The Birthing Process

Fresh milk!!! I am so excited. I can finally quit using frozen. Good thing because I'm about out. Yes, indeed Belle gave birth last Wednesday. Those of you who follow Easy Living the Hard Way Facebook page know this and have seen the photos but since this is an informational post, I've got lots to teach some of you. The rest of you can tell me if indeed this has been your experience. 

 But first let me introduce the oldest, a lovely young doe with great potential. She was born around two in the afternoon. The hour in which Belle had her first set of twins, five kidding seasons ago. Yes, a doe will normally have her kids within a three hour window of the first time she gives birth. If you know the day your doe bred and how many days that particular doe's gestation is, then you know when to head for the barn and keep a close eye out for possible complications. This has become more and more important as the years go by and my energy level keeps taking vacations. Getting up in the night for nothing makes getting up in the early morning to get grandkids off to school much more difficult than when I was young.

That means I have a tendency when possible to cull the night kidders. Two o'clock in the afternoon is perfect and that is just when Belle's had her first lovely little brown doe.

I was a little late for her arrival but hey, she was still all wet and slimy so it could not have been by more than a few minutes. I ran back for towels and the Betadine to do my job. I waited as mom and baby greeted each other and kept looking for the tell tale signs of the next arrival -- nothing. 'Well, this was getting ridiculous', I thought so I slipped under Belle and filled a baby bottle with colostrum. You can see there is no shortage of it. Look at that udder. I always make sure each kid gets as much colostrum as possible in them even if I am going to leave them to nurse their mother.  The only way to accurately gauge that is to bottle feed them the first time. After that I can teach them to nurse or let nature take its course. Yeah, like I've ever really done that. LOL "What if they get too weak or one of the other kids pushes them aside." See, I just can't take the pressure so I interfere. No one seems to mind.


This particular doe I leave her to mother the little ones but she is not keen on nursing. She was not taught to by her first owner and it did not come natural to her. In fact she would not even mother her kids until she came to my house. I started to teach her to suckle her little ones but then I thought I would like to keep some of her offspring and bottle feeding alleviates weaning problems. My does will nurse forever if given a chance and the kids can slip through the tiniest holes to get their moms so no, I don't let any little ones I want to keep nurse.  The other reason I bottle feed most of my kids is that they can go to new homes right away since feeding them does not require their mother.  This gives me the milk I need for the kitchen.


As I gauged whether I was going to keep this little one, I kept looking for sign of Belle being uncomfortable and pawing the ground but she was relaxed and happy. Relaxed and happy is not what I needed. You don't have this size of an udder and sides sticking wa... y out for nothing on a hay diet. There had to more kids inside. Each of our does will follow a certain pattern year after year that is characteristic of her as an individual when she gives birth. There are odd years of course when the doe refuses to follow her set pattern but for the most part she will do the same thing year after year.

I decided to just watch and wait. I would on a younger doe pull the rest of the kids I knew were inside if she was in hard labor and they failed to appear within twenty or thirty minutes. That or labor was not progressing along meaning a possible breach birth or two kids who's legs were tangled near the opening. The reason is if you wait too long the kids will be dead. But Belle was comfortable and relaxed and this was not her first kidding season. Experience has taught me after thirty one years of delivering kids and a gut feeling born of, been there done that's. This felt right and so I bent down and filled a bottle as she stood licking her baby. Milking stimulates uterus contractions. Sneaky aren't I?

 I've learned that with older does they often have a longer labor. More light labor in the beginning and a period of rest in between kids is common. More so between the first and second kid. The third follows shortly after. Patience is a virtue with these older girls. Sure enough, a little under an hour later Belle acted agitated and pawed the ground a few times and just three pushes later I saw.....

 The water bag with two feed inside. They are the dark mass just below her tail. Three pushes and out came a strapping buck. Most of the time a water bag appears first and then the feet but not with this doe. Five minutes later and three pushes, out came a little doe looking like her mother. Belle was done, she had her triplets.

How did I know she was done? Three kids is the normal max for a dairy goat. I've only had one doe have four. Four is too many since a doe rarely has enough milk for that many. Besides there are the pushier kids that hog all the milk. If left alone one or two of them will die.You don't want four. I did not expect four and besides, Belle's sides were sunk in in an empty look.

Some does take a while to pass their after birth but Belle's began to appear shortly after. This is what it looks like. No water bag, and no feet sticking out. Nope -- notice the fibrous texture though. This is the placenta and it has little buttons inside. No, not buttons like the ones on your coat but round dark red solid tissue masses that they call buttons. When I would be in charge of a mare foaling for our neighbors, I was required to count the buttons to make sure the mare had not retained part of her placenta. 

I admit, I never count the buttons in a goat's placenta. I have no idea how many there are suppose to be so how would I know if they are all there? The only thing I make sure of is that the goat does pass her placenta and hopefully in one long connected mass. It should of course be in proportion in size to the amount of kids it held. If it does not come out it putrefies. Big time infection. If ;your doe fails to pass hers within twelve hours I'd head to the vet for a Lutalyce shot. It will put the doe back into labor. She'll hate you but it is for her own good.  How do I know this -- experience.

