Cocoa is a very sweet young goat, a Nigerian Dwarf Myotonic (Fainting Goat) cross. She has extra large ears and a very beautiful face, plus she is the shyest, quietest little girl. Her coat is actually black, but in the winter she is a dark chocolately brown colour and she has two small horns, which will grow as she ages. Cocoa is the low goat in the herd, along with Daphne, and she gets pushed away from the food by all the other goats. She does not fight back, but retreats to a corner and cries. I feel so sorry for her and usually try to give her a handful of the extra good hay, and some for Daphne, who is also pushed away. The Angora goats are much larger than the little Nigerians and Pygmys and they tend to hog the food and eat more to support their larger size and demand for fibre growth that their bodies put upon them. They Angora goats do not really fit well with the herd and hopefully all but one will find a new home this summer. The goats are bred to an Angora buck, so the offspring will be tightly curled coloured versions that will shed their hair naturally or can be shorn. Little Cocoa has a quiet voice and calls to me from the corner some place. She had her hooves trimmed today and is obviously bred, though I think she will be a later kidder, likely in June. Pretty little Cocoa, you a much loved.
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The first hatch is underway. The cost of keeping birds is much less than buying hay for sheep and goats, and the eggs, chicks and adult bird sales far outweigh their upkeep. That is not so with the other animals on the farm, but at least something breaks even! The incubators are not mine, but belong to two different friends. I am splitting the hatch with one friend and the other gets his pick of the birds, so it is a win win situation for me and for them. About 40 mixed duck eggs, Rouen, Saxony, Ancona and Khaki Campbell, plus Muscovy, and 15 Standard Bronze turkey eggs, 18 mixed geese, Tufted Toulouse/Embden/Pomeranian, and chicken, Ameraucana/Partridge and white Chantecler and a few others plus bantams are all in the incubator with the chicks due on April 26 and the waterfowl on May 3 and 5. Muscovy ducks take the longest to hatch, followed by the geese then ducks and chicks the shortest, at 21 days. Some of the hatch has been presold already. About the same time, or a bit later, the farm will be receiving an order from Performance Poultry with specialty birds so there will be waterfowl and chick brooders set up and ready to go. Three separate hatches will be made, with approximately 80 eggs per hatch. After that, if there is still interest, the hatch will be set by order only. Unclaimed birds will be raised and either sent to the processors or kept for layers or for sale as adult birds. In the summer the feed bill is very low because the birds free range and basically feed themselves. This year, the numbers of adult birds are too high for the small farm yard, so they will out to pasture with the sheep so the dogs can also watch over them. With the new fencing, it will be easier to pasture the birds. The fliers go where they wish anyhow, so basically it is the ducks and geese and a few of the chickens that will need supplemental grazing. The benefits of raising the birds are many from fresh pastured eggs to bug control to delicious dinners. And to think that when I began this venture three years ago, I had a terrible bird phobia and could not touch a bird, not even a newly hatched chick, let alone go in a coop. Now I can, though the odd time, I still get prickles on the back of my neck when the birds fly by my head. I actually like them now, especially the comical ducks. They are my favourites, hands down. The egg pictured is from a Standard Bronze turkey, and I even like them. Maybe summer will arrive without spring ever having gotten started. Well, actually, she did get started. We had a glorious week of warm weather, which depleted the snow rapidly, but we have had snow every day for 5 days and tonight, the snow is staying on the ground. Sheep shearing was postponed, since the sheep were wet from the snow that had been falling. We will try again on Saturday. They yard desperately needs to be cleaned up. There are strings and twine from the hay in that were frozen into the snow and ice and are still trapped. Much of any debris was actually cleaned up in the fall, so it is mostly spoiled hay that needs to be raked with the skid steer bucket used backwards, and removed to the woods. I had to wear my insulated coveralls today with the wind whipping the falling snow around. It was cold, but the hose did thaw around four pm and I was able to water the animals instead of using the toboggan and buckets. If it is snowing on Saturday, the sheep will be wet still and we will have to postpone shearing again. Sigh. They do need to be sheared or at least crutched, that is the dirty wool in the tail/delivery area removed, so the babies are able to suck on the teats and not manure tags. And the sheep are very pregnant and due in a week. Come on Mother Nature...a little cooperation would help! It is a big day tomorrow. The sheep, Angora goats, llamas and alpacas will all be sheared. This time I am trying the Hutterite colony. They are experienced with shearing and have won awards for their wool (not sure where, just that is what they told me), so I am willing to give them a go. I did have to call them because they did not show up the first time booked. Nat, the man in charge, said he lost my number. Anyhow, tomorrow is the big day. I spent a few hours preparing the barn, sweeping the floor, putting