30 Mar
Macie, our doeling, doing her best impression of a helicopter:
A bit faster, and she might get enough lift to take off!
As the snow melted in this glorious sunny day, she and her brothers ventured out of the barn to frolic. More pictures are on our facebook page.
They’re 11 days old today and growing quickly – the largest buck is 17.4 lbs, while the smallest is 14.8.
24 Mar
The baby goats are now 5 days old and growing quickly, already skipping around the barn (they’re saving their pasture skipping for when the snow melts). We’ve posted more pics on our facebook page, but here are a couple of them:
19 Mar
When we’re not tending the farm or homeschooling the kids, we’ve got “real world” jobs. My (Martha’s) passion is being a childbirth educator and a doula – Greek for “servant” – a woman who comes alongside families before, during, and after childbirth. You can read more about what I do on my webpage for my business, “A Joyful Birth.”
So today, I was a different kind of doula. I was much more involved with the wet, cuddly newborn side of birth than I usually am as we welcomed baby goats on our farm. We are relatively new to farming, but I was struck by how many similarities there are in birth among mammals.
These mamas craved safety and peace as all mothers in labor do. One of the mamas appreciated my quiet presence, reaching out to nuzzle me — and then after the babies were born, she gently butted me and told me to get out. Each mama “counted fingers and toes” on her baby, licking them dry from head to toe. They also encouraged their babies to nurse when they were ready, patiently giving them time to transition from womb to world. And, like I often see with human babies, they were ready to nurse at about the one hour mark after birth. Goats have a special vocalization that they only make to their new babies. Amazing how wondrous birth is!
I am blessed to have seen birth in its completely natural state (well, except five quiet family members watching) and will ponder the lessons from today to see how I can bring that to my human doula work too.
9 Mar
We pasture bred our two older Boer does in October, so we don’t have a tight date on when they’re due but it’s going to be soon. The girls are double-wide, their udders are filling out, and Jessie in particular has started to spend a lot of her time lying down, moaning softly. Good thing I got some time today (after the 4-H activities this morning) to finish up the kidding stalls and warming huts.
The girls were a bit nervous about the new digs, and squished into one stall together for a bit. They calmed down later.
As I wrote earlier, we made the stalls primarily out of recycled hard plastic pallets. However, I got preoccupied with other chores and projects once I got the walls up, so it wasn’t until this week I was able to get the doors completed. I made those doors out of new lumber, mostly because I wanted them to be relatively clean and nail free.
A better view of the door.
You might notice that the center “bar” is connected differently. My plan is, once the kids are older, to remove that center piece and add another one offset to the side to make a barrier for our creep feeder. The idea is to have an opening small enough for the kids to get through to free-feed on grain, but tight enough to keep the greedy adults out. The next trick is to design a feeder to put in the stall that the kids can get to, but the ducks and chickens can’t. That will be a trick.
One of the two warming huts
The warming huts are salvaged 55-gallon poly drums, cut at the 2/3 point. I cut a circular hole in the top for the warming lamps, then used sheet metal screws to mount the brooder lamp fixture. The huts are screwed into the stall divider (which is made of dimensional lumber) to keep the adults from knocking them over.
So now we wait…
24 Feb
The snow doesn’t slow down the kids or the horses too much. This is in the middle of our snowstorm today – probably 6-8″ at the time of the walk, and now we’re approaching one foot. Now it’s time to go sledding!
8 Feb
Winter storm Nemo is just starting to arrive. The ducks don’t seem to mind.
Like Snow off a Duck’s Back
Well, one of them might mind a little bit…
Captions are welcome in the comments section below.
21 Jan
We took advantage of the long, though very cold, weekend to get a passel of projects done. The biggest job was digging out the goat’s stable – like many goat folks, we let it build up relatively thick during the winter, allowing the hay to compost and produce warmth. The disadvantage is that when the cleanup happens, it’s a lot of work. If we could redesign the barn, we’d make it so we could push the tractor’s bucket right into the stalls!
