Even with our small herd it’s difficult to remember all the identification and medical records for each goat. To keep track and stay organized I created a few worksheets to help me manage our goat family. I am offering these sheets as free downloads that you print at home. You will need the latest version of Adobe Reader to view the PDF’s. It can be
Last week we had our first kidding on our little farm! Thankfully Willow is an experienced mother and everything went perfectly.
This first hatch batch of 2017 was in preparation for the Spring Poultry Homesteading Faire. In the past, many people at the Faire have shown interest in Marans. Currently, we do not have a Marans rooster. So, instead I focused on Olive Eggers. I also hatched White Leghorns and Delaware chicks.
Marans are a heavy, dual purpose bird. They are generally raised for their dark brown egg, but also make a good meat bird. Marans are named after a port town in France. Over the centuries local birds were bred with birds brought from seaman coming to port. The modern Marans breed began development in the 1800’s and was adopted into the French standard in 1931.
White leghorns are another of my favorite birds to have on our farm. They are a basic, no nonsense bird. They rarely cause any trouble. They eat. They lay eggs. They are on the flighty side, so aren’t the best choice for a pet chicken. But, as part of our barnyard flock they are perfect.
This week’s update isn’t an update on the week, but an update on our to do list. I like lists. Well, it’s not so much the list itself I like, but the crossing things off the list. So gratifying. Since the photo template I use for our weekly updates has nine spaces, I’ll list only nine things that need done. There are, of course, about
2015 has officially ended. Let’s look back at how our farm and gardening endeavors played out this past year. We had a fairly steady year with good food being grown and plenty of animals to keep us busy.
It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned anything about our two Nigerian Dwarf Goats, Sven & Olaf. So, here’s a quick post about what they’ve been doing.
At my request, Farmer John brought home a truck bed & trailer full of pallets & crates! I had been oogling over all the fabulous ideas crafty people had been creating out of recycled wood. I even made a pinterest board dedicated to pallet projects.
All of a sudden we have 25 new chicks & possibly more soon! Most of the summer we let the chickens in our main coop wander freely. Apparently many of them have taken advantage of the freedom & have been sitting on eggs. Sneaky, sneaky.
