Any day now...

Well overdue for a goat update. The number of goats here at on the mini-homestead has fluctuated quite a bit, but currently consists of 3 LaMancha does, all pregnant, which means our herd numbers are going to fluctuate again. Our 3 year old doe, Raindrop, is officially due March 1st, but I doubt we'll have to wait that long. She's gotten huge (care to guess how many kids she's got in there?) and as you can see by looking at her lovely udder, she's bagging up. This is the goat I always have a hard time keeping weight on...here's a reminder of what she looked like after her last freshening...
I've been watching her really closely the past few days & I have noticed some of the other typical signs, such as stretching to get the kids into proper position and restlessness as it gets harder to find a comfortable position the larger she gets. I have the baby monitor set up in the barn so I can monitor night time noises that might necessitate me venturing out in the cold to check on things.
Needless to say, we're really excited to see her kids, and to start enjoying her fresh goat milk again! That said, I'm also a bit nervous since this will be our first kidding experience. We're hoping to be able to witness (and photograph) the birth without having to assist to much (and really hoping it all happens in the daytime when we have a better chance of it not being so cold)!
Speaking of cold, I've been busy preparing for kidding. Besides reading up on the wealth of info on the Fiasco Farm site, I was excited to stumble upon this blog which has a ton of great info related to kidding as well. In this post, she shows what her kidding kits consist of, including instructions on how to repurpose sweatshirt sleeves into kid sweaters, which of course I had to do, because who knows what this "winter" will bring weatherwise.

Never a dull moment...

Life with farm animals (ok, and children) typically means there is rarely a dull moment. The other day one of our red star chickens decided to get into the back of our truck to scratch around the various yard branches, weeds, etc. that had been loaded in preparation for a trip to the dump...I had noticed it out the window at some point that morning and thought to myself, "silly chicken we've got over 2 green acres with plenty of bugs, but apparently you think there's something better in the yard waste pile".
Well, imagine my husband's surprise when later that morning he got to the dump and starting unloading and came across our chicken! The dump is at least a 15 minute drive from our house so I'm thankful that the chicken had the sense to hide low during that trek and that our dump requires loads to be tarped & tied. I would have hated to lose on of our friendliest and most productive chickens! Lucky chicken got to ride shotgun all the way back home!

Coming soon...

We're thrilled to be bringing some LaMancha goats to our little homestead in just two weeks (I had to laugh when I read another blogger comment on the fact that some people impulse buy shoes, but she impulse buys farm animals...I can so relate)! Its something that we've wanted for some time now, but thought might have to wait a year, and so to prepare/cram, I've been reading lots, researching more, and getting some great hands on practice/instruction from more experienced goat owners (even got to feed/milk goats for a local friend while they were away for a few days recently which was a huge confidence booster and helped me put what I've learned to practice).
At this point, here's what I know we're getting (though I can't promise that an extra young doe might not sneak into the truck on pickup day...remember the impulse comment?): an older doe that's been freshened (still got some good years in her & should make a nice foundation doe for us), another doe with her young doe kid in tow, and a young buck. Yes, we're going against what many recommend and starting out with a buck...we have our reasons though (other than the fact that he's very handsome) & are aware of the challenges that come with keeping a buck (and we have a local wether we can lease to keep our little guy company if need be). Here's a sneak preview of our little Jack Frost...
And here's a headshot of Dark Rain, our older freshened doe...
I promise there will be no shortage of pictures once we've got our goats home!
The to-do list is, predictably, a bit overwhelming at this point, but I did manage to finally get the bulk of my supplies ordered from Hoegger (again, goat sitting was a big help in deciding between what I truly needed and what was just fancy fluff...as my friend reminded me, its a lot like having a baby in that you are sometimes made to think you need all sorts of fancy gear, when in fact you need just a few key items).
In the event that we don't have their pasture areas ready in time (cause we're taking a little trip while we don't yet have to find a goat sitter), we've got barn stalls just about ready as a backup (we even got electricity ran to the barn & automatic waters working in the stalls in the last couple of days). Still high on the priority list is a homemade milking station and a trip to the farm supply store for hay & water containers, goat minerals, and a bit of grain mix to get me through until my next Azure co-op delivery (I plan to make my own grain mix daily to keep it fresh & all organic, while still being cost effective by purchasing barley, oats, & molasses from the co-op). Thankfully I was warned by a friend of the current alfalfa shortage in CA, so I bought 4 bales just in time which will hopefully last me us until the new crop comes into feed stores next month.
And I'm not the only one anxious to bring the goats home...after having a fresh supply of raw goat milk from the days I was milking for our friend, my two oldest children were NOT happy to be back to drinking cows milk from the store again ("NO, we want goat milk mom...its creamier & much better!").