Don't be alarmed, when your doe bleeds a light amount after giving birth. This can last for a few days and sometimes slightly longer in goats that had a tough delivery. To slow and stop the flow on a doe who is in my opinion bleeding more than I'd lie, I milk more frequently. This naturally tightens back up the uterus, stopping the flow. The larger the uterus size due to multiple kids, the longer it takes for the uterus to shrink back to pre-pregnancy size. If there is an infection, the bloody discharge after birth will become a more maroon color, not a red blood color. It will be thicker, and have a nasty smell to it. Then she needs a penicillin shot, a few of them.

I've taught my does to hold still without restraint in the pen and I bend over at will to fill baby bottles right from the tap. Since I bottle feed four times a day, 6 am, 12 noon, 6 pm, and 10 pm, this is plenty enough to get things cramping. With triplets, for the first few days where there is only colostrum being produced, this method empties my doe's utter each feeding. If there is extra like there was with Belle, I freeze it just in case I need it for kids born to another doe. At night I am sure to drain the doe fully before heading to bed.

 At five years of age, Belle was in light labor for several days after giving birth. She did not eat a great deal or drink much. Then on the third day, it abated and her milk began to come in. By the next day she was crying for relief in the morning. "Please milk me!!" 

She gave 3/4 a gallon this morning and the same amount tonight. Impressive for a Nubian on her first day of her milk coming in. Her supply will steady increase for a while before leveling off. The second morning, this morning, she gave the same amount. 

Remember, the more demand for milk, the more the doe will produce, within reason of course. This means milking three times a day produces more milk than milking twice a day and of course once a day. Milking frequently will up production but if sustained over a long period of time, this will decrease the longevity of your doe. Since I was gone much of yesterday, I only milked twice. Today, I will milk three times and give this poor girl some relief as her production should be greater yet.

Wheat Sprout Update

 Since I am doing updates I will continue and tell you about what I have worked out on sprouts. Once more the temperatures are dipping into the single digits and there is no green in sight, okay except the evergreen trees. Even though the chickens are free range there just isn't much to scrounge up.  I do find them in the hay stack pecking at the alfalfa leaves but with slim pickens, I think I need to supplement their diet. That means I am back once more sprouting wheat. It does not make sense to do so in the summer since they barely eat any grain during that lush time of year but now they are heavily downing the grains in the coop and the pocket book feels it. That ups their maintenance costs especially when they are laying fewer eggs because of the decrease in sunlight.

Just three plastic gallon ice cream buckets at a time though because it seems to be about all I can squeeze in time for. It is hard enough to keep them rinsed once a day let alone any more and keep up with the needs of the grandkids. This means that the stock does not get sprouts daily but a few times a week instead. This isn't all bad since it helps keep their interest peeked.

The change is that I am not only feeding the chickens but some to the goats and a handful to each of the rabbits. It satisfies their hunger with less feed in comparison to the same feed dry. With the increase in nutrients and lower costs it is a win, win deal.

Whitey, our buck, goes nuts when I pop the lid and he gets his first whiff of the wonderful stuff. With life waa.....y too busy recently I fed too much commercial feed and my rabbits are obese. One of my New Year goals is to feed the rabbits a little less packaged rabbit food and a whole lot more of a natural diet. That means for now a big helping of alfalfa / orchard grass hay each morning. I also started trying my hand at growing wheat grass this week. Just one tray at first. The blades are barely up so we shall see how that goes. I am hoping the kitchen garden will have some extra produce along with some from the winter and summer gardening planned in the future with rabbits in mind.

Most things are still in the planning stage but for sure rabbits will be a part of our diet. I butchered a few and was really impressed with how much meat I got in a short period of time. It also was yummy and needless to say nutritious.

Three new indoor rabbit cages came this week and when I have them assembled then we can put all the rabbits in the chicken coop. Yeah!!! for I will seldom have to worry about their water freezing or if they are comfortable enough when I know I definitely don't want to go outside. I have one rabbit hutch to rebuild and one already in a spot in the garden so that will bring the total to 7 cages. I would like a couple more outdoor ones and we shall see how that goes since the one outdoor one I need to rebuild is quite large.

I asked at the feed store today if they had any millet or barley for I have not tried sprouting those grains, alas, they did not have any. I will head the other direction in a few days to a different feed store for my favorite rabbit food. It put weight on far, far better than the other three varieties I tried. I will inquire there. They say that rabbits like black oil sunflower seeds. My goats do too and the chickens also. Maybe I should pick up a couple bags as two of my daughters are wanting totes made from the empty bags.

I think I will try oats again and start one bucket tomorrow. They were not quite as easy to sprout as wheat but variety is always a good thing. Maybe I should try some oat grass too. Hmmmm..... so many things to try and so little time. Good thing there is a time and season for everything under heaven because one simply can not do all things all the time.  

Udderly Confused At First

I spend a great deal of time fussing over decisions of what goats to keep and what ones to get rid of. Then I started breaking each one down. Their faults and their good points. I decided what was most important to me. I learned that I'm so... into udders. Half of the points for linear appraisal is for udder. To me that is mainly what a goat is all about, the udder or they wouldn't be called a DAIRY goat.

