New goat kids!

Our mini-alpine doe gave birth today with 2 darling kids.  A doeling and a buckling.  They are sweet and bouncy as can be and Daisy is a wonderful mother.  This is her 3rd kidding and we look forward to more fresh milk soon!  The doeling is sold already and the buckling will be listed on the "for sale" page soon.

Americauna "Easter Egger" chicks are released!

These lovelies are running around with the other chickens now that they have grown big enough.  They are so pretty and cute flocking together around the yard.  I love their "tufted" cheeks!  They will be laying pink/green/blue pastel "easter egg" colored eggs by the spring.

New bunny hutch

Okay, first off - we are not carpenters, obviously!  However, we finally finished the new bunny hutch.  It is a 4-plex and makes it easier to care for them.  The best part is - all recycled material except for about $6 worth of furring strips we bought to complete it.  Not bad for a $6 hutch, right?  We have a bit of painting left (well, the kids do!) and are putting some recycle corrugated plastic on the roof but other than that it is done and perfectly functional if not beautiful!

 This Thunder/Twister/Tornado aka "T".

 Here is Lucy.

 Ruby.

 Clover.

They all seem very happy in their new homes!

Our Daisy girl in the milking stand

Not bad for a first freshener that I was lazy about milking.  :-)

I still have to hobble her, little stinker.  She is perfectly content to hop up there and be milked but if I don't hobble her she will kick up a storm.

Another chicken embryo

Heather cracked her egg for breakfast and we were dismayed to find this little guy.  This is why it's so important to mark eggs and keep tabs on a broody hen's nest.  When a hen goes broody, she stops laying but other hens will come add to her nest and so there is no telling how long eggs have been there if you don't keep track.  When I got around to checking her nest and deciding on marking eggs, she had 20+ in there and I decided to leave her with 12 of them.  We knew there was a possibility of this, so had made sure to put the questionable eggs that I had gathered from her nest into cartons marked "OURS" (so they are not sold) where any stained, dirty, questionable eggs go.  We are always careful to crack our eggs into a bowl individually instead of into a batter or pan.

This one is probably about 7 days along.

I think next time I go to remove eggs from a nest, I will candle them before deciding which ones to leave and take.  :-(  See how to candle an egg here.

Developing Egg

We have a broody hen who we have been allowing to set on 12 eggs.  She is in a corner of the hay shed and very protective of her eggs.  We marked the 12 eggs that we would allow to stay and just gather any extras from the nest once a day.  Today when I went to collect, I found that one of the marked eggs had rolled out of the nest and was stone cold.  I brought it in, knowing that the chick couldn't survive being that cold.  We opened it up for a little science lesson (being homeschoolers, we grab every opportunity).  It was less developed than I thought.  The yolk was completely runny (yolk is absorbed by chick for nourishment) and there was a bit of blood.  The kids didn't think there was anything there, but at closer inspection I found the baby chick, we could see it's eye and little heart slowly beating and then becoming still.  Wow!  From this website, it appears that the chick was about 2-5 days developed.  Amazing little life!  How sad.  Let's hope the next 11 survive.  I put some extra padding around the nest to prevent any others from rolling out, hopefully that will work.

Here are a couple pictures:

More learning and info, including some worksheets for kids is located here.

Here is a YouTube video showing all 3 weeks of development.

Black Jack

We picked up our new buck last week!

 Nubian, black and white - great ears.

Doesn't he look like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars?

I am tempted to change his name!

He will be bred with Annalise this fall for some great kids and yummy, creamy milk!