ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[elevan]

We just added 6,000 sq feet to the buck's yard. Whew! They are very happy about it though In the near future I'll be taking their entire yard and separating it into 3 with a connecting gate to each. That way they can either have the whole yard or be separated into breeding pens.

Still no signs of heat in any of our goat girls...I'm hoping for 3 bred. I due next month with the other 2 due in November Maggie has come into heat several times already but she'll be a year in Oct and the earliest that I'd consider breeding her is Dec...I want her to put on a little more weight though.

I've also made some changes to our website...please check it out and give me your honest opinions

One of our roos is a "teenager" now and has taken to following me around...didn't think anything of it until tonight when he tried to "kick" at me. I will not allow a roo to try to flog me. I kicked out and barely missed sending him flying. He took off running but tried it again a short while later...I'm gonna be playing roo football if he keeps it up. I'd hate to send him to freezer camp but will if it comes to that. This is an EE that I had dearly hoped would be a hen...just not in the cards I guess

 

[elevan]

I can't sleep! Went to bed too early last night (was exhausted) and now here I am awake at 4:30 in the morning. So here's yesterday's "life on the farm"

Since the quail have been laying their eggs on the cage floor, I decided to give them a nest. I took a coconut fiber hanging basket and removed the hanging chain. Then I secured some large leaf fake plants to it to provide top cover. Finally I added some dried grass clippings inside and zip tied the basket to the cage. They didn't lay any eggs yesterday but everyone was in and out of the "nest" checking it out. They seem to like it but we'll see if they use it for it's intended purpose.

The boy goats and the turkeys (who share their field) have been really happy with their expanded field. And you can definitely tell that fall is around the corner as those boys are spending more time peeing on their chins and into their mouths No goat kisses for a while!

Goldie (goat) is getting more loving. Hopefully it's just another sign that she's on schedule to kid next month. She's not looking "large" but sometimes pygmies don't. She seems to be building her udder slowly - no filling of it yet.

Maggie (goat) is in heat and letting everyone know it She's only 10 months old, so not time for her yet...December will be the earliest that we'll breed her. I'm still deciding which buck she'll go in with when her time arrives. Maggie has a single moonspot on her leg. So if I wanted to go for flash I'd combine her with Snickers (pygerian) who is colorful and his dam was covered in moonspots. If I want to improve on milk lines, I'll go with Ranger who is ND. Or I could just go straight pygmy to pygmy by putting her with Speedy. Speedy has given lovely kids and is proven while the other 2 bucks have yet to show their stuff. Ranger has *hopefully* bred 3 of my does with 1 due next month and the other 2 in November. Snickers has not yet matured to the task...he'll be given one more chance to give it a go (after his first year of rut) and if he can't get the job done then he'll be wethered.

When I went out to wait for the chickens to go to bed I sat down on a block and Honey, one of our golden buff chicks can over and hopped into my lap. She wanted to be petted and just hang out with me. She's so sweet

I'm still bothered by Skeeter, the buckeye chick that I stepped on. I've tried to wrap her leg to give it more support but she won't leave it on. She gets around but it's wobbly and she can't go in a straight line. To make matters worse occasionally one of the other chickens will jump on her and it sets her back on any progress that she's made. I'm considering selling her to someone who can devote more attention to her. It's not that I don't pay attention but I don't want to separate her (and right now I don't have any extra pens) and she's happiest when I open the coop door so she can join the others in the yard. She's a free ranger by heart. I'm so torn. DH thinks she's getting better...maybe I'm just being overly sensitive since I'm the one who stepped on her

The neighbor kids came over to visit my boys and wanted to see the animals. I get annoyed with other people's kids sometimes especially when they don't know how to behave...the one boy says, "I wanna go make the llama spit on me!" Ugh! That boy did not get to enter the barnyard...I don't tolerate that type of attitude. The other boy was better but was afraid that every critter would bite him.

Decided to stop into the hardware store that I never go to because they put a "feed" sign on their building. Well! Glad I made the stop. They sell quite a variety of feeds and their prices are right on or lower than TSC AND they sell somethings that TSC doesn't. I need to find someplace that sells 25# bags of loose minerals for goats, cause TSC only has the small bags of Manna Pro. The hardware store had Purina goat mineral but it doesn't have the proper Cah ratio :/ The one feed store I found that is close that carried the minerals I wanted went out of business on the 9th. The Co-op that I don't like can order Sweetlix for me but it takes them 1-2 weeks to get it in...but that may be what I have to do.

Sorry folks...this post seems a little "disjointed" but it's technically bedtime for me...I should be asleep but here I am :/

 

[Ms. Research]

I hate it too. Always if I go to bed early when exhausted, it throws me completely out of whack. AND it takes me so much more time getting back into my schedule. Oh the trials of getting older.

Sounds like your quail like their new nest, but then again liking and using it are two different things. Hope they do. Sounds so much better than laying their eggs on the bottom of the cage.

