JoyfulGoat's Journal

[JoyfulGoats]

Hi everyone!

I've had chickens and quails for around 2 years in the city (where we aren't actually allowed any). We are now moving to the countryside and having a house built on 8 acres. We will be getting Nigerian Dwarf goats, and perhaps in the future have sheep, turkeys, ducks, and guineas. It will be amazing to finally be allowed to have any livestock I want and can afford.

We have just sold our house, and will be moving into our new one probably sometime in July, so this journal might not be super interesting at first.

My quails are with me, but my chickens are currently at my grandparent's house because after 1.5 years of having chickens, we hatched some chicks to replace 2 chickens we had lost and give some to my grandparents, but our neighbour freaked out over seeing many chicks and instead of talking to us (we weren't increasing the number of chickens we had, simply replacing those killed by a falcon), he told the city. The city has an unspoken "ok as long as no one complains" policy for chickens (we even called them to check), but since the neighbour did, off go the chickens. I haven't seen them for about 8 months because they live in another province, but I will be going there soon and will post lots of pictures!

I reserved 2 goats so far, and will buy another one that hasn't yet been born.

Future wether - Quinoa
3/4 Nigerian Dwarf, 1/4 alpine

Doeling - Framboise
Registered Nigerian Dwarf, black and white with lots of roaning

I don't know what to do about Quinoa though. The breeder's vet told her that disbudding and banding should be done within 3 weeks, and he's already 10 days old. He shouldn't be wethered until at least 8 weeks, and most likely should have been disbudded by now, not at 3 weeks. I feel like the vet just doesn't want to come twice so he's trying to squeeze both at the same time. I don't want a wether with scurs and urinary stones. What do you guys think of this?

For the doeling, I'm already in love with her. I will purchase another registered doeling from another breeder to have different bloodlines.

 

[Latestarter]

From my understanding, the buck kids horns (if not polled) typically grow faster and larger than the doelings, and should be burned in most cases before 2 weeks and normally between 5-10 days old. If you wait too long, the burning won't work and then you'd be talking surgical removal and the associated costs and risks. As for wethering... I was under the impression that it should be done after 8 weeks but I know of some who have done so earlier. Having the wether will be helpful should you decide later to buy a registered buck to breed your girls. They sure are cute! Grats on your new home and abilities to have livestock! It sure is a great feeling, isn't it?

 

[JoyfulGoats]

That's exactly what I've read too. I emailed the breeder to explain the reasons very politely, but never heard back so I won't be taking the wether, unfortunately. The doeling is for sure though!

Tomorrow I should receive pictures of a new doeling and wether that I might buy! I hope they will be cute, but I'll probably get them regardless of their colour (I prefer goats with two colours, not just all one) because the sire comes from a great milking pedigree, and the mom is very good as well. The wether is her twin, and since I wanted one, might as well get the twin. The breeder of Framboise sells almost all the males as breeding bucks, so there are no wethers available.

It is indeed great to finally have all the possibilites open to me! I can't wait for the house to be done and finally bring my chickens back home.

So far on the lot we have the chicken shed (we just need to add a panel inside the coop on one wall to prevent them from pooping inside the walls and the wire on the bottom so nothing can dig in), and we will be building the goat coop this spring/summer. We also brought our small "city chicken coop" to the lot (4ft x 6ft), which will be used if we ever have an injured animal or for broody hens. We also have a quail coop, but might have to move it, since it's placed where we were approved by the conservation group to place the second shed.

The conservation group was a nightmare to deal with for the house and sheds. Our lot is a flat hay field with trees on the edges at the side and back. We don't want to cut any tree down and the building is at least 80ft from the closest tree, but apparently we are a wetland and need to protect the trees (we aren't a wetland. Our city lot is almost just as wet in the spring because both are clay soil). The houses in front are actual forests, but they can cut down 1 acre of trees (on 2 acre lots) because it's lots owned by a builder . They delayed us by 4 months, and then it was too late to build. Anyways, now it's ok, but 3 out of 8 acres are considered a "buffer zone" for our neighbour's forest. We aren't actually anything, but just a buffer. Even his lot is dry. Idk where they are seeing a wetland. But of course when we bought the land and spoke to the township about our plans on the land before buying (I spoke to the planner MULTIPLE times), no one thought to mention this. They all said no problem. I even checked the conservation map, and there was only a tiny speck of our lot that was on it. So small it could have just been a mistake since they draw on the computer, and if it wasn't, it wasn't an issue for us. But no, we have no "protected area", but are the "buffer zone" so basically have all the same rules. So we had already built the shed in the buffer zone (didn't need a permit because of the size, and the township said there were no restrictions), but when we submitted the permit for the house, that's when we learned about the conservation issue (and actually we had submitted it once before but something was missing, but they still hadn't mentioned the conservation at that point). So we need to ask permission to build anything in that zone, and since the first one was already there, we wanted all the animals to be on the same side so we aren't zig zagging and the fences can be shared.

Anyways, now we are approved for the chicken and goat shed (both 10ft x 10ft), and for a 30ft x 20ft building, but it's valid 2 years, so idk if we will build a barn that big by then.

I will fence off a 50x50ft pen for them. I was planning to fence much more, but the cost of woven wire is too high here (on sale at 260$/100ft). It will only be for 3 ND goats, about 10 chickens, and a rabbit. The goats and chickens will be let out onto the rest of the 8 acres when we are home. I will have to teach the goats to come when called.

I cannot wait to finally have my goats!

 

[Latestarter]

You just gotta love govt interference and sellers who conveniently forget to inform you of rather important issues. Not sure about up there in the great white/wet north... down here, failure to disclose stuff like that on a real estate deal leads to large law suits and fines/penalties. Regardless... glad you're getting it sorted out slowly but surely.

 

[JoyfulGoats]

Yea, once we are settled in, we will try to see if anything can be done. When we sold our current house, we had to fill a paper that asks if it's zoned conservation (or other things) and the buyers needed to sign it too. We never got that paper.

But where I live isn't that cold compared to most of Canada! I live in zone 7a but will move to a 6b zone since it's always colder in the countryside. We barely have snow. Usually a maximum of 4 inches at any time, and it melts really quickly. Most of the time we just get rain, so the clay soil gets muddy. Far from being a wetland though.


This is our field:

Taken sometime in the fall

Taken maybe 2 weeks ago

Definitely not a swamp.

 

[JoyfulGoats]

On an exciting note, here are the 2 twins I will be purchasing! One doeling and one future wether.