Author: rose

When we got the Cayugas, we also got nine guineas. Guineas are amazing for tick and chigger eating. They are also known to keep away snakes. So, these guys will be our pest removal.

We are not sure on gender, but we definitely have both. If they want to, we will let them hatch and raise their keets. We named them the fruits of the spirit. Please guess all of their names in the comments. We have pearl grey, lavender, and one royal purple. Several of them are pied.

A few weeks after we got the two Pekin ducks, we were given three Cayuga drakes. They are young and handsome. We named them Emerald, Obsidian, and Onyx. We are hoping to use them for some female ducks we hope to purchase in the spring. The picture didn’t come out great, but they are a blackish, metallic green.

We have had quite a few new additions to the farm, so I will start one set at a time.

A few weeks ago, a friend gave us a pair of male Pekin ducks. We named them Thunder and Bolt. They are currently just pets. These boys are a little shy. They free range and love swimming in our driveway, as it fills with water whenever it rains.

We thought that Banjo was pregnant, but she was quite thin. Yesterday though, she gave birth to three kittens. Two are grey and white and one is black and white. She is doing a great job! We now have ten kittens. Please let us know if you are interested in any.

Our cat Hosanna had her first litter today. She had five kittens. Unfortunately two of them were weak and Hosanna wasn’t the best new mom. We tried to help them, but we’ve found that often times if we get too involved the mom will abandon the litter. Those two passed away, but the other three are thriving! Hosanna took some encouraging, but she eventually loved her babies. There is a precious Oreo colored kitten. They are all black and white. One strange thing is that the two that died were gray and the three that lived were black.

Willow had a litter of four kittens on the Fourth of July. We named the two silver ones Lexington and Concord, the black one Freedom, and the blueish gray one Independence. We don’t know any of their genders yet.

We will be rehoming two lovely does. We would keep them, but we have some big changes coming up and need to reduce our herd.

April is a three year old doe in milk. She should give about three quarts of milk a day. April will need milked twice a day. Her milk tastes like whipped cream, and she is our only goat who eats mint leaves. (which occasionally makes delicious minty milk) April is stanchion trained. She is a full, grade, Nubian. We have had her family for generations now, and she has some very nice lines. She is super sweet and will be a great goat for a family. April’s sire is an amazing ADGA registered buck with incredible lines. She has had two kiddings. We have kept all of her doelings because she is such a wonderful goat.

She is available with her cousin, Hephzibah. Hephzibah is a yearling dry doe. We are keeping lots of goats who are closely related to her. She is very sweet, and acts like a puppy. Her sister is the best milker we’ve ever had. Hephzibah is a 3/4 Nubian, 1/4 Alpine cross doe. Her sire is an amazing ADGA registered buck. We’ve raised both of Hephzibah’s parents. She is very well behaved on the stanchion already.

Both does are very friendly. They have been raised around other goats, children, water fowl, chickens, horses, dogs, and cats. They would be great for a beginner or experienced family. They may make wonderful 4-H dairy goats. These girls have recently had a summer shave as well.

April: $250

Hephzibah: $150

Together: $375

Here’s some pictures of all of the babies around the farm.

On May 6th Penny’s udder began to grow. The next day, it was tight and Penny was acting off. In the mid morning she started contracting. Whenever she would have a contraction, she would wag her tail. 🙂 After a few hours like that, she wanted to be alone in the stall, so we put her in the kidding stall, and stayed with her. She contracted for awhile and then started pushing. At this point she started licking us like crazy! She licked our faces even. We’ve never had a doe do that before! She is a little more bonded to us too, so maybe she thinks that we’re her kids! It took quite a while for the first kid to come, but she eventually had a lovely, blue eyed doeling. I bounced her, and knew she was going to have another one. In probably fifteen or twenty minutes, another little doeling basically fell right out.

We named the first one Naomi and the second, Orpah. Orpah is super lively and will jump right into your lap. Naomi is reserved, and the most content baby. She will just sit in your lap and not try to leave.

We’re not sure if there is any Nigerian Dwarf in them, because they are a good size.

Their sire is a La Mancha with possibly some mini in him. Their dam is Penny, who is three quarters Nubian, one quarter Alpine.

We are not sure if we will rehome these girls.

Please leave a guess for where we found these names in the Bible, in the comments.

We had three pregnant cats; Willow, Banjo, and Splash. Altogether they had eleven kittens. Unfortunately, only two survived. Both are Splash’s. She has one boy and one girl. We decided to name our kittens from the musical, “Cats”. In the musical, all cats have a name that their owner could never guess. We named the boy, Magical Mr. Mistoffelees. Mistoffelees is black and white. His sister’s name is Grizabella the Glamour Cat. She is grey and white.