Goat Kids Love to Play

Welcome Back!

You know that baby goats are called kids. Do you know why human children are called kids?

Because you like to run and play just like goat kids!

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We have new babies on the farm! They aren't ducklings. These babies were a surprise!


There were 11 turkey chicks that hatched.

The mama hen turkey hid her nest under the truck.
We had no idea she was there!
We thought a dog or other animal had eaten her.

 I moved them all into the barn so they would be safe in the stall. Turkey chicks aren't very smart. They wander around everywhere. They don't know how to follow their mama hen around so she can keep them safe and warm.

Quin and Xander love to hold chicks!

This chick looks like he's yelling!
Xander was really gentle, there's no need for the little chick to worry.

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Here's an interesting egg! One of our chickens laid an egg with no shell.

If you soak an egg in vinegar you can take the shell off the egg so it looks the same as Quin's egg.

See how squishy it is?

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Here is my egg count for this week:

• On Friday April 21 I collected 12 brown eggs, 9 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• On Saturday April 22 I collected 4 brown eggs, 7 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
• On Sunday April 23 I collected 9 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
• On Monday April 24 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
• On Tuesday April 25 I collected 9 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
• On Wednesday April 26 I collected 8 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and no duck eggs.
• On Thursday April 27 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and no duck eggs.

I think the ducks are done laying eggs.

Here is the way I keep track of how many eggs I collect each day.

Some years I collect for more weeks. Here's a link to a few years ago.

How many dozen chicken eggs did I collect over 2 weeks? I'll post the answer below.

Here's my graph, does it look different from yours?

The answer to my question about how many dozen chicken eggs I collected is:

17 1/2 dozen eggs.

It's important for us to keep track of how many eggs the chickens lay, and how much food they eat so we can see how much it costs us for eggs.

A bag of chicken feed is about $20 depending on where we buy it, and if it's on sale.

$20 ÷ by 17 1/2 dozen eggs = $1.14 per dozen.

We don't get many eggs in the winter, and we have to feed the chickens more. We get a lot of eggs in the summer and hardly have to feed the chickens much because they love to eat bugs and grass. We think it all evens out over the year. This year our eggs cost us about $1.14 a dozen.

Sometimes eggs in the store cost more, sometimes they cost less. Chicken farmers have to count things like their cost for electricity, repairs on the barn and coops, equipment like feeders and waterers, cost of new chicks and raising them, how much they have to pay workers, and how much they pay for feed and water. They also have to pay for egg cartons, and to truck their eggs to the store. They have more costs to count than I do.

Math is really important for farmers. We have a lot of costs to keep track of, we need to know how much it costs us to have all these animals! 

We need to know how much to feed them, and what to feed them. 

We need to be able to figure out how much milk a baby goat needs if we bottle feed them. (If we feed them too much then they die! If we don't feed them enough they die!)

I hope you are working hard on your math, too. I don't know any adults that don't use math. 

I'll answer lots of questions next Friday! 

Have a great week!

Goat Kid Update

Welcome back!

I hope you had a nice Spring Break. As promised, there were kids born.

Serenity had 3 kids.

River had 2 baby goats. Misty had one baby goat.

It's been busy around the farm because Misty's baby needs to have a bottle. Misty isn't making much milk so we use the extra milk from River to feed Misty's baby a bottle.



Misty wasn't feeling well so we had to give her some medication. The pill is in the end of the long, blue tube. There is a plunger so once the tube is far enough down Misty's throat Matt pushes the plunger, and the pill goes right down without much trouble.

It was snowy and cold!

I'm sure the little tree is very happy to have more water!

It was cold when the kids were born
so JJ made herself a little nest in the hay.

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We have a chicken that is blind in one eye. It's a little strange to have a chicken that is blind in one eye, and friendly.

We aren't sure how her eye got infected in the first place.
She still lays eggs, and she's friendly.
She doesn't mind people petting her.

This is what her good eye looks like.

She's a very pretty chicken. She still lays eggs, so she gets to stay on the farm!

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You'll be happy to know that Mr. Turkey is out of Time Out.
He hasn't wandered off the farm since we let him out.

