Calendula's Journal -- Nubian Pictures

[babsbag]

Welcome to BYH from CA. It sounds like you have quite the collection of critters already but we are always willing to help people get more. Glad that you took the plunge and decided to post. Jump in and join the fun, I promise we won't bite.

 

[samssimonsays]

Welcome from northern minnesota! Glad you made the jump to starting your own journal!

 

[SherryV]

Calendulas, what a great introduction. Maybe I'll do mine now. I'm in the planning stage of getting land and goats and chickens. We had chickens in the past but to do goats we need to sell our one acre house and land and get more land.

Accounting is a great field of study and so transferable to any business or industry. I was recently laid off and since I obtained my associates in accounting while working my past job; I just found a new position in Payroll/Accounting. So excited to start my new job on Monday!!
I love reading about everyone's journey and learning about small scale farming. Hi from Maine.

 

[Devonviolet]

I guess I'm coming to the party a little late. But, I guess better late than never.

Welcome to BYH from the great state of Texas! I hope you are having a very Merry Christmas!

I'm so glad you finally got up the nerve to jump into the fray. We are the friendliest bunch of homesteaders you'd ever want to meet, and so many truly helpful experts . . . of which I am not one. But, I'll happily jump in with a tidbit here and there.

 

[Mini Horses]

Welcome from VA.......we all love pics. And, we listen to anything you have to say or ask. Yep, we also love to reply.

 

[Ferguson K]

Welcome from another Texan! don't be afraid of us , we don't bite (hard).

Sit back and enjoy the ride !

 

[Calendula]

Here I promise to update and have a journal, and then fail to do so for a good month! What can I say? I'm a procrastinator and I've been all over the place.
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! Sorry for the late intro, but I made sure to include pictures.

Here in Michigan, winter came late. It snowed about a week before Christmas and then melted the day after Christmas. In that time, I spent a day trying to make a chicken "coop" inside our barn. I didn't feel comfortable with the ladies being stuck in their summer quarters. Too small and not well ventilated enough for my liking, so everyone got moved. The roosters are suffering from a little bit of comb frostbite. We put bag balm on because that's supposed to help stop the frostbite, but I'm not so sure. I'll have to look up some different ways to try and preserve the boys' comb.
Having three roosters with about twenty hens is actually going surprisingly well! The brothers (they're about six months old now...?) had a few skirmishes earlier in the year but have since settled down. Their father continues to be my favorite bird. I was attacked by several roosters growing up at my grandparents' so when my father insisted on keeping at least ONE rooster (we had two from our batches of pullets. Funny thing is that's what happened when my grandparents first got chickens, too.), I was skeptical. But he is the sweetest thing. Very protective of his hens and since his sons have moved in, he has claimed his favorites and let the boys have their own. Just the other day, he moved all the hens underneath a car. We couldn't see any threat, but I appreciate his enthusiasm.
A nice picture of most of the hens and one of the sons. A Barred Rock/Buff Orpington mix. He is HUGE. But his dad weighs in at nine pounds, so I'm not surprised. (His father's butt is in the lower right hand corner. Lol.)

My favorite little hen that you can't see very well. She likes to stand by my feet and trip me because she will not leave you along when you enter. She's an Easter Egger.

Bonus picture of Bandit who thinks that if the chickens are eating it, he can eat it, too! Of course, he can't figure out what's so amazing about these sprouts.

The goats are doing their thing and refusing to come out into the snow right now. Unless of course we have treats or in this case, fodder! Right now I'm still only using sunflower seeds but I hope to use a mix that I found on a website that is supposed to be good for goats, chickens, and rabbits. I just have to find a good place for purchasing seed. We have a TSC, but it is miles away and in this weather where I can't see the road, I would rather not head up there.
I'm very excited for this year of kids! We are going to have kids everywhere starting at the end of March. Their due dates range around a good three weeks, so hopefully lots of warm weather and April babies! (I might be getting my months confused. I have it written down in a planner somewhere.)
Also on my agenda is to make a "So Your Goat is in Labor" pamphlet for my parents so that if I'm not here, they will know what to do. I plan on shutting myself into the house as much as I can until all kids are on the ground, but I do work Saturdays and go to school at night. Of course, Step One will be to contact me.
The lady we got all of our goats from and that we take our goats to get bred at also mentioned managing to get our NDs registered. I don't know how since what I have seen, it isn't possible. You can have Grade goats of every other breed, but not NDs but she said that she knows someone so I guess we'll see.
The first day of snow, they refused to come out of the barn. The little black doe is Pixie, and the white one is Cloud the wether. (Excuse our horrible barn doors. Those are my list of things to fix.)

Family photo of the gang enjoying some sprouts.

Stanley the fat black wether. People constantly ask us if he's pregnant... and then Winona, the little chocolate-and-white doe. She is convinced that Stanley must be her father and loved to mess with him when she was little.
Stanley is by far my favorite (don't tell the others!). He is nicely tempered. Very sweet, affectionate, but will also play when wanted. If the goats are roaming our yard, he will stand with us and pretend to be a person. If we talk in a group, he will stand on the side of the group's circle just like a person will. Not in the center, not behind us, but next to us and will track the speaker. He is usually everyone's favorite when they come to visit.

