I haven’t posted in a while, but I plan to start back up again soon. We’ve been busy lately trying to get all the goats bred. Last year was our first year breeding goats and the spring kidding went ok. We had a loss, but other than that, it was good. However, the goats bred for fall kidding did not take. The plan was for two of our Nigerian Dwarf goats to deliver in November, but neither one of them ended up pregnant. So, now all of our goats are bred for spring kidding. I brought on a new buck this last month and am hoping he can do a good job breeding our other buck’s kids for us. Our original does should be bred by our original buck, but we will see. I have someone coming out next week to ultrasound them and see who is actually pregnant.
Winter has decided to show up here in South Dakota so we spent most of the last week prepping everyone for winter. I believe we’ve got everyone situated right now and they should all be good for the cold temps that are coming. I am, however, starting to research and think about switching out chicken breeds. Some of our chickens, especially our roosters have pretty large combs. Last week our high was seven degrees. That is simply too cold for large combed breeds. I do have a few chickens that are Swedish Flower mixes and they have a little poof on the tops of their heads. I am really curious to see how they do since their comb is small and protected, but all of my roosters are normal single combs. The coop is warm and insulated, we will put heat in it when the temps drop well below zero, but I can’t help them much when they are walking around during the day. I am leaning towards bringing on a few Wyandotte colors and having a fun breeding program going, but I am looking at all winter-hardy breeds. Feel free to let me know if you have favorites. I will add, where we live, it gets well under zero, and we have really bad wind. The wind chill frequently gets into the double-digit negatives. Everything that lives here has to be exceptionally cold-hardy.
Lastly, we are cruising along in our homeschool year. I have a freshman and a 7th grader this year and it’s been a bit of a change. I miss the days of poetry tea time and doing all our subjects together. However, this season of life is amazing as well. I am still very thankful I get to make the choice to homeschool them and it’s working out well.
Until next time, I hope you all have a wonderful day and all your farm animals are staying warm.
We have been keeping busy here at our house. Summer is here, but it’s been more rainy and stormy than anything. Which means the garden has taken off, both weeds and plants. I was out weeding yesterday and almost put my hand right where a giant Wolf Spider was hanging out. I HATE spiders. The worst part is that I walked away for a minute, and when I came back, the spider had disappeared. So, now I have a ton more weeding to get done and I know there is a giant spider out there somewhere, but no idea where.
So, needless to say, I really don’t want to go out and get the weeding done. I also desperately need to trim my tomato plants. They have gone completely wild, and I can’t see where anything is. I did get four of them trimmed up the other day, but it took an hour and a half. So, tons more work to do in the garden.
Livestock
This year, our goal was to put a little bit more home-raised meat in the freezer. We hatched out our own chicks for the first time, so we could process a few of the extras and the roosters. I call them our teenage chickens, and unfortunately, we have lost a few. The teenagers are small enough to get out of the chicken pen (I am working on fixing this), and they hang out in the goat pen with the boys instead. Which I didn’t think was a big deal. They are still behind fencing, they sleep in an extra dog igloo, and I thought everything was fine. Until one day, I counted up the teenage chickens, and we were down a few. A week later, we are down a few more. We have been here for a little over a year and have never had a predator problem. However, there is apparently a fox in the area, down further away from us, but I wonder if it hasn’t made its way up to our property. I still don’t see how, again, they are in fencing and with male goats, I wouldn’t think that would be something they were interested in messing with, but goats aren’t known for their protection abilities. There have been absolutely no signs of anything, no struggle, no feathers, just missing chickens. We do have large birds in the area, so it could maybe be that, but I don’t know. So, the chickens will be locked in the chicken pen as soon as I find where they get out, and hopefully, we don’t lose any more. We have a few extra roosters, so we will at least be able to put a few birds in the freezer.
