Pictures of Kefir

This is me Kasey posting pictures of my goat, Kefir. Enjoy!

Kefir-10months old
Kefir, 10 months old
Kefir 10 months old
Kefir-and Mwamba(9months)

Caprine Prego Pictures...lol

Here are some pictures of our pregnant goats, Anna the Nubian, Tango the Boer w/cape and Sue the traditional Boer. They are due with in 2 weeks to 4 weeks.

Lots of Yummy and Colorful Eggs!

We decided to put a light in the chicken coup for a few hours a day to keep our chickens laying through the winter. I know some say to just leave them and let nature take care of things, but we have done this in the past and everyone, chickens, us and people buying our eggs, seem quite happy with the set up. We are very pleased with the quautily of the eggs, and since we have several different breeds, it is fun to see all the different colored eggs. It is fun to watch the chickens pick around in the muddy yard looking for worms and such. They make me laugh when they are drenched with rain, but nothing slows them down from hunting for a good snack. The coupe we have is working okay, but come spring when we have better weather, we will need to make a few changes for them. Since we added so many chicks last spring, we needed to add some roost to their house. We just kinda found some wood laying around and ran some across the coup up high. They all love being up high, but makes a bit nervous for the person going in the coup when they are roosting! We need to be sure our hats are on. I will have to try and post some pictures. The ducks are loving this rainy weather (glad someone is). They are giving us a few eggs, but they do not have a light. The Pekins are really beautiful and I am hoping to get a few hatched this spring. I have heard that they are not really nesters, so I may have to put some under one of our hens. We have a couple hens that really would love to set on a nest. That will be fun to see, mommy chicken being followed by a bunch of baby ducks. We have decided to raise some meat chickens again this year. After buying serveral chickens at the grocery store and having to cut so much fat off, I am looking forward to some nice homegrown chicken for a change. We should have a little extra goat milk to help keep the feed down a bit, and I am hoping to build a portable coup so they can forage a bit. Same thing on turkeys. I was highly disappointed in our store bought turkey this Thanksgivin. I think that is all for now on our fowl.

New addition to the herd

I haven't posted on this blog yet, so here it goes. I (Kara) bought a new goat to add to our herd today. Her name is Tango and she is a full blood boer goat. I hope that she gives me a buckling, but we will see in Feb. Theses aren't very good pictures but that's all I have right now.

A Few of Our Pullets

We needed to add to our flock this year, so ordered some new chicks back in April. We decided to add some fun different breeds this time. I'll have to post later which breeds we have now. They just started laying eggs for us this last week, along with our new ducks.

Our Nubian and Toggenburg Does

Anna and Phonda peeking through the feed door hoping for some yummy grain. Anna is out being bred to a beautiful Paint Boer Buck at the moment-so we are hoping come Feburary she will be a happy mommy. Phonda was our first milking goat. She has been a great milker-giving us tons of milk while still feeding her kids. One of her daughters lives next door to us and had her first freshing this year (had babies and is in milk now for the first time) She is taking after her mom-giving them over one and half gallons a day!

Kefir and Shekinah our German Shepherd

Shekinah, our young German Shepherd girl, sure wants to herd our goats. The problem is, our goats really don't herd well and just want to head butt the dog. We are working on good manners with Shekinah, and she is learning how to control herself, shaking with excitement the whole time. Maybe we will get a chance to take her out to a herding trial someday and see if she has any real herding instincts in her.

Alpine doeling, Kefir

Our daughter decided to get her own milking doe this year and purchased a nice little doe from the Strong Family. She has tons of dairy character and we planned on waiting until next year to breed her. Turns out that was a good decision, as she decided to break her leg a few weeks back! And of course, no easy break for us. She ended up needing pins put in. Well, she is healing fine and gets her pins out soon. The doctor was happy with her progress, and we adjusted some of our feed since the Doc said her bones were soft. We are now feeding mostly alfalfa and making sure they are getting the right minerals to give them a total of a 2:1 ratio of calcium and phosphorous. We also are making sure everyone has enough Vit. A and D, since we live under a lot of trees, which means a lot of shade. I must say, that was an expensive nutrition lesson, but the little doe is doing great and growing faster than ever!