 

So at this time of year when I'm looking at who to keep and who goes down the road. The udder is the thing I'm looking at most carefully. This is Megan's. Discard the cow hocked look because she isn't that cow hocked but always stands goofy on the milking stand. The escutcheon could use a better arch. This one comes to a peek a little but for capacity this is pretty awesome especially since she is two and this is a picture of her udder at three weeks freshening with her nursing twins.

The udder isn't perfect but far above average I'd say. I'd like to see it collapse down to nothing when empty but it doesn't but the daughter I kept of hers does. I still get a 1/2 a gallon of milk a day besides Megan nursing twins so I can't wait to see what she produces when they are weaned. Her ears could be longer but what really do ears do for a milk goat? Lamanchas don't have any. And her nose is too small. Her hocks could have a little more angle and her back should be flatter though it isn't bad. She has a nice long rump and is a very big girl for two. She has a very classy smooth appearance. Her dairy character is developing nicely. Something she didn't have a lot of as a yearling. Over all, I like this doe.   

 

 I need to get rid of a doe and so I've started to break down each goat's faults and strengths. In doing so I've begun looking back at old photos. I've decided next winter I really need to put them in folders for each goat. That way I can see how the goat changes and develops. Maybe it would also help me to see what each buck I use does for my herd also. This is Megan's udder at one years old for a comparison to the two year photo. I know that Megan got her nose from her mother, not her grandmother and so it must of been the buck that did this dirty trick. Chicory's daughter, Daisy has a nice nose.  

The udder on the left is Megan's right after she freshened for the first time last year.  The one above is at three months. The one on the right is her daughter Mercedes just a few weeks after she freshened. It is an improvement on mother. This girl looks a lot like mom and her son is probably the best buck born this year. That makes me super happy because this is Chicory's great granddaughter. I can't wait to have her linear appraised and compare her score to her great grandmother's and mother's scores. It will tell me just where I'm moving forward and where I might of lost ground.

As for Daisy here. Her udder looks a great deal like her mother, Chicory.

Her medial attachment was wonderful. That is the line up the middle.  This is Chicory. See why I'm thinking this photo taking is a handy tool? I can look back at each doe and their ancestors and see just what has changed and what is passed on. Yes indeed, I'm gong to start making lists of traits for each doe. I have records of their births. How many kids they had and of what sex plus if I had to pull the kids or was it natural. I'm also keeping record as to the time of birth because normally they will kid within three hours of the time they kidded the first time. I then know whether they kid normally on the 150th day or sooner and approximately what time. Since I put the doe in with the buck when she comes into heat and don't leave him in the pen for days like many do, I know pretty close when my does will kid and don't spend night after night having to check them.

I've made a choice as to what doe to get rid of. The shocker is how much she developed cow hocks from a kid to this year. I would not of dreamed it. I'd like to tell the person who will be receiving her first before I blab all about it on here but some of you will probably figure it out. That will give me three does and a maybe four if I keep the little brown doe just born. She is so tiny I don't really know what she looks like.  And I've decided on only keeping two of the seven bucks intact. The rest will be banded. But first will check with an interested party to see which buck they might want of the whole group. Will I sell these two or keep them, I haven't decided yet.

The biggies in my book when deciding on whether to keep a goat or not is:
Udder shape and capacity ( I have dairy goats for the milk) Taste goes without question because we use it.

Structurally sound  or correct (That doesn't mean perfect but no large faults.) Extra points go to a doe who doesn't pass on her faults. If she consistently has kids better than she is and they are uniform to each other then she scores big.

Body capacity (If she isn't big enough, she can't sustain a large udder)

Has multiple births by two years old as mutiple births equates to more milk. Plus she doesn't require help with birthing. (Chicory was the exception because it wasn't genetic and all her doe kids have kids on their own.)

Personality (This is huge as I have to milk the doe twice a day and who wants to deal with a headache that often?)

In personality mothering ability is included. Megan is a bit of a pain at first when she kids but each year she is getting better and her other qualities make up for it. Her daughter didn't do so well this year but part of that was my fault so I'll give her another chance since she had the nicest kid and has a kick butt udder. She is a dream to milk too so she remains. 

Personality also includes how well they get along with other goats. I have NO BIDDYS in my herd. Cranks go down the road in a hurry because I want to be able to put more than one mom and her babies together in the same pen and shed. Crankiness is genetic and taught to the offspring so they get a double whammy. We once had a doe break ribs on a doeling of another goat. Yes, she hit the road. 

I had a women complain once that the goat she bought from me was too nice and ended up much skinnier than the rest of her goats because she wouldn't fight at the hay feeder. I say, weed out the the old biddies and replace them with sweet mild mannered ones. They just aren't worth it. There are lots of nice does that give lots of milk and you will thank yourself 365 days of the year. 

As for bucks, well I just don't know what you keep. I'm going on linage, what their mom and dad looked like, and if they are an improvement presently. I'm never sure how they will develop as I would have never though one of the goats I got last year would develop such cow hocks.

It is why I do linear appraisal. I learn a tremendous amount each year. I've only been doing it one year and watched the year before. I'm sold though. I will be doing it as a learning experience from now on.

As much as I've learned from this experience I'd highly suggest you undergo this same journey. Learn what is most important to you in a dairy goat. Break each goat down structurally and by personality. A wise Linear Appraisal judge told me that you can have one pet goat. The rest have to pay their way. That means being cut throat he said if you want to improve your herd. I agree. I don't have the money to pay for goats not performing. That is just a hard fact of life.