Last year, we raised two broad-breasted turkeys, one for Thanksgiving, and one we made into ground turkey meat. This year, we wanted to have a bit more turkey meat and brought home five white broad-breasted turkeys. They were the absolute cutest things ever as chicks, but now I am ready for processing day. The adult turkeys STINK. Like all meat turkeys, they eat a ton of food, act like they are always starving, but I don’t remember last year’s smelling this bad. It makes sense, I guess, they eat to grow, so they poop a lot, like a giant chicken, and it’s just gross. Wherever the roost is completely covered and I am ready for them to go bye-bye. Next year, if we raise turkeys again, they will need to be off in their own spot, completely away from everything else. Our plan for the meat, if anyone is curious, is to keep one for Thanksgiving, halve two of them so we can roast a half a turkey instead of a whole chicken, and then grind the other ones into ground meat. I also have a wild turkey in the freezer that we will add in there somewhere.
Our goats have been a bit of a disaster this year. We had our first kidding season and ended up with three beautiful little does. However, we did lose one mama to complications. This made my milk plans sort of go out the door. Our one Nigerian Dwarf that survived only had one kid, and therefore didn’t produce as much milk. It was her first time, and when I put her on the milking stand, she hated it. No matter what I tried, she never really got any better, so I just let her raise her baby and didn’t bother milking her anymore. That left us with our Alpine as the only milker. She is the best goat. She gives us tons of milk, she is easy on the stand, and we love her dearly. However, her milk, no matter what I do, is always goaty. It’s ok if you drink it fresh that day, but if it sits at all it gets a goat flavor to it. So, as much as we love her, having her in milk isn’t all that helpful. I am currently in the process of drying her off and hoping our next round of kidding goes better for milk production.
We did end up putting a little goat meat in the freezer for the first time. We had a wether that ended up being a bit of a nuisance. I have written about him before, he wasn’t fully castrated and still had one testicle. This complicated all of our breeding because I couldn’t put the does in with the buck without having to move them all around to avoid possible breeding by the wrong boy. He was also very loud. Just outside bleating all day for no reason. We are a small property, only three acres, with neighbors on similar three acres, and so we try and be courteous to them with the noise. We processed and put him in the freezer. We have only tried goat meat once, we roasted a leg, and I have to admit it was pretty tasty.
Whats Next?
For the rest of the summer, I will be tackling weeds. They are terrible out here. We are a very windy area, and the weed seeds blow around and take root on any exposed ground. It’s quite frustrating. However, the garden is producing, and soon I will have garden produce to process and put away. I love the feeling of stocking the house with things I grew and preserved.
In about a month, the turkeys will be processed, possibly a duck or two along with them, and we will have home-grown meat in the freezer again. My husband is going on an elk hunt this fall, if he is successful, we will have a ton of meat to put away from that. I also drew a doe tag this year and will hopefully be able to use that to bring even more meat home. I am toying around with the idea of bringing a few sheep onto the farm. I will need to downsize the goat herd first, just for more manageability, but we have a large pasture area that the goats aren’t using well, and I think sheep might be a better option for us as far as being able to raise them on grass and process. We will keep a few goats for milk, but I don’t need as many as I have. Lastly, we are getting ready to start our next homeschool year. My son will be starting his first year of high school, which has me a little stressed out. I struggled a little bit planning the year, because you kind of have to plan it all at the same time to make sure everything is covered. I think I have got it all mostly figured out, but now we have to follow through and track it all. I am excited about it, but also just really careful to make sure everything is covered and done correctly.
I can’t believe summer is sort of ending. Once the school year starts, summer goes by so quickly. Getting things up and running on the farm this year was a challenge, but I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. When the garden is harvested and put to bed, the meat is in the freezer, I truly think this year will be called a success. It just takes a while for everything to come together. Not too shabby for the second summer on the farm.
I think I have mentioned this before, but if you haven’t heard it, keep it in mind for future use. Currently, we have a broody hen who laid her eggs in a tote meant for a cat shelter. Yesterday she had three chicks hatch and there was still one egg with a pip in it.
This morning I got up and did chores as usual, and then took a minute to go check on this chicken and her chicks. What I found was a baby who looked like it had recently hatched, it wasn’t dry, and it wasn’t moving. I grabbed it out of the tote and it was cold to the touch, not making any noise, not breathing as far as I could tell, and the membrane was closed over its eyes. Quickly I took it into the garage and started trying to warm up in my hands. I huffed warm air on it and its eyes opened a little. It still wasn’t moving and very much almost dead, but there was a tiny spark of life.