Poor Skeeter. I think you are feeling a little bad on accidently stepping on her. It happens when they are underfoot. Listening to hubby will help. Give her more time. It's amazing how well they adapt to things and hopefully she will be back on TWO strong legs soon. Don't beat yourself up over this. LOL! Listen to me, I'd be doing the same thing.

Can't wait to hear about Goldie. And Maggie, well girl you just have to wait! You have a lot of choices for her. That's really the best part of all of it. Figuring out which avenue to take. Will look forward to see where you will go with your Maggie in December.

Regarding your boys' friends, I hope they understand about your feelings on who should be around your animals. Some children have no idea. And why would a child even think it was funny to make a llama spit on him?

 

[elevan]

Well I decided to brace Skeeter's leg today. She didn't like it but I believe she's moving a little better.

We also moved all the chickens into the big coop tonight. Again the big girls didn't like it but they'll get over it. I figure we'll have to hand carry them from the old coop a few night to the big coop before they voluntarily go to it on their own.

The guineas were moved into a large pen in the big coop. A few weeks there and we'll begin training them for free ranging.

We rehomed one of our ducks today. One of the mutts turned out to be a drake and he was trying to breed the East India girl and was injuring her. Poor girl could barely walk! He was about 5x bigger than her. It took us a while to catch him...keep in mind I'm not a huge fan of the ducks and since prior to today I spent a lot of time chasing them back to the pond they didn't want to come anywhere near me I'm still not a fan of ducks but at least the biggest PITA of them is gone!

We'll be going to Northern Ohio tomorrow evening to pick up a new member for the goat herd. Little Killbuck Elsie will be coming home tomorrow! Pictures when she gets home!! We're so excited.

 

[Sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Sounds like a good day! I can't wait to see your new goat!

 

[elevan]

Meet Elsie

 

[marlowmanor]

I have loved your journal. You have the breeds we'll end up having on out little mini farm. We are getting a pygerian buckling in mid september. My father raises pygmies and nigerians and our little buckling is coming from him. He has a couple does due in a few months and one in particular we are hoping to get a couple doelings out of. I have 3 boys myself (8mth old, 2 1/2 yr old, 4 1/2 yr old) and my oldest is so excited about "his" goat he loves when we get to go visit him. We also have chickens (BR cockeral, 2 RIR pullets, and 5 EEs with 2 of those being suspected roos) but they are only 6 weeks old, so they have a lot of growing to do! Keep up the updates!

P.S. I sent you a friend request on FB.

 

[elevan]

I have loved your journal. You have the breeds we'll end up having on out little mini farm. We are getting a pygerian buckling in mid september. My father raises pygmies and nigerians and our little buckling is coming from him. He has a couple does due in a few months and one in particular we are hoping to get a couple doelings out of. I have 3 boys myself (8mth old, 2 1/2 yr old, 4 1/2 yr old) and my oldest is so excited about "his" goat he loves when we get to go visit him. We also have chickens (BR cockeral, 2 RIR pullets, and 5 EEs with 2 of those being suspected roos) but they are only 6 weeks old, so they have a lot of growing to do! Keep up the updates!

P.S. I sent you a friend request on FB.

Thank you

 

[elevan]

I've been gone most of the day today since we took the boys to the zoo. They both start kindergarten tomorrow...so it was their last hoorah before schools starts

Elsie is settling in very well. Breaks DHs heart though when ever he leaves her because it sounds like she's crying Daaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddd.........Daaaaaaaaaadddddddddd! He's head over heels in love with her!

Susie (chicken) is hiding eggs on me again... A week with no eggs from her means they are somewhere piled up. Gonna have to go on the hunt....last time it took us over 3 weeks to find her stash of eggs!

We've decided to but Skeeter (chicken) into a pen with Lonesome Dove (chicken) to recuperate. Skeeter's leg still isn't getting better...she's got several chickens piling on her at night so it's no wonder. I tried bracing it but she manages to get it off. I hated to confine her but there's nothing left to do but that. We put Dove with her because apparently she's done something to her foot (she's limping)...I can't find a visible injury, but this way she can heal too. They both seemed pleased to have a feeder and waterer completely to themselves. So hopefully with rest, plenty of feed / water and love they'll both recover fully

We now have 2 bob white quail hens laying eggs!!! Woot! DH is so excited about that. Problem is that we don't have an incubator....yet. So once I figure out how to crack these tiny eggs I'll make some appetizers with them

On another note, I'm about to be overrun by sports...my boys have both signed up for soccer and DH has volunteered to coach. I'm not a big sports fan (any kind of sport really) and now I'm gonna have to go to games and DH wants me making snacks...the boys and DH are already talking baseball, football and others too...HELP! DH just came back from his first coach's meeting and I already feel overwhelmed! How can I handle the things I do with animals and be terrified on dealing with all of this sports stuff??!!??

 

[redtailgal]

z