Spring - for real this time!

I'm sure hoping this beautiful weather is here to stay. I'm on the front porch as I type this, watching the antics of the various animals. Perfect! The field is freshly plowed with red bud trees blooming in the background; crops are coming up in the raised beds- peas, strawberries, beets, and lettuce are coming up nicely.Peking Ducks hanging out under the redbud trees. The picture below is one of our black giants that has moved into the duck pen to (fingers crossed) hatch some more Peking eggs so we don't have to purchase ducklings this year.

On the Mcmurray Hatchery order we lost a total of 12 chickies in the 1st 3 days. Mcmurray is a great hatchery though with awesome customer service, we received our replacement chicks on March 29th. They're doing great- the postoffice called as soon as they arrived this time- 6:00 am, and they were home and warm shortly after.

This little peep is 4 weeks old. I'm really looking forward to the Polish growing up- so funny looking! Below is all the older ones in the brooder coop.

Also in the coop, a guinea has been laying her eggs. She may start trying to sit them- she had her male marching back and forth across the coop today while she set.

Here are our 3 Ancona Ducks, neat pets but definitely not the size of the Pekings. Hard to justify using them for meat.

The goat situation is mostly under control. I'm still not able to rotate grazing as I would like, but we'll get there. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative now.

Here's Roscoe, chilling as usual-just wishing he had someone to play head-butt with. His new partner is below, Flash. As soon as he's big enough, they'll get to hang out together.

Here is the rest of the herd. Chipper has gone to his new home and one of Scarlet's went there as well. We're keeping what we have left. Rosemary will get a year off of breeding, we'll breed her doe, Sage, to Flash for Nigerian kids and Ebony (Scarlet's doeling). Scarlet and Petunia will be bred to Roscoe. We should have PLENTY of milk next year and I'm hoping to start making soap and such with it.

And of course, there's Dinkey. He's getting some out-of-paddock-time to help BeepBeep keep the grass mowed. He comes running when he hears me come out- just in case I have nibbles for him.

We suffered another disappointment with the rabbits. Foxy delivered 3 kits that were dead when I found them the next morning, She didn't even put them in the nest box. I'm really not sure how to convince rabbits to be good moms. We're trying again with Cleo, but may be out of the Silver Fox business if it doesn't go any better. For rabbits- they don't reproduce like rabbits.

So that gets us up to date- time to enjoy more of this sunshine!

Trick Question

Yesterday's farm puzzle has turned out to be a trick question. For, in fact, the baby goats can also escape from baby pen B. Dang! So all the babies got penned back in the shed. Ok, fine, it was starting to drizzle anyway.

Today, I planned to rotate out the two baby groups half way through the day in baby pen A. Before the second rotation, Sage and Petunia escaped said pen. I'm still confused as to how. I still firmly refuse to be out stubborned by goats, so tomorrow Rosie and Scarlet get to go to baby pen A for a while, and I'll rotate the others out as needed.

Whew! This is getting tedious and I'm still only getting about a cup of milk from Rosie in the evenings. She's getting more comfortable with the arrangement though and will stand rather patiently and nibble her grain. As she relaxes she lets down a little more milk each time.

We have sprouts now! Today I saw beets and both types of peas peeking out of the ground. I didn't look real close since this was during the nightly rounds, so I'm hoping to see lettuce tomorrow, too.

Spring official starts this weekend and it certainly is beginning to look like spring around here, too. Fun and busy time to be farming!

The Great Goat Puzzle

Mahhhhhhhhhh!

There are 6 goats and 4 paddocks. All goats must be out with a buddy, however, to get milk and not have accidental pregnancies...

Rosemary can be with Scarlet or Petunia

Scarlet can be with Rosemary, Petunia, Flash, Chipper or Sage

Petunia can be with Rosemary, Scarlet or Sage

Flash can be with Chipper or Scarlet

Chipper can be with Flash or Scarlet

Sage can be with Scarlet or Petunia

The babies (Chipper, Sage and Flash) have to be in the mesh pens or they escape back to the herd. Scarlet can't go in the upper paddock since pine needles are bad for pregnant does. Rosemary escapes from the upper paddock to find her babies.

