The winner of our Raffle is Jenna Deppe! Congrats, I'll be messaging you about your prize choice. Thank you to everyone who entered! The other kids not chosen will be available soon. ☺️
The winner of our Raffle is Jenna Deppe! Congrats, I'll message you for your prize kid choice.
Thank you to everyone who entered! The other kids not chosen will be available soon. ☺️
How to tell if a goat kid is polled (naturally hornless) 🐐
Place your fingers where the horns should be, apply slight pressure and "wiggle" the skin.
If the skin moves freely over the skull, it's polled!
If the skin doesn't move and feels attached to the skull, it's horned!
Had a little visitor this morning! First time a deer has been inside the pasture, we see them on the opposite side of the fence on rare occasions. Honestly thought there was a new goat in the pasture when I first saw it. 🤣
(The fawn was released from the pasture and will hopefully go find it’s mom ☺️)
Piggies decided it was a pool day! 💦
They also have a mud wallow in their pen but they seem to prefer the pool.
Mama charlotte goes back and forth between the two but she loves her mud!
Rearranged the barn today!
Made a bigger community pen for the does and got the mineral buffet all on one wall.
Think this layout will make it easier for other people to work with the girls, I’ll be off the farm for a few days later this month for a wedding, so my dad will be tending to the herd.
Multiple pens get confusing if you don’t know which goats go where so I’m making it as simple and straightforward as possible. Lol
Kept a couple small pens up since there’s still a few does left to kid soon that I’ll have to separate. 🐐
Just did a barn check and Haru has a ligament back on one side 🤦🏻♀️ so she’s not quite ready yet, still going to watch the cameras closely tonight just in case since she could still go anytime 🤣
Annabelle and Dinky have softened more from this morning so they may kid in a day or two if they keep progressing at that rate.
Anyway enjoy this clip of Haru in her favorite sleeping position. She just loves to freak me out 😬
Breakfast for Priscilla’s litter! These little chunks are just about weaned and will be off to their new farms soon. 😄
Sadly Clovers litter that I had to bring in to hand-raise all failed to thrive. 😢
Our last gilt Charlotte should be due sometime in May so hopefully all goes well with her and we get another healthy litter.
Tango finding her springs. 🥰 in about two weeks she should get some playmates. Our next group of does is due the last week of March!
Priscilla’s milk just came in! 🙌🏻 That means piglets within 12 hours (if she sticks to the average farrowing timeline. Lol)
There’s been some major nesting happening all day too. So much so that I had to redo her whole pen since she pulled up all the tarps and spilled her water everywhere 🤦🏻♀️
Oh Twist, you know you’re not supposed to be in that pasture 🤦🏻♀️ She’s not even sneaky about it, just hops right over the fence to see if she can steal hay from the pigs. She only hops back into the doe pasture when I bring out the alfalfa pellets. 😆
The doe barn is cleaned out and freshly bedded! Only took two full days of work. There’s no machinery here to help with the cleaning so I do it all by hand with a good ol pitchfork and a sled. 😆
It’ll most likely need another clean out by the time kidding starts in March but for now it’s nice and cozy for the ladies. 💕
Managed to get half the doe barn cleaned out today. 🙌🏻 Caught this video of a couple of the girls getting the zoomies while I was out there 🐐
The one doing all the complaining is Yato, he was mad I let his girlfriend out to play while he was stuck in the pen. 😆
I think Wesson appreciated the clean house 🥰
Belly rubs for the piglets! 💕🐷
The month old kids got their first round of CD&T and coccidia prevention yesterday.
For coccidia prevention and treatment we use Toltrazuril which is given orally.
The CD&T protects the kids from Clostridium perfringens type C + D which causes enterotoxemia. And it also protects them from Tetanus which is important when it comes to wethering the boys.
Here’s little Lancelot demonstrating how we give the CD&T.
Step 1: clean the site thoroughly with rubbing alcohol or other disinfectant
Step 2: gently pinch the skin and lift it away from the body slightly to create a “tent” of skin
Step 3: Insert the needle into the “tent” and inject the medication. (You want the opening of the needle facing away from the goat, long side towards the goat)
Step 4: remove the needle and rub the site to disperse the meds, this helps to prevent a lump from forming.
Step 5: Give lots of pets and cuddles so the kids forgive you for poking them. At least until you do the 2nd round in 3-4 weeks 😆
Sif’s kids were very active today! 🥰
She’s due April 14th, Wesson is the sire so kids will possibly be blue eyed and/or polled. She’s a first freshener and she wasn’t looking very wide until recently so I was originally guessing a single kid. But it feels like there’s two babies rolling around in there! 👀 🐐🐐
The yearlings were having a blast playing on the trailer. A couple of the older does joined in on the fun but they’re not as agile with those big ol bellies
