It's All About the Eggs

Yes it is all about the eggs, isn't it? Why else do we keep chickens. Since moving to our little place, we've had a hen or two on hand. The first was a throw-away Easter chicken that a friend of ours rescued in town and thought would live quite nicely out at our place. We had no chicken accommodations in the early days, so we put her out in the front pasture with our only other piece of livestock, a miniature Mediterranean donkey. Well "Daisy" the hen got pretty attached to "Holly" the donkey and soon started following her around everywhere. It was kinda cute. We put out a doghouse for her and that was where she slept. Then one day ... it happened ... screams from the front pasture and a small child running back to the house with a beautiful green egg in her hand. We were hooked and have been purchasing chicks at the feed store every year to keep ourselves in chickens.

I don't keep track anymore, but I think we have around 15 or so. They lay more than enough eggs for our use, so I usually try to sell the extra dozens for $3 or so. As you can see, some are Araucanas and lay the Easter colored eggs, but for the most part, the others that are laying the best right now are traditional breeds ... sexlinks, banties, and last year's buff orpingtons.



We allow the hens to hatch out eggs, or they do so on their own because we just don't know about it. The chicks that survived the natural course of events this year have all turned out to be roosters it would appear, so several of the following guys are going to have to go.



And another reason to keep poultry, the crowing. During the times we haven't had a rooster on the premises, we actually got to missing that sound and had to track one down to purchase. And by the way, it's only a bedtime story fallacy that roosters crow in the morning. First-hand evidence at our place indicates that roosters crow plentifully during all waking, and at times, non-waking hours.

Kidding Kits

One of the smartest things we've ever done was to put together a Rubbermaid tote box full of the things that one might need to help assist with a goat kidding. It all started as a presentation for one daughter's 4H club, and it has become a part of our spring kidding routine ever since. So on that note, I will need to be placing an order with Hoegger's Goat Supply to restock a few items, including Selenium E gel which we give to the does a week or so before their due date and also to the newborn kids right away. Seems to do wonders for those kids who might be a little weak in the legs after birth. Off to order online ...

One Step Closer to Kids

Well we started the process of getting our two does that are due to kid in mid-February a little closer. Each of them received their 2cc of CDT vaccine to boost their protection in order to pass on the benefits to those little kids waiting to be born.

The Ober doe who was bred to a Boer buck is looking plenty big. We dried her up in December, but her udder has never really shrunk down. She seems to still be carrying milk around. Hopefully she's allowing her udder to take a break before she needs to kick in full gear again.

Our first timer black and white Boer doe who was bred to the same Boer buck as the Ober doe really doesn't look preggo at all. Sure hope we don't have a false pregnancy like we experienced with a Boer doe last year. If she would just start to develop a bit of an udder bump, things would look more positive.

Kidding Time Again

I've decided to make a commitment to maintain our blogger accounts ... again ... but I don't feel quite so intimidated this time around.

Kidding is just around the corner with two of our does having been bred to the Boer buck which my daughter bred herself. One doe is an Oberhasli who last year with her second freshening threw a great single doeling with a definite market build who is turning into a great percentage breeding doe for market auction prospects. The other doe is a black and white Boer that struggled to thrive as a youngster, having been a bit of an accident and arrived suddenly during Veterans day. She was given to our family to hand raise and actually spent the entire Christmas holiday in the house until the weather moderated a bit in order to go live outside. Needless to say, we're anxious to see what the Ober will throw and how the Boer will do with her first pregnancy.

ACF Maddie - Miniature Toggenburg Doe

Weighing less than two pounds at birth, ACF Blue Mocha Madison's life is one of those you can call a miracle. She was born in March of 2007 along with two bucklings as the first freshening of our original miniature Toggenburg doe, HM Kari. She was the runt to her two five pounds brothers and needed extra care to get started. Too weak to stand to nurse, we resorted to tube feeding the first two days. Her mother was content as we were to keep her with the bucklings and was devoted to her, but she just seemed to have a hard time pulling together the strength she needed to nurse on her own. By the end of the second day, however, she was doing just fine. As this was a case of triplets with a first time doe, we almost hesitated keeping her on mom, but she was a determined little kid and got her fill at the udder.

Maddie never gained the stature of her brothers, but favors the Nigerian in her. At the county fair, she was shown in the 4H miniature dairy goat class and took first place. She repeated this the following year and moved up into two different championship classes.

During the fall of 2008, she was bred to the Nigerian buck we favored for this year, Ben. She surprised us with twins a few days sooner than expected. You can read our post about that experience here as well. We joke that she's a young mom and turns her kids over to her mother, Kari, to tend during the day. But in all actuality, she's doing a great job as a first time mom.