Laffing Goat Farm and Wetland Preserve

01/14/2025

01/09/2025

This is what I mean by the whirly-swirly-pearly white duck egg shells. It is not usually this evident w naked eye, but always on candling w bright light. We have green eggs, black or gray cayuga eggs, and pearly white ones like this. Today's offerings were unusually pretty.

01/08/2025

MaryAnn is about 8 years old, Pippin and Patches are 4 or 5 now, and Ben and Adam are 10 years old.

01/05/2025

Our ducks are an assortment of Rouen (they look like Mallard but these are domestic and larger), Swedish, Saxony, and Cayuga (the ones that lay black eggs till they run out of ink). Domestic ducks do not fly -- they can get airborn for about 10 feet at best and only for a few seconds. I don't keep Pekins bc the pure white attracts predators (they only last a day or two the eagles feast) and I dislike the messy Muskovy's. I don't touch or handle any of my birds unless they are injured, they aren't that kind of pets. They are for watching and enjoying, letting them be ducks. (Same for my goats, I pet them a little when I feed them and they get routine hoof care and treats from my hand but I mostly love watching them play together in the pasture, being goats).
There are currently 15 ducks and 3 African geese which do a great job protecting them. I =think= there are 4 drakes among the ducks so best guess 11 females laying eggs. My Rouen ducks lay the green eggs, the Cayugas lay black ones from late spring to mid summer and then get lighter gray as they run out of ink for the year then they are white or light gray/ash color. They aren't dirty, it's just the bloom that Cayugas color their eggs with. I try not to wash that off when I wipe them. The Swedish and mixed ones lay white eggs with an interesting pearl-like swirl in the shell when you hold them up to light. (Nearly) always clean from the nest. We don't wash eggs here we wipe with a damp cloth. Some days I will run one very briefly under very warm RUNNING water (per UDSA regs the water must be 20 degrees F warmer than the egg) and then immediately dry it. Never ever float or soak eggs, this contaminates them as germs flow through the porous egg shell. Our ducks eat dog kibble and forage for bugs and slugs and grasses that grow on our wetland. Our chickens are isolated in a biosecured area where ducks and other birds cannot get near them.

01/01/2025

THIS POST IS UPDATED DAILY
regardless of the date it was pinned!
UPDATED Jan 17, 2025 at 12pm

1 dozen chicken eggs in lower fridge $5
no duck eggs today

By March they'll be laying them faster than you can eat them! I have 30 laying hens (and 12 laying ducks) but they decided to take time off this winter and are just taking turns laying.

I brought the jams and jellies inside the house as it's been very cold and freezing would be bad for home canned goods. Will bring them back out when weather is better or on request of course.
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Eggs are always self-serve. Both refrigerators are kept at 48F to keep your eggs fresh. All cartons are dated with best by date but they are generally still good a few weeks beyond that as long as they stay refrigerated and points down.

Definitely we can always use EGG CARTONS (12's), it is not a requirement but always grateful to have them if you want to bring them. I do sanitize them and change out the labels before I reuse them.

New cartons cost 50 cents each if we have to buy them, reusing returned or collected used cartons keeps your cost low. Most farmers sell for way more than we do, please help us keep costs down so we can continue to serve you affordably.
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The jelly fridge is set up to the right of the eggs fridge, homemade jams jellies and sauces in (and usually on) the little white fridge unless it is freezing outside. That fridge isn't turned on, it just acts as a barrier to outside temps when it's too cold. It has limited space so most of them are in the house unless the weather is good.
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If you need service, Just ring the bell (DO NOT KNOCK I would never ever hear it).
DO DRIVE up the driveway all the way to the house and do not park down the street. Only criminals and burglars need to sneak up to someone's home on foot. It scares me.
I do not own a cell phone so you cannot text me or message in real time. Our driveway alarm lets us know you are here. Messages left here get seen when I come in the house and open the computer only, and that could be as late as next day.
If I am truly not around, you can leave $ under the mat. I'll find it. I likely heard you and/or saw you on camera and was just busy.

FYI Our duck eggs are green or gray or white, or green "smudged" with gray coating, depending on the breed of duck that laid them. (see first photo). They are not dirty. Do not ever wash or float eggs as that only contaminates them. See the other pinned posts on this page for USDA info on egg safety. It is not that *I* say so, it is science that says so.

12/27/2024

This is a bit late but the decorations will be up for another week. The first video shows how the display looks and the second some of the projects I did to get things ready.

12/25/2024

Helping a friend with a really sweet goat she rescued. He's not really as bad off as you'd think. The mange is easily treated and worms just in case. Pale Famacha, started B complex vits and thiamine, and solved the parasites. Just needs a good diet and a clean dry place. His worst issue is the white line or hoof wall separation (shelly hoof) on 2 hooves -- oh and a deformed right rear foot which could well just be genetic vs an old injury that healed wrong. He gets around and isn't in apparent pain. I did initial trim and hopefully can do serial trims every few weeks (it's quite deep on one of them) until it heals. I don't want to trim it all the way up bc then he wouldn't have a hoof wall to support him. Slower is better, especially since he is in a good super clean place now and less likely to get it as deeply packed with mud as he was being out on pasture unhoused. Does not appear infected at all. I think he will be fine, it will just take several months to get his feet in good shape. The rest of him is doing better already.

