Well it certainly has been a while since our last update! I think a New Years Resolution for the farm is going to be more regular with updates to the Blog! (and website!) anyway ....
We have been busy around the farm, all of the babies from Spring were sold. We decided to retain three, Sable (Sadie/Donnie), Jayden and Melanie (Misty/Elvis). The three are doing well and are continuing to grow and become a part of the herd.
With the cooler weather Chris, Myself and Joe (Chris' Dad) really pushed work on the barn. The barn now has a room, the top is framed for windows and has been sheathed. We are working on sheathing the back right now. Then all that is left is, adding windows and doors where needed, sheathing the other three sides, deciding on siding material and putting it up and the interior work. There will be three sections to the inside of the barn. 1) a feed/storage room, 2) a nursery and 3) main goat area.
There is still a lot of work to do, but if we can continue with this momentum the barn will be done in no time!
Over the last few months we have lost two of our peahens, leavings one male left. We have plans to get him some females, just having some trouble locating someone that has any right now. One of the hens we literally lost, she flew away, and the second died from a parasite overload. Some lessons you just need to learn the hard way, but know that I have an idea on what to look for in a sick peafowl the better I am with preventative care.
We have added a few animals to our clan, we adopted a female turkey and 5 chickens. They are doing great. We also purchased 30 standard cochin chicks in May. We had some major issues with predators breaking into the chick pen, but after a few weeks and about 10 losses we got everything straightened out and the chicks have grown into beautiful looking hens and roosters. We have already begun to receive eggs from them. I can also see that Chris and I will be enjoy plenty of fresh rooster this Winter.
As the weather began to get colder in October, we began to plan our breeding season. We have already had quite a few mating sessions and are waiting to see if any of them took. We are hoping for an early start to kidding season with the first babies being born in March. We are continuing to breed females as well so we hope for a long season for Spring of 2013 as well.
Oh yes, I almost forgot!
This fall I began creating homemade Goats Milk Soap to sell. Our product line is called, Body By Dragonfly. This has been a wonderful experience so far, selling mostly at craft fairs in the area. We did create an etsy page and hope that sales will pick up from there. Come and check us out!
