Babies R Us

The barn is filled with goat kids of all colors and sizes. We must have around 20 kids now, and they keep on coming. On Monday we went to each pen and started tagging, giving a shot of BOSE (selenium and vitamin E), and castrating. I tagged a few ears (basically piercing their ear with a plastic or metal tag with a number) and tried my hand at castrating. For the goats we use a crimper. I felt around for the cord just above the testi and clamped down on it and held it there for 3 minutes on each side. This severs the cord so the testicles can't develop and is a little more pleasant than slicing them. At least, for me it is. I can't imagine the boys like either option.

This morning I went to check on the goats and found that the Philly horse had a baby last night. We had built a small area for the horse in the barn so she could have her baby away from the other horses. All I could see was this big brown head with long stick legs hiding behind her mama. She is so adorable and funny looking at the same time.

On Tuesday morning another pig had farrowed, we had moved her only on Monday to the farrowing pen, and had 10 healthy little piglets. We were amazed at all the animals being born and we were convinced the full moon had something to do with it.

On top of our animals having babies, we got in a shipment of meat chicks called Plymouth Bard Rock. We had to push out the Rhode Island Red young chickens into the yard to make room for the chicks. We set Rhode Island Reds in one of the mobile chicken coops and put an electric fence around the perimeter so they have plenty of space to free range and peck at the ground and shelter and a place to lay eggs at night.

We set up an area for the chicks by removing the poopy straw and laying down soft wood chips. They have tiny feeders and waterers which is very adorable and reminds me of Honey I shrunk the Chickens. Only these guys are super soft and cute and make tiny peeping noises.

Spring is definitely in full gear now.