Goatee, You Will Be Missed

Yet another sad day has come.  Goatee, my 6-year-old Nigerian Dwarf pet goat was found dead yesterday afternoon.  The kids had gone to play with him again and take him for a walk, one of their favorite activities.  Earlier yesterday morning, they had taken him out on his leash to let him savor weeds and tasty treats outside the barnlot.  The very same varieties that grow within the barnlot, yet he seemed to relish the ones outside the fence so much more.  He adored attention and loved for the kids to pet and play with him.  For years now, Goatee has been a companion when I took walks around the farm.  In the cool weather, he would be quite frisky, standing on his hind legs and raising his back hair, then bouncing away and back to me when he wanted to play.  He would stand up tall and make a growling sound in his throat, with a silly goat grin on his face, but never once did he ever butt me.  Instead, pushing his head gently into my leg or hand to indicate he wanted me to push him and play.
Alas, he was not so gentle with the dogs or sheep and I believe this was his undoing.  From the evidence found at the scene, it would appear he may have picked a fight with his barn companion, a large ewe by the name of Belle.  Many times I had seen Goatee challenging Belle and warned him that was not a good idea.  I did not foresee that she may finally have enough of his shenanigans and cause him serious harm, as she always regarded him with irritated patience.  It seems she must have finally butted him back, in the side, ramming him up against one of the timbers in the barn where he fell and lay still.
We will miss you, Goatee.  I will miss your happy, mischievous spirit.  I will miss your bleats asking to be let out as you peer through the bars of the barnlot gate watching me work in the yard.  I will even miss you escaping from your pen and trotting directly over to the yard, nosing up the gate latch in order to come in and much roses, especially the prettiest and freshest blooms.  We will miss your little goat nibbles and gently taking treats from small hands.  We were blessed to know you and hope you are now kicking up your heels and dancing in deep clover and fresh rose petals.
Until next time, may we all live so that we are missed after we are gone.

Chicken Barn Progress

The chickens are enjoying the lights Jordan installed in the chicken barn.  The extra light during these short days will help to keep the eggs coming and the heat lamps supply a bit of extra warmth during the chilly nights. We also have one permanent roost up and will soon be putting up more to eliminate those beautiful Tidy Cats buckets!

The hens have been making good use of the nest boxes.

And filling up the egg buckets.

Jordan also installed lights in the small chicken house behind the barn.  And just in time for this Buff Orpington hen to move in with her two new babies.  Silly hen to hatch little ones this late in the year!

This Japanese banty chick who was hatched in September hunkers down in the tall grass to get out of the wind.

This handsome little rooster is one who a little black banty hen hatched back in June.

The rosecomb on this Silver-Spangled Hamburg rooster is quite interesting.  He seems to be very proud of it and enjoyed posing for the camera.

This rosecomb Brown Leghorn seems to be yelling out a message to the world.  I'm not sure if it is a message of pride of alarm, though!
Until next time, may your messages of pride not be confused with alarms!

Surprise Arrivals

If you read my last post, you might remember I said the lambs were staying snug and warm in their mamas and we were not expecting any babies until the first part of February?

Apparently, Salty had a secret and somebody was sneaking around on the wrong side of the fence last summer! She had two nice, healthy, full-term ram lambs this afternoon. Come to think of it, Salty seems to be the early lamber every year . . .

Salty is the sweetest ewe in the flock. She was raised on a bottle as a bummer lamb, and, like many of our animals, spent her first summer providing therapy to special needs kids at Western Trails Therapeutic Riding Center. Last Christmas, she performed at our church's Living Nativity, only to pop out a nice set of twins about 2 weeks later. Again, with no warning and unexpectedly early. Many of the ewes grunt and groan and look as if they are going to pop for weeks ahead of time, but Salty has always just snuck her birthing time in when we aren't looking. By the time we have found she has lambed, she has them cleaned and dried off and they have been up and had a bit of rich, nourishing milk. She has never needed any help with her babies, always knowing exactly what to do. Tonight I was watching her for a few minutes after I put her in the barn. The white lamb appears to have been born first and is figuring out the dinner thing pretty well, while the black lamb hasn't quite gotten it down yet. Salty kept talking to him and nudging him in the right direction until he found the dinner table. Oh, did his little tail wag in satisfaction as the rich, creamy milk warmed and strengthened his little body!

I remember my father-in-law routinely tipping over every ewe and squirting a few drops of the rich colostrum into the baby lambs as that swallow or two would often make all the difference and determine if the baby would live or not in the harsh Wyoming cold. I am glad Salty is a good mama and I don't have to take her on in a wrestling match! Even though Salty takes great care of her babies, even wrapping them in a sheep hug by snuggling her large, wooly body as close as possible if it is cold out, all ewes should be penned up to bond with their little ones for a few days to eliminate any confusion as other lambs are born. Sheep are notorious for stealing other ewes' lambs, then forgetting their own. They also need a bit of molasses shortly after the birth to ensure their calorie count stays high enough to keep them healthy as they produce the extremely rich milk the newborns need to build their fat reserves.

Hey, you don't suppose Salty got word of my last post and wanted to get in a good practical joke, do you? Or maybe she was just jealous of the cows with all of their new little bundles of joy?

Regardless of the reason, somebody was still doing a little bit of slipping around last summer, and sneaking in the dark will always catch up with you eventually!

Until next time, I hope your sneaking always turns out as a nice surprise!!