down two sheets of plywood, making a holding pen and a release pen with livestock panels and installing power via two long extension cords. I likely will have to come up with a second extension line, because I believe there are two shearers and two helpers. I won't have time to skirt the wool, only to fold and pack it and then tomorrow I can lay it out and take my time cleaning and skirting, which is removing the manure tags and very dirty wool. It is supposed to be just above zero, so it will be cold again. They do not think they will take a whole hour to shear 50 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 alpacas, plus the 6 Angora goats. The cost is $7 per animal, plus so much a kilometer to drive here, calculated at around $130 dollars. All in all, it is estimated to cost $450 or so dollars. I did not ask if they trimmed hooves, but I will when he calls tomorrow to say they are on their way. It is going to be a big day! It is snowing, and has snowed every night for the past five days. Today the snow is staying because the temperature has dropped below zero and is going down to minus 10 tonight. That means the hose and the water bowls for the animals will all be frozen. Petey Rabbit is not feeling well and has to be given antibiotics. He was not eating much for a while and got quite thin, don't know why, but sure do not want to lose that boy. He was imported from Holland is a rather spectacular rabbit. The ducks and geese are not great about using nest boxes and the cold means more frozen eggs. The dogs slept in their houses last night, not so much because of the cold, but to stay out of the snow. They didn't sleep in the houses much in winter and are a little confused, as the rest of the critters are too, as to why it is snowing now. The sheep were to be sheared on Saturday, but the shearer has escalated the event to Thursday, so tomorrow I will be scurrying around getting power and other necessities to the barn in case it is snowing. Gosh, snow in mid April just seems wrong. Even Robbie was not his usual self today, though he looked cute with the snow flakes on his pretty black fur, doesn't he? This is the fourth time he has disappeared. The dogs all went for their afternoon walk about where they survey their land and check for intruders while marking their territory. Robbie is not allowed to go, so he stays home, along with Jade and sometimes the pups, now 8 months old and the biggest dogs on the farm, are sleeping through the event. They like to go "home" to their sheep and take a sound afternoon nap. But Harley, my dear, precious big dog, has not come home before and he did not come back with the dogs this afternoon. We looked for him in the truck and Travis walked the quarter through and through looking for him. We did not find him though. I pray and hope he did not fall through the ice on the pond and is trying to get out. It will be minus ten again tonight. I will go to the pond in the morning and check for him. He is the greatest dog, a rescue that was starved when he came here. He was only 60 pounds and should have been at least a hundred. Since he has been eating better he has gained weight and is a much happier dog. He loves hugs and loves to come in the house and sleep in Robbie's bed in the winter. Robbie never challenges Harley anymore, because Harley is much bigger with bigger teeth and is bred to kill. Robbie is a border collie bred to chase sheep...um, no contest. I sure do love that Harley dog and will anxiously await his safe and sound return by morning. Well, hmmm, Smokey the boy cat is a girl cat, that was very evident last week when she was in heat. But, Leon, the boy cat, is also a girl cat in heat this week. That leaves Luke, the other orange cat as the male and that is bad news. Either Luke has to go or both girls have to go. We are not a kitten farm and spaying cats here is like throwing money away because the cats never seem to last longer than a year at the most. I am not sure if the coyotes get them or what happens, but one day they are here and the next, they are not. I really like these three cats, who have all turned out to be excellent mousers now that winter is almost done. They did not like the frigid weather and hung out in their house just trying to stay warm. Now they bring mice and leave them on the front mat, of course, because cats can only eat so many mice and it is so much fun to catch and play with them. I throw the mice for the geese and chickens who will devour them if they are fresh enough. Now, what to do with the two hes who were supposed to be shes? What a great day! First thing this morning, I was up to get breakfast ready for the bed and breakfast guest. Belgian waffles with organic spiced warm apples, topped with organic yogurt was the breakfast and after a leisurely conversation and visit, we said our goodbyes until the next time. The guest was a very sweet young lady with a heart of gold who came to visit her true love and although the couple is young, they are very much in love and wish for more for their future. I wish for them too, all the happiness, love and joy of the universe for the rest of their lives. After finishing the cleaning chores, getting the rooms done and the beds changed, dishes washed and vacuuming, then the outside farm chores begin. But there are two visitors today, and both stay in excess of an hour and a half each. The first is a friend and his family, salt of the earth people, with only kindness and love in their hearts for each other and others in the world. These true friends are those sorts that one hopes for in a lifetime, and considers