Queen Mum's Dancing in the Rain

[Queen Mum]

Well, BJ still feels deprived. This time he has taken over the big feed trough. Apparently the small dish wasn't big enough.

He'd better be careful. We might get the idea that he would make quite a little dish... He is a boer goat, afterall.

 

[Queen Mum]

Mama is still milking out a quart from her one bad teat. She is so good on the milk stand. She hops right up and stands quietly while I strip her out on that side. Then she can feed her babies on that side the rest of the day. She is still producing colostrum so in a couple more days I should have good milk. In about a week, the kids will go in the baby pen at night and I'll probably get a over half a gallon in the morning from her. She really is a high yield girl. I should, be bottle feeding those boys, but Mama gets SO upset when I take her kids, that she loses tons of weight so I don't usually take her kids from her. She is great about weaning at three months, though, and I start bottle feeding in the mornings at 3 weeks That way, I can strip milk her in the morning..

Mama is the herd queen and she is the best mother goat that I know of. She really teaches my other does how to be good mothers. I always am glad when she has her babies first or very close to the other does kidding. She whips the other mamas in to line. If they aren't protecting their kids, she nips the mamas and makes them go to their babies. And she fosters babies too. The year before last, she fostered a couple baby deer that lost their mother. They just came up to her and started nursing and within hours she had milk for them. Thank God, too because she kept trying to steel the other does kids. She took on Caramel's babies when Caramel got killed by a bear. She didn't feed them because I was already bottle feeding, but she looked after them like they were her own kids. She herded them into the barn every night and made sure they hid under the milk stand "from the bear". She even herded them into the garage when she thought the bear was around and made them be absolutely silent.

Mama is amazing!

 

[that's*satyrical]

Mama sounds like a good Mama. And you're right about BJ with him sitting in the food dish it's not hard to imagine pulling that dish out of the oven & basting it lol.

 

[Queen Mum]

Yesterday and today were kind of laid back. Yesterday, I built another kidding pen. This one was bigger than the last one. And the sides are field fencing and 2x3 instead of cattlepanel and 2x4. (Used what I had.)

And yesterday, I fixed the electric fence wire. The goats were getting out by going under the bottom wire. I figured out that the bottom two wires had half the charge that the upper two wires had. I realized that the contact between the wires was loose. Now the charge is higher, but still not at full power. I'm not quite sure why. HMMM. Today, though, Whitney got a little wet, when I squirted her with the hose for trying to eat the dog's food and when she tried to go under the wire, she got a little extra zap. Boy she wasn't expecting that!

I've been milking Mama twice a day on her bad side. And milking Autumnprairies girls in the mornings. Their production is coming up. And Mama's milk is finally not colostrum anymore. So I can start combining the milk pretty soon. Brownie is making quite a bit of milk as well so we will be getting enough to start cheese production soon.

Today, was goat and dog training day. The goats, as I mentioned have been kind of naughty. They have been sneaking under the fence, so I have been spraying them with cold water. AND they have been chasing the dog away from her food so they are getting the cold water treatment for that too.

AND the dog keeps stealing the goats food dishes WHILE THEY ARE EATING. She has been getting correction for that and for chasing the goats. ALL DAY LONG. Tomorrow, I have to start working on cleaning up all the Molly trash. She likes to drag out the trash and throw it ALL over the field. Sigh. Every day, I clean it up and every day she finds some more.

There is trash everywhere from the prior tenants. Some of it needs to go to recycling. The rest needs to be burned or put where Molly can't reach it.

And tomorrow, I am going to start on the boys new shelter. Made from pallets. Hopefully, I will be able to get some flooring materials for it first.

 

[redtailgal]

Make sure that your two lower wires are tight. Check that you dont have a cracked or damaged insulator, and make sure that you have a solid ground. Tall grass touching the wires, a limb laying across the fence. Make sure that your bottom and next wire are not crossed or touching.

What sort of fence posts are you using?

 

[autumnprairie]

t posts and push in poles fiberglass and metal with a plastic pipe over it

 

[redtailgal]

I'd bet that some where you have a few poor insulators causing the hotwire to be too close to the the posts.

Do you have a fence tester? You can get one a Tractor Supply for pretty cheap. Use it to test your bottom wires, start near your charger.......and test every 10 feet or so moving away from the fence. When you see a drop in the voltage on the tester, your problem is close by.

That fence tester will have a spike on a wire.......stick this in the ground when you test the wires to get a better reading.

 

[Queen Mum]

I'd bet that some where you have a few poor insulators causing the hotwire to be too close to the the posts.

Do you have a fence tester? You can get one a Tractor Supply for pretty cheap. Use it to test your bottom wires, start near your charger.......and test every 10 feet or so moving away from the fence. When you see a drop in the voltage on the tester, your problem is close by.

That fence tester will have a spike on a wire.......stick this in the ground when you test the wires to get a better reading.

The drop starts right at the beginning of the wire. That's why I'm having such a hard time figuring out the problem. I think it is the insulator itself. I need to take the whole thing apart at the origin and rewire it to the fence. I just got a some new insulators today to do just that.

Wow, I got the boys some hay today. They have been at the hay feeder all afternoon. They are in Hay HOG heaven!

 

[Queen Mum]

Well, thanks to RTG, I think it worked. I changed the insulators at the start of the wires and I think I have more zing on the two bottom wires.

 

[redtailgal]

Your welcome and I am not surprised. Those insulators are usually the culprit around here. We have several miles of fence, so we occasionally have a "insulator replacing daytrip".