Goat's Estreus

The lone hold out. She's the only kid I haven't caught coming into estreus. She is the smallest by a little bit. Yet the whole female Nubian raise in my pen has been hard to decipher heat cycles in general.

 

But then in comparison  to my Saanens, which is the breed I had for years and years, who would come screaming up to the gate, the whites of their eyes in a full panic mode, their tails flagging to beat the band, and they let me know that they needed a buck and they needed him RIGHT NOW! So anything else in comparison would be more difficult.  

 These Nubians are a bit more shy and reserved. One might sidle up to the fence with Touch, our buck, and flag their tail a little but that is about it. You have to be watching pretty carefully.

 

This year has been more difficult than any other. My Meagan, our yearling on the right, flagged and was a bit more friendly than normal but no panic mode. She was in estrus for only 12 hours not the usual 24.

 

Then when Daisy, the black doe on the far left born in April this last spring year came into to heat, she just did a little wagging of her tail but not with the usual enthusiastic response we are use to. So I marked the calendar and bred her three weeks later when her tail wagged again. She is very large for her age but I none the less I wanted another month on her. I had thought I would be kidding Chicory and Meagan and then the younger does but alas, no Chicory.

 

And Mercedes was even more subtle than that. She wasn't over by the buck but I happened to be by the feeder and was petting each goat in turn running my hand down their backs and across the top of their rumps to their tails. She flagged enthusiastically but that was all, no interest in the buck. This will be an interesting match as I bred her to her grandpa. It will either be really good or really bad match.

 

As for Madeline, she hasn't come into heat yet. I stroke her back on down to the tail each day but no response but a light, wag, wag. Since Meagan didn't cycle the same time as Daisy and Mercedes and usually all does penned together for an extended period of time  will cycle within a few days of each other, I'm not sure what is going on. Light, short cycles, and not in sync hm.... must be the goofy weather.

 

None the less, without Chicory I have only two does I can breed to Touch and alas, I must sell him this spring.

 

Have any of you had strange estrus cycles on your animals this year?

Founder In Goats

 Got Milk? Remember those commercials?

You would think this was one of those but it's only our Chicory stealing milk from the cats. Or is it? After all it is Chicory's own milk that they are lapping. Our Chicory has never quit loving the taste of warm, fresh milk.

When she kidded for the first time as a yearling, she went down badly in her pasterns and thinking she was lacking in calcium, the previous owners gave her, her own milk to drink. Not every goat will do this but I have known some who will nurse off another goat.

We do the same thing, give her all of the milk her little ones don't consume along with a little medical calcium booster after she kids. Sometimes we give a little calcium booster before and leave her dry for a longer period of time than we would otherwise do, four months.

 

Chicory also has difficulty in giving birth and the triplets she's had the past three years have all had to be pulled though the labor has gone better each year.

 

Why do we bother? Well, these problems aren't hereditary. Her mother did not have problems and none of her daughters either. They pop out their young on their own and narry a pastern problem.

 

But as she has grown older, a whole whopping four years old, it has become very apparent that she had founder when she was one. She use to have excessive growth of her hooves especially in her toes. I keep them trimmed from once to twice a month to keep her on her toes as much as possible. If this founder has anything to do with the pastern drop near kidding, I don't know. I can't find anything on it so it might be a separate problem.

 

How do I know it is founder? Well look closely at this front hoof. See how she is walking on the heels of her hoof. It is because of the growth of a bone in her hoof. There is an excellent article by Onion Creek Ranch just click on Founder  Below is an excerpt.

FOUNDER IN GOATS Laminitis and its subsequent result, Founder, are diseases found in intensively-managed herds of goats. The usual cause is simple -- improper feeding. One of the many bad effects of overfeeding processed/sacked grains or feed that is too high in grain-induced energy ("hot" feeds) is Founder. A goat that has foundered will walk on calloused front knees and will have very overgrown hooves; the animal will have difficulty walking flat on the soles of its hooves because the bones in the feet have rotated out of normal position, shifting weight bearing to its heels. The hooves may feel hot to the touch, especially near the coronary band where the hoof wall meets the leg. Acute Laminits/Founder produces hooves that are sore and hot; when the condition becomes chronic, the bones of the feet become malformed and the hooves are overgrown. Chronic Founder is the type most often seen in goats. Founder is is not curable but it can be managed -- with great effort -- for the duration of the life of the goat. The term "founder" derives from the sinking of the bones in the hoof. When a producer overfeeds grain concentrates, one of the bad things that can happen is that the laminae of the hoof is affected. "Laminitis" is the term used to describe the initial outbreak of the disease when the laminae become inflamed and break down, releasing its hold on the bones in the hoof. "Founder" describes the resulting downward rotation of the third phalanx bone in the hoof. The laminae is a web of tissue and blood vessels that holds the bones of the hoof in place. When the laminae breaks down, the blood vessels will either collapse or flood the hooves with blood, releasing the bones from their proper positions. When the third phalanx bone rotates downward, it may actually penetrate the sole of the hoof -- making walking very difficult for the goat because weight bearing has been shifted to its heels. Usually the front feet are first affected, but a severely foundered goat will walk on its front knees with its back legs uncharacteristically forward under its body. Abnormal hoof growth also occurs. The toes turn up -- growing into a "pixie-shoe" shape. A foundered hoof has thick walls, extra material on the sole, and grows abnormally fast and irregularly in shape -- for the rest of the life of the goat.

