Goat’s ears come in all shapes and sizes. Some stand straight up, like in the case of Alpines. Some are so small it looks like they have no ears at all, like in the case of Lamanchas. Nubians have large pendulum ears. It’s one of the features that attracts people to them the most! Beyond being cute these ears serve a purpose. Much like elephant ears do for elephants, the Nubian’s ears keep them cool in hot climates.
I’m sorry I missed last week’s What’s up Wednesday. The busy season for the soap business, photography business, farm, and garden are all in full gear… at the same time. We are so incredibly grateful to be this busy. I hope it stays like this!
So much has happened on the farm in the last two weeks. Four of the eight goat kids have gone to their new homes. They all went to good homes and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We still have 3 bucks that we are trying to sell. Selling bucks is no easy task. Farms only need one or two to breed to their entire goat herd and from what I am hearing from other farms there have been an unusually large number of bucks born this year. We were lucky to only have had fifty percent bucks… not many in this area have been so lucky. I am hoping these sweet boys at least go as pets to someone. They are all so gentle and have amazing personalities.
We moved the the bantam chicks outside into their new coop! They were getting tight in their brooder and we were getting tired of having the clean it twice a day… chicks create a lot of dust and dirt. We purchased a coop last year to use for our free range chickens to sleep and lay their eggs. It ended up being a really poor quality, even though we paid a pretty penny for it, so we decided to move the free rangers back into the sturdy coop where they were safe. The “free ranger” coop sat empty for a long time. We weren’t sure what to do with it. It would be a waste to just throw it out, but we were pretty sure it would just fall apart should a dog or other predictor decide to jump up against it. When our friend Rachel brought us the bantam chicks we knew we needed to find them a home once they were done with their brooder, so we decide to reinforce the coop and make it into a tractor, allowing the chickens to help us with pest control around the farm. We removed the entire bottom of the coop… meaning we pulled it away because it had basically wasted away and had already fallen through twice from the weight of the chickens (see… piece of junk). We sat the coop directly on the ground and used the run area the coop once sat on as a run for the front of the coop. It was just the right size considering they are only bantams and will be moved daily. We totally removed one set of nesting boxes because they too had fallen apart (we had half the number of chickens in this coop than it called for by the way). Kevin reenforced or replaced all the areas that were falling apart or felt weak. It has made a cute little chicken tractor! I am so glad we were able to use it and it won’t go to waste… I hate waste.
In soap news, our Summer Goat Milk Soap is on the curing racks! I am so ready for this soap to be done! It is so wonderful for summer skin. I used it all last summer and I’ve missed it so much. It’s made with green tea and aloe, so it’s soothing for skin that has had a lot of sun exposure. It will debut on the first day of summer later this month!
I have had so much fun looking back at these pictures each month. It’s amazing to go back and see what we have accomplished in such a short amount of time. It gives you a new perspective. I can’t believe how quickly things have come together in the last month, especially with the garden… Thinking back it sure doesn’t feel that way, but looking at the photographs there is visual evidence that we sure have accomplished a lot!
To follow our 365 project “A Photo a day from The Freckled Farm” follow us on Instagram: Thefreckledfarm
So, I am getting these posted a little late this month. What can I say… It’s the start of the busy season. Here are the “other” pictures (the photographs that weren’t the “picture of the day” from our 365 project, but were still posted to our Instagram during the month of April). To follow the images from the farm in real time follow us on Instagram @Thefreckledfarm
Another month down! April was amazing. Spring blossomed, the babies grew, the garden really started to come together… Below you will find a round up of the April photographs from our 365 project, A photo a day from The Freckled Farm. To follow our 365 project in real time follow us on Instagram (@Thefreckledfarm)
We had an amazing kidding season this past March. Three of our girls kidded a total of eight kids! Two sets of triplets and one set of twins. Four bucks and four does. Four of these kids have already been sold, although they will remain on our farm until they are weaned, one doe was retained by us, and we still have three bucks available for sale. Meet these precious kids below. If you are interested in purchasing one of our available bucks feel free to email me.
Gouda – Buck – Pure Bred Nubian – Sold to Money Pit Farms
Feta – Doe – Pure Bred Nubian – Sold to Chickenberry Farm
Buck 2 – Buck – Pure Bred Nubian – For Sale – $150
Amelia (Millie) – Doe – Pure Bred Nubian – Retained
Buck 3 – Buck – Pure Bred Nubian – For Sale – $250
Cheddar – Doe – American Nubian – Sold to Chickenberry Farm
Buck 4 – Buck – American Nubian – For Sale $150
Brie – Doe – American Nubian – Sold to Money Pit Farms
And now…. Pictures of goat kids being goat kids….
Kevin is in the middle of that goat pile:
I decided this year that I wanted to document the first day of spring on the farm. While there isn’t a lot of “spring like” things happening yet, there are little hints that spring is on it’s way. There is new life on the farm with the baby goats, the trees are starting to bud, and the daffodils, the first flower to pop up each year, are poking through the ground throughout the farm. The start of spring brings so much excitement! I can’t wait to see what this spring has in store for the farm and gardens!
