Spring is a busy time on the homestead! Case in point, I wrote this update a week ago and am just now getting around to posting it. Better late than never, though, right?! So, here’s what happened a week ago [with more current updates in brackets]…
Goats
We woke up with one goat getting sick out of both ends and ended the day with two new pregnant goats and a little doeling. How was your day?
Let’s work backwards on this one. We’d been toying with the idea of trying to get Doc pregnant so we could milk her for a while and then replace her with one of her (hopefully) better behaved kids. Then, as fate would have it, I saw a post on our local homestead-and-barter page about some Nigerian Dwarf does looking for a new home. A conversation with the owner revealed that she had 3 pregnant does and 2 doelings…for free! Obviously the universe wants us to have baby goats soon – and to get rid of Doc – so we picked up 2 of those soon-to-be-mamas and one doeling (because we don’t need a million goats, no matter how cute they are). And these girls are cuuuuuuuuuuute! Turns out, Doc and Feisty weren’t full Nigerians because they were way bigger than Flora, Fauna, and Meriwether. AC feels much better about the size of the barn and the pasture for this new herd – she built everything based on research about the size of actual ND goats, not….whatever Feisty and Doc were, so now we’re much more confident that we have room for adorable little forthcoming kids. We posted our mutt goats on the homestead page and sent them off to a new home the next day.
Oh, and the goat getting sick out of both ends was Bash. We think she ate too much rabbit poop and accidentally poisoned herself, but she got it out of her system (and all over the goat house) and we gave her some milk of magnesia and electrolyte water so she’s all better now. We had finally gotten her to a point where she had filled out and looked healthy, but after she puked or pooped everything she’s ever eaten, she regressed back to the scrawny, emaciated look she had when we got her. *Sigh* So we’ll keep her around as our shy, low maintenance little project goat.
[Sadly, the farm isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. This past week one of our new does gave birth, but the little one didn’t make it. We think Fauna kidded early due to the stress of being rehomed. We were out of town for a quick getaway when it happened and our farm sitter didn’t notice anything so we think it happened in the early hours of the day we returned. Fauna seems to be ok, though we’re keeping a close eye on her. And we’re milking her so she doesn’t get mastitis. It was a sad day and we’re praying that Meriwether has better luck when her time comes.]
Rabbits
On a different front, the rabbits are doing well. AC built them a tractor so they can get some yard time and Rex loves it! Thumper is indifferent and Crush freaks out whenever we try to move her to the tractor so she has yet to experience it.
[As of TODAY, we have a new litter of kits! Rex is a momma, y’all! The babies are buried in a nest of mom’s fur (don’t worry, that’s normal) so we haven’t gotten a good look at them, but we can see movement so we know they’re in there. They’re probably not very cute right now anyway – rabbits are born naked, blind, and deaf…who knew?]
Barn & Garden
The barn build is a-movin’! The ceiling has been spray-foamed and we got all our insulation delivered. Then, two weekends ago we found a great price on tongue-and-groove boards for our ceiling so we drove to Tennessee, precariously balanced a bundle of boards on a rented trailer, and very cautiously drove back. The next day we found our flooring at a local warehouse called Really Cheap Floors (the name fits). AC has put the insulation in the walls, and we’ve started drywalling. It feels good to finally be making more progress on that project.
The garden is gearing up! We finally built out the last bed and I’ve put in brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, asparagus, and onions. And that’s just the first bout!
Chickens
The chickens are on the dormant side of the garden so they could scratch it up and fertilize for us. And they have done their job well! A little too well, in fact. They scratched up every blade of grass and, consequently, most of the bugs they love to eat are also gone. Since they didn’t have any grubs to forage, they turned into little raptors! Every time we’d go into their run, they would peck at our legs and shoes, and jump in the air to try to get at whatever we were holding – it was a bit aggressive. So, they took a field trip to the goat yard early this week and were in paradise – green grass and bugs galore! They visited the goat yard a few more times after that and calmed down significantly. However, during their last visit with the goats, Meeko got a little too curious and caught one of our hens…with his mouth. She lost a lot of feathers and had a nice little bite above one of her wings. Now, chickens are quite good at self preservation so it was crucial for us to (1) treat her wounds and (2) keep her isolated so the other chickens didn’t notice she was wounded and vulnerable, and attempt to…remove her so that she wouldn’t lure in predators. We took her inside for a night of first aid and recovery. Then we moved her back outside to an area where she could see her flock mates, but they couldn’t get to her. She spent a few days in her mini run, and showed signs of recovery and interest in rejoining the others so we gave it a shot. I kept an eye on her to make sure the others didn’t pick on her and she seems to be doing fine.
Finally, we have 6 new chicks! We now have:
- the 4 original Golden Comets (brown eggs)
- 2 Black Australorp chicks, Eyzma and Olaf, will lay brown eggs, but their black color should help deter hawks and other airborn predators.
- 2 Americana chicks, Hei Hei and Turk…or Sven (they look very similar, but only one is an Americana). They’ll lay blue eggs.
- 1 Cuckoo Maran (again, Turk or Sven?) will lay dark brown eggs.
- 1 Speckled Sussex, Tantor, will lay brown eggs, and is traditionally super friendly with pretty brown and white feathers.
- Coming in May: 2 six-week old Easter Eggers (blue/green eggs)
If you did the math, that’ll be a total of 12 chickens…2 more than I promised to stop at (chicken math is real, y’all!). I keep telling myself, and AC, that we have extras in case any of them turn out to be roosters. We got all the newborn chicks from our local feed store and they’re all supposed to be female, but it’s hard to sex a tiny fluffy chick, so there’s no guarantee. For now, though, they’re all adorable and soft (and loud – those tiny birds make a lot of high-pitched noise).
Phew! I’m tired. Welcome to springtime on the farm!
Until next time,
Charli