 

Chicory has begun to moan when she puts weight on her front hooves when she walks. Not quite as bad right after trimming and so the amount of noise is more of a cue than how long her hooves look to whether I need to trim them.

 

I also notice only this year a difference when she is being milked and hence grained. She's never done this before. So I dried her up and ended the grain rations. Though she has never had a hot grain feed. I'm very careful to keep my goats intake of corn to a minimum. Their ration is mainly wheat, beet pulp, sunflower seeds, and oats. They gets lots and lots of hay.

 

Chicory was the only goat in the show herd I bought her from that was effected with founder and this can be the case with only one goat effected. I have to assume the founder was brought on by complications when she kidded along with her diet for she did have a difficult first kidding.

 

These problems are what brought Chicory down into our price range.

 

This fall Chicory has developed a congested udder that has baffled me to no end. She has a hard, but not hot, udder for five days and then it would be soft for one and then hard again for five more before softening. And I mean HARD. I knew it wasn't an infection but finally desperate I dose her with two rounds of mastitis medication in the both teats twice, three days apart. It was such a heavy dose she became a bit nauseated. Just like I thought, it did nothing. Will she be able to feed her kids this spring if I breed her? I'm not sure.

 

What choices do I have now? Carrying kids would make her feet hurt worse but I'd really like a nice daughter out of her.

I have a grand daughter and a great grand daughter.

 The grand daughter has become our milk producer. Meagan has a beautiful udder for a yearling. I'm not so thrilled with her split hooves. There is always something though. I'm down to milking once a day and still getting a half a gallon from her.

Yes, I have a daughter. She is growing so.... fast I'm worried about her foundering except she doesn't get but a tiny bit of grain just because I'm giving a little to two much smaller does to increase their size before breeding. I think Daisy here has her father's size gene. He is the largest buck the long experienced linear appraiser judge had ever seen. I only have Daisy, a daughter, because I became to busy to get her sold. Now I kick myself for selling the two I did. I should of kept one of them and sold Daisy here for I've seen one of the other daughters and I think she is better. I'm tempted to buy a doeling this spring from her if the owner will sell and of course she has a doeling. 

 

So now I'm thinking I will breed Chicory once more, hope she does well in the pregnancy and then decide whether to put her down this next summer. I will have five does, though very young, milking and hopefully that is enough milk. Too bad it has come to this since Chicory is only four years old and in her prime.   

I guess that is what I get for buying damaged goods. It was worth it though because she has given us nine kids and a wonderful personality that has given us a great deal of laughs and joy. Not to mention all the milk and education.

Trapping, My Latest Skill of Necessity

I LOVE Wyoming but if you aren't fond of traveling like I'm not fond of traveling, the wide open spaces have a large draw back. You have to travel to get anything. I needed fabric and foo foos for Halloween costumes so off our daughter and I went between the hours of school time. That was Monday. Tuesday off I went to get supplies for the window wells hubby is building. 

Wednesday storytime and ballet with the three year old while the six month old was in arms and early school release at 1:00 followed by library afterschool specials with the older grand kids, younger ones in tow. Thankfully that was in our small community.

Then Thursday was a whirlwind to get anything done before Friday. It began at 4:30 a.m. as we hurried to do chores and travel five hours to pick up Gracie, our sole remaining yak. Then home again to do chores and set traps before picking up the four grand kids to spend the night.

Oh did I fail to mention that I'm now adding trapping to my resume? Not by choice but necessity which has been the mother of most all our acquired skills. Just like window well building has become my hubbies newest skill since we priced ready made metal ones. We'll talk about how later. 

It was necessity that sent me to borrow live traps once more from the town Animal Control Officer, in other words the dog catcher. The same kind of live trap that I caught the skunk under the shed at the house.

Warm winter, nice spring and the population has exploded. Now after a summer drought, their are too many for the available feed supply. In they move to terrorize my poor chickens, sucking eggs, and possibly killing one hen. Possibly because this is what we found in one of my traps Saturday morning, a raccoon. Now I didn't scout out no raccoon trails. Nope, I had been going to the corrals just after dark to watch for skunks to see what direction they came from and try and figure out where they denned up.  I concluded they were in a small culvert since the grass was pressed down at the entrance and that proved to be true. 

Since coons love chicken dinner, I'm not so sure the missing hen wasn't its doing. I trapped this one over in our neighbors pen by their now empty chicken coop. The coop that once was full of chickens which all became varmit dinner.

As I asked permission to set traps in neighboring club member's pens, I discovered that chickens were going missing elsewhere too. Others may tolerate annihilation of their girls but you mess with my girls and you mess with me.

No more of MY girls is going to make anyone but us people a chicken dinner and nothing sucks MY eggs for free without asking as the two skunks who were caught in the act can attest if only they were alive to do so.

