Our Black Friday Splurge: Goat Semen

jkherditallhomestead

This weekend, we sorted most of our poultry breeding groups for the season! We still have to add the youngest pullets, but they need a little while to start & get used to laying anyway. Around March 1, as long as everyone is laying well, we’ll test for fertility and then start running through our waitlists.

We have a few pet-quality .5-2 year old hens up for grabs - mostly color flaws and a couple are a little smaller or have more narrow heads than we’re looking for. One Buckeye limps after she dove under the moving tractor when she was young.

Ken is almost done with some awesome new breeding coops for this year, too! We’re hoping that our new setup will help the Partridge Chanteclers lay better than they did in 2024 🤞

#chickens #ducks #geese #rarebreeds #rarebreedchickens #heritagebreeds #coldhardy #layingeggs #exhibitionpoultry

jkherditallhomestead

We`ve seen a few great supply charts floating around the interwebs, so we thought we`d add ours to the mix - check out our Super Ultra Mega Shopping List (link in bio) for our favorite farm-related purchases!

One is the pictured @coopworx Feed Silo - it prevents a ton of waste, plus the chickens seem to enjoy it!

#chickens #pasteuredpoultry #feedingchickens #homesteading #shoppinglist #ameraucana #wheatenameraucana #goats #dairygoats #beekeeper #farmsupplies #shopping

jkherditallhomestead

This guy is our spirit animal! All the other chickens are out scratching around, but he’s just chilling alone in his chair, quietly watching the field.

#chickens #rooster #chanteclerchickens #partridgechantecler #rarebreeds #rarebreedchickens #heritagebreed #endangeredbreed #pasturedpoultry

jkherditallhomestead

Almost all of the critters are out enjoying some sunlight in this unseasonably warm weather - it’s 50°F in January in Wisconsin!

#warmwinter #nosnow #midwest #wisconsinweather #goats #babygoat #mininubian

jkherditallhomestead

We`re gearing up to do this year`s first round of fecals and thought we`d write out our process - it sounds intimidating, but it’s super easy! We use a Modified McMaster technique recommended by the University of Minnesota.

--- Supplies ---

• TWO cups that fit at least 5oz
• Scale that measures at least .1 g
• Fecal float solution
• Large syringe or measuring cup that fits at least 28 ml
• Tongue depressor
• Gauze or tea strainer
• Pipette
• McMaster slide
• Microscope with 10x objective lens (total of 100x with eyepiece)

--- Performing a Fecal ---

1. Label both cups with animal name
2. Tare one labeled cup on the scale
3. If manure is pelleted, crush & knead to mix
4. Measure 2 g of fecal matter into the cup on the scale
5. Measure 28 ml of flotation solution & pour into the cup
6. Mix the sample & solution using a tongue depressor and let sit for 5 minutes
7. Mix again, then immediately pour it through a strainer or gauze into the second cup, using the tongue depressor to press fluid through
8. Immediately use a pipette to entirely fill both chambers of the McMaster slide with the strained fluid, taking care to avoid leaving large bubbles
9. Let the slide sit for at least 5 minutes to allow eggs to float to the surface – do not let sit for more than an hour
10. Place the slide onto the microscope and bring the grid lines into focus
11. Starting at one corner on one side of the slide, work down one grid area and back up the next until all the way through both chambers, counting all eggs that sit over halfway inside the grid & excluding any outside – "Animal Fecal Microscopy – Farm & Livestock" is an excellent group on FB for help IDing eggs
12. Multiply the count of each seen species` eggs x 50 – this is the Eggs Per Gram (EPG)

ACSRPC currently recommends that a fecal be used to ID species & determine dewormer efficacy, but NOT as a guideline for starting treatment. A goat should generally only be treated if it shows signs of overload; although honestly, if we see a count over 500 EPG for kids or over 1000 for adults, we’re probably going to treat before it becomes a bigger issue.

#fecaltesting #herdhealth #ParasiteControl #goats #deworming #chickens

jkherditallhomestead

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. They’ve been booted from that part of our pasture into a hopefully safer area!

#eggs #pasturedeggs #farmfresh #chickeneggs #backyardpoultry #chickens

jkherditallhomestead

After a zillion tries, we finally found a buck-approved mineral feeder! They’ve made it their life’s work to destroy every single one we’ve put up, but this one from @sydell.inc has lasted a whole week so far 💪

#goats #mineralfeeder #guernseygoats #oberhasligoats #mininubians

jkherditallhomestead

It’s time to replace our milk machine hoses & liners, and we couldn’t resist trying these ones from Parts Dept! Definitely *not* because they’re purple and match our milk stand mats 💜

Okay, maybe that’s part of it, but not the only reason - They’re also antibacterial! It might be a gimmick, but they’re only a couple bucks more than the standard clear silicone, and we’ll take whatever extra help we can get.

#milking #milkmachine #goats #dairygoats #goatmilk

jkherditallhomestead

Aha! Mystery solved - DNA has now confirmed that Diana is the daughter of Ober-Ridge Gatsby’s Arrogance, who has sired a whole bunch of consistently nice goats; including the 2024 ADGA National Premier Sire, Ober-Boerd T Vance (who is the sire of our young dude, Sublime OBV Son of a Sinner) 😍

Diana and her daughter Moonie’s pedigrees will be corrected soon, and we’re now set for her to kick off our kidding season in a couple weeks - fingers crossed that we get allllll doe kids 😅

#goats #dairygoats #performanceherd #oberhasli #oberhasligoats #guernseygoats #mininubians #kiddingseason #goatmilk

jkherditallhomestead

Diana is our first doe due in just a couple weeks, with our true love Maui’s kids! We had created a nice ad buuuuut we ran DNA on a bunch of the goats to see their aS1-casein & threw in parentage since we get 3 freebies per year, and yesterday we learned that Diana here may not be who she seems 🧐

Oopsies happen, even for the best of us 😅 We’ll keep the folks who are interested in her kids posted. Her breeder narrowed it down to 2-3 possible sires, and they’re all equally amazing! We’ve already seen that Diana has one of the nicest udders in our herd AND we now know that her milk & that of her kids might be helpful for people with milk sensitivities - her genetic markers indicate low/no aS1-casein.

