It's a girl...finally!

  So we thought Thea's due date was some time around Wednesday of last week. Days and days and days of checking Josie and then Thea every 2-3 hour around the clock were starting to take their toll on Big Onion and me. We took turns on the night shifts, napping on the couch between trudging out to check on the girls and getting very little else done around the house and farm. The added stress of feeding, wrangling, and cleaning up after three rambunctious bucklings wasn't helping much either.

  Night before last I was on duty. Every time I checked on her, Thea was looking closer and closer to going into labor. Her vulva was swelling, and her udder was finally starting to fill up. It was about 11am. I had gone out to get a (late) start on morning chores while Big Onion was making us both some much needed coffee and breakfast. I came around the corner by the turkey pens to find Thea laid out on her side and already pushing for all she was worth!

Are you my mommy?

 "Are you my mommy?"

Got to watch out for that vicious "pit bull," he might lick the kids to death.

It's a boy...and a boy...and another boy

  Since Josie started showing signs of labor Monday afternoon, I had been out checking on her every couple hours around the clock. Yesterday afternoon when the sky turned dark and it started to pour down rain, I knew I'd better go out and check on the girl. Somehow it seemed only right that Josie would  choose the nastiest possible weather to kid. 

Kid Watch 2013: Update - Still kidless!

  Josie started this afternoon with that I thought was labor. She was breathing heavy, looked very uncomfortable, and stretching a lot. That was about 12 hours ago. Well, since then I must have walked a total of miles and miles from the house to the goat rooms checking on her every couple hours.

  We are also running up on Thea's due date now and neither girl seems to be ready to get down to business. When I last check on them, Josie was downing hay like it was going out of style, and Thea was sleeping peacefully in the milk room.

  I just wish they'd get on with it already before I become too sleep deprived and delirious to deal with delivering and caring for two to god knows how many kids!

Kid watch 2013

Josie is due any minute now so we are officially on kid watch.

As you can see, she is roughly the size of a small aircraft carrier with a very full looking udder.

She is really waddling around these days, but being hugely pregnant in this blistering heat hasn't changed her temperament one bit. She's still full to the brim with piss and vinegar, and that's the way we love her.

Our Thea should be due just a few days after Josie.

As you can see, she is not carrying nearly as wide as Josie. Her gut is hanging low instead. If I didn't know this girl's normal shape or hadn't had her tested, I'd be wondering if she was pregnant at all. 

Both our mommas to be are still out grazing in the hot sun like nothing unusual is happening. Meanwhile, we've been checking udders and goat rears several times a day for any indication of impending kid-hood.

  Since both the girls are CAE+, we plan on pulling and bottle raising babies. We just got a negative CAE test back for Gertie, and we have a freezer full of her milk ready and waiting. Today I taped up both girls' teat just in case they decided to go all ninja and kid on us without any warning.

  Before I taped Josie, I milked out her udder in hopes of keeping her from getting congested like she did with Gwen. I was also hoping to get some colostrum from her that we could heat treat and have ready for when the little ones arrive. Unfortunaly, what I got was white and salty. I guess the real colostrum doesn't come until momma is really ready to kid.

  The next few night will be very short on sleep as we will be checking on the girls every few hours and keeping our fingers crossed that we will be there with the catcher's mitt ready when they  decide to kid.

Poult update

  Our turkey poults are doing well. They have started growing feathers and were feeling a bit cramped in the brooder so we moved them out to a cage in the poultry house. With the weather so hot, we only need to turn on the heat lamp for them at night and even that won't be necessary for very much longer. 

   Since we lost a couple of the broad breasted whites and there seems to be a lot of interest in locally grown, pastured thanksgiving turkeys, I picked up this batch of pretty little bronzes at the feed store last week to boost our numbers. They are at least 3-4 weeks old already, and my guy at the feed store gave us a great deal for taking the whole batch off his hands.

   These guys are super vocal and really sweet. It's hard to change their food and water since every time I reach in, they want to climb up into my hands. I'm doing my darndest not to get attached to the little buggers. I love raising turkeys, but man there are going to be a lot of big birdies running around our pastures very soon!

Rabbits on pasture

  Things are hopping along with the rabbits. The heat is hard on these furry creatures so we have set up a fan inside the poultry house. We had a little trouble getting Bigwig, our buck, to do the deed on his last go-round with the ladies. They say the heat can even turn the boys sterile. Poor thing.

   I had put Zinny, one of our older does, in with him to breed and came back to find her humping him! I had to removed her from the pen before the poor guy lost all his dignity. He was finally able to get the job done when we put the two together first thing in the morning after a somewhat cool night. If the breeding took, those buns should be due this coming weekend.

  Meanwhile both the smaller pasture pens are full of mommies and babies. Crazy T is out there with her brood of 8 (above), and Haystack has her two little black bunnies in the A-frame style pen. The turkeys have decided that pen makes a great perch for an afternoon nap.

  The big bunny tractor is back out in the pasture since the little so and so's were digging holes in our backyard. They are loving all the tall grass out there and are growing like weeds. Of this batch, we will probably be keep one of the chinchilla colored does. We will also probably keep one of Haystack's black babies if one is female.

 We are going to phase out some of our adult does. We like having the colored rabbits around. Plus some of the girls just aren't performing up to par. To that end, we are looking for a pet home for our sweet Clover. She was one of the first two does that we started with over a year ago. She's the smallest of our does, and her pregnancies were always hard on her. So, if you know of anyone in the area looking for a sweet pet bunny girl, please let us know!