Snubian doelings

A quick moment of zen.

First arrivals!

Just arrived! Two NubianxSaanen (aka Snubians) doelings

Sleeping with warm water bottles.

When they say good things come to those who wait, they aren't kidding. After being disappointed that one of our Saanen does had aborted, we are thrilled to welcome these two little ladies to the homestead. Both of these girls are out of a Kastdemur Nubian buck. They are beautiful little ladies that I'm sure will have no issues putting yummy milk into the pail.

Not a bad way to start the kidding season here!

Farm Babies

We decided to raise Barred Rock pullets, again. We have found them to be the best foragers, layers, and friendliest bird. The Speckled Sussex are going to a new home, as they just don't lay as well as Barred Rocks. Our Barred Rocks consistently lay throughout the winter, without missing a beat. We have south facing windows in the coop, but no other supplemental lighting. These gals also are meatier than traditional egg layers, so if we get an accidental roo in the bunch, we will send him to freezer camp. Hands down, the Barred Plymouth Rocks have become our favorite chicken.

Bummer

It appears that one of our does aborted at some point, and tricked us with her big belly. We are hoping she was bred this past week for kids in the summer. Our next doe isn't due until the 19th. I am ready for milk again, so the 19th can't get here fast enough.

Heat Treating Colostrum

We feed pasteurized milk and heat treated colostrum to our goat kids. It makes it easier to sell excess kids when you test for CAE annually and practice prevention this way. Now, when you heat treat colostrum, you have to hold the temperature above 135 degrees F, but below 140 degrees F. This temperature is held for 30 minutes once reached. If you heat colostrum at a higher temperature, it turns into pudding.

The easiest way we've found to do this is with this little guy--a small, cheap deep fryer. We fill it to the max line with water, use small glass jars in the basket, and played with the dial until we found the spot to keep our temps within that range. We made a notch to mark this temperature spot on the dial, and now we can just put the dial there for heat treating colostrum in the future. It beats standing over a stove and moving a pan off and on the heat source as to not end up with too low of a heat or colostrum pudding.

And we wait...

My big brick house mama goat is due on Tuesday. I have been checking on her throughout the day, and she seems happy and content. I am so ready for another round of bottle babies. I'll keep my ear out for any hints of impending labor via the barn/baby monitor. Come on babies!

Completed! Well mostly completed.

The barn is done!

A little blurry, but those are skylights on the side. We couldn't put them on the roof due to vapor barrier.

There is quite a gap at the bottom of the barn. Because we've had a muddy, wet winter, we are have to wait until spring to bring in fill dirt. Instead of them building on a pad, we will backfill and add gravel in the spring.

I am hoping that we can pour a small concrete pad in the barn to use as a milking area. We plan on running electric and water to this barn. Hot water and bucket heaters? Sounds like heaven to me!