The big question- Where do you put the goats? *

Main Paddock

Upper Paddock

Baby Pen A

Baby Pen B

Solution later...

*If it rains, everybody comes back to the shed.

Now on to duck sorting.

Milk!

Just a quick update to celebrate our first sip of goats milk!

After a couple of set backs with separating goats, and a rocky first attempt, Rosemary gave us our first 1/2 cup of milk for this year. She's still a little confused by the process, and not letting down much milk, but hopefully that will change soon. Scarlet still has not had her kids. This is why I should have written due dates on a calendar instead of on a little scrap of paper that laid around for a while then disappeared. On that note- Foxy (rabbit) should be due to kindle about the middle of next week. Rosie's milk is indeed fattier than the Nubian milk. It was already separating after a couple of hours. It tastes very rich and creamy, too. Yum!

The baby chicks are not doing as well as past batches. We lost 11 out of 27. Usually we only lose 2 or 3. I called McMurray Hatchery and they assume they got chilled during shipping. They are going to reship what we lost in a couple of weeks and hopefully the weather will be nicer. This is the first group that the post office has waited until opening to call-usually they call as soon as they come off the truck, even if it's 6am. What we have left from this bunch are doing well now. They have their wing feathers and are beginning to get their tail feathers. I still have no clue what our mystery chick is.

Pictures of cuteness next time!

More Chickens!

The big news this week is the arrival of the new chicks. Monday morning I got the call from the post office to come pick up my noisy box. At the time all were alive, but we have lost 5 as of this post. It was very cold Sunday night, which just makes shipping harder. What we have currently are 6 White Crested Polish (the ones with the poof on top) 3 Partridge Cochins Hens (the solid brown ones) 12 Dark Cornish (brown with black stripes) and 1 mystery chick (not pictured). There's still another 24 hours to go before I'll stop expecting more casualties. The other fowl are doing well. The ducks have been free ranging again, now that the weather has warmed and the chickens are starting to lay more.

Zombie Chick

Barred Rock

Rascal napping in the sun

The goats are all doing well. The others have accepted Flash into the herd. Soon he and Chipper will have to go hang out on their own away from the does, and it won't be long before Sage and Chipper are weaned and the Herrin's get FRESH GOAT MILK! Yum!

Flash, Sage and Chipper sunning

Sage

Chipper is king of the table

Petunia and Scarlet cuddling

Then they decided to really ham it up

Rupert always comes out on the porch and waits while I make the rounds

Bo's head hanging off the couch

Now we're just waiting for spring to plant the rest of the garden and it'll really get busy around here!

Welcome Flash!

February is about over and today certainly felt like spring. What a beautiful day at Lazy Danes and productive, too!

This morning we got an early start and got Chipper and Sage disbudded. For those not familiar with this, you take a giant soldering iron and burn off the nubs of the kids horns that are beginning to emerge. It sucks for the kids and for us and it stinks! As with many things in life though, it's for their own good. They shook off their trauma quickly, luckily, and are no worse for the wear.

Sage is on the left, Chipper is getting a darker mask around his eyes

Next, I was off to pick up our new herdsire, Flash. He's not much on the sire part yet, but he'll be ready in the fall. Flash came from Buffalo Creek Farm in Germanton (same place we got Rosie and Petunia). He's a little unsure about the newness, but hopefully he and Chipper will be bounding around together soon. I'm going to have to do some creative separating over the next few weeks so tomorrow's goal is to obtain a Gallagher smart fence. Here's hoping Clemmon's Mill has them in stock and they're as easy to operated as the videos show. Chuck and I also built a little loafing shed for the little goats. Not sure where it will be permanently but for now it's in the main pen. The back pen has been walked and I'm picking up another fence charger for it tomorrow, also.

