Goat in Coat

There was a bit of a drop in the temperature here and Miss Ellie was shivering so Mom had me take the goat coat out. Of course, we had to get pictures. I have to say I didn't realize that the whole experience to her would be soooo traumatic. Suffice to say she was not amused with the coat and went to drinking for solace.




Star was also unsure of the whole procedure and had to check to make sure that the entire sweater fit properly. To be honest, the first thing she did was to put her nose under the sweater and make sure it was still her baby under there! Ellie went from huddled in a corner to skipping all over the barnyard.

In other news we currently have two brooders in the kitchen (soon to be three) and our house is a zoo. At least Westley and Buttercup (the rabbits) are relatively calm. But the Dude thinks they are his. He is totally fascinated by them!

Happy Farm Friends Friday!

Meet Ellie!

Meet Elanor aka Ellie. Her Mother is Starsign, an alpine and her father was an obnoxious Boer that my mother called William Buckley and my cousin and I renamed Butthead.

He was actually so mean that we couldn't sell him so he became Brats. I'm not the world's biggest fan of chevon as a general rule but after some of the bruises I got from just feeding him?

Suffice to say that those brats are something I very cheerfully eat whenever they are served.


We are working on more of a dual purpose line here at the homestead - so breeding a boer to an Alpine is giving us more of a milk AND meat thing going. Ellie will be a milker.

My first time midwifing on my own and the first time I'd been in the birthing stall since I was 10 so I did ok. Mom came out once the dude went to sleep (the goats are hers).

We wondered about twins but it was just Ellie. So one down and three to go!

Crazy Spring Days...

Well, the doe in question (Starsign) decided that she was going to wait til today to have a baby. I've spent the afternoon outside being midwife and have to say...

IT'S A GIRL! *passes out chocolate cigars to the populace*

Her name is Elanor but we're calling her Ellie for the moment. She's a white baby with smudged eyes. Her face and build are somewhat boer but she does seem a bit more "dairy" to me. We'll put out pictures shortly. (I took some but not good ones and she was still a bit damp.) She is not as dainty as big sister Luna but she is still adorable.

We did loose one of the banty chicks. :( Did everything I could but nope, it passed away on Sunday morning.

THEN Dad brought home two more animals for our menagerie (Mom says we're stocking the ark) and we're going into rabbit raising for meats. We have two white baby rabbits, named Westley and Buttercup. They are quite sweet (and we can name the primary breeding pair that is the rule!).

We'll be getting ten more chicks this week from Snoozin Goose Ranch and should be done. At least til the 8th when the herd queen is due and will be demanding the royal treatment. :)

She's Gonna BLOW!

Well, I just went out and checked the does. Star is due about any time now and the top of her tail was goopy like she had sat it in something.

Have to check with Mom about the timing (they are in Indianapolis, EEK!) but it looks like we have imminent kidding!

WOOT!

Rural King

We love trips to Rural King. And today was no different - we got four bantams and two of what look like gold laced wyandottes.

And then there's massive doses of cuteness... It was raining so time for the duck raincoat, red boots and overalls!

Will put pics up of the chicks tomorrow. :)

Springtime!

I've been nastily anemic and sick for the better part of a week, so I apologize for no updates.... I've barely had enough energy to sit up, let alone blog. (And I've not been doing much of anything, Mom's been handling everything but the quail and that's just because my pretty darlings are so skittish!)

On the upside, I did venture out for a little bit to Rural King with Mom and she found that the best thing for my sick and very droopy self was to procure some chicks! (this was helped by the fact that they were selling out relatively quickly.) So we came home with a peeping box of three buff orpingtons and three barred rocks.

I bring them out before putting them in the brooder and the dude had one word for the baby buff in my hands.

"Egg!"

Yep, he's smart. Of course "Good Egg" is one of his fave videos. He also of late likes watching youtube videos of goats being born and eggs hatching. We're teaching him how to GENTLY pet the baby chicks and the chicks are exposed to him from day one.