I knew I needed to get it warm. I brought it into the house and got a rag which I ran under hot water. As soon as this hot rag touched the chick I felt it take a breath. It didn’t take long until it was cheeping and starting to move around. The warmth saved this chick. So, if you ever find a baby that looks dead, but it’s cold go ahead and try to warm it up. You never know when the warmth might be able to save it.
Items to Have on Hand
I have had to save a few animals now from cold. We had a pond when we first moved here and we had both a turkey and a chicken fall into the cold water and almost die last year. I had a chicken get caught in the rain and get too cold, and then of course this chick.
I always have a heat pad on hand. If I can’t find the heat pad or I need a bit more warmth I have a brooder plate. Today once I took the chick off the wet rag I put it on a towel on top of the heat pad. However, the heat pad takes a minute to warm up so I filled a mason jar with hot water and a lid and placed the baby next to it. I have also used a hair dryer on a low setting to help dry a chicken and get it warmed back up. Really anything can be used but I highly recommend some sort of heat pad to be readily available at all times.
Farm Life
I feel lucky that I found that chick just in time today. When you have farm animals you are going to lose some. It happens, but when you can save them it feels really good. Now, I just hope mama chicken does a better job and is able to keep him warm and safe. Remember, especially for baby animals, if they are cold you may still have a chance.
I have raised Coturnix Quail a few times now. When we still lived in the city I started with a set up in our garage. It was my attempt at having a little something homesteady when I couldn’t have a homestead. This first go-round with quail got a little out of hand quickly. I ended up winning a few sets of hatching eggs and I hatched my own and before I knew it we had quail everywhere. Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch but quail take just 18. They also start laying eggs at around ten weeks of age, some a bit sooner. So, it was pretty easy to build up our supply of quail. We ended up getting rid of all the quail as it got to be a little too much to handle inside the garage.
The second time I had quail we used a rabbit cage outside since the garage was not an option and I had only one breeding set. I love quail eggs, especially pickled quail eggs. Not the kind that I make my own brine, but boil the eggs and drop them in your favorite pickle juice. Pickled quail eggs done this way are delicious. We ended up getting rid of the quail this time because winter was coming on and keeping them outside in our yard ended up not being the best option either. Where we live is super windy and in the yard in particular we had huge snow drifts since the fence catches all the snow. I still liked quail but we simply weren’t in a situation where it was working out to keep them.
Fast forward to now and we once again brought quail back into our lives. I found a guy down the street who homesteads and got one breeding set from him. They are outside in the chicken coop area but inside a rabbit hutch. Quail are small and jumpy and can’t run loose with the chickens. My ultimate goal is to build them their own much larger space, but for now, a rabbit hutch is just fine. It’s plenty of space for a handful of quail. When we brought these guys home they were laying eggs. Within a few days, they quit, and for the last probably month maybe more they haven’t laid a single egg. A few weeks back I figured the problem was that they weren’t getting enough sunlight, so I opened up the lid of their housing and placed a wire covering in place. It seemed to have done nothing. But I guess it just took time because today I got our first quail egg again after the long break. I am so excited to have quail eggs back in the house.
Keeping Quail Considerations
If you want to keep quail for yourself there are a few things to consider. First and foremost I would start with a good-quality quail. The ones we have now are from a guy down the road and they aren’t the best quality of quail. I did that because I had a hard time finding quail around us. I know from experience that shipping quail eggs here and hatching them doesn’t work well. I don’t know why, because most people seem to do ok, but something happens in the mail on the way here and I never have great success. I get almost 100% hatch rate when I do my own but I will hatch 3 chicks out of 24 when I get shipped ones. If you don’t have this issue then ordering hatching eggs from a good breeder will be the best way to go. I ordered from SouthWest Gamebirds a few times and they have really nice quail.
If you are going to keep your quail in a small space such as the garage just know it is going to make a giant powdery mess. Their food is very powdery since they like the crumbles and when you add their dander to that and wherever you keep your quail will be covered in dust. I would have some sort of plan in place to deal with that if you want to keep quail in the garage or other small space.