More chickens

We got a call the other day about someone wanting to get rid of 1 year old chickens...the price was right, FREE, so off I went to pick them up (all 23 of them!...though we may not end up keeping all as another local family whose lost a number of their to dog attacks may be taking some). Lets just say they probably think they died & arrived in chicken heaven (compared to where they were), or they most certainly will feel that way once we start letting them free range (though their coop/run area is quite large).
This presented an excellent opportunity to finally integrate the Red Stars & White Rocks who seemed ready since they'd been intermingling during their daily free ranging on the property. This also put the need for a second coup area even higher on the priority list. The run was completed by the time I picked up the new chickens, but no coup yet, so I moved the new chickens into the existing coup & run that first night and transferred the red stars to the barn stall that the white rocks had been temporarily calling home. The next day my husband, with the help of my dad got the coup built just before sunset (well, the roof was covered as side vents sealed up the next day since the rafters leave enough space for ventilation).
Needless to say the chickens seem to much prefer their new digs over the barn stall and they are getting along great (they save their skirmishes for the new chickens in the old adjoining coop space). Once they'd layed their eggs I let them out to free range (wanting to make sure they knew where the eggs belonged since the previous days juggling really confused them a bit) and they all managed to find their way to the new coop come sundown. I like the fact that the new coop is higher & attached, but not inside the run...I think we might enclose the underneath portion later & add a run to it for young chicks that aren't quite ready to be integrated into the group, but need to start socializing with them & get outside.
The new chickens...I'll start positively & say that they are an eclectic bunch and I've enjoyed searching my chicken catalogs to identify the breeds. We're happy there are some easter eggers in the bunch for some egg color variety. Now, not so positive...well, you know that old saying, nothing is ever free?...So far, they have yet to impress when it comes to laying, and unfortunately of the eggs they've laid, we've come close to losing half to egg eating (despite me running out to the coop a ridiculous amount of times/day to collect eggs). They are eating up my organic chicken feed like its their last meal (which is especially annoying since my I can only get it from my co-op once/month and my alternative is much higher feed store prices) and since the food isn't necessarily going to egg output, they are pooping insane amounts. I put golf balls in the nest boxes to see if it might help (they keep kicking them out...could that be a chickens way of flipping the bird?)I pulled 7 of the chickens out of the bunch & put them in the barn in the hopes that reducing their numbers might improve the situation. Now those 7 gave me 6 eggs the next day, but unfortunately I caught one of them in the red star/white rock coop eating an egg (the door was open so they could free range)! The last thing I need is for them to pick up that bad habit! So, I've decided that I'm going to try a few more things...maybe pull some more chickens out, add more nest boxes, let them free range here and there...and if things don't improve then I'll be making room in my freezer since I'm not particularly attached to this bunch...there are some nice heavy breed birds in the bunch and the little ones will make good soup!