I actually got a reprieve from that big job, and instead was busy with some construction projects and maintenance around the farm. Yesterday I did some light jobs – fixing the chicken coop doors, rearranging the feed room to make room for the brooders, modifying the new duck house. Today, I did a couple more projects while the rest of the family worked their butts off on the goat stall. To keep the goats busy, we gave them the rest of our Christmas Tree – we’ve been handing them sprigs every day, but they made pretty short work of the tree today.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree! How tasty are your branches…
The first project today was to build the kidding stalls, as our two older goats, Gracie and Jessie, are due in March. Our plan is to open up the wall between their stall and the adjacent one (formerly the duck stall) and let the momma’s use the extra space. That wall is easy to remove – it’s dimensional lumber that slides in/out of brackets.
Instead of buying plywood and 2x4s (have you seen lumber prices recently?) to make a wall sturdy enough for goats, I salvaged some heavy-duty plastic pallets and put them to work. The resulting stalls are about 5′ x 5′, taking up about half of the 10′x10′ stall and giving us room to make 3rd or even 4th kidding stalls in the future.
Voila! Kidding stalls! I cut a couple rectangular holes in the pallets to let the girls see each other.
I wanted to make walls that would be sturdy, but still could be removed relatively easily, and came up with the idea of hinged walls that folded against the side of the stable.
Jasper watches the walls unfold.
Wall stowed
All that’s left is to make the doors themselves, for which I plan to use some scrap lumber, or maybe wooden pallets. We’ll also make some lamb warming huts with some surplus 55-gallon poly drums I’ve salvaged.
The next project was simple – a tray to catch the hay from the feeder. Goats are notorious hay wasters – once hay hits the floor, they’re not interested anymore, and it becomes bedding. My hope is that this tray will reduce that a little bit.
Stand by for the next Flying T contest – guess the birthdate, #, and genders of each doe’s offspring!
The girls don’t care, as long as the hay tastes the same
17 Jan
All the chicks are starting to get their wing and tail feathers, and we’re getting a bit more convinced of what breeds our 3 mystery birds might be. Here are some new photos. If you think you’ve got an answer (or your answer has changed), post a comment on the contest page.
Chick A – I can’t help but think of the Looney Tunes “Chickenhawk” character when I look at her.
Chick B (in the middle of the photo surrounded by Barred Rocks)
Chick C. Color is really coming in on her.
Any new guesses?
10 Jan
The chicks are doing well for the most part. We lost two barred rock chicks in the first few days, but the others are thriving. We’ve already removed 2 sides of the smaller enclosure to allow the chicks a bit more room. They grow pretty quickly, and for those of you participating (or desiring) to compete in the contest, here are some updated photos. Feel free to change your answers at any time as the chicks become more recognizable.
Chick A – 10 days
Chick B – 10 days
Chick C – 10 days
Feel free to join in! Just click here to read the details and submit an entry.
5 Jan
Our first contest… Be the first to identify (correctly) the breeds and genders of our mystery chicks and win our grand prize!
As a surprise for David, we added 3 hatchery-choice “mystery chicks” to his order of Barred Rocks without his knowing it. They are supposed to be 3 different breeds of brown egg layers. The kids have made guesses on their breeds, and I think they’re definitely right on two of the three, but I’ll keep their guesses secret for now.
Rules:
1) To enter, simply post a comment with ONE guess for each chick’s identity. Something like:
2) We’ll keep the blog posted with pics as the chicks mature, and announce our findings when we’re really sure.
3) Any disagreements on the breed will be settled by Judy, “the Chicken Lady,” at Clark’s Grain Store.
4) Winner will be the first (based on the time/date stamp of the comment) with all three breeds and genders correctly identified.
5) Make sure there’s some way for me to get in touch with you – if your sign-in name doesn’t have a way to do that, you can shoot us an email (our contact info is on our farm website: http://www.flyingtnh.com). Just make sure to identify yourself and your post.
The prize? Public recognition on our blog, bragging rights, and (if you desire) a guest-post on your blog acknowledging your chicken identification expertise!
Three hints:
1) They should all be breeds that lay brown eggs.
2) They are supposed to be females.
3) Hatcheries make mistakes from time to time, so the above hints might not apply.
So, without further ado, I present the lineup of our dastardly suspects:
Chick A: Wanted for possession of an unlicensed peeper
Chick B: Accused of appearing in public with an indecent hairdo
Chick C: Wanted for grain rustling
A Joyful Birth