Flash- I love the little white band on his nose.

We also got some general farm maintenance done - pens cleaned, ponds filled, etc. Then it was time to plant! Chuck and Madison planted beets, peas (snap and snow) and lettuce, while Willow and I started feeding and bringing animals in.

Coming up, we're still awaiting Scarlet's kids- she is beginning to make her udder, so any time now... Our newest chicks will arrive the week of March 7th. Foxy has been bread to Isaac for bunnies late in March. And, hopefully, this week I will start milking Rosie once a day for our delicious goats milk! Yum!

A couple of our roosters...

Peck- head honcho

(Partridge Cochin)

Spaulding - number 2

(Delaware)

Time to Plan

Now is planning time on the farm- big plans, small plans, long plans and short plans.

Last weekend was beautiful and we spent some time prepping the raised beds. Manure was added to increase the nitrogen and more will follow. Seeds are ordered and waiting for the right time. The first to go in, snow peas, will be planted in a couple weeks, followed closely by lettuce and beets. The plan is to have a more productive garden this year and actually can some of our own food. Fingers crossed!

The goats are all doing very well. Rosemary's two are beginning to bound and climb things. The plan for the Nigerian's is to keep Rosemary's doeling- we named her Sage. The buckling is getting a wonderful home with our neighbor- he will be wethered and kept as a pet. His name, as given by our neighbor, is Spotty. For a longer term plan, we have purchased an unrelated buckling that will join us when old enough, and he will be the herdsire for purebred Nigerian's. Chuck played a big part in naming him Flash. Roscoe stays to service the Nubians- he's very sweet and smaller than a purebred Nubian buck. I'm just not ready to wrestle a 300 pound stinky head-butter. Scarlet should be due in about 3 weeks, her kids will be sold- hopefully as pets or milking does. Madison and Willow will be responsible for milking the Nigerians next year, and we should have lots of milk left over to make soap. We're planning to increase the goat browse area before all the spring buds, too. That will help clear out brush, especially around the creek, and give them nom noms.

Chickens- ugh! Well, they're laying a little again. We lost a total of 5 over the winter. A dog got one, a fox (we think) got 2, and 2 are mysteries. After the fox, which was the most recent loss, I sucked it up and ordered more. The plan as of last spring had been to raise our own Delawares to process, however, 2 losses were Delewares so I'm rethinking our meat birds. I ordered Dark Cornish to be our meat birds this time around. They are heavier than the others we've butchered so far and grow faster. They are neat looking, too! I ordered 15 total, 10 males and 5 females. The females will be breeders and all but 1 male will be dinner. The others that I ordered are 4 Partridge Cochin hens for Peck- these also make great mothers if any of the ducks or other chickens don't want to raise their own. For a laugh, and, I really love having chickens, I ordered 6 White Hat Black Polish. These crazy looking birds are black bodied with a big poof of feathers on their head. These will lay eggs, but are mainly for pets. Hoping the rooster is nice since they are obviously more adorned than the hens. All the newbies will arrive March 8th or 9th so hopefully it will warm up a bit by then.

The ducks have been keeping us in eggs over the winter- they have not been bothered by snow, rain, cold or short days. This spring, we'll let some hatch- either by the ducks or by a chicken. The Pekin will be dinner and the others offered as pets or dinner. I'll need to get each breed separated so we know what's what, but there's plenty of time.

The rabbits have a date today. I'll be putting the does in with Isaac. This should be an easy way to keep up with due date- 28 days. If temps are still low I'll put in heat lamps this time.

Well, that's the skinny on what's coming up for Lazy Danes! I'll leave you with adorableness...

Sage on the left, she's noticeably larger, nuzzling Spotty

Spotty

Sage

Spotty getting nom noms.

New buckling, Flash. Scheduled to arrive around March 1st.