Preparedness, don't forget the animals

On the subject of preparedness, a lot of fellow bloggers have really got me thinking lately about how to make being prepared (to take care of not just my immediate family in an emergency, but also potentially extended family, friends, & neighbors, & lets not forget our animals) a way of life. Natural disasters are nothing new and will continue to happen anywhere with little to no notice (our weather may continue to cause issues as well since I've heard the Japan earthquake shifted the earth's tilt on its axis). We live in earthquake country and also in a small community in the mountains which means that relief supplies may not be able to get to us as quickly (& we may not be high on the priority list due to our small population and frankly looking at response time for hurricane Katrina I think we all learned we can't assume that our government will be prepared to offer assistance quickly).
So, for this week's preparedness challenge, I thought about the animals on our little homestead. We have a couple dogs that offer protection (and companionship of course). We have chickens that provide us with eggs (and soon, meat). Soon we'll have goats supplying us with milk (and possibly meat). In an emergency, fresh organic eggs & raw milk will be more valuable to us than they already are (as will fresh meat if our electricity should fail & spoil our freezer stores) in supplementing our dry food stores. Animals producing fresh food would also very likely be at risk of theft by those not prepared in an emergency, which is where the dogs come in as a deterent (ok, and also a gun or two). This week I realized that I must not forget about preparing food & water stores for our animals while I work on our own stores. So, I decided that at a minimum, I would strive to have at least a month's worth of extra food for our animals. In addition, I'm in the process of sorting through the recycling, pulling out gallon sized juice jugs which I will work on washing & filling with water for the animals. Its a bit of a blow to the budget though to buy double the amount of feed in one month, so this month I focused on the chickens & ordered extra feed in our co-op order, though given the fact that we've doubled the size of our flock this month, what I ordered probably doesn't quite amount to an extra month's worth.
Next trip to Costco, I'll add an extra bag of dog food. And I plan to work on an animal first aid kit. And, despite the ever rising gasoline prices these days, I'm going to try to make it a habit to keep our vehicles' tanks not less than half full. The reality is that my to-do list grows each week, and while that could easily start to feel overwhelming, I'm determined to feel good about the progress we've made, while staying focused on what still needs to be done.
This week, for the human members of our family, I also added extra pasta & legumes to my co-op order and picked up a dozen gallon sized jugs of water, extra juice, & canned goods at Costco.


Visit Homestead Revival for more tips on preparedness.

The Flock

Our first "farm" animals, 8 Red Star Hens, arrived back on June 22nd, 2010 while we were still living at the old place...here's A & Y taking a peak at them.

Here they are all settled in at the place...

I picked this particular breed of chicken from the McMurray Hatchery because they were described as great layers of brown eggs and extremely friendly. So far we are pleased...they worked their way up to 8 eggs/day in the long summer days and 7-8/day during the shorter winter days. They are so friendly with the children who aren't just content to pet them, but prefer to pick them up and carry them around. As we prepared to move, the top priority was making the house liveable for us. So, the chickens had to make do with an old small coop that already existed on the property. It took longer than we had planned & we still have some finishing touches to make, but we finally moved them a new more appropriate dwelling, with plenty of indoor & outdoor space...in the interest of saving time & money, we decided to take advantage of old shed sitting on the property for the coop portion. They seem to be enjoying foraging for bugs & plants in their new outdoor space nestled in the middle of our 6 almond trees. We let them out frequently as well so that they can forage the property for more bugs, plants, etc. and they really seem to enjoy that freedom. Here's a nice shot of the new coop area with one of the blossoming almond trees.

I think most chicken owners will agree that this chicken thing gets addicting. It wasn't long before I was researching other breeds & trying to decide which ones we'd add to our flock. Although not top on my wish list of breeds, I went ahead & purchased another 8 four month old Plymouth White Rock Hens here locally that should be laying in about a month, mostly because I'd like to increase our egg supply soon so that we can start selling some. These particular hens are pretty self sufficient, having been raised to scavenge for their food, so at this point we let them have the run of the property with free access to the old coop for shelter, food, & water.
For our first meat bird experience, we decided to go with Freedom Rangers & are expecting 20 chicks mid-April. Then late May we have 9 more chicks coming including 5 Cuckoo Maran pullets & a cockeral, & 2 Buff Orpington pullets & a cockeral. I picked those breeds because (along with the white rocks) they can be considered dual purpose birds. Although we plan to build a second coop/large run area, we may not be keeping both roosters. I've heard great things about the temperments of the Cuckoo Maran Roosters & that is the breed I most want to start breeding, but we may give it a go with breeding the Buff Orpingtons too, and if not, then that rooster will just join the FR's in the freezer.
So, besides adding the finishing touches to the coop area (need to build in some user friendly nest boxes & paint the exterior "barn" red w/white trim), next on the list will be to build a second coop & run area adjacent to this one. This will be essential when our spring chicks are ready to be moved outside, but not yet big enough to be thrown in with the existing chickens. And of course, even more important is getting brooders set up...I'm a little nervous about raising chicks since up to this points all 16 of our chickens have joined as at around 4 months of age, but I'm excited too.