Warner is our new herd sire! We purchased him early spring 2014. Before 2014 we bred our does with driveway breedings, which is where you wait until your doe goes into heat, pack her into the truck, drive her to the farm where the buck lives, let them breed, then bring the doe home. It can be difficult to tell when your doe is in heat when you don’t have a buck around, and they never go into heat when it is convenient (of course!). We felt with 4 does to breed this year that it was time to get our first herd sire!
We reserved a buck at a local farm that has very strict standards for the bucks that they sell for breeding. The others, the ones who don’t reach the standards, are sent for meat. The day we went to pick out Warner they had sent all of the other bucks off to the butcher that morning. There was only 4 bucks there for us to pick from. She walked us over to the buck pin and the boys rushed up to greet us. The moment I saw Warner I knew he was ours. I don’t even recall what the other bucks looked like. I’m not sure I even looked at them. Warner was just so handsome and sweet! He caught my eye immediately!
Warner has been a great herd sire so far. He is so sweet to the girls. I can’t wait to see what the kids he sired look like! With as beautiful as our girls are, and as handsome as Warner is, we are in for some gorgeous babies!
Oh what a week it has been! In the last week we have had 2 kiddings, resulting in 5 kids. 2 kiddings down – 2 to go!
On Thursday morning Sonia kidded. Her kidding went beautifully. She had 2 perfect kids, a buck and a doe! They both look exactly like their mom. She milked great right after and has been producing the same amount of milk that our does last year were producing in the height of production. She’s a rock star.
On Monday, 4 days before her due date, Ruth kidded. Why so early?… Because she had triplets! Generally kiddings with more than 2 come a little early. The kids were a great size though. Only one of them, the doe, looks like a premie. Ruth had 2 bucks and 1 doe. When Sonia gave us as much milk as she did I was shocked, when I saw what Ruth was producing I was BLOWN AWAY! At her first milking she gave us a half of gallon of milk. This wouldn’t be unusual for a second freshener (a doe who has had a previous kidding) but for a first freshener (this was her first pregnancy) this is outstanding. A half a quart to a quart is more normal for a very first milking (right after they kid) in my experience. The production increases over the next 2 months then levels off. Our first fresheners last year were giving us a little over a half a gallon A DAY in the height of production. Ruth gave us half a gallon in one milking. I can’t imagine what she is going to be giving us in 2 months when she reaches the peak of production. Even now that we have her on a schedule she is giving us 3/4 of a gallon a day. Her utter is huge and beautiful.
Now on to Hillary… She’s giving us a bit of a scare. She is a second freshener and isn’t due until the 28th. Hillary came from a kidding of 6, which is extremely, extremely rare. Tina was in the same kidding. Since there is a possibility that she, like her dam, could carry a large number of kids we ultrasound her at 45 days pregnant. At her ultrasound the vet saw one kid with a heartbeat and the potential for two other water bags, which means we could have 1-3 kids. Goat ultrasounds are not as clear as human ones, and rarely tell you the exact number of kids… so far every ultrasound has underestimated by one kid. We were expecting Sonia to have 1 (she had 2) and Ruth to have 2 (she had 3). Hillary always looks huge when pregnant, even last year when she was carrying 2, but this year she is enormous. You have heard me talk about ligaments a lot. These are the best way to tell if a goat is about to kid. When they disappear the kids will soon make their appearance. On Monday while Ruth was kidding we put the other goats and llamas in the back pasture so Ruth could have a quiet, peaceful environment to kid. Hours later when Ruth was done, cleaned up, and milked we let everyone back into the front pasture. Hillary was following far behind everyone else, walking slowly with her back legs spread. I checked her ligament and I couldn’t find them. She didn’t have any other symptoms but this was very concerning. I called the vet and she said there isn’t much we could do, to just keep her calm and comfortable. If kids are born before 10 days from the due date they will likely not survive. In an effort not to upset her and stress her out I have not been checking her ligaments a lot. I’ll go and peak in on her here and there and listen to the monitor very closely. We need to get her to next Wednesday to have the kids be viable. All of this leads me to believe that she has more than 3 kids or the kids are huge. She is already larger than Ruth was when she kidded her three… but like humans, goats all carry differently and comparing one goat to another will get you nowhere. Please send good vibes our way that Hillary will last until at least next Wednesday but preferably until next Saturday or later!
Kidding is full of excitement and worries. I love the anticipation and watching new life come into this world. I am always so proud of my girls.
Hopefully there will be no new kiddings to report with next week’s What’s up Wednesday.
More details, pictures, and even video for each kidding coming soon!
Eleanor is Elsie’s full sister, the goat we introduced two weeks ago who had the traumatic birth. She is the opposite of her sister in nearly every way. They may be twins, but their personality couldn’t be more different. Eleanor was born without us even knowing. Her mom didn’t make enough noise during her labor for us to hear her over the monitor, so she was already born when we went out to check on Tina. Her sister had an extremely dramatic labor. Eleanor has a sweet, calm, loving personality. She follows rules and is very easily lead. She very rarely gives us a hard time. While her sister is hard headed and will never do what you want her to. And even with all of these differences these sisters love each other and are always at each other’s side.
Eleanor’s calm personality makes you gravitate to her. She is so sweet and loves to give kisses.
