2017 Winter Kid Crop!

I have wanted a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf milker for a long time.  Silly, I know.   I have some really great milkers and animals on my property.  I am grateful.  None of my blue eyed goats, have ever made the cut as easy to hand milk.  They always give a wonderful amount of milk, by the grace of God and because of their excellent genetics but being able to comfortably hand milk a goat, is very high on my priority list.  I want the milking experience, for me, to be enjoyable, as well as for the goat.  I want to be able to go out to the barn, milk quickly and then spend time with my animals and family.

Carmel Pie is a first freshener this year.

Carmel Pies grandmother was Abundance (a blue eyed milker that didn't make the cut).  Carmel Pies mother was Jubilee (a blue eyed milker that didn't make the cut either.)  Every year, I bred these blue eyed does to wonderful bucks, hoping these bucks genetics would improve on their teat length and diameter.  So...Carmel Pies first freshening was really exciting for me.  She did a great job carrying and delivering her babies.  She delivered on the 23rd and had a beautiful, big, black and white buck and a tiny, white, speckled, doe with blue eyes. 

Doe and Buck.

Doe.

It has been years since I have let a goat keep her babies and nurse them.  It has been nice to watch them all together.

Kinsley and the doeling.

Carmel Pie is giving a wonderful amount of milk for a first freshener but her teat size is not comfortable to milk on.  Even though I know they will lengthen some through regular  milking, it will not be enough to hold up to my strict standards.  I not only like easy to hand milk does for me and the genetics for it, in my herd but my customers, who buy goats from me, usually hand milk and would like that in the offspring they purchase from me.

I have decided to give up on improving this blue eyed line for hand milking and sell Carmel Pie.   Since I will be selling Carmel Pie and her babies, I decided to let her keep her babies (not take them away and bottle feed them) and sell them as a package deal.  I will miss her as she is very sweet and stunning with her ice blue eyes.

I will be purchasing a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf doe, already in milk in the future.

The other goat that was pregnant was Calfy. 

She delivered January 24th. She gave me triplets, two beautiful bucks and a doeling. 

The little brown doe and white buckling.

The other buckling.

They are healthy and are 3/4 Nigerian Dwarf.  Joseph is their dad.  Calfy is doing well and milking up a storm.  I pulled the babies and they are nursing (bottle feeding) well.  I will be dehorning all the babies tomorrow and then selling them.  I have a waiting list of people wanting goats so they should be gone quickly.

I bred Panda to Joseph last week, when I saw she was in heat.  Pandas mother, Milky Whey, came into heat a week later.  She is in with Joseph now.  We should have babies from those breeding in five months.  Very exciting.

In another area of news on the farm, with the help of God and some of my children, we built my five year old son the chicken coop he had been wanting for his bantam chickens. 

We had a two week warm spell here in North Georgia, so I worked on it every spare moment, trying to get it done before the weather turned cold again.

I built it so a five year old could care for chickens with minimal adult help.   There are three different compartments to keep breeds separate.

Each area had two next boxes, a roosting bar and a feeder.

I found how to make these small feeders on the internet.

My dad had the brilliant idea of putting self closing foundation vents on it for ventilation.  I wont need to be going out to open and close air vents all the time.  :)

My son is very excited and happy with his new coop.  Praise God it did come out very well.  :)

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Blessings and Happy Farming,

susan