Still here!
Jul. 1st, 2012 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
genlisaeJust been busy as hell. The goatlets are doing wonderfully (and all have names finally. I will get more pics up with their names in the next day or so.)
Unfortunately, their mothers, in true stubborn goat fashion have decided to be stubborn. We have had to divide the barn in half and build temporary gates because while Casper and Blackberry do just fine still when it is just the two of them, neither of them are pleased with the small things that follow their sister around. This is normal, herd dynamics have been sent into a tailspin and while they will sort it out, and would have sorted it really quickly if we had several acres of pasture for the little ones to dodge out of the way in, we don't have that much room and I am not really comfortable leaving them all out together yet. So we are working on it in short, supervised stretches of time and alternating which mother and babies are out in the pen in the mean time. I am really, REALLY glad we decided to build the barn as large as we did even though it seemed a bit excessive at the time.
The rest of the days have been taken up with milking (twice a day). We aren't pushing either of them to actually produce more than the kids eat right now and we haven't really had to. Blackberry doesn't get milked at all with her three, but Casper, yeah, Casper is problematic. She only lets the kids nurse from one side meaning the other side gets really, REALLY full. So we milk just that side twice a day for about 750ml a time (about 3 cups). This adds up faster than you would think even with people drinking the milk. Yesterday we gathered up the cream and made butter (which is awesome! If you ever get the chance to try goat butter, do!) and today the child and I made this.
That is about 700grams (1.5 pounds) of just finished cheese hanging to let the rest of the whey drain out.
Other than that we have been building new chicken coops. Why? Well ...
That is today's eggs that require visiting 10 different places to gather. Those same 10 different places also need to be fed and watered twice a day .. separately. It takes a REALLY long time.
So we are consolidating a bunch of birds. The Quail (the little speckled eggs) will obviously not be going in with the chickens, and the bantams (the medium sized lighter brown and white ones) will have their own as well, but the rest of them? Yeah, totally can share the same coop and pen area. It isn't hatching season anymore so we don't need to worry about keeping a specific rooster in with specific hens, but we do need a larger coop.
All of this means I have managed zero writing for the past week. None. Even worse, I haven't really missed it. I think I have just been too damn busy to notice.
Soon though, I think.
Unfortunately, their mothers, in true stubborn goat fashion have decided to be stubborn. We have had to divide the barn in half and build temporary gates because while Casper and Blackberry do just fine still when it is just the two of them, neither of them are pleased with the small things that follow their sister around. This is normal, herd dynamics have been sent into a tailspin and while they will sort it out, and would have sorted it really quickly if we had several acres of pasture for the little ones to dodge out of the way in, we don't have that much room and I am not really comfortable leaving them all out together yet. So we are working on it in short, supervised stretches of time and alternating which mother and babies are out in the pen in the mean time. I am really, REALLY glad we decided to build the barn as large as we did even though it seemed a bit excessive at the time.
The rest of the days have been taken up with milking (twice a day). We aren't pushing either of them to actually produce more than the kids eat right now and we haven't really had to. Blackberry doesn't get milked at all with her three, but Casper, yeah, Casper is problematic. She only lets the kids nurse from one side meaning the other side gets really, REALLY full. So we milk just that side twice a day for about 750ml a time (about 3 cups). This adds up faster than you would think even with people drinking the milk. Yesterday we gathered up the cream and made butter (which is awesome! If you ever get the chance to try goat butter, do!) and today the child and I made this.
That is about 700grams (1.5 pounds) of just finished cheese hanging to let the rest of the whey drain out.
Other than that we have been building new chicken coops. Why? Well ...
That is today's eggs that require visiting 10 different places to gather. Those same 10 different places also need to be fed and watered twice a day .. separately. It takes a REALLY long time.
So we are consolidating a bunch of birds. The Quail (the little speckled eggs) will obviously not be going in with the chickens, and the bantams (the medium sized lighter brown and white ones) will have their own as well, but the rest of them? Yeah, totally can share the same coop and pen area. It isn't hatching season anymore so we don't need to worry about keeping a specific rooster in with specific hens, but we do need a larger coop.
All of this means I have managed zero writing for the past week. None. Even worse, I haven't really missed it. I think I have just been too damn busy to notice.
Soon though, I think.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-02 01:06 am (UTC)I'm not sure where I could get goat butter from around here, but I'm sure if I ask around, someone will know ^_~*
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Date: 2012-07-02 06:52 pm (UTC)Standard Chicken breeds: Americauna, Barnvelder, Black Copper Maran, Warren-sex-link (who really can't die soon enough for me, but that is a whole other topic), Wellsummer and ... I know I am missing a few. We have various mixes between those as well and I am thinking about 40 hens and 6 roosters, realizing I am probably a bit low on the hen count.
Bantam Chicken breeds: Black-tailed Buff Japanese, Black Cochin, Partridge Cochin and Old English Game Hen. I am thinking there are about 20 bantams total.
Pheasants: Just the two who are Chinese Red Golden.
Turkeys: (OMG! I can give you an exact count here!) Royal Palm - 2, Sweetgrass - 1, Royale Palm x Sweetgrass - 7, Bronze x Beltsville -5.
Quail: I can't give you a count here, we had a mink make a round through here about a week ago and the fucking thing shredded the wire on the quail cages. It ate a few and we are still rounding up a few more wandering stray birds and putting them in the new pen (With new wire. Predator proof poultry wire my ass! The new stuff really is. Course it isn't "Poultry" wire wither). Our last rough headcount while switching them over was 30ish.
The total space we have is just shy of an acre. Thus why we have little goats who only need a fraction of the space of big ones. We have taken careful, creative space management to the extreme here. That is also why, at any given point it is not uncommon to have a turkey try to follow you into the house.
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Date: 2012-07-02 07:37 pm (UTC)aww sorry about your lost quail D:
speaking of animals, breeding n such, were ya'll able to find the kitties homes yet & is Marmelade still sticking to you like glue? >3