This goat came with a name…

Brad had asked for his own goat; I found this little fellow from an inquiry I put on www.backyardherds.com. I would like for you to meet Maestro, he is a registered Nigerian Dwarf, wether (neutered male). Romeo was not wanting to stay in his pen; he kept getting out and hanging out with the chickens. He also slept in the chicken coop at night. After Maestro moved in Romeo has not gotten out again. Both goats and Hamlet (my pot-belly pig) all live in the same pen.

If you would also like to have your own registered Nigerian Dwarf check out www.lilhillfarm.com when I’m ready for another they will be the first place I look.

When Maestro arrived at the house I turned him loose and just let he and Romeo find each other. There was a little head butting nothing major, but it was really cute. They are the same age (2 months).

Here is me showing Brad his new goat.

Since goats like to climb, and I live in an old auto parts junk yard, I put to good use a couple of wheels and tires, they are stacked for the goats to play on. You can see Maestro is trying to be king of the mountain, with Romeo on the lower level while Hamlet is desperately searching for something else to eat.

Much thought must be put into naming a goat!

Jen and I picked up my goat (previously mentioned in You have to love technology…) and began to discuss a name.

She mentioned Shakespeare or Romeo since we have a Hamlet already.

Because goats are notorious for getting out I had to go along with the name of Romeo.

That way when we go to his pen and he is not there we can say

“Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?”

Speaking of ideas…

Look what my Crazyeative wife has done with some of my fresh eggs.

She punched holes in the ends of them, and blew the egg yolks out.

She glittered some while……

Dyeing others, and then…she borrowed a chick to complete the photography portion.

For full details venture over to her blog.

http://fiddledeedee-jen.blogspot.com/

Where do your farm ideas come from?

Martha Stewarts’ roost from http://www.themarthablog.com/

The above photos show each end of our roost.

As many of you may know from Jen’s blog, I have been out of service this week as I had surgery on Monday. I had a tumor removed and the right adrenal gland ( the tumor was attached to the gland), and since my gall bladder was only functioning 40% of the time, it was also removed. Any way, between medicated naps I thought I would show a small farm project that was an idea Jen found on Martha’s blog.

This is a roost the Jen thought my chickens would like. This project takes a little longer than think no because of the project but finding the right tree. You either need to find two tree with similar sized forks or find one tree with two forks that are a similar size. You will also need to find a tree with a long semi-straight section to be the cross section of the roost. After spending a good bit of time searching I found the perfect tree it had both forks and the cross section. That kept from having a lot of waste.

Also in back of Martha’s picture you see a couple of ladder type roosts she had created for her chickens. I built one similar and it is on the inside of the coop; this is one of the preferred places for my ladies to sleep.

While I did not have any instructions, it was self explanatory. Each end in about 12-15” deep with a little concrete to secure it.

I would have never thought of going to Martha Stewarts blog for farming ideas but my lovely wife reads a lot of blogs and will recommend some for ideas that I usually find useful.

Foster Parenting

 

 Scarlett and the late Capt. Butler, may he rest in pieces.

Last spring Jen purchased two silkies from Tractor Supply; they turned out to be a hen (Scarlett) and rooster (Captain Butler) .  Later in the year she purchased another rooster (Rhett) with a much better temperament thus Captain Butler made his final appearance in the post entitled “First Processing” and Rhett moved in with Scarlett.  We plan to breed these to hatch some of our own silkie chicks.  Silkies are known for being good brood hens (will hatch any eggs). Scarlett has become broody a couple of time but being so young has not stayed on eggs for the required 21 days plus she did this in the winter, when they are hard to keep warm. 

Recently I purchased 4 frizzle bantam chicks (4 weeks old) and 6 easter eggers (1 week old) that were all about the same size.  In the past when we moved some younger chicks into the coop we had let Scarlett tend to them as a foster mom but we were a little concerned on how Rhett would react.  With much hesitation: we elected not to put these in a brooder box but instead placed them in a cage outside that is now known as the “Nursery”.   Much to our surprise Rhett immediately began to help Scarlett with raising the chicks.  After dark as the evening begins to cool, if you look in the nursery, they will raise their wings letting you see all ten of the chicks.  Once you have had the chance to see them they will lower their wings and protect their foster chicks. 

