New Arrivals

At the end of last year I booked 10 black rock hens from a local breeder and last Tuesday he phoned me to say they were ready.   He also had some really lovely Rhode Island Reds,  so I bought one of  them too.   We already have one so now we need a cock and we will be able to breed them!!  Once again we have a surplus of eggs that we can sell and they will be self financing.

The Does are looking really fit to bust.  I will be very surprised if they do not kid this week.  I hope so because we were due to go to a dog show today but decided not to as we were worried about leaving them.  Last year they all gave birth without any help but you can never be certain that intervention will not be necessary.

We were a bit worried that the kids (last year's) might steal colostrum or milk from the does when they give birth and deprive their younger siblings, so Mike has divided the goat house so that they are separated by hurdles but can still see each other.   The young male kid and the buck seem to be getting on very well in their batchelor quarters and have been seen playing together on several occasions.  The female kids are being really naughty and climbing on all sorts of things and have managed to break the inverted half barrel that we put in their paddock and also a wooden divider that Mike left out in the paddock until he had time to return it to the goathouse.   They climbed on it until it broke in the middle and then used it like a slide.   They are also climbing up the pile of earth which we call goat mountain and then leaping off before they get to the bottom.

Three of the Chardstock Six went to their new home guarding 8000 free range chickens on Tuesday.  They were very well behaved and loaded without any trouble at all.  Their owner was here to do the hand over and the new owner invited her to visit at any time, so she feels a lot happier about letting them go.

No more excuses I have gone back to complete the halter training of our weanlings before they get too big!!  They are all looking really well and have lovely fleece.  Tanya, the yearling who was underweight seems to be getting back into condition again so we are hoping to show her this year as she really is very pretty.