Taking a Break from Dairy Goats

Last month, it was decided to sell all of the goats and take a break from dairy goats until we have more time to devote to their care.  Dairy goats are A LOT of work, and the break will allow us to work on the infrastructure needed to better manage the goats.  Luckily, we found someone willing to buy the whole herd, save 3 for whom we had already found other homes.  It was really sad to see them go, but it was a big relief as well.  Trying to manage all of the animals and the gardens, while Jeff is working full time and we've got a baby, was overwhelming.  However, we're still seriously considering getting a few (lower maintenance) meat goats soon-ish to help clear our land across the street.  The pigs have reached their goal weight (already!) and will likely be processed next week, leaving us with just the chickens and a barn cat for the time being.

Speaking of chickens, we have had three hatches of chicks this summer - all by hens instead of an incubator.  So much easier to let a hen do most of the work!  Initially, we had the problem of no broody hens, so we bought one from Paul and Terra.  We put about a dozen eggs under her, but only 6 hatched, 2 of which died (squashed in the nest.)  There was one poor chick that had gotten stuck to one of the dead chicks and some straw in the nest, so I soaked it in some warm water to unglue it.  After separating the chick from its entanglements, I attempted to return it to the hen, but she rejected it - probably because it looked funny and flopped oddly from having been immobile on one side.  Disappointed, but not yet accepting defeat, I decided to give it one more shot.  I brought the chick back into the house (The Haven Poultry Spa) for a day, giving it periodic warm water baths to remove the remaining goo from its body so it would fluff up.  By the end of the day, it had fluffed up considerably and was much more stable on its feet.  This time, I reunited the chick with its "mother" after dark, sticking it under the hen with the other chicks.  Success!  Later the next day, I couldn't distinguish the saved chick from the others.  However, as the chicks began feathering out, one of them did not grow any wing feathers on one side.  Methinks that the one winged bird is the chick that I saved.  We'll see how that works out.

About a month or so after the first hatch, the Dominicker hen given to us by some neighbors (because they didn't want such a broody hen) finally started sitting (almost a whole year after we got her!).  She's a big girl, so we put 16 eggs under her.  Eleven hatched, but a snake ate 4 of them the first day.  Darn Black Snakes!  We caught about 4 Black Snakes in our chicken houses around this time.  The Dominicker has been a good mama to the remaining 7 chicks, even taking under her wings at night One Wing and a sibling, since I didn't think a handicapped bird was ready for the big house yet.  This big family is still in the brooder, but they are all almost ready to join the main flock.

Prissy, the Silky hen, also eventually started sitting, but she only managed to hatch out one chick - just a few days ago.  I'd wanted to hatch out more Silkies, but I unfortunately cooked all of the Silky eggs right before she decided to sit.  We tried to get her to sit on 6 large-ish eggs (mix of New Hampshires and Australorps), since she is small, but she would only sit on a max of 4 at a time.  Stinker!  And then only one egg hatched!  Oh well.  In total, we got 12 new chickens.  It's too early to tell how many will be female, but it looks like 3 out of 4 from the first hatch set of New Hampshire Reds are female (including One Wing).

In gardening news, I had a good Spaghetti Squash harvest, which was exciting.  The tomato harvest was fairly good too, especially for the Moon Glows, but unfortunately, we were out of town when production peaked.  However, we were still able to do a little canning and sell some at market and to the CSA as well as enjoying lots of tomato sandwiches (yum!).  We recently shelled a big bunch of beans and black-eyed peas - approximately 7-8 pounds worth.  My luffa vines are growing like crazy this year (probably because I had the time to adequately fertilize and water them), and we're hoping the arbor doesn't collapse under their weight.

I also managed to grow quite a large number of English Lavender plants from seed.  They grow reeeally slowly, and I've had to baby them a lot, but I've finally been able to start planting them around the house recently.  However, the rest have started to look sad in their little pots, because I can't dig beds for them fast enough.  Darn heavy clay soil full of rocks and weeds with big roots!!

Our porch is now screened in and looks swell (thanks Forrest and Sean!).  Raine enjoys the new outdoorsy space to run around in.  Hopefully, we will have more of a lawn for him to play on next year.  Lastly, Paul and Terra are moving out of The Haven to become full-time residents at their place, Full Life Farm.  Although Raine, Jeff, and I will soon be the sole occupants of The Haven, we will continue to work with Paul and Terra on farming and developing the land.

-Annie