Quail are stupid. They do some things that are just hard to believe. I had a quail, more than once, walk straight out of their cage about six feet in the air and splat on the ground. Since they are little and light it didn’t hurt them but be aware that they would walk right off a cliff given the opportunity. They also jump straight up when they are scared and will break their own necks on their cage. So, it is recommended to either have a really tall cage or a small one. Nothing in between. They are really small birds so the height of the cage needs to be only around one to maybe two feet. Anything taller and they easily hit the ceiling and will kill themselves. There are tons of plans online if you want to build your own, and the ones you can buy and put together yourself will have the spacing already figured out.
Quail are mean. They do not take very well to introducing new birds and a cage full of males will likely end in injury. Coturnix Quail have very thin skin. When they fight they peck each other and easily rip the other’s skin open. This typically happens on the head. Numerous times I came out in the morning and found blood everywhere and a quail with their head ripped open. If you clean it, and keep the quail separate, they will often heal. However, if you find out you have a particularly mean quail who is always the instigator, I would recommend culling that quail. If you have a cage full of males I would keep them far away from the females and in the dark. Otherwise, they get too excited and will end up fighting each other and we are back to the bleeding head situation.
I would recommend having a plan if you need to cull one of the birds. Most people who raise quail, especially Coturnix, are doing it for me at and eggs so that isn’t an issue, but if you are not you will likely at some most need to cull one of the birds. Have a plan ready to go. My first quail I had to put down broke her wing and was in a lot of pain. This may be hard to hear but I took a pair of scissors and beheaded her. This is actually how most people deal with their quail when processing for meat. Even harder to hear but good information, if you can stomach it, a quail’s head is very easy to pull off. My husband prefers this method to the scissors. It’s quicker and you don’t have to worry about scissors being sharp or not. Not to mention it’s probably the quickest way to go.
Lastly, quail stink! They do not smell like chickens. Their poop is so much worse. You really have to stay on top of quail cages or they get nasty pretty quickly.
Quail Benefits
I really do enjoy having quail. I love that when you can’t have chickens you can typically sneak in a few quail and no one will notice. They are not super loud but they do make noise. I am a rule follower at my core, but we had quail we weren’t supposed to have and the whole time I was incredibly worried someone would find out and report me. No one did thankfully. If you are mindful about keeping them clean and dealing with the dust then you can keep quail in a small space. They are considered perfect for someone wanting to homestead who doesn’t have the space.
We did not really care for their meat, but many people love it. If you want your own meat source, quail are a very quick way to get that done. They are much smaller than a chicken so you need to put more in the freezer but they get there so much faster. I believe jumbo quail are processed at ten weeks. I usually processed mine at around eight weeks though because they would start fighting and being loud and it wasn’t worth it to me to wait the extra two weeks.
Their eggs are delicious. Quail lay an egg almost everyday. So, although you need 3-4 quail eggs to equal a chicken egg they do lay more consistently. I prefer chicken eggs for most things, but those pickled quail eggs are my favorite. Again, if you can’t have chickens then being to have something is awesome.
Lastly, they are adorable. Quail are so stinking cute. We loved having them and playing around with colors. Like chickens, they are simply fun to watch. They chicken scratch, they take dust baths, they pretty much do all the things that chickens do but in a smaller package.
If you are thinking about adding quail to your home I say go for it! You will never know until you try. If it doesn’t work out that’s ok, but its better than forever living with the “what if”.
I am going to be honest with you, I tend to run a little on the pessimistic side. With our first kidding season on the farm coming up I just figured something would go wrong. I did not think it would go this wrong.
Back in late October and early November, we bred three of our goats. Two of our Nigerian Dwarfs and our one Alpine. The Alpine has kidded before, but it was a first for both the Nigerians. They were however almost two years old, so being too young was not a factor in this incident. I watched every video, talked to my vet friend, and did all the research. I felt like I was as prepared as you can be for your first kidding.
The First One
Our first goat to go into labor was Val. I had been watching her for days and the morning of her delivery she was very typical of a goat in labor. She was super loud, followed me everywhere, and you could just tell she was uncomfortable. It was a terribly windy day so I went ahead and put her in the kidding stall early and I sat with her all day. It was a very long day. Around 8pm she finally went into active labor. Again, typical of all the things I had read. She was up and down, pawing the ground, and started a few small pushes. Everything I read says once they are pushing it should not take more than 30 minutes before you go in and help. She took an hour. However, it was not super consistent in the beginning and she didn’t look in distress so I let her go. Once she started pushing hard, the baby was out in no time. For her delivery, she pushed and a water sack presented and then popped. She pushed some more and another water sack presented but this one had the baby in it. As soon as she had kidded another sack presented which ended up being the placenta. All very textbook and easy. I did feel her stomach after since she only had one baby and we were expecting more (she was huge), I thought I felt something but she passed the placenta, and all the research I had done said that was the end of labor, there were no more kids. In this case, they were right. She was done and her baby was HUGE! She safely delivered one good-sized doeling and has raised her for the last few weeks very successfully. She is a great mom!