Though the skunks to my knowledge are not longer trespassing in the chicken coop, I'm left with a bad case of  PTSD  hens. Think I'm kidding? What would you call 1 to 4, at the most, eggs a day from 8 hens if not a bad case of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome? Can't blame them, bullets flying over head and nightly invasions by threatening marauders. I might have it too if I weren't at the other end of the gun.

You might think just secure your pen tighter, well you have to do that too but our neighbors thought they had, a year old coop with buried wire underneath but still, they lost all their chickens. If something is hungry enough, they are going to find a way in. It is why population control in the animal kingdom is so... important. We do it or mother nature does. That is what the EHD that killed Jasmine was doing. I say was because cold weather has killed the flies.

 Mother Nature sent EHD to lower the deer population since we have a bad drought and no food. And wow,  has it wiped out a huge population of white-tails in particular along with some mule deer and antelope. She sends starvation, rabies and other nasty diseases to control skunks, racoons, and rabbits when needed. But for all you softies who say let Mother Nature take care of things, I want you to weigh the difference between a quick death by bullet or Jasmines death which did end by bullet but not before her organs turned to mush and she hemoraged out every orfice.

 I say population control by bullet is far kinder than disease and starvation so forgive me but since I've seen many forms of Mother Nature's population control, I favor the bullet and I favor trapping to control over population.

So for two nights, I timed my entry into the corrals to just after dark to attempt to discover if indeed skunks were lurking in the small culvert under the road. FWI, Skunks hole up together in the late fall for warmth and sure enough on the second night I saw two skunks tottering down our lane. This was after we had already gotten rid of two that got into the chicken coop.

 

As I told you the last time, skunks LOVE cat food and so it makes a great bait. What I didn't know is how unnearving it is carrying the crate with them inside. Luckily, the two trips we've made, no perfume has been donated.

More unnerving yet than carrying the cages is putting my hands in the front to slide the metal rings upward and opening the trap door.  So far nothing has tried to bite or scratch.  Not true if you accidently catch a kitty cat in a trap.  Five skunks and a racoon so far has left me wondering if we've got them all. I hope so. We go this morning once more to check, then on the road again. I've got to go help the folks at a business meeting.  

 

Oh yeah, got to have the educational part. I called a friend whos son's job is trapping for the goverment and he said fish oil and marshmellows is the best bait for racoons. Also, just keep setting the traps in the same spot you caught a varmit the last time for their friends will just keep coming until they are all gone. Then move on to another area and try there if need be.

 

Yes indeed, a woman of many talents, master of none, that's me.

Possible Milk Fever

 Isn't Bella cute? But what I want you to take note of is her momma, Chicory, and how upright her feet are. This photo was taken Monday.

 This is a photo on Tuesday. Chicory is guarding her little ones sleeping and her hips are still tipped sharply from delivery and maybe because she doesn't feel real well. Her legs are sharply posty in back. A little concern on our part but she did just give birth so it was a keep watch mode at this stage.

Compare that picture with this foot. This is this morning. Note how far under the hoof is thrust. Chicory can barely get around her feet hurt so bad. This hoof is the worse but the others aren't great either.

 It started yesterday and last night we gave her 5 cc's of a broad spectrum antibiotic along with Calcium Drench just in case she is having a Milk Fever episode. Milk Fever really doesn't have to do with milk at all or in the case of my does, a fever either. I've had two does I suspected of Milk Fever in my 29 years of having goats. The first two years not counting because the goats were wethers.

Both does happen to be heavy milkers but that doesn't have to be the case with Milk Fever. The problem isn't always that the doe doesn't have enough calcium but for some reason or other, her body isn't using her stores. In my case, I feed calcium in their diet. 

As for Chicory, she did this little episode when she kidded the first time, with her previous owner. Who happens to be a very conscientious, record keeping, goat owner. She records every hoof trim, milking amounts, everything. It was this foot problem that made her available to us.

For the past three kiddings, I've owned her. She's had a mild problem of going down a bit on her pasterns. Yet, last year her feet were stronger than the year before. She did have a weird week last week before kidding. Her udder was huge and rock hard, plus she never had strong contraction though when I went inside her, the first kids feet were right inside ready. 

Does Chicory have Milk Fever, don't know, but we'll cover the bases of bacterial infection from birth and Milk fever. 
Wish Chicory could talk, beyond her insesant moaning that is. We'd get a better picture of what's wrong. But beyond her leaning her head on me for sympathy and the moans, she's not talking. 

She is up on her feet a bit more today. Compared to last night when she didn't even move off the ground where she was laying when I poked her twice to inject the 5 cc's in two sites to lesson the soreness, that's a good sign. 

She fought me more on this morning's dose of calcium. I drench her using a turkey baster. Its's cheap and if you squeeze slowly, the goat won't drown.

This calcium drench works okay too. It's for cows but I have both on hand from a few years ago when I had a Saanen do the same thing. She didn't come out quite so well. I didn't know what was going on and the delay meant she ended up with heart problems. She went on to continue having kids but always had to be watched carefully and treated with extra calcium when she kidded. I called a gal who previously ran a 1200 cow dairy with her day and she continues to raise a few Holstein cows for show. I learned a bunch.

You may not have had to deal with milk fever. I hope not.  But it is wise to have supplies on hand, just in case. A goat can go down and die within a very short period, before the store or vets open in the morning. Here, we don't take our goats to the vets if possible because they are not real knowledgeable about them. Cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, and cats being the main business and I understand that. One can't be up to date on every species health issues. That would be a huge task. 

