We had our first Linear Appraisal this Wednesday, and it was super informative! While prepping everyone, we learned that Ken is a master at clipping goats – he did it waaaay more evenly than Jess did! We haven’t taken decent pics of the girls yet
Trigger warnings: Miscarriage, drug addict contractors, IVF, infertility, doctors ignoring patients While working to run our little farm, we’ve also been dealing with personal fertility issues for the past 3 years. It has been exhausting! In 2022, we decided to give having kids a go.
This was our biggest kidding season ever, and we have now learned our limits! We’ve had trouble keeping up with the birds again this year, so we’re downsizing a bunch in both areas. The Goats 2025 Total Kids Born: 16 Bucks, 20 Does! Here’s a
We knew it’d happen sooner or later, and honestly, we probably wouldn’t care if the person hadn’t gone out of their way to mislead us & then block us. As the person repeatedly said after being caught, there are two sides to every story. Here’s
Sorry to keep posting all the death and despair in this blog, but we’re hoping it helps others in our situation! About two weeks ago, we both came down with bad stomach flu, and at the same time, a few doelings also started acting sick.
The top two killers of goats are pneumonia and internal parasites. There isn’t an easy way to predict pneumonia in a herd, but for parasites, we can do fecals. Most vets will be willing to do them, even if they don’t see goats. Our livestock
FINALLY! After months and months of nothing, we have a few eggs again! We found out the other night that part of the reason for the dearth was a family of opossums that we caught yolk-handed – we first learned that they had broken into
We’ve still been unable to complete our pairings for Lasty and Midnight, our final two planned does of the season. We hadn’t seen any heats out of either of them at all, so we decided to get help from our team of vets. They suggested
On Friday, we received our final update on Meow – the lab results were inconclusive because there were no relevant bacteria or parasites found in the culture, but their findings when looking at his intestines indicated poisoning, enterotoxemia, or coccidiosis. When we went out to
Here’s a summer milking hack that we’ve mentioned a few times - adding sanitized stainless whiskey balls or lunchbox ice packs to the pail! They keep milk a little cooler while it’s 100000 degrees outside 🥵
Might be worth checking on Prime now that they’ve got deals running!
#goats #dairygoats #milking #goatmilk #lifehack #farmlife
Jul 8
Today, we took a break from the critters so Ken could see the House on the Rock for the first time!
… and then picked up some Partridge Chantecler eggs for a slight outcross with ours 🤞
#breaktime #midwest #houseontherock #hatchingeggs #rarebreedchickens #heritagepoultry #partridgechantecler
Jul 7
Dexalicious says he has noooo idea how our nice wool blanket made it from the laundry room into his den outside. Must’ve been some other dog 🤔
#dog #troublemaker #farmdog #shepherdmix #huskymix #colliemix #supermutt
Jul 1
We thought the crazy amounts of rain lately had rendered the eggs under our broody geese unviable, but we thought wrong! Sweet Pea has hatched two goslings so far today - one male (available) and one female (not available).
Sweet Pea is an awesome broody mama but doesn’t quite fit Pilgrim color requirements, so she’s moving to a new home soon.
#geese #babygeese #domesticgeese #pilgrimgeese #farmlife
Jun 30
We had to pull our pasture milkweed when we got the goats, but we always try to keep some around in other areas of our property. It looks like our local Monarchs were able to find the big one in our backyard 🧡
#butterfly #saveourpollinators #milkweed #nativeplant
Jun 30
We had our first Linear Appraisal yesterday, and it was super informative! We haven`t taken decent pics of the girls after we clipped them because it`s been raining pretty much 24/7 for the past two weeks, but we`ll hopefully get a few soon - in the meantime, here`s Kirlia with some yearlings trying to take down our last semi-healthy ash tree😅
It`s the first time we`ve brought our girls anywhere and showed us that we’re on the right track - most of our preferences were spot-on with our does’ scores. They`re all still young and developing, and we can`t wait to see how they grow over the next couple years! We’re so honored to be working with these ladies as our starting point & hope to make their aaamazing breeders proud as we integrate them into our own lines 💜
Oberhasli:
Ober-Boerd Diana of the Amazon (3 yr old 2F) GVVG 85
Autumn Acres RT Riesling *M (3 yr old 2F) GVVG 84
Windscape JB Last Call (2 yr old FF at 1 month fresh) VVVG 85
Ober-Boerd Kirlia (2 yr old FF at 2 months fresh) VVGG 84
Heaven’s Hollow Sharp (2 yr old FF at 2 months fresh) GAAA 80
Guernsey-Type Experimental:
Hillaire Farm Tipperary Tulla (2 yr old FF at 3 months fresh) GGVG 82
#goats #dairygoats #linearappraisal #performanceherd #adga #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats
Jun 26
Sheila says that she’s over this hot, muggy summer business and is ready for winter to come back 🥵
#hot #toohot #goats #hairgoat #guernseygoats #rarebreeds
Jun 22
As promised, here’s the bane of nearly every goat breeder’s existence: a coccidia oocyst!