Astrid
Tragedy, The Second Birth
Two weeks after Val delivered, our second Nigerian (Glimmer) went into labor. This labor however was anything but typical. To start with she delivered on a Sunday, but the Thursday before I could have sworn she was in labor. She looked so uncomfortable all day, pawed the ground, and was restless and a little loud. I put her in the kidding stall but she never really made any progress. She never pushed, she never had any discharge, and the next morning she went about her business as usual. She was fine all day Saturday as well. She ate, drank, hung out with the other goats, and had no labor signs whatsoever. Sunday she went into labor for real. When it came time for active labor this is when things got a little weird. She pushed and one water sack presented and popped. Then she pushed and another water sack presented and popped. Finally, a third water sack presented and a baby was delivered. She was TINY. Like Val, shortly after the placenta came. However, it didn’t look like Val’s. It was small and it never fully delivered. Glimmer however seemed fine. She got up, nursed her baby, drank her molasses water, and ate some food. It was late at night and everything said the placenta could take up to 18 hours to deliver so I went to bed and checked on her in the morning. The placenta was still hanging and she looked a little down. She was laying down and not really wanting to get up, she ate but not much, and she wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the baby. I could still get her up and the placenta was fully out but was still attached by a tiny bit. She was doing ok, but over the next few hours I noticed her straining and pushing. So, I reached out to my friend, a vet, and she and her husband came over.
I will backtrack and say I sent her a video of the goat and she thought either retained placenta or more babies.
When she got to our house and examined Glimmer she found that she did indeed have more babies. Two that had passed already were stuck inside. My friend did everything she could to get the babies out but Glimmer was apparently narrow in the pelvic canal and the baby in the canal was breech. She couldn’t free her and on top of that she found a uterine tear. We decided at this point that she was suffering, there was no recovery, and she was put down.
Glimmer and Baby
Dealing with Death
I was ready for complications but this one shook me. I thought the worst I would have to deal with was maybe having to reposition a baby. Now, I feel so much guilt and I wonder what else I could have done. My vet friend said there was nothing I could have done to save her. The breech baby was stuck and even she couldn’t free it. I still wonder if I had done something Thursday if things would have been different. However, there were really no signs that she was in active labor or distress. If she was I don’t know how we got one live baby in the end. Or how we got one baby and a placenta past the other two. So, in the end, we lost our doe and gained her doeling. Her little one was named Ember, as in her mom’s last little ember, and she is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She is taking the bottle and doing just fine. I am still struggling with Glimmer’s death and how it happened. Everything I have ever read says if you have livestock you will have deadstock, but even so, it’s hard. It feels like I failed. I was supposed to keep her safe and I didn’t. That’s a tough pill to swallow
Baby Ember
The Last Delivery
I mentioned earlier we bred three goats. Our Alpine is the last to go, and for awhile I thought she wasn’t pregnant. The Nigerians developed their udders a while ago. It was obvious they were pregnant, but the Alpine still doesn’t have one. For about the last month, I have made peace with the fact that her breeding didn’t take. She is the one goat I was really looking forward to, as she was bred to a Nigerian Buck and will have a mini Alpine baby, but I thought it wasn’t meant to be this go round. A few days after Glimmer passed, I was in the pasture and noticed Lee (Alpine) had a few pregnancy signs after all. She is a skinny goat so it was hard to tell. Now, it feels a little bit like a second chance. A light after the dark. She is definitely pregnant and due in about a week. I’m nervous, but she has kidded before and should be fine. I can’t wait to see what she has and I pray that it goes smoothly. This will be the end of our kidding season and I would really like for it to end in celebration. If she gives us a doeling I will be over the moon.