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I don't have many pictures this week because of all the work with the new goat kids. We've also been cleaning the barn and the farmyard so we can be ready for lots and lots of visitors. We want to make sure everything is safe for the people that visit the farm. We also need to clean up after winter because winter always leaves a mess behind.

New Goat Kids!

Welcome back!

Wow! We had an exciting week during Spring Break!

Saturday there were two goat kids born at Welcome Home Farm. One was born early in the morning, one was born very late at night.

Did you know that baby goats are called kids?

I'll take some videos next week of the kids playing.

Here's Quin visiting the two new kids.

It's so much fun to get inside the little dog house with the kids!

The goat kids need to wear sweaters because it's been a little bit chilly. They stay warmer and grow better if they have sweaters on.

Do you see the red light on the left side of the picture? That light comes from a heat lamp. If the kids are cold they can sleep under a warm lamp. They also like to sleep inside the dog house because it's warm inside.

This kid's name is River.
Her mother is Misty.
She is wearing a red sweater to keep warm.
She's also under a heat lamp to stay warm.

River was almost dead when she was born. We don't know what happened, we don't know why. We worked very hard to keep her alive!

She was very cold when she was born a little after midnight. Matt and I took turns using the blow dryer to warm her up. We have to make sure she's warm before she can eat. People can eat if they are cold, but goat kids can't. If we feed them when they are cold they will die because their stomach doesn't work properly if they are cold.

Look at River's front leg near the wall. That's her right leg. Her leg was hurt while she was being born.

The leg in the back of the picture is just right! The hoof is flat on the floor.
The hoof in the front of the picture is bent.
We had to put a splint on it so that it would heal.

We used a tongue depressor for a splint.
Sorry the picture is so bad! I had to take it while I was feeding her.

Do you remember the name of the covering on the hooves of newborn animals with hooves?
It's the eponychium!
Here is a link so you can hear how to say it.
River had quite a bit of it on her hooves. Matt took a picture so you could see it.

River was very weak even after we warmed her up. She tried to stand but couldn't do it. Matt had to feed her with a syringe because she wasn't strong enough to suck on a bottle, or to get milk from her mother, Misty.

She was so weak that she couldn't swallow very much milk, either. We were finally able to put her under the heat lamp at 3:30 in the morning. She was born at 12:15, just after midnight.

Matt had to go out at 4:30 and again at 5:30 to feed her a little bit more, and to make sure she was staying warm.

I went out at 6:30 to feed her and she was finally getting strong enough to drink a little from the bottle. It was a lot of work to keep River alive for the first 24 hours! We had to feed her every hour or two.

Now look at her!

She can drink a bottle full of milk with no problems at all!

We still have to feed her every 3 or 4 hours because we don't want her to get sick.
Next week we'll feed her every 5 or 6 hours because she will be bigger and stronger.

Serenity is the kid in the blue sweater.
Annie is her mother.
Serenity was born early Saturday morning.
She was already drinking milk from her mother when I got out to the barn to milk the Echo, the cow.

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Here's the last two weeks of egg counts.

I'll make my graph this week and show you what it looks like next week. 

• Friday, April 1 I collected 10 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, 1 little egg, and 1 tiny pullet egg
• Saturday, April 2 I collected 6 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Sunday, April 3 I collected 12 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs
• Monday, April 4 I collected 8 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck egg
• Tuesday, April 5 I collected 6 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Wednesday, April 6 I collected 14 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 1 little egg.
• Thursday, April 7 I collected 6 brown eggs, 7 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs.

• Friday, April 8 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Saturday, April 9 I collected 13 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 1 little egg.
• Sunday, April 10 I collected 6 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs.
• Monday, April 11 I collected 7 brown eggs,  2 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs.
• Tuesday, April 12 I collected 6 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs.
• Wednesday, April 13 I collected 7 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs.
• Thursday, April 14 I collected 20 brown eggs, 14 green eggs, 1 duck egg, and 2 little eggs. (I found where the chickens had been hiding their eggs! In one of the dog houses!)

Next week I'll show you my graph. 