#goats #dairygoats #itsalwayssomething #performanceherd #oberhasligoats #goatmilk

jkherditallhomestead

We’re down to -22°F with windchill right now, with temps decreasing through tomorrow 🥶 The goats are all snuggled and warm in their shelters, and the chickens are making short food & sunlight excursions before heading back to their shelters. A few keep trying to camp out next to the house’s furnace vent, which probably isn’t the best thing, so we’ll have to put up a little fence around that today!

#chickens #coldhardy #peacomb #cushioncomb #rarebreedchickens #heritagebreed #ameraucana #chantecler #buckeyechicken #svarthona

jkherditallhomestead

Gertie says, “Brrrrr!”

Today, we’re scrambling to get everyone ready for the 70 degree temperature swing we’re about to get! It’s about 35°F today and will be dropping to potentially -35 or colder (with windchill) over the next couple days 🥶

#winter #midwestwinter #polarvortex #dairygoats #goats #pasturedpoultry

jkherditallhomestead

Soooo funny story, Jess now has to have surgery 3 days before a bunch of does are due to kid in February, including our senior Vivi here. The surgery might be easy ooor might involve a giant abdominal cut and a balloon being placed for a week or so & severely limiting movement during that time.

We hate to have to ask, but would anyone local with small hands be interested in helping Ken with kidding emergencies around 2/23 ish? Odds are very high that it’ll be in the middle of the night, in the middle of a snowstorm 😅 We do have vets on call for emergencies, too, but they sometimes take 45+ minutes to make it here.

#localhelpinglocal #kiddingseason #babygoats #goatpeople #goats #manitowoc #mishicot

jkherditallhomestead

We present to you Chinese Skullcap, an herb used in traditional Chinese Medicine (photo shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia).

We’ve seen a zillion frantic posts about Avian Influenza again lately, so we thought we’d bring up this plant. It’s one that we have in our arsenal of herbs that we might give to the critters during times of stress or if they just seem off. We’re not at all against Western Medicine, but it can sometimes use a boost from the Eastern side!

A few years ago, during the last big Avian Influenza scare in Europe, a sanctuary based in England & Wales (The Waterfowl Sanctuary) found research on this herb and used it to save many of their intakes.

Numerous studies show that Chinese Skullcap has natural antibacterial & antiviral properties, and bunch of those studies are referenced on PoultryDVM. That site also includes recommended dosages.

It does NOT fully eliminate the virus and probably won’t work if an animal is too far gone, but it might stall the spread long enough that the immune system can have a chance to learn and do its job. It also might be effective against other notoriously hard to treat poultry viruses & bacteria, including Marek’s and Mycoplasma.

#plantmedicine #naturalmedicine #themoreyouknow #chineseskullcap #birdflu #avianinfluenza #backyardpoultry #pasturedpoultry

jkherditallhomestead

In a little over a month, we’ll be meeting our first batch of 2025 goat kids! To feed them, we usually use the Caprine Supply bucket with the freaking awful little hoses that need to be pulled out and cleaned individually. This year, we’re trying out this bad boy and are hoping it’ll save us some time!

#goatkids #bottlebabies #milkbar #dairygoats #showgoats #performanceherd #oberhasligoats #mininubian #guernseygoats

jkherditallhomestead

We at JK Herd It All wish you all a Happy New Year 🎉 Here`s to hoping that 2025 turns out to be as calm as Dexalicious (pictured) is right now!

2024 has been filled with tons of ups and downs for us here - an awesome kidding season, an awful hatching season, a productive milking season with lots of pending stars, a war with poultry predators, our first unexplained goat loss, a job loss due to a company closure, trying goat AI for the first time, and four allllll-consuming human IVF cycles that only gave us three euploid embyos (which is the statistical average needed for one live birth). So yeah, 2024 was definitely a LOT!

In 2025, we`re hoping to bring our Obers and maybe CrazyTrain to Linear Appraisal, give Riesling a chance to compete for a TopTen Milk award, bring in some new birds from our parent lines to prevent inbreeding but maintain consistency, find someone to collect our bucks, and see whether any of our embryos will stick before Jess hits the big 4-0 in October 😱

Our kidding season this year starts at the end of February, so feel free to reach out if you`re interested in some really nice milkers, bucks, or bottle babies - and of course poultry, too! Our Partridge Chantecler & Pilgrim waitlists are maxed out and Buckeyes are close, but we`ve got plenty of space on the others!

#happynewyear #newyear2025 #farmdog #dog #rescuedog #shepherdmix #supermutt #fluffydog #goats #dairygoats #chickens #heritagebreeds #rarebreeds #exhibitionpoultry #showgoats #performanceherd #herdreduction #farmlife #homesteading #infertilitysucks

jkherditallhomestead

SWAK CrazyTrain is turning into a little dreamboat as a yearling! We can’t wait to meet his kids in a couple months - fingers crossed for doelings 🤞

#guernseygoats #rarebreeds #heritagebreeds #performanceherd