oneself most fortunate ever to have found. The man takes 6 dozen eggs home, turkey, goose, duck and chicken, to set in the hatcher. We will exchange hatching for hatchlings in the future, a win win situation for both of us, since I do not have an incubator and he does not have eggs. The second man has come to assess the influx of beavers and the damage they have done to the natural stream. They have doubly dammed the stream so that it barely trickles where it once flowed and flooding has occurred where there was once a meadow. He carefully regards the beaver hut, the size and location and tells me that it will be no less than 15 beavers who dwell in that hut. He will shoot the elders and leave a pair. The dams, and there are two, will have to be dynamited to restructure the flow of the water, and he does not do that part. The beaver carcasses will be left for the dogs to feed on and it is good, clean meat since beavers are herbivores. This is all good. Beavers, at one time, were over trapped, but now are again overpopulated and a nuisance. Farmers now have the right to do away with the beavers to return the use of the land to meadow rather than slough. Then, after a nice hot bath, my son and I went to a friend's home for dinner, and what a dinner it was. This friend was a gourmet Red Seal chef and treated us to duck with lime cilantro sauce, wild rice, and trimmings, plus salad, soup and desserts to die for. I came home to find the dogs wanting their dinner, so fed them and bid them adieu until the morning. What a blessed day it was, a day at the Fat Ewe Farm. In an attempt to keep Sarah the goat in the goat pen, I installed some net wrap on the outside of the fence. Well, well, goat with horns do not seem to do well with net wrap. Poor little Taffy was crying for help, so I went over to see what was wrong. There she was with her horns completely wrapped up in the net wrapping, which she had completely wrapped around her horns. Taffy is a quiet, shy goat, very tiny with a blue stripe in her eye, as does her sister have as well. Taffy, Cocoa and Cookie are all miniature Nigerian Dwarf goats. Nigerian Dwarf goats are small, but this trio is very much smaller. Each one is a sweet natured and quite shy, but warms up to people rather quickly and they also have a good dose of curiosity.
Taffy was freed with my handy pair of scissors, which I keep in my pocket for such purposes and she looked at me indignantly as if to say, "Don't do that to me again." I kept a close on the rest of the goats for the remainder of the day, including Sarah, who did not attempt to jump the fence and get herself tangled in the netting, at least not today. Goats are such characters and so much fun. I can't wait to see the babies from these little ones. They are bred to an Angora buck, so the babies will have curly locks. Too cute. Sarah the goat gets my goat. She is a typical spoiled goat that was bottle fed as a kid and does not realize her boundaries with humans. All the other goats stay in the fence, but Sarah jumps out because she can. The other goats can, or at least some of them can now, because Sarah broke the fence in three different places. There is a livestock panel over the worst part and another panel will go up tomorrow, but she will come out because she only likes the premium hay saved for rationing, not the regular hay that everyone else gets. Sarah would make the most ideal pet goat for a family with only the need for a few goats. She can be tethered with a collar. She is so friendly and loving, too, always curious and wanting to be near the humans. She does love treats and would bust through chicken wire to get at grain when she can, so she, like the rest of the ruminants on the farm, are not fed grain. It is not good for them anyhow. Sarah is quite pregnant. She did not sell last year, nor did her little Pygmy/Alpine cross doeling. I am hoping that some one would take the whole family; Sarah and her last year's doeling and their kids. Ideally, that would be a great start to a little goat herd. Sarah is a purebred Alpine dairy goat our of super milking and show lines. She is not trained to milk, but I am quite sure she would not mind standing on a stantion if she got fed the whole time. But Sarah rubs me the wrong way. I do not like her getting out to help herself to the premium hay. She paws it and selects only the best tidbits, stepping on the rest and soiling it as she poops and pees while munching. Tomorrow I am going to wrap what is left of that bale with netting. The problem is that there is a different bale of similar hay a little further away, which Sarah will find. She was even in the duck pen eating the ducks' grain, the other day. Robbie the border collie sends her sailing over the fence back home when he notices her out. She has taught her daughter to jump the fence and seek for better food too. In a way, Sarah is the smartest of the bunch, but she is a thorn in my side. If she does not sell this year, I am going to put her in an electric fence forever. Or, I say I will. Last winter I had to keep her in the 7 foot high dog kennel all winter to keep her where she shouldn't be. Some days I think she is the coolest little goatie ever, but generally, I wish some one else owned her. She is due in two weeks. A week after that when I know her little ones are strong and she is well, off she goes, I hope. Can't wait, but at the same time, I know I will miss her. |
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AuthorFluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. Archives
October 2020
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