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Celia and Bridget

I think that Celia and Bridget are good names for the little goat kids that were born on 17 May 2015.

They are so much fun!

Penny is still rejecting Celia, but if we go out and bring Penny a bucket with food, she doesn't seem to mind Celia having a snack.

Celia is snacking while Bridget is taking a peek at what her mom is eating.

Goat kids in sweaters are some of the cutest little critters!

The twins seem to think the kids are fun to look at, too!

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This is the never ending battle we seem to be facing the past few years:
Foxtail!

New Kids!

Penny had two doelings on last Sunday!

She's rejecting one of them. Hopefully we'll be able to change her mind over the next few days.

No 'goat jewelry', she has no waddles.

This one does have waddles.

We haven't named them yet. If you've got suggestions feel free to list them in the comments!

Photos from the Farm #29

Welcome back!

We have a chicken that is eating eggs! That can be a big problem. If she doesn't stop eating eggs we'll have to get rid of her.

We have already tried giving the chickens some minerals. That has helped. Now the chicken isn't eating the inside of the eggs, but she is still pecking through the shell. That means she has a bad habit that we need to try to break.

Here is one of the eggs I found on Thursday with a hole pecked through the shell. 

We are trying to break her bad habit by putting plastic eggs in each nesting area.

We hope that the chicken pecks the plastic eggs. If she does, the shell won't break.
We are hoping that she decides it isn't any fun to bang her beak against a hard, plastic egg.
I hope that breaks her bad habit so we can use those eggs!

Here is my egg count for this week:

• Friday, April 17 I collected 7 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Saturday, April 18 I collected 0 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Sunday, April 19 I collected 3 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs
• Monday, April 20 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Tuesday, April 21 I collected 1 brown egg, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, April 22 I collected 2 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Thursday, April 23 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Friday, April 24 I collected 4 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.

Here is my graph!
Does yours look the same or different?
I counted the eggs I collected each week, then entered the data into my graph.

Week 1 doesn't have as many eggs collected as the other weeks. I started counting eggs but I didn't start on a Saturday, I started on a Tuesday. Look under the graph and you will see the dates that are included in each week.

Look at Week 5. Fewer eggs were collected during Week 5, as well as Week 6. There are fewer eggs during Week 5 because that is the week we had bad storms. Chickens can get scared, that means that they don't lay as many eggs for the next week.

Week 6 has fewer eggs because we have a chicken who is eating eggs and I only count the eggs that we can eat, not the ones that are wasted.

Did you notice that there are fewer duck eggs towards the end of the chart? I'm sure there are duck eggs, but the ducks have decided to move their nest and I haven't found it yet. It usually only takes me a day or two to find their new spot. But I still haven't found it!

If I find a big nest of eggs I'll take a picture and post it for you to see.

I thought you might like to see what my tracking paper looks like.
This is how I collected the data and kept track of it each day.
The graph above looks much nicer!

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Would you like to see some pictures of Harry, the kid goat?

This is Harry the day after he was born.

Here are Harry and Quin. Harry is 2 weeks old. 

Did you notice the marks on the top of Harry's head? Baby goats often have their horns removed. Their horns can be dangerous to themselves, to other goats in the herd, and to people. Would your mother let you run around with a knife in each hand while you play? Probably not. Horns are a little bit like knives, they can be dangerous even when the goats are playing.

Here is Harry and his mother, Annie. Harry is almost 3 weeks old.
He was born on April 5, 2015.
Look on your calendar and see how many days old Harry is.

Baby goats are called kids. They stay with their mom for 6-8 weeks. After they are 8 weeks old we send them to their new home if we have sold them. If we are keeping them, we separate them from their mother. They are old enough that they don't need their mother's milk anymore.

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Do you have any plans for the week?

We do! It's time to clean the barn yard! We try to clean the barn yard each spring. We clean up all the trash that has blown in through the winter. We clear out the branches that have fallen down. We put away all the water heaters. We sweep out the barn. We clean out the stalls. There is always work to be done on the farm!

Have a great week!

Photos from the Farm #29

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break!

We have a new animal on the farm!

