It is Spring Break for some of our Grand-kids, so they have been taking turns staying overnight at Papaw and Mamaw's house. I have walked several miles with them around the farm and Papaw has walked several miles with them on Mr. Shorty. Poor Mr. Shorty has earned his keep this week.
Our hens are finally laying a decent amount of eggs. We are getting anywhere from 4 to 9 eggs a day. Then occasionally my DH goes into the loft and finds a nest, that makes our egg production number jump.
We haven't milked Calico for a week or so and she is about all dried up. Collette is still being Collette and I am still unsure of what is going on with her. Our neighbor and fellow goat herder said that she had a goat deliver a kid the other day without any signs at all. She thought that she was a long way from kidding. She had no udder, no puffiness or swelling. Goats are all different and they are always planning new ways of fooling you.
I was planning on selling my Buck as soon as both does kidded this Spring but now I will probably have to keep him until fall. Once I get both does in milk, I am going to keep milking them as long as they will produce milk or until I get tired of milking. No more breeding and kidding unless I get lonely for some new kids.
Showing posts with label production. Show all posts
Showing posts with label production. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 2, 2009
Drying Calico
I have not quit blogging, I have just pushed it back a little ways in my list of priorities. It seems life is getting a little bit more involved with the prospect of Spring. I have had to organize my thoughts and figure out just when these two does are due. I have been struggling with a very sore shoulder and arm plus I had to spend two weeks at the neighbor's house taking care of their animals and wood stove.
My shoulder is improving and I hope that I can get all of my goat and horse rope halter orders completed and shipped out this week. The reason that I had to stop everything and look at my calendar was because Calico's milk production has cut itself in half. It happened overnight, she has just decided to quit producing. She is not even wanting to jump up on the milk stand. She is healthy and doesn't have any problems with her utter.
I looked at the calendar where I write down everything and found that Cooter had gotten loose and with the girls on October 10th. So, that would make her due on March 9th. I don't really think that she could be due that early by the looks of her but if she is carrying a single it could be possible. She got loose on November 11th, which would make her due on April 10th, I think that this is more of a possibility.
Paris and Calico both look bred and neither has come in heat this year, so I guess I will just have to wait and see. If I dry Calico off right now and she isn't pregnant, she is in big trouble. To dry her off I am not milking her completely out and am only milking her when she looks very strutted.
We will desperately miss the milk, I don't think that I can drink store bought milk anymore. The best case scenario would be for her to kid soon with only a single.
My shoulder is improving and I hope that I can get all of my goat and horse rope halter orders completed and shipped out this week. The reason that I had to stop everything and look at my calendar was because Calico's milk production has cut itself in half. It happened overnight, she has just decided to quit producing. She is not even wanting to jump up on the milk stand. She is healthy and doesn't have any problems with her utter.
I looked at the calendar where I write down everything and found that Cooter had gotten loose and with the girls on October 10th. So, that would make her due on March 9th. I don't really think that she could be due that early by the looks of her but if she is carrying a single it could be possible. She got loose on November 11th, which would make her due on April 10th, I think that this is more of a possibility.
Paris and Calico both look bred and neither has come in heat this year, so I guess I will just have to wait and see. If I dry Calico off right now and she isn't pregnant, she is in big trouble. To dry her off I am not milking her completely out and am only milking her when she looks very strutted.
We will desperately miss the milk, I don't think that I can drink store bought milk anymore. The best case scenario would be for her to kid soon with only a single.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Production Up
I don't know what is going on around here but both egg and milk production has gone up. We have gone from 5 eggs per day to 8 eggs per day. I have also been getting more milk from my doe. I don't know what has changed other than the year. Perhaps my hens and doe made New Year's resolutions to provide more for the humans that feed and care for them.
I milk using a hand spray nozzle, if you didn't read my blog about it back in June of 2008, here it is: Easy Goat Milker. I sold the goat that I was milking at the time of that blog. She gave more milk than we could use and we had to hobble her because she would occasionally kick up a hind foot.
I am milking her daughter now, who is a dream to milk. She had been giving around one and a half quarts of milk per day. She would give more if I milked twice per day but I am lazy and don't need the extra milk anyway. But for some reason she is giving a full two quarts now.
