl (Dec 20, 2011)

Maggie--My first goat just wandered by the house Nov. 2011. Tried to find the owner but couldn't. So I kept her. Since then I have been given 5 abandoned kids for her to play with.

Sweetgoats--How many horses do you now own


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