A little bit of Fame!

A Brand New Barn

We have finally replaced our old chicken coop building with a nice new red barn, and it even has a hay loft up top! Since I’m really focusing my efforts on building a beautiful flock of heritage laying hens, my plan is to divide this barn in half. One half will contain my general flock of layers, which will provide eggs for our own consumption as well as for sale at the farm stand. The other half will contain my breeding stock, which I will continue to improve over time. I’ve got two good sized proper incubators now, so I can have two different hatches happening at once.

My plan for breeds is to specialize in two or three main breeds: Black/Blue Copper Marans, for their gorgeous deep brown eggs; Sapphire Legbar for their lovely blue eggs, and Isbars for their intriguing pale green eggs. With good breeding stock of these breeds, I can create hybrid layers, such as Olive Eggers, which lay darker green to olive coloured eggs.

We have a Farm Stand!

Now we're in business! Jess put a lot of work into building us a beautiful cedar farm stand. We've got a fridge in it and some shelves, and so far we've been selling lots of eggs! I hope to regularly have cookies and baked goods for sale as well, and in the summer, lots of garden produce. Maybe some jams and preserves in the fall... so much fun!

Please come by and check it out. And don't be scared off by Brimley, the annoying barking beagle. He's all bark and no bite.

Poultry Mix!

We've got so many birds on the farm right now! We just bought four adorable runner ducklings, and our plan is to fence off an area around the perimeter of the garden for them so they can be on slug patrol. Runner ducks don't fly, and they don't go broody as eagerly as muscovy ducks, so I think they'll be easier to manage. Our naked neck has successfully hatched eight chicks, and they're pretty darn cute! We've also got 23 meat chickens, and they're getting bigger and meatier every day! Only 12 more days until we take them in for processing and then they'll be in our freezer. Mmm!

Minstrel's Bucklings

Two weeks old

Age 3 months

At age two weeks

These two handsome in tact bucklings come from Minstrel, our best milker. They're both very healthy and perky, fully weaned as of May 24, and ready to go to their new home. If you are looking for a buck to breed with your herd, I can provide bloodlines and register either one of these guys for you. Price per buckling is $350, or if you'd prefer unregistered, the price is $250.

Goats for sale!

This is Charming, Chalice's handsome Nubian buckling. She just gave us a single this year, so he's been well fed. He looks just like his mama, and he has her sweet disposition as well. He comes from excellent bloodlines, and his mama is a permanent grand champion. We'll sell him for $400 papered, or if you don't want him to be registered, we'll let him go for $300. He was born on April 12 and will be ready to go to his new home on June 12. Contact us if interested! He would make an excellent addition to your herd if you want to introduce a strong bloodline.

Triplets at Play

Minstrel's goat kids are three days old now, and they're really starting to get playful, especially when the sun comes out. I just love watching them jump around and explore and learn to climb. They are astonishingly adorable, and so far Minstrel's mothering skills have been exemplary. We will give the kids an injection of selenium to help with muscle growth and energy, as well as a vaccine for tetanus within the next week. After another two or three weeks, we'll try to separate the kids from their mom for a few hours each day so that we can milk Minstrel out completely. This keeps her milk production high and allows us to have some of her amazing milk.

Minstrel's Leap Year Babies

It was February 29th when Minstrel started to go into labour. I was home enjoying a day off work, so the timing was perfect. I kept an eye on her all day as her labour progressed, first with her tailbone ligaments softening and her udder filling up to nearly bursting. She had some contractions sporadically, did a lot of stretching and staring off into space and moving around trying to get comfortable. Finally at about 9:00 at night, she started into active labour. She had strong contractions for about 10 minutes before the first baby appeared, front feet and head first, which is what you want to see. After a couple of good pushes, out came a tiny doeling. Minstrel started licking the fluids off of her right away, which was a good sign.

Within a minute or two, she was pushing again, but this time it wasn't going as smoothly. When the sac of amniotic fluid appeared, I noticed that the baby was coming out head first with front legs back, creating squared shoulders that would be hard to move through the birth canal. I had to reach inside to see if I could reposition the baby and find its arms, but they were really far back. I had to pull as Minstrel pushed, and the poor girl was really struggling for a bit, and I was really in a bit of a panic. But with one final hard push on Minstrel's part and a forceful pull on my part, out came a big brown buckling. Very soon after, a second buckling popped out with no difficulties.

I spent the next couple of hours helping clean the kids off and dry them. It was a cold night and I was worried they'd get hypothermia. I couldn't leave until I'd seen that all three of the kids had managed to stand themselves up and have a good feed of colostrum, which eventually happened with no real difficulty.

Good job Minstrel! You're an excellent mama!

A new Batch of Piglets

This weekend we went and picked up three new piglets from Nicki and Norm at White House Stables. They breed Gloucestershire Old Spots, which is my favourite breed of pig to raise for meat. They're about eight weeks old now, and they weigh around 50 pounds already. They grow so quickly! The Gloucestershire Old Spot is considered to be on the "critical" list by the Livestock Conservancy, so I like supporting the breeding of these pigs. Their meat is wonderfully tasty, and these animals are such a treat to have on the farm with their quirky and friendly dispositions. I must admit to feeling guilty when it comes time to take them to the slaughterhouse, but at least they get to have a happy, if short, life in the outdoors. With this batch of pigs, we plan to let our talented butcher turn one of them into exclusively (almost) sausages, because he makes several varieties, all mouth-watering. If you're interested in pre-ordering some sausages and/or some pork, please leave a comment with your contact info.

Goat Husbandry

It's a new year, and the weather is so beautiful, sunny and mild. It's a perfect day to spend a bit of time on our goats, so one by one, we brought them into the barn and had them hop up onto the milking stand. The first task was hoof-trimming, which Jess has by now gotten quite good at. He uses a small pair of gardening shears for the job, which is mostly just a matter of removing the overgrown hoof part and making sure the foot bed is flat and level.

The next thing we do while the goats are up on the milking stand, conveniently locked in place, is to give them an injection of vitamin B. It gives them a nice boost and helps them if they've undergone any stress or suffered at all from illness. Our five goats are all pretty healthy, but it's good to give an injection of vitamin B to maintain proper immune function, especially during the winter months. While we have them on the stand, we take the time to check their eyes and eyelids for colour and give them a good check-up to ensure we haven't missed anything that might alert us to any health problems.

We are hoping our female goats are pregnant, so I took the time to feel their bellies and check the size of them. I believe Minstrel is quite pregnant, and likely to give birth within the next six weeks, so I will be keeping a close eye on her udder. She should fill her udder during the week or two leading up to the birth.