This site has a brief over view of the problem. http://fiascofarm.com/goats/milkfever.htm

Oh yeah, since it doesn't rain but pours, I'm treating an eye infection on Daisy, one of the kids, and our daughter went into labor yesterday, two months too early.

The hospital was able to stop her labor but it's stay down time since she's having other complications also.

The good news is Murphy appears to have grown bored attacking our computers. LOL

Apparently, He's Here To Stay

 Have you lost a rooster? He's at my place. Don't know where he came from but he's decided to stay. I don't think he's leaving either. He's fallen in love.

No, not with Goldy, the Buff Orpington hen, here who belongs to the neighbors and comes over to flirt and share a meal. Nope, he's fallen in love with our oldest doe, Chicory.  He sleeps with her and he roosts on her back when the ground is too cold for his feet. I know this because I've occasionally  seen poo on her back. He hasn't even paid the chicken in the coop any never mind. Nope, he has set his eyes on tall, dark, and sweet Chicory.

You might think I would be shocked but I've been around the barn too many times and have seen the darnedest things. Animals can have the funniest relationships. We once had a poor sheep that's wool was always soaked from our steer that about licked her to death. No, not literally but he tore down so much fence trying to get to her that we finally just gave in and put her in his pen. The poor wooly thing looked always as if she was having a bad wooly day. Her wool pressed over this way and that like a teenage boy just up from a long nap. The feelings weren't mutual either. I swear she rolled her eyes every time he stuck out his tongue to give her a wet slimy kiss. But what choice did she have? She couldn't run away on her stubby little legs and she couldn't out wrestle something that weighed over a 900 pounds more than she did. Nope, tolerance was the only way to go.   

I wasn't going to name the Barred Rock rooster but the a couple days ago the name Sherman popped into my head. He was probably tired of being called rooster and I'm sure he send me the message telepathically, " My name is Sherman." Don't laugh, I swear the animals talk to me. I'd just wish they would keep the negative comments to themselves.

I don't mind Sherman, he follows me in and out of the milking shed and cocks his reddish eye at me, sending me the clear messages that he'd sure like a little something for the rumbling in his stomach. Other than that and a visit with the hoard of barn cats that show up every time I arrive, he pretty much hangs out in the does' pen. How can you not love a rooster like that?

 And if you are wondering why I put the bright fuchsia pink rag on the fence. It's to remind me that ooooops a daisy hurts. Yup, see that patch of ice lurking under the snow to the right of the rag? It's as smooth as glass and impossible to maneuver, especially when your hands are carrying a bucket of water and with feed. So forgetful here, decided that if she can't remember all on her own despite biffing it a few times, then she needed a little reminder. It's worked like a charm. So please be kind, and if you see this flag, leave it. My backside is feeling a whole lot better now with out testing the hardness of the ground on a regular basis.

Livestock Plans

Getting a turn at the computer has become ridiculous over the holidays. It's one of the reasons you haven't heard as much from me.

But whoo hoo, today I have it all to myself and not only can I blog but I've those long lists to make for the New Year. Some call them resolutions but I don't really like that word. It is derived from the root word resolute, to stand firm in purpose and belief. A little two inflexible for me especially since time tables is one area people are so resolute on.  

I've determined that time tables are more for the city folks than the country folks. Living a more natural lifestyle means you may wake up and as the day progresses the weather, a sick animal, a newly tore up fence line from the livestock, equipment breaking down, and the like really determine what's going to get done that day.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't plan, for if you don't, you aren't heading in any one direction and you'll soon have a muddled mess. It just means that your plans might not get done in the  manner you wanted or when you wanted. 

For example, I was going to build a little chicken coop out of a heavy wood equipment box from Kirk's mine two years ago. Yeah, that didn't happen. The grand kids came and lived with us a year and ... and... and...  got in the way. I still wanted and needed that chicken coop though. And maybe the wait was good because we ended up with some some left over styrofoam insulation from the residing of our house so it is now insulated and a few two by four scraps we could use. 

With the grand kids back with their mom, the opportunity opened up to begin so I added some plywood, a few more two by fours and the project was finally off the ground. It took months to complete with all of life's interruptions but finally in September the coop was done. The grand kids thinking it was the bestest playhouse. Next, I purchased some metal fence panels for the run when we bought some panels to rebuild the goat's gates. 

Then I discovered we had used all the metal T-posts to build the yaks pen. Right after that, the truck broke down and due to unusual circumstances, it was broke down until last week. Yup, we did without it from October to now. Lots of plans didn't get accomplished because of not having a truck. The ground is now froze and T-posts aren't penetrating so it will be spring now before the small chicken coop project will be complete. A project that would only take a few days at most has take a few years. It seems to be the story of our life, so I've learned to just keep forging ahead, someday I'll get there.

Knowing you don't get ahead without a plan, I'm making up my To DO barn list today. The one that hubby and I will sit down and go over making goals for this year rearranging the list into priorities. Goals that might or might not be accomplished due to finances and life's interruptions. Yet, I'm not discouraged for any project done off this list is cause to celebrate. It's one more step forward.
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This is my list.