Lee
Baby Goats
Little Ember is doing great. I however am a bit sleep-deprived. She is so tiny, so I make sure to get up every night at 2am and give her a bottle. She spends most of her day in the pasture with the big goats and sleeps with our other baby (Astrid) at night in the shed. They both love to run around the pasture and do the biggest little jumps you have ever seen. If nothing else, baby goats are super entertaining. It is a joy to watch them play together. It doesn’t fix everything but having them makes it a little better.
Ember
Final Thoughts
I keep replaying this in my mind and trying to learn from what went wrong. I asked online, Goat Forum, about the water sacks and everyone seemed to think it was normal, but i thought it was strange. As it turned out, it was multiple kids. I trusted a little too much in research and online help than what my gut told me. I still don’t think though even if I had gone in, the results would have been any different. If a vet can’t reposition the baby I doubt I could have. I also doubted myself when I thought I felt more babies since the placenta was passed. I think the take away is that I know my goats. I am with them every day and I should have trusted myself a little bit more. The end result would have still probably been the same, but I would have at least felt a little better about my part. I do still think I did what I could for the most part. I got a vet involved as soon as I thought it was needed and unfortunately it wasn’t enough. So, if you have goats and plan to breed them just be prepared. It can be one of the most amazing things you’ve ever done, watching a brand new baby be born is awesome, but it can also go wrong. As a livestock owner I try and do everything I can to take care of the animals I own, but things still go wrong. I will learn from this and use this knowledge from here on out. Let’s pray none of us ever face this again.
Two weeks apart. Look at the size difference
If you have any advice to share or kidding stories feel free to leave them in the comments. Maybe we can all learn and grow in knowledge together.
I don’t really quit but today has been a bit of a rough morning. We live in the prairies of South Dakota and the wind is brutal out here. This morning is no exception to that. It’s 29 degrees outside, which isn’t bad, but it’s 35mph winds. Add that to the fact that it rained just enough last night to make the ground icy and you have the recipe for an interesting morning.
First, I stepped outside not knowing the backyard was a skating rink and almost bit the dust. Next, I had to chase down the duck’s pond since it had been blown down the yard, fight the wind to get it back, and get it filled up with water only to look out the window an hour later and see that it was yet again halfway down the yard. I guess I am going to have to summon the courage to go back outside and put a rock in there to hold it down this time.
Then came the chickens. A few weeks ago, the chicken coop door froze and I couldn’t open it. The door slides in place and the wind had frozen it where it wouldn’t budge. Luckily, the coop has big side doors that open so I could let the chickens out, otherwise they would have been stuck inside. Today it was the bottom door. The chicken coop has what I like to call “the basement”. Basically what would be the underneath of the chicken coop has been closed off and the chickens can hang out underneath to get out of the weather. There is a door at the end that lifts up to open and you let it down the close it off. It doesn’t close all the way but enough to keep the chickens warm and out of the elements. This morning that door was frozen in place.
Lastly, were the lovely goats. I am still milking one doe, who I brought to the shed only to have her decide she didn’t want to go into the shed. She tried to run away, I grabbed her, she pulled and my feet flew out from underneath and I busted my butt. The goat feed I had in my scoop went flying, I said a few choice words, got up, and finished the job. However, while I was milking her I had a guest join us in the milking shed. One of the bucks is small enough to squeeze through the gate crack and came into the shed looking for food. He of course proceeded to jump onto the milk stand, while I was milking, and I had to stop milking and drag him off. So, now I need to finish milking but I smell like a stinky buck. Eventually, I got everything done but the chores that usually take about 20-30mins took an hour.
So, although I will not be selling the farm, mornings like this one make me question why we live where we do. The wind just sort of grates at your nerves over time, and although you get used to it a little I don’t know that you can ever simply get used to wind this strong all the time. I am really dreading February when it gets into the negatives here and the wind-chill is unbearable. I think I may dry off the last goat before that happens. We have babies due in March, so it will be a nice break for everyone. I don’t want to complain too much, I am so thankful that we were able to get this property and I have all the things I’ve been praying for for years, but this morning was a little but not so fun. Is it springtime yet?
Happy New Year! Our family had quite an interesting holiday break, we were all sick. There are four of us in this family and someone was sick the entire time we were off for holiday break. Between stomach bugs and chest colds, I am completely wiped out.