Contrary to popular belief, coccidia ≠ cocci - coccidia are protozoan parasites and cocci are spherical-shaped bacteria, like strep or staph.
Coccidia are scary because they can easily overwhelm and destroy the intestinal linings of their hosts, causing coccidiosis. Most adults eventually develop immunity, but kids can be hit super hard, and many are permanently stunted - if they survive.
The guy this sample came from is an adult, but his count is borderline & we’re keeping a close eye on him because we’re afraid he might have cancer, so we’ll be treating him!
#goats #parasites #parasiteprevention #parasitemanagement #coccidia #coccidiosis #fecalfloat #farmlife #herdhealth #goathealth
Jun 21
RIP our best bud, the chillest rooster ever!
He never caused any trouble and loved to just sit in his chair overlooking our orchard, while the growouts scratched around him.
This will hurt our already slow Partridge Chantecler order fulfillment a bit, but we’ve got a few younger guys who can eventually step in!
#chickens #rarebreedchickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreedpoultry #chanteclerchickens #partridgechantecler #partridgechanteclerchickens
Jun 20
Sorry these are a little blurry, my phone camera didn’t want to cooperate!
This right here is a sign of the enemy - a strongyle worm egg in a goat fecal sample. We wouldn’t know which species it is without hatching it, but they can all be dangerous. Strongyles are one of the top causes of death in goats, so it’s super important to stay on top of them.
We run fecals every few months and treat as needed. We do NOT treat the whole herd on a schedule, only those with high loads or obvious signs that they’re struggling - automatically treating everyone all the time is a massive contributor to dewormer resistance.
This doe’s sample only had one egg, so she’s good for now!
For the most up-to-date guidelines, visit wormx.info
We’ll try to post more pics the next time we see coccidia oocysts or other types of worm eggs! Last year was the Year of the Tapeworm, but we haven’t seen more of those this year yet, *knock on wood*
#goats #dairygoats #goathealth #pastureraised #deworming #farmlife #homesteading
Jun 20
You guys! You know how we thought that our heart doe Dolly might make the MDGA TopTen list in Butterfat %? Well, she sure did - in the top spot!
We’re excited that Swiss and Candy both made the cut, too! They ended up moving to new farms because we desperately needed hay money 🙃 - but we have multiple daughters and a son, and they have lots of nearby relatives at Green Gables, Homeward Bound Farm, Mosaic Menagerie, and more!
Massive props to everyone who participated & thanks to Green Gables MiniNubians for breeding our girls 💜
#goats #dairygoats #performanceherd #mininubian #mininubiangoats #milktesting #goatmilk
Jun 18
We weren’t going to keep another gosling this year, but CLEARLY we have to now 😍
#geese #babygoose #domesticgeese #waterfowl #pilgrimgeese #heritagebreeds #rarebreeds #livestockconservancy
Jun 17
We’re in the home stretch of Pilgrim Goose hatching season! The first of around 15 eggs we left under the mamas has hatched, and it looks like it might be one of verrry few females this year! All females are claimed, but we have a zillion males hatched between April and now, if anyone local is interested 🐣
#geese #domesticgeese #pilgrimgeese #pilgrimgoose #gosling #babygoose #babygeese #hatchingeggs #rarebreeds #heritagebreeds
Jun 15
This right here is an example of why we`re not shipping live poultry via USPS this year. We ordered stamps directly from USPS early last week, and we`re pretty sure at this point that we`re never going to get them - if they can`t even get their own product to us, there`s NO WAY we can trust them with live animals!
#USPS #USPSsucks #shipping #smallbusiness
Jun 13
The good news is: some new Buckeye and Partridge Chantecler outcross chicks have arrived to help us reduce the genetic bottleneck that is starting to form here!
The bad news is: the farm we ordered from is also apparently having PC trouble - we only received 4 out of 15, and they wrote on the shipment form that they’re way behind 😬
They substituted with a bunch of Black Langshan chicks that we unfortunately have no use for. Reach out if you’re local and interested in them!