Treating hoof wall separation:
Separation between a goat's hoof wall and sole is called white line disease or white line separation, and it can sometimes be referred to as "shelly hoof".
Trim and clean
Use shears to trim away any dirt, excess wall, or rotted areas. You can also trim the tissue on the heels to make the hoof floor parallel to the hairline.
Pick out debris
Use a hoof pick or the tip of trimmers to remove any dirt, f***s, pebbles, or other debris that may be packed into the pockets.
Let it heal
In some cases, you can wait for the hoof to heal on its own during the dry season.
Trim the hoof a little at a time to avoid bleeding.
Use a disinfectant or antiseptic to kill germs.
Check for a clogged oil gland between the two halves of the hoof at the end of the ankle.
Brush off any mud to check for abrasions or inflammation.

12/24/2024

There was an incident in the cat shed a few days ago. See it here:

12/15/2024

Working on the many bushels of concord grapes I froze "for later". After the first few normal jars I =might= try to experiment with some different flavors. Tried to make mint jelly last year like Smuckers used to make but that was a bust using apple juice as the base like they did. I have sooooo much grape I might try just a couple jars adding a tiny bit of mint to a couple, just for me. Worst that can happen is it gets tossed.
After the grapes are done, I have a couple bushels of plums remaining. I processed a LOT of those back in September but still have a ton more. I made plum butter and spiced duch plum butter and shiro jam with vanilla and ginger plum cooking sauce. Maybe I'll try one with jalopeno or red pepper flakes and garlic since I use it for cooking and dipping. Could be interesting. :)

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12/15/2024

Three of the five goats got nice pedicures today (aka hoof trims), the two big/older ones will have to wait a few more days as the stanchion is broken and needs to be rebuilt before we can use it. The little guys (and gal) aren't so bad but Adam and Ben are in excess of 100 pounds and all muscle, they don't like to stand still and be messed with.

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11/29/2024

30 jars of home made cat food and a bunch of plum saices and jams today.

11/26/2024

I THINK the chickens (at least the Marans) are back in business, loving their new digs and laying. 8 eggs from 16 Marans today -- only one from the Whitings but they are feast and famine these days, I might get 6-8 from those ones tomorrow, or none.

11/26/2024

testing 123 is this working now?

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11/24/2024

Finally got the chickens sorted. The smaller flock Whitings which are also smaller birds are in the 15 x 20-ish "coop 2" which is actually a giant secured covered run with a warm nesting area separated by solid walls and curtain. The larger flock of Marans (which are also much bigger birds by far) is now in the largest area roughly 15 x 30 with also a walled off nesting area we call "coop 1". It's much less windy and dryer in those two sections for winter. The former inhabitants of coop 2 are now in a 6 x 12 covered run that is covered on all 3 sides plus the door to keep out any wind, also with a warm hard-walled nesting area draped off in one end. The space we had the Marans before today has been getting damp and needs a new cover (we have just havent had time to install) and won't be used again until at least spring anyway. It seemed small for these big birds and wasn't fair that the wee tiny Whitings had that huge space to themselves :)
It is also useful to have this buffer zone between the ducks, which free range during the day, and the chickens which are effectively sheltered from ANY other kind of bird, wild or otherwise from above or below. Biosecurity.

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11/20/2024

Before and after pics, we got the hoop house righted w minimal damage. Going to anchor it into the ground before the next bomb cyclone hits (we built it to resist SNOW not freaking hurricanes!).

11/20/2024

Well we have some work to do after this storm. I thought I left all that behind 30 years ago when I left Florida. First thing I noticed was a vertical pole we had supporting camera cables between house and barn was wobbling like a gyroscope -- turned out it had broken off near the base which was secured to a concrete block designed just for that. So it is now securedly if temporarily zip-tied to a deeply anchored T post that is part of my bean garden. Lots of downed limbs, one whole tree uprooted by rootball fortunately didn't hit anything, lost part of the tarp (one layer) over duck enclosure, and half the shelter behind the garage where George parks his tractor (it was not under it at the time) and worst of all, my 12 x 14 uber-heavy hoop house blew clean over at 10:27pm. It is 100% intact, just upside down (and crushed my little arbor vitaes sadly), and it will be a challenge to turn it back over even with machinery. It is a testament to my building and designing skills though, it ain't broke. We also lost an old rickety portable greenhouse/shelfy thing that was pretty well past its best-by life anyway. It is in pieces inside the other hoop house where I dragged the pieces till I can finish dismantling it in daylight. Chicken and goat enclosures are miraculously intact and all animals accounted for warm and safe.

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