Snoozin' Goose Ranch's eggs will hatch here next Sunday or so and we'll be getting a large quantity of those as well. His will be a barnyard mix, so more of a surprise in colors, etc but that is fun as well and his chickens are of healthy stock and good producers! Meanwhile, I just wanted a fair amount of genetic diversity. And we're saying a quick prayer that all the "straight run" chicks from Rural King are female.

(they are cute even if they do leave "presents" on your shirt)

Star is definitely getting ready to pop - I see an udder slowly forming, her mucus plug went out last week and her tail is being held at a very funny angle. Will keep everyone updated!

Preparing for Springtime on the Homestead

So within the course of the next two weeks or so the following will occur:

1. Starsign will be delivering the first of the boer-alpine cross spring babies. She might have two in there, but she's looking more deep than wide. There is a possibility that Birdie (our herd queen) could deliver too - she looks supremely wide but we're not sure if the breeding took place the first time and the second heat was false or not.
2. New chicks! Seth Eads from Snoozin' Goose Ranch is setting some mixed breed chicken eggs and we'll be getting some from him and some chicks from Rural King too. We're also going to be getting some of what Ohiofarmgirl terms "Creepy Meats"
3. Peas. We need to plant peas. The old farmer's say to plant peas on March 17 snow or rain or shine. This coincidentally is when Star is due and four days before the chicks get here.

So I've been spending my time doing small projects. I recently knitted a goat coat from this link and it's cute. We're putting together a birthing kit now.

Shoveling out raised beds and shoveling manure into them. Our pea bed is spaded and looking good and well fertilized with quail poop. The carrot bed has been fertilized as well. Due to the rather clayish nature of our soil certain crops absolutely HAVE to be placed in raised beds. Any root vegetable for instance. Most crops will do better in the raised beds in general.

There are however, some that do just fine wherever thank you very much. There is STILL family legend going on on the subject of the year my mother planted SIXTEEN hills of zucchini. Yes, SIXTEEN. Dad claims that people at church were locking their car doors to prevent the onslaught. No raised beds on those.

We also have pumpkins that came up volunteer this year. We did well enough with them that if we actually cultivate and take care of them? Probably have pumpkins coming out our ears!

Other than that, it's just the same routine until time two weeks from now when everything is going to go NUTS NUTS NUTS!!!!

Small Blessings from the Storm

Sunday night was an absolute DOOZY. I kid you not, rain, thunder, wind, our internet going on and off (on a raid night this is VERY VERY annoying because I'm our guild's MT).

I finally packed up and went to bed. Then came back out in the morning to what I thought was going to be near catastrophe. The top of the quail pen had literally been lifted off of its hinges and was across the yard.

I took off running and found all but my one lone boy. Upsetting, but I placed the top back on and weighted it down with two bricks (Until Dad and I can go fix it) and went in muttering.

Last night when I went for chores, I poked in and there was a white flash. Seems the boy (I'm pretty sure it's Cracker, he's an obnoxious little boy) had been hiding under a pile of brown quail gals.

Thank God, having to raise another boy would put us behind for meat production that's for sure!

To answer Chai Chai's question in open chat (though I did answer it already in comments), coturnix are raised for both eggs and meat. The eggs are supremely tiny - it takes five to equal one chicken egg but they are spotted and very pretty. Hard boil them and they are a great snack food.

Quail are also good meat producers, taking only about 6-8 weeks to reach full weight, however they are rather tiny. (Not even a pound) The feed-cost conversion is quite good on them. Plus they are darling and full of personality.

Many people feed them gamebird food, however the breeder I got them from feeds the Meatbird Crumbles from Rural King and they are doing quite well on it. They need a higher protein than your laying hens do.

We have ours currently from Snoozin' Goose Ranch and they are healthy specimens. If you are in Indiana then I heartily recommend Seth for your poultry needs. He's got amazing birds! We're getting chickens and turkeys from him when they start hatching.

Quail Links:

Smooth Quailing
Coturnix Colors

In other news, Star, one of our does is about two weeks out, and as I'm constantly checking ligaments, etc right now I'm NOT the most popular person in the barnyard believe me.

Everyone else survived the storm nicely and other than wearing wellies everywhere we're in good shape.