I knew you would be excited.

I'll let you know about the new animal in a minute.

First I want to show you what the mountains look like! They look different than they did on Monday because of the big storm we had.

We had snow! It was so cold that the animal's water froze. It was so windy that we have a few repairs to make to the barn. We are very lucky, none of our trees were blown down. Our neighbors had some very big trees come down! Many friends and neighbors have to repair their roofs because shingles blew off in the storm. Other people have to repair and rebuild fences because of the wind. 

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When we have extra goat milk I bring it out to the chickens in the morning.
It's one of their favorite treats.

As soon as the other chickens realize that there is a treat, they all come running!

Milk is good for chickens. It has calcium and protein. Both of those things help chickens make eggs.

I spy with my little eye.....
a duck egg on the barn road!
Silly ducks! Sometimes they lay their eggs in strange places.

I spy with my little eye.....
a nest with duck eggs!
Can you see it?

This is a better place for a nest of eggs!
It's protected and not out in the open like on the barn road.

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And now for the new animal!

We have a new baby goat!
His name is Harry.

Annie had three kids on Easter Sunday.
We were very sad that two died.
All three were so big that they were tangled up inside Annie.
But Harry lived! He's so cute! And he's so sweet and friendly!
He will live here for about 8 weeks and then go to his new home.
His new owners have been waiting for a buck just like Harry for a long time!

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Are you working on your graph?

I have more egg counts for you!

• Friday, April 3 I collected 4 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 3 duck eggs.
• Saturday, April 4 I collected 4 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Sunday, April 5 I collected 6 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Monday, April 6 I collected 5 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, April 7 I collected 3 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Wednesday, April 8 I collected 7 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Thursday, April 9 I collected 2 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• Friday, April 10 I collected 4 brown eggs, 4 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Saturday, April 11 I collected 2 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• Sunday, April 12 I collected 5 brown eggs, 6 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Monday, April 13 I collected 3 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.
• Tuesday, April 14 I collected 1 brown egg, 6 green eggs, and 1 duck egg. (This was the day of the wind storm.
• Wednesday, April 15 I collected 8 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, and 1 duck egg. (This was the day of the big snow storm.
• Thursday, April 16 I collected 1 brown egg, 0 green eggs, and 2 duck eggs.

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Do you know there are only a few more "Farm Fridays" left before the end of school! 

I'll post during the summer so if you can check in and see how the garden is growing and how the animals are doing.

I hope you have a great week!

Happy Steer

The steer loves the baby goats. They know it.

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the kids jumping all over him, which he seems to enjoy.

Here's a photo of one taking an afternoon rest with his big buddy.

He loves them so much that he licks all the Blu Kote off their disbudded heads!

If we pick one up or if we are feeding the little bottle kid, he's always there to check us out and make sure his little friends are okay.

Goat Kids 2013

The kids seem to be healthy and strong. I think they are stunning little goats again this year!

The buckling is in the striped sweater in the back.

The doeling is in the blue sweater in the front.

They are a little skittish, which isn't unusual for kids from this doe. Once we hold them, they calm down and are fine, but some days it's a little hard to get close to them.

They both have beautiful backs, stand correctly (the doeling especially stands beautifully without any stacking), and have a gentle slope on their rump.

Vet2Be won't be showing this year, he is too old for 4-H. The little doeling would do well around here so we hope she gets sold to someone who has the chance to show her off!

Photos of the 'Kids'

A few photos I took of the kids today.

Buckling... We think his name will be Joseph.

Joseph (in the  and Mary (in the blue sweater)

Mary inside the dog house we have in the stall. A smaller spot for them to sleep in means they stay just a bit warmer.

The buckling got his horns removed this evening. Arby's (the steer) thinks the kid smells funny and wants to clean him up.

Joseph had a shot of Biomycin 200 today. His breathing is a bit loud. We would have waited to disbud him, but the kid has horns already! We were a bit surprised it was the buckling that is having trouble breathing, we would have thought it was the doeling after all the trouble she went through when she was born. It's a good thing we check on them every day.

We can stay ahead of big trouble most of the time when we are out there often.