This is Daphne who is Winona's mother. I'm excited for her to have kids this year, but not excited to milk her! She is evil and lives to make my life a nightmare. She will only be milked if it is only me and only then for a few minutes. Also, she's the one that had the kids last year and refused to take care of them unless Stanley, SPECIFICALLY Stanley, was in the pen with her. Otherwise, she was a great mother!
We also suspect that Daphne and Cloud are related because they are nearly identical. They don't have the same mother or father, though.

Little Pixie is the sweetest thing. She is also expecting her first kids this year and I am particularly excited for them! When we went to get kids the next year after getting Daphne and Stanley, I told the lady I NEED a Stanley sister. We had a choice between her and a gorgeous little brown doe, but... she was sweeter. Stanley was just such a perfectly tempered wether (and pretty gorgeous, although I may be biased) that I knew I needed someone related to him. She's his full sister, just a year younger.

And finally, we have Fairy, aka Knieval. I have a better picture showing her whole body, but I just love her expression in this one. She has the same father as Pixie and Stanley, actually, but she's the complete opposite. She was off the walls bouncing with energy when we went to pick out kids, so naturally we chose her. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. As a kid, she would literally bounce off walls. I called it "wall jumping" and she would do it when I headed out with bottles. She once broke a table the chickens used for shade. We are constantly having to push her off of things because she lives to climb and jump and since sometimes we let them free, she gets into a LOT of trouble. We also have a goat house (I'll get some pictures) that she would jump up on and taught Daphne's triplets to do. This house is so tall that I have to reach up to get them down. I am 5'2". They do a straight vertical jump to get up there. She is 75% ND and then 25% Miniature Fainter/Pygora. She looks like the others, minus her ears flopping when she walks and her really muscular legs. I kind of like her build and look better than the others.

So birds, goats, and then we have a couple pet rabbits. They are currently enjoying the expansive goat birthing stall area (it breaks into two smaller areas but has a removable middle) until they get evicted. Hopefully by then the snow will be melted and they can return to their green outdoor pasture! The chickens will be getting a new home in the summer (hopefully...) and we're planning on moving the rabbits in with them. One of the problems with the duo is that being confined to somewhere inside makes Bugs more friendly and Lola more skittish, and then being outdoors and free makes Lola more friendly and Bugs more skittish. It's a predicament.
Lola is the lovely black girl and Bugs is the black-and-white one that kind of looks like a poorly bred Dutch.

And finally, a bonus picture of the farm's namesake: the cat, Blue, and the dog, Bandit. Relaxing on me after a long day's work of checking on the animals and not catching any of the mice.
It makes me laugh to think how Bandit is part Plott Hound. I joined a Facebook group about Plotts and I see them chasing bears all the time... Bandit loves it when he can go into the bunny pen because he likes to lay down and cuddle them. And he got worried about our goat last year when she had her babies and threw a fit because he wasn't allowed to check on them for the first day. So much for being a "big bad" hunter.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Sounds like a crazy bunch to be around, and entertaining as well. We have a wether that is 66% pygmy and the rest is Boer. We named him Lightning and the name sure Fits him; he is Fast and a "Wall Jumper" as you term it. I have a video of him Springing off the side of their building as a game of "Chase" was ocurring.
Your animals are nicely marked with their colors along with the chickens, cat, and dog. Sounds like ya have some pretty "Helpers" that just want to be involved in the happenings around there.
Here shortly, it sounds like it is going to be "All Hands on Deck" with the Birthing coming up. I sure hope all goes Well for ya!

 

[Calendula]

Haha. "Interesting" just about sums it up. I love watching everyone's personalities come out. They're all so different, even to the point where they don't all like the same food. When we first got the goats, we did not expect them to be so friendly to the point that they will scream at us when we go outside because they want love.
I'd love to see that! The wall jumpers are the most fun to watch. More like a jumping addict, actually.
And thank you for the compliment on color! I love color so I really can't wait to see what my does give me this year. I'm hoping for healthy and colorful.
And yes... luckily we still have a few more months, but I'm getting prepared. I still have my goat birthing kit intact from last year. I really just need to purchase another heat lamp and clean it up, but I'll have to evict the bunnies and find them a place first.

Today, I finally got around to making a Facebook post to advertise the upcoming kids and also made a farm email. Myself, boyfriend, and dad shared it. From there, my manager shared it! Hoping for the best! A few hours ago, my boyfriend said forty people had viewed it...? I don't know how it works. I could barely figure out how to post. (Yes, I'm a young adult that should be with the times but am not.)

 

[SherryV]

Love all your pictures of your critters. I went to visit a goat farm this fall since I'm still in the planning stage of my own. They all had different personalities. I'm really excited that you will have kids. To me this is a bit scary, I'm just learning all I can right now but helping with birthing will be way out of my "box". They are so cute though and it is exciting that soon you will have new personalities to add to your herd.