A Night on the Farm
Oh, what a night, as it is 1:30 am and i just finished feeding Nikki , Bennie and Sparky, the newest addition baby goats at my home. Well earlier tonight at the barn, I thought i heard new baby goat voices coming from the back of the barn, and thought maybe Frieda had her babies but it sounded distressed the more I listened. So I went to check. I had let the moms and babies have both sides of maternity pen incase Frieda wanted to get away by herself to deliver. Well babies and all were in the little pen and babies curled up comfy and i thought well that is odd. Then I hear the Whaling, and I mean Whaling! I turn around and looked at the babies, nope not them. I look to my right in the Main Goat Pen. Whoa, 2 babies, very different looking. I thought who in the world could they be???? All the girls have fairly young babies and my only other guess is Old Grandma, Lucky the big white goat that looks like she is 103 years old. I just had her in and trimmed her feet, gave her some shots and the works because she looks so bad. Well, unbelievably, It was Lucky with Twins. One beautiful handsome Boy and a tiny tan wavy haired girl. Well, I put them in the small pen and Lucky looks like she has no milk on one side or even any to feed babies, so I mixed up some fresh colostrum powder and fed the boy, Sparky and he ate like a champ. The little girl did not want anything to do with a bottle. So I put them near mom to try to nurse. Lucky wanted nothing to do with that and just like last year took a very LARGE dislike to her child. Sparky, Boy can she be a HAG. I save the boy from her harsh bunting and tried to see if one of the other new moms would take him as her own, No success and boy can they be mean. So ofcourse Sparky came home with me. =) Yep, 3 babies at home now, SHHH yes in town. =) Well, thankfully Lucky fell in love with Little Lee the girl. Yeah!!!! I peaked in and mom is talking to her and she was nursing. Somewhat of an adventure tonight and you will think I am crazy.... but it was after midnight when I was finally done milking and loading jars in the dishwasher for tommorrow's milking, by the way Mocha the cow gave 4 gallons tonight, =), and I thought to myself with a smile, I really love doing this. Farming and raising babies. =)
March 29th 2011
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Oh My Another... And then there were 3
The bewilderment did not stop from last night... Yes alittle tired and getting ready to go back to the barn in the evening after a full day of work at the Lumber Yard and my friend Mary calls to tell me that Lucky's baby boy Sparky was out of the pen and she put her back with Mom. Well No, I said it must be Frieda's new baby born today. She says, no other babies and Lucky likes it and it has wavy hair like her other baby. Well I get to the barn to see what is what. Oh my Goodness! Lucky had Triplets. It was not a boy but a girl. She must have crawled in one of the baby goat houses last night and I did not see her. She did not make Peep. I picked her up and held her and fed her on the bottle some colostrum and she made little Squeeking noises. Nothing like her very voicefull brother Sparky. So I called her the little Pip Squeek which became "Pippy" I brought Pippy home too. Mom doesn't need to raise 2. She needs a break! She is doing Great even with a rough start.
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We now have a great herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats. They produce some of the best milk that I have ever drank. Nigerians make a great addition to small and large farms. Friendly temperaments and good producers of milk for their size. You can expect a doe to produce 2 cups per milking as a first freshener. Production goes up with each freshening. A couple goats can produce enough milk for a family. With the high butterfat, cheesemaking will surely be in your future.
We breed for good hand milking teat length, which is important for us hand milkers. 😀
Those tiny babies are just hard not to love and we sell bottle babies and weanlings in the winter to spring months.
Contact us for any left available for this year or to be added to Next years waiting list.
Doelings $250 and Wethers $150
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