The herds dinner rations

Chickens - Free range on grass for anything they can find, including leftover(spilled) horse, cow, and goat grain. Free choice layer pellets to keep eggs nice and healthy. (although with all they eat in the pasture they rarely touch the pellets!) A sprinkling of scratch grains in the morning.

Cows - Whole oats, alfalfa pellets, and a handful of black oil sunflower seeds with free range pasture, supplemented with Bermuda hay when needed. Free choice Bluebonnet Tech Master loose minerals.

Horses - Whole oats, alfalfa pellets, and a handful of black oil sunflower seeds with free range pasture, supplemented with Bermuda hay when needed. Free choice Bluebonnet Tech Master loose minerals.

Goats - Free choice bermuda hay, Bluebonnet Tech Master loose minerals, weighed daily amount of alfalfa pellets. On the milkstand the girls get whole oats with a handful of black oil sunflower seeds.

Dogs - Nutro Max adult dog food (had a hard time finding a quality dog food without sunflower oil (Jesse is allergic to it!) Didn't want to go the Max route, but can't pay twice the amount for half the feed!!

New Milkstand

So I was using an upside down dog crate up against a fence and a pole with a rope around it to tie to Lily's collar when I would milk her. We got two more goats (only one in milk right now) and I decided I needed a real milkstand. So I printed directions from the internet and had Chad get to work building me a stand!

Chad decided instead of making legs for it, he would use an old garden cart we had that we probably aren't likely to use. So here is the pre-milkstand cart
(seeing if it would be big enough for Ginger)

I forgot to get pictures of it when it was just the base. Basically it is very tightly set into the wagon, so if we wanted to (with some work) we could get it off and put it on legs. This picture is Chad working on the headgate, but also shows the base.

Finished product! (We plan to put a rubber mat on top, as our chickens like to walk on it and a rubber mat would be much easier to clean poop and spilled milk off of!)

Lily giving it a go!

Ginger

Here are a few pictures of Ginger. More to come as I get them.

Here she is just checking out her new home.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"
Here she is watching Chad unload hay.

Crazy Daisy Mae

Here are a few pictures of Daisy. More to come as I get them.

Here she is checking things out and standing funny in this picture!

Here she is eating alfalfa pellets. I know ideally the new girls and Lily shouldn't be able to nose each other, but I have no way of doing that.

Here she is watching Chad unload hay!

What a day!!!!!!!

Here is Daisy checking things out
Here is Ginger resting her head on the gate, watching Chad unload hay!

So today was quite an adventure!! Started out fairly normally...got up fed animals, milked Lily. Then I headed to the bank and on to Waller to pick up Ginger and Daisy. While in Waller, I met a bunch of great people and saw some gorgeous goats! I met Lily's new boyfriend (the one she will be bred to in September or October) Then came home, got the goats settled in...or so I thought until I turn around and Daisy was following me outside the pen!! WHAT...I didn't take in to consideration her age would mean small size! She is the same size as Lily and could get out of the pen for her and Ginger, so I had to put her in Lily's pen to fix the other so she would stay put. While fixing things I noticed one of the neighbor's young goats on our property...apparently I wasn't the only one...My landlord's Chocolate Lab noticed her too. He is an attempted goat killer (he tried to drown one goat already-same neighbor!!) He ran her toward her fence, she tried to jump, but didn't make it. He caught hold of her and she go away. She made her way to the pond, I knew what was coming. I was running as fast as my out of shape butt could go, but it still seemed like they were miles away. She ran off into the pond and so did he and the landlord's Black Lab (she was just following). I pulled my phone and credit card out of my pocket and tossed them up on the banks and went in after them. I swam out toward the goat and the dog (while the other dog is trying to swim ON me...I swat her off and she swims away to get a stick I threw in while running to try to get their attention) The whole time I am watching the other dog bite at her head, pushing her head under with each attempt to bite. I finally reach her and as I am reaching to grab her I feel his face on me (he didn't bite me, his jaw ran across my arm...we were both reaching for the doe) I get her and swim back to the shore. Which isn't far, but with boots on (next time those will come off) she and I were not making it very quickly. It felt like we were swimming in place. I get her out of the water and let her rest a little so I can rest a little! All the while swatting the dogs away. I like the dogs, but had I had a gun I might have shot the chocolate lab (and regretted it, but not in the moment) Finally I feel like I have a little energy and get up, she is NOT going to walk with the dogs nearby so I pick her up and carry back to the barn to get the landlord to call the neighbor to tell her. (forgot my phone and card on the bank) We finally get her situated where she needs to go. This is the 2nd time she has been over here. If she ends up here a third time I might have to keep her. She is a really pretty reddish with white Nubian.

Here is Ginger watching the Black Lab (not the wannabe goat killer) after the incident!!

Lily's Dye Job

Here Lily is asking why I am letting that old fart eat her grain! Poor little girl! And you can see her pink beard here!!

Here's her pink tail and the spot where a accidentally got her cheek trying to get her beard!!!

This was done June 28th...

Temporary Goat Pens

Since the new girls come home tomorrow (7/22/08) we spend yesterday moving the pen panels around (mainly making a drive thru on the hay barn, but setting up the pen for the new girls). So we have a 20X20 pen for the new girls (should be fine during quarantine) and Lily has a pen that is 20 deep, 20 wide in front and about 14 wide in back. So here are some pictures of the temporary pens. I hadn't moved things around in the new girls pen yet in these pictures. And I hadn't put up the plywood between the 2 so they can't nose each other.
Doesn't show much, just figured a distant picture is better than none at all!!!

Here is LilyBell sharing her hay with WinnieBell!! Took the picture then moved the hay to the side between the two pens!

The flock has grown!!!!!!!!

All the babies from my 2 hens and rooster either died or were eaten by something. So prior to yesterday (7/20/08) we had 2 hens, 5 pullets, and 1 rooster. I bought 4 Buff Orpington hens, 3 Barred Rock Hens, and a Golden Laced Polish pullet. I didn't intend to get the pullet, but she was too cute to pass up. (she really isn't cute...kinda ugly right now...somebody ate her tail...all but one feather!)

Here is Tina Turner (unless you can think of a country singer name for her!!)

This brings our bird total up to 9 hens, 6 pullets and 1 rooster = 16 Chickens.

Here are the 4 Buff Orpingtons and the 3 Barred Rocks!

Now to name the critters....
4 Buff Orpington hens - need names
3 Barred Rock hens - need names
The Polish is named Tina Turner.

Please add suggestions. I would like to stick with the country singer theme for these girls.
Names so far on the birds I have are:
Dolly (Parton)
Patsy (Cline)
Reba (McEntire)
Crystal (Gayle)
Wynona (Judd)
Naomi (Judd)
Mrs. Elvis (was the straight run chick that could have been a roo, but isn't)
Oh and Heff (formerly Sir Buffington...I figured with 15 girls, he needed a more suitable name)

Coop Building 102

So we started out with 4 adult chickens and 5 chicks. So we built a coop big enough for 10 chickens. Then decided we would like to produce about a dozen eggs a day...we have 7 hens...I think we need more!! So now in order to house 1 roo and 14 hens...we need to go bigger. So here is the construction process of our new 10X10 walk in coop!!