   Scarlett, Rhett and the foster chicks

Many people have told me you MUST keep young chicks under a warming light starting at 95 degrees and drop it 5 degrees a week until the temperature is at 70 degrees for them at a minimum.  That would be 6 weeks provided the outside temperature does not drop below 70.  I do not completely agree with that as I believe that animals have natural instincts that help them survive; I believe we as people try to complicate their lives way too much.  In this case, I have never put these chicks under a light and they are all doing great living with their foster parents. 

Thanks Scarlett and Rhett.

Now to quote ever info-mercial “but wait there’s more!”  Today when we checked on the nursery, we noticed one of the frizzles had been picked on.  She had had some of the feathers pulled from her tail area and was red and swollen.  This will happen sometimes as the chickens try to establish the pecking order; even at a early age.  The best way for this to heel is isolation, we have had a few to go through this process.  Since this chick is so young we decided to put her in the house with some of the chicks I bought earlier this week at TSC these are just about 5 days old.  She has taken to the 5 day old bantams as if they were her chicks.  She is sitting in the corner with the bantams under her wings.  It is so cute as she is still a little chick herself but since they are younger she is trying to be the big sis. 

Frizzle chick and bantam chicks 

“Now you know the rest of the story.’ – Paul Harvey

 

First processing…

Some of the chickens I purchased last year were referred to as straight run (indicating you do not know the sex). Some breeds are especially hard to tell until they either lay eggs or crow. Because of this we had an excessive amount of roosters, which tend to fight for dominance and do not give the hens a break. I have even had a couple that decided they would be aggressive toward people. I devised a plan to fix this problem….hmmmmm…yep, you guessed it the plan is dinner.

The four roosters ranged about 5 months to 1 year old, a little too old to make good fried chicken but not to old for Mrs. Jones to use make chicken salad and real chicken broth for soups. The boiling of the chickens will allow the meat to be tenderized.

I am not your typical southern boy and did not grow up hunting, so slaughtering and processing animals is new to me. Last Thanksgiving was the first time I had ever processed turkeys. As with anything I do not know how to do, I did my research thanks to www.backyardchickens.com and I also found a mentor who had previously worked in a chicken processing plant (during her college days); Connie Watkins, my mother-in-law. We also had assistance from Kenzie-Grace with some of the processing; I could not believe how much of this she was willing to participate in. Just as with the turkeys, we processed the 4 chickens.

Here are the steps of the process we used (sorry maybe next time we can have pictures):

As they came out of the cage I tied their legs together with a string.

They were hung by their legs on a shepherds hook. They will calm down in just a couple of minutes.

Next I held the head in my hand and gently slid a sharp knife across the jugular vein. They will flop a little but by hanging on the shepherds hook they do not bruise their meat by flopping on the ground.

After about 5 minutes they should be through draining.

Scald them briefly, to loosen the feathers or skin (we elected to skin these).

Then cut off the feet and head.

Pluck as clean as possible, there may still be tiny pin feathers (almost looks like hair on the wings).

Cut out the vent and remove the insides (save if you like fresh chicken livers and gizzards or dog food).

If you are going to skin them now is the time.

After you have them cleaned well, take a piece of paper lit like a torch and singe off all the tiny hair like feathers.

Then wash thoroughly in cool water, dry and package in freezer paper.

Mark with a processing date.

FYI, if they had name do not write the names on the outside of the package; it may gross out the rest of the family.

You have to love technology….

Jen introduced me to craigslist where I can look for useful things for the farm without having to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and spend all day at the flea market blowing money.  I have been wanting goats for a long time and last week I found a few that interested me.  We want to get a young one where we can handle it and work on developing a calm temperament.  So last week I sent out a few emails to the folks that had goats available.  This one guy did not impress me because he wanted me to take it at three days old; I would really like for it to be weaned. 

As you may know from reading Jen’s blog http://fiddledeedee-jen.blogspot.com/ I travel quiet a bit with my job.   Tuesday I found out I needed to fly to the D.C. area for a Thursday meeting returning on Friday.  Thursday, I received an email on my blackberry with a picture of a young goat that I had inquired about.  I forwarded the picture to the home office of Rosebriar Farm for a purchase order Jen for her blessing.  Later i sent the gentleman a response stating I would like him to hold the goat until weaned and I would agree to purchase it.   

I thought you would like to see the new fellow and maybe give me ideas of a name.  It is a boy so no girly names.  It is awesome being able to have technology at your finger tips that allow me to add to the farm while working out of town.