1. Buy new hay feeders for the yak pen, doe goat pen, and the buck goat pen.

2. Build a shade shed for the yaks. (They don't need protection from the cold in the winter but they do need shade from the hot sun in the summer.) They borrowed my mares shed last summer making her do without.

3. Build a new chicken run on the largest coop. The old one has patched holes.

4. Replace tin on the back side of the small tin goat shed.

5. Replace five sheets of plywood on the goat milking shed.

6. Clean pens

7. Paint shed - I do this every year as they are so... old the paint peels off with the help of the goats rubbing on them.

8. Re-tin the end of the hay shed.

9. Re-fence the kid goat's pen, I tore the old fence down last summer.

10. Build chicken run for the newly completed, small chicken coop. 

11. Re-build the hay feeder in the beef pen.

12. Replace a few fence panels in the beef pen.

Will all of this get accomplished this summer, hardly. The large chicken coop run has been put off two years now and I have the materials to do the job so it moves up the list in priority. I have some tin so the small tin jobs will likely get done. As for the rest, we'll have to decided just what hits the top of the most needed.
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But the list making doesn't stop there for the livestock, for if you don't have a plan for your stock, you aren't getting ahead. Here's my goals for my stock this year.

1. Purchase a doeling with a heavy milking line and a heritage for an awesome udder to complete our small herd. 

2. Have our goats linear appraised to help us assess our breeding goals. Linear appraisal is where your goals are scored against the what is considered the perfect goat. You can then see what areas your animals are strong in and where there needs to be improvement.

3. Put kid goats up for sell within a few weeks of their birth instead of waiting until they are several months old, getting a jump on the market.

3. Raise two pigs to put in the freezer come winter. One for us and the other divided amongst the family.

4. Breed Jasmine and Gracie, our yak heifers, to a selected yak bull from another ranch.

5. Buy a steer, or preferably, a yak to put in the freezer next winter.

6. Incubate one batch of chicks. 

Yup, I love this time of year for I'm organizing, finishing off indoor projects I haven't completed in past years, and looking forward with hope for a wonderful and productive new year. 

From Our House to Yours

I want to have a long conversation BUT, I'm sti...ll sewing. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't keep changing the patterns, and the pressure of so much to do for Christmas is wearing me down.
 I'd like to go and take a long winter's nap.

 I can't quit yawning.

Have a Merry Christmas. Next week we'll have a long talk.

The Yaks Visit The Vet

Yes, I just got home last night from my folk's and off we had to go to the vet's today. Boy, am I tired of traveling. Everyday but one I sat in front of the steering wheel for at least an hour and a half to over four hours. Bless him, Kirk did the driving for the three hour round trip to the vets today to have our Gracie looked at.

Hopefully, you are not squeamish because it is a bit gruesome. Gracie had one BIG puss pocket and several connecting ones along her jaw.

These are in the area that is covered by LONG hair and the area in which we don't pet since Gracie likes scratched behind her ears and stroked along her back. With this excuse, we missed the lumps  until they carried down her jaw line a bit and Kirk discovered them while I was gone.

Since we have no squeeze chute to put her in to keep her still so we can examine her closely and cut the skin to clean out the bacteria, we went to the vets. And since the one pocket was so... large and near the wind pipe where it could soon interfere with her breathing and eating, we opted to go to the vets. And since we had no way of administering a shot safely, we opted to go to the vets. 

I've drained the same sort of thing on  horses, goats, and sheep but either they were easy to restrain with a halter or they were small enough to man handle. A yak on the other hand, I wasn't going to man handle with those horns so close to the action and when I knew some pain would be involved which could prompt the use of those horns.

The girls were so... good today. Sweet Gracie unloaded and went into the squeeze chute at the vet's calmly but when it closed around her neck, the whites of her eyes grew large but she only grunted softly to me in distress. Then before long she was out and Jasmine in as the vet checked to make sure she didn't have it also.

I cood softly to Gracie telling her it would be alright and as soon as she was reunited with her pen mate, Jasmine, she began showering Gracie with sympathy. That is a bit of what you see in the picture. 

What we appreciated most today was that the girls loaded like a dream into the trailer all by themselves. It took a few ins and outs until they both were inside at the same time but that didn't take long and we were headed down the road.

 They did the same thing loading from the alleyway at the vet's. You couldn't ask for anything more.


The downside of the day is both girls need shots several more times. Jasmine a shot every two weeks for a while to build up her immune system so she will hopefully not secumb to the bacterial infection that Gracie has that is apparently in the soil. 

Gracie needs the immune builder shot the same as Jasmine and a pennicilin shot every week to kill the bacteria that exists in the swelled areas we can see and the ones inside her body we can not.

We have no squeeze chute so we will have to take them out to a ranchers, which we'd hate to do for fear of spreading the bacteria to their place or get a chute in a hurry, take them back to the vets or buy a chute.

We are going to look into buying a chute since it would be handy for doing veterinary work, for trimming their hooves, and for combing their hair to remove their soft wool in the spring. Yes, we had decided just a couple weeks ago that we needed one eventually, we just didn't know we'd needed it so soon. 

Despite this news, a dirty house, a garden full of vegetables needing canning, and a zillion other things to do while my body screams of exhaustion, I'm ever so happy to be home and writing to you once more.