Upside Down Hen

This is Upside Down Hen.
Named so by my neighbor Allison's son Aidan when he was trying to get the eggs from her.

Why? She's not on her head. She's normal looking. Well not quite.

Oops! Here she goes.

If you come to get the eggs, she fluffs up and sticks up her tail, tips over, and blows up to twice her size in her attempt to protect her egg. The thing is, half the time it ISN'T her egg. She'll sit on any egg.Every day we take her off the nest and try to get her out and about. Usually she's back on her nest in short order, but lately she's been outside a bit more. Maybe the cooling weather is helping. Meanwhile there's a line at the other box.
Its not as if there isn't a spot for each hen, but they usually lay in the same box.
Who knows!

Weaning And Getting Ready To Say Goodbye

Day one of weaning was a bit rough with a lot of baaing and screeching. By morning two though, the boys were bonding more than before, which will be good for their move on Sunday. Today they cried a little and then realized that they had the best grazing in days - all for themselves. They were too busy eating to complain till night time when they missed their moms again.

Lets just say we leave the barn quickly in the evening before the mayhem begins again.Aidan and Andouille are going to be missed.

Week End Update

Neo would like to mention that he is the handsome father to all these lovely Boer goat kids, AND that there are more to come. Cleopatra is pregnant for sure, and today she looked like some serious body changes were happening. Naturally she had no interest in having her picture taken, and all my attempts were not worthy of publishing. Andouille is still enjoying mother's milk but I realize that he is getting closer to three months old. That means - weaning- Oh NO!

VIDEO BELOW: Here he is this morning, nursing heartily. He's half as big as his mother soon.



Aidan is not far behind either, but I hope we can wait to do a few of the kids all at once. The crying can be miserable. This week-end, Zola's ten day old boys have been fence training. Then, this afternoon, they got to join the rest of the nursery herd for a couple groups of visitors. They blended right in and are almost as big as the month old twin does. Tomorrow we'll try and get them all out together. That will get us down to three herds and by next week-end, the goal is to unite them with the other does. That should have us ready for some organized rotational grazing as the spring growth and warmer weather starts.

Getting Out

Since you last saw him, Aidan has passed his week birthday,
and gone from 6 1/2 pounds to ten.

Has started drinking with the big boys,
(see the difference in three weeks - 10 lbs vs. 28) and been sleeping with older women!
Oh! How they grow up! We started the week with more indoor recess, and family style dining, but it was time to take all that energy outdoors.

Last week-end's thaw made it possible to see some grass and open some gates to get the youngsters outside. The mom's led by example and taught terrible eating habits. How embarrassing. Abi learned how tasty tree recycling is. Ali worked on cleaning her plate. After a couple of days, everyone learned that it was each goat for himself when the grain came out.
Even the little guy. The kids are already good little lawnmowers, and are really putting on some size. Even Aidan gets right in there, but mom is still tops!

Don't be fooled by the sun glasses. Its just to keep the snow glare down. We are in a single digit cold spell, and have Saba due in the next couple of days. I hope she can hold on until we reach something above freezing - please!

On All Fours

Feet that is. This little guy went from pulling himself by his front legs, to climbing around with the big kids. What a difference two days can make. Aidan's back leg tendons had not properly formed at birth, so it was a disturbing to watch him struggle. By yesterday we were up to three good legs. Today we have a regular, naughty goat kid trashing the barn! Auntie Vinegar came to look him over, now that he's cruising around.
And speaking of four, finally all the kids have names. The twin does are Ali and Abi (the darker head),
and the buckling is Andouille. Yes. Like the sausage. So in this shot, we have Abi, Ali and Andouille eating big goat food.
At two weeks old, Andouille had gone from 10 pounds to 20.5. He is SOLID!

VIDEO OF THE KIDS IN THE BARN CLIMBING AROUND. ANDOUILLE FEATURED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpuPi5t2MTs

Fleeting

It was so sad to walk into the barn this morning and find that one of the new bucklings was dead. We really shook our heads on this one. He seemed the bigger, healthier of the two. We did find a cut in his leg that may have been all it took to weaken such a young thing. So now we are extra worried about his brother, but at the 10:30pm check, all looked well. Aidan was napping, but I got him up to nurse, and gave Aziza some more grain. This was the first time that she seemed really hungry for it. I'm not sure how her milk is coming in. Her udder is small and the little guy goes back and forth to nurse. I'm not sure if he's just fussy, or that one side is better and he's figuring out which. Each time we loose an animal, we better appreciate the ones that make it, and try to make the odds the best we can for that to happen more often then not. But as in this case, we just shake or heads and realize that life can be so enjoyed - and so fleeting.