On a happier note, everyone on the farm is doing fine. We have had some cold weather and recently had a bit of a snow storm and so far everyone is doing fine. I was a bit surprised with how our muscovy ducks handled the crazy weather. I had a shelter all ready to go for them and they proceeded to completely ignore it and simply sit out in the snowstorm like it was a sunny day. Apparently, snow and wind have no effect on muscovy ducks.
Goat Plans
About a week ago I made some changes to how we are keeping our goats. I have five does and two bucks, and until the switch the boys lived in the “buck pen” and the girls all stayed in the large pasture with a shelter. Three of my does had a baby in April and were the goats we milked all through the spring to fall. One of them is our Alpine and because she is a larger breed goat, she will not go into heat all year round like the Nigerian Dwarf girls will. So, I only have the fall to get her bred or she won’t deliver this year. So, our breeding plans for the year were to breed our two Nigerian Dwarf girls who have never had a kid, and our Alpine.
I am fairly certain the two Nigerian Dwarf girls are bred. I have not seen them come back into heat and they are getting quite fluffy. However, I am not certain. I bred our Alpine twice the last time she came into heat, I haven’t seen her come back into heat, however, I have no idea if she is pregnant. She doesn’t look to be getting any bigger but Alpines typically have one baby, so I don’t know if you could even tell by looking at her or not.
So, to make fully sure they are all bred I went ahead and put the bucks in the pen with the ladies I want to kid. I took the two does I do not want bred and put them in the buck pen. I am hoping that I can watch over the next month and see if anyone comes back into heat. If no one does, then in theory all the does will be confirmed pregnant.
If they does took on the first breeding we should have kids at the end of March. This will be our first kidding on the farm, and for two of the does their first kidding as well. I am a little nervous about our first deliveries, but I have faith we will get it done.
Our new baby girl, Bonnie, is an English Springer Spaniel and the cutest/softest thing I’ve ever seen.
And already retrieving a goose wing! Dad was a hunter, she may take after him.
I am of course head over heels for her. It’s easy to fall in love with a puppy. Now we just have to get the hard work going and turn her into a well-behaved bird dog. I hope we are both up to the challenge.
This weekend on our farm we said goodbye to one of our animals and hello to a new one. Let’s start with the goodbye. Back at the beginning of the summer, we got a gosling to help protect our flock. I had done quite a bit of research on how to protect a flock and since we aren’t really large enough for a Livestock Guardian dog a goose was recommended. Everyone recommended one goose since it would bond with other birds better that way, and that is what we did. So, for six months now we’ve had this goose, and she’s been pretty great for the most part. However, recently she took quite a turn in personality. Her normal goose honking, which we were totally fine with, changed pitch and became almost like an alarm sound. It was super high-pitched and screechy. Now, instead of honking here and there, if anyone was outside she screamed the entire time. When I get up at 7:30 to do chores she screams the entire time it takes me to get done. Evening chores, which sometimes get done at 9pm, she screams the entire time. One of our neighbors has a person living in an RV on their property and I assume he can hear this goose through the RV walls. Her cry is so loud it echoes through the entire neighborhood. We live on a three-acre plot and so do all of our neighbors. So, although we are in the “country” we do have quite close neighbors and I have felt horrible about this goose and her squawking. As if that weren’t bad enough she has recently taken to biting people. One thing I will absolutely not put up with in my home or on my farm is an animal that bites. Over the past few months, this goose has basically made it not enjoyable to be outside. Either she’s loud the entire time anyone is outside, or now if she gets near you she bites. So, we had a decision to make. Could we put up with the bad behavior, or did she need to go?
When we bought this property I made it clear that the animals brought onto our farm had to have a purpose. I have said from the beginning if they cannot fulfill that purpose they are gone. We loved our goose, she was like the farm mascot, but she got to a point where she was more of a problem than a benefit. I cannot afford to feed a problem animal, nor do I want to keep a problem animal. I want my family to be able to go outside and enjoy our farm and what we have on it. So, we made the tough decision and I went ahead and harvested the goose. She did not go to waste, we processed her and she went to freezer camp. I know it may seem harsh but I want people to feel free to make the tough decisions. Having a farm, or a homestead, or whatever you have has to work. The animals you raise have a purpose and when they can no longer fulfill that purpose you shouldn’t have guilt removing that animal. We have to have the mindset that farm animals are different from our pets. Getting rid of our goose made the most sense. Now, I don’t worry that neighbors are going to be mad at the noise, I don’t worry that my kids are going to be attacked, and being outside doing chores or simply hanging out on the property has become a lot more enjoyable. It was a hard decision and it was hard to follow through when that decision was made, but I am glad it’s done. I do believe that at the end of the day it was the right decision for us.