#chicks #chickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreedchickens #buckeyechicken #chanteclerchickens #partridgechantecler #langshanchicken
Jun 11
Jess is down for a while after finally going through with the surgery we were avoiding, so she’s making some updates to our poultry waitlists in between bouts of googling Asherman’s Syndrome.
We’re still making our way through our existing lists, but they’re just not working out super well due to a zillion factors beyond our control.
SO we are going back to basics for a while! All birds and hatching eggs will be First Come, First Serve, and we will keep a post on FB pinned with availability. If you’re interested in something on the post, please reach out!
If you’re on our waitlist but you see the breed you’re waiting for on the pinned post, please also reach out. Odds are high that it’s because we have more openings for local pickup than for shipping. We are having trouble with shipping - all USPS offices in our area close at least a half hour before we get out of work, and it’s rare than we can leave work early.
CURRENT AVAILABILITY:
First on the list are 15 Fibro chicks hatched 4/17 - some of these are pure Svart Hona and some are Easter Eggers. We have no idea which are which, except for the obviously fluffy one in the front, so they’re all our lower Experimental rate. They might lay green or cream eggs. It’s not 100% yet, but we can start guessing gender more or less accurately in this batch.
#chickens #waitlist #makinglifeeasier #fibrochickens #svarthona #easteregger #swedishblackhen #landrace
Jun 10
Surpriiiise! We were done buying goats for the year, but when we saw Jon list Hillaire Farm Tipperary Tulla, we jumped at the chance to snag her!
We`ve had our eyes on Tulla for a while - she’s a gorgeous 50% Guernsey/50% Oberhasli, and her sire is a super nice buck from one of our favorite lines - *B CH Ober-Boerd Vosegus! His dam GCH Ober-Boerd T Wind Valkyrie 2*M was 1st/1st Udder 3yo & Best Udder at the 2022 National Show. We love Vos and his line so much that we also have a grandson, Spitfire! And distant cousins Diana, Kirlia, Maui, and Sonny 😅
Vos added beautiful strength & substance over Tulla’s dam, Stump*hollow J&H Nacarat, and very nice udder improvement, too!
We’re stoked to add Tulla to our little breed-up program and are so grateful to Alice (and Jon & Tierney) for trusting us with her 🧡
And a big thank you to Katherine Sancuk for bringing her here tonight through all this rain!
(trimmed & udder pics courtesy of Hillaire Farm)
#goats #dairygoats #experimentalgoats #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats #performanceherd
Jun 4
One of our favorite sights - a bucket of Buckeyes!
This batch is claimed, but we’ll be setting a new set to incubate this week!
#chickens #heritagebreeds #heritagebreedchickens #rarebreedchickens #buckeyechicken #buckeyechickens #hatchingeggs
Jun 3
In today’s wildlife encounter, we just got home to see this guy eating our chicken feed - thankfully not our chickens! He approves of our @coopworx Feed Silo 😂
This is the first raccoon we’ve seen out in the open on our property in our 5-ish years of living here! A few have passed through the pasture cam here and there, but they never stay long.
#raccoon #wildlifeadventures #rural #farmlife #homesteading #coopworx
Jun 3
‘Tis the season for new milkers and learning how to milk!
We’re not at allllll experts and have made plenty of mistakes over the past few years of raising dairy goats, but we want to help people avoid a common one: buying cheap milking machines from Amazon.
We totally understand their draw - they’re super affordable and portable, while the ones everyone recommends are usually bulky and around $1500.
But those cheap ones are absolutely not worth it! They only last a year or so before breaking and needing to be replaced, they can’t be taken apart and cleaned or serviced, and most of them WILL ruin your goats’ udders.
Do you remember a few years ago when it was all the rage among kids to suction their lips into glasses to make them big?
A milking machine without correct pulsation or vacuum is like that. Using it once or twice probably won’t cause permanent damage, but doing it twice a day, every day, for however long the goat is in milk, year after year, definitely will.
You might not even notice it at first, but slowly, it might become harder and harder to milk out the goat as scarring builds up inside her orifices. Or she might even end up with mastitis.
It’s just not worth it!
The absolute cheapest machine we’d recommend is the MilkerSupply - it’s $690 right now for a package that includes everything you’d need to get started. We’re not at all affiliated and don’t have one ourselves, but they’re super nice people!
If you’re handy, you could probably save even more and build your own with comparable parts for around $500.
We have and love the Capralite Showman! We also highly recommend ones from Parts Dept and Hamby, if you want something beefier that can handle more than two goats at once.
#goats #dairygoats #goathealth #milkinggoats #goatmilk #milkmachine
May 30
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