I have gone through two spray nozzles since I started milking with this milker. They just eventually wear out. The last one wore out last week and when my DH went into town to pick up a new one he couldn't find a good quality one. So he brought home a cheap, small one.
I didn't think that it would work but since I didn't have another choice, I hooked it up. It doesn't have enough suction to start the flow of milk but if I hand squeeze the syringe full of milk before attaching it, it works just fine, in other words it has to be primed each time, whereas the better quality nozzle is a self-primer.
It also takes me twice as long to milk with this new nozzle because it doesn't have the same long draw that the better one has. It shoots the milk out in shorter streams. My fingers are getting some arthritis in them and hand milking is hard for me but the main reason that I like this milker is because I can keep the milk clean.
Calico gives extremely good tasting milk like her mother did. I have tasted milk from some goats that just wasn't good. I know that milk flavor can change with diet or even with milk handling but I also believe that different goats can produce a variety of flavors because of fat content.
I am having a glass of milk while I am typing this and it is perfect. However a few days ago I had to give a whole milking to the dogs because the taste was off. It was the first time I had ever had to do that with Calico's milk. I have no idea what went wrong with that batch other than we had changed feed brands. Needless to say, the horses got the rest of that sack and we went back to the old brand for Calico.
I milk using a hand spray nozzle, if you didn't read my blog about it back in June of 2008, here it is: Easy Goat Milker. I sold the goat that I was milking at the time of that blog. She gave more milk than we could use and we had to hobble her because she would occasionally kick up a hind foot.
I am milking her daughter now, who is a dream to milk. She had been giving around one and a half quarts of milk per day. She would give more if I milked twice per day but I am lazy and don't need the extra milk anyway. But for some reason she is giving a full two quarts now.
I have gone through two spray nozzles since I started milking with this milker. They just eventually wear out. The last one wore out last week and when my DH went into town to pick up a new one he couldn't find a good quality one. So he brought home a cheap, small one.
I didn't think that it would work but since I didn't have another choice, I hooked it up. It doesn't have enough suction to start the flow of milk but if I hand squeeze the syringe full of milk before attaching it, it works just fine, in other words it has to be primed each time, whereas the better quality nozzle is a self-primer.
It also takes me twice as long to milk with this new nozzle because it doesn't have the same long draw that the better one has. It shoots the milk out in shorter streams. My fingers are getting some arthritis in them and hand milking is hard for me but the main reason that I like this milker is because I can keep the milk clean.
Calico gives extremely good tasting milk like her mother did. I have tasted milk from some goats that just wasn't good. I know that milk flavor can change with diet or even with milk handling but I also believe that different goats can produce a variety of flavors because of fat content.
I am having a glass of milk while I am typing this and it is perfect. However a few days ago I had to give a whole milking to the dogs because the taste was off. It was the first time I had ever had to do that with Calico's milk. I have no idea what went wrong with that batch other than we had changed feed brands. Needless to say, the horses got the rest of that sack and we went back to the old brand for Calico.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Egg Production
For some reason our egg production went down yesterday. We have been getting 9 eggs per day and that dropped to 5 yesterday. All three of my Banties laid on Wednesday and only one laid yesterday. But I don't understand what happened to the other three eggs from my Rhoadies and Barred Rocks. They are always so faithful.
I never did find my missing Barred Rock or any evidence of what happened to her. If she did hide a nest, she did a very good job of hiding. One of our neighbors reported seeing an Eagle again but we haven't seen it, that doesn't mean that it wasn't here and carried off my hen.
One of my hens has been laying eggs in my Granddaughters playhouse out back, but didn't yesterday. I have a feeling that I am missing something, they are probably laying somewhere but I just don't know where. That is the problem with free rangers, they can provide you with a constant Easter Egg Hunt.
I never did find my missing Barred Rock or any evidence of what happened to her. If she did hide a nest, she did a very good job of hiding. One of our neighbors reported seeing an Eagle again but we haven't seen it, that doesn't mean that it wasn't here and carried off my hen.
One of my hens has been laying eggs in my Granddaughters playhouse out back, but didn't yesterday. I have a feeling that I am missing something, they are probably laying somewhere but I just don't know where. That is the problem with free rangers, they can provide you with a constant Easter Egg Hunt.
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