New Addition
On Friday our family welcomed a new member. I brought home an 8-week old English Springer Spaniel and we have named her Bonnie. I have big plans for little Bonnie. First and foremost she is going to be a bird-dog. I want to be able to take her hunting. Springer Spaniels are what are known as flushers. Her job is to find the bird and get it in the air so the hunter can shoot it. She will then retrieve the bird, so also a retriever. On top of this, I want to make a deer tracking dog. Many dogs can be trained to find deer, in fact I am on a Facebook page and I saw a post where a guy had his mini daschund out there tracking deer. My husband and I usually get an archery tag every year and I like the idea of having a dog that can help find the deer if we ever get one. It is also something that quite a few people turn into a business. I guess plenty of deer go missing every year, and they bring a dog in to find them.
We’ve had Bonnie for two days now and she is already retrieving fairly well, and yesterday after we processed the goose, we used the wing to train Bonnie and she did amazing with it. When I say retrieve, I mean, right now, she is basically playing fetch. It will get more complicated as time goes on but for now she has to get the object thrown and bring it back to me. Yesterday with the goose wing, she was a champ. I was worried she wouldn’t turn out to be a good bird dog since dad hunts, but mom doesn’t, but it seems like she may do ok after all. The desire is there at least. Now, I have to do my part and not screw it up. I am very hopeful that she will turn into a great dog, for now she is simply the cutest thing ever!!!!
Final Thoughts
I think the thing I have thought most about this week is that we have one life to live and we need to live it well. I am not a big fan of the saying “You have to make yourself happy”, because I think it leads to bad decisions sometimes, but sometimes you have to do what makes you happy. I struggled with the decision to get a new puppy. I definitely didn’t need a puppy right now. In fact, having a puppy is always a bit of a headache, but it’s what I wanted. Have I trained a bird dog before? No, but I wanted to try. As, I get older I am learning to trust my instincts more and worry about other peoples opinions less. I owe it to myself to be honest about who I am and what I want from my life. I am not saying push something when it’s the wrong time, but if you have the means and the desire, why not take a chance? You never know if it may be the best decision ever.
Yesterday we processed our first real meat harvest of the homestead. A few months ago we bought three Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys with the intent of using them as meat birds for our family. Two of them (both males) made it to harvest day. One of the males was massive! Twice the size of the other one and I have no idea why. They were the same age, same breed, same feed, but very different in size. After processing, the larger one ended up being a 26lb bird. We didn’t weigh the smaller one but I would guess about half that size so around 13lbs.
We are lucky enough to live close to my husband’s family and have Thanksgiving together every year. This year our smaller turkey will be gracing the table of the family dinner. With our big one, we went ahead and broke him down and turned the meat into ground turkey. From the 26lb carcass, we ended up with 13 lbs of ground turkey meat. I am currently in the process of making stock from the bones and will probably end up with around 3 gallons of broth total. The broth I am thrilled with, the meat however doesn’t seem like all that much when you think about how much time and feed cost went into that turkey.
Now, I really don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I am very thankful to have homegrown meat in the freezer, however those turkeys ate a ton of food. I didn’t keep track of the numbers but it was a bit. I also know that homesteading isn’t usually a cheaper option. Most people homestead and raise their own meat for other benefits. We want to know how our animal was raised, exactly what it ate, and ultimately to give it a good life until the end. All of that was accomplished. Those turkeys had a grand time until they didn’t and it was quick and as painless as possible. It is also a skill I am thankful to have. I hope none of us ever truly need those skills, but I like knowing that we can. All in all, I still am unsure if the whole process is worth it.
Thanksgiving update……the Turkey was delicious. I am still on the fence though if this is something we will do again.
Wattles and Combs Farm 