Ragdollcatlady's Just a Little Patch of Weeds Farm journal

Wow! Sounds like a long day for you! Glad Little is okay!
Congrats on the new kids!! Hope that everything goes well with them!

Congrats! Glad you found the third kid.

Hoping those legs all straighten out. I had trip. LaManchas here and one of the kids took about 2 weeks to straighten out his pasterns and run and stand correctly. Now at 4 weeks you would never know they were a problem. I did give the BoSe and also some vitamin D.

Glad she delivered them all with no help, that is always the best way to do it.

Thanks everyone!

It has been an incredibly long week. Did I mention the market wethers breaking loose a couple boards in the fence? And they jumped on top of a couple chicken cages, while we were trying to repair their corner of the fence.

The boer trips are doing good. I worried for a minute cause they don't seem to have full bellies, they look sunken in on the sides and really long. And slow. They have taken 2 days to really move around much. Mostly sleeping. I can't seem to get any more colostrum from Ravi, but I think they are just keeping her empty. Her udder is large and she nursed her last kid fine for several months. She stands incredibly patiently for them to try and nurse most of the time. When I offer a bottle they refuse. So if they aren't crying and won't take a bottle and I am seeing an occasional poop or pee, I guess they are getting enough. One of the kids was kickin my boot tonight. Just checkin it out.

I think I am just really used to nigerian kids being up and bouncy right away. This is only our second time having boer kids born here. Hazel was our first.

Sorry but the new camera isn't very cooperative and I am a little slow on the learning side of electronics, so I am not able to post pics yet.

Just caught up on the reading. Congrats on all the new babies! Sorry for your losses. Glad moms are doing well. Great job at the shows all the way around. Keep up the good work.

Thanks!

Ravi had to be moved out already! not surprised. I came home from work for lunch and had to put her and her kids out cause as soon as I opened the garage, she started shoving the cage out the door! I knew I couldn't keep her in very long, so at least her kids are doing good so I am not worried about them anymore. The girls legs look about normal (for wobbly, long legged babies)and the little boys front legs are almost normal, and back aren't quite as extreme as when he was born. If they don't turn out almost normal, I will likely end up wethering him and giving him to the neighbor.... She wants him already, but if I can sell him for a good amount (if he turns out good quality) then I will. I am supposed to be raising them for food. We should have our first goat meat this year, so we will see if we like it.

Littles babies are insanely adorable! I want to keep them all!!! I so want to share pics and it is killing me that the camera isn't working! I sold a pair of Faverolles and when the family was here, DD brought the baby goats out to share. Of course they want to buy the one that I had decided I wanted at 30 seconds after she was born... If they had asked for the other one I might have caved. And the little boy, he has eye makeup that looks like a toddler applied it, blue eyes, and the most feminine/baby face ever! He is a real "baby", took the longest to figure out the bottle and doesn't eat much. These are Jack kids so I would like to see how they turn out. And Little is just beautiful, a smaller version of her mom. In fact, my oh so observant son said to me that he was wondering why Reese seemed so bipolar....sometimes she didn't want to be touched and sometimes she was soooo cuddly.... .... He remembers me carrying Little around everywhere when she was a tiny little baby, but never gave a thought to how she grew up!!! He finally figured it out when I asked for help with Little Italy (in the garage pen) and he was like, wait, but Reesa is in the garage pen! and I was like, no, that is Little. Reesa and her kids are already moved out the big girls pen. OOOOHHHHHH!!! At least he had noticed that Reesa had been in there.

We had a new baby goose hatch!!! Another lavender sebastopol! Elliot hatched her for me. I tried to put her with the other baby, but that one is huge and stepped on her a couple times, so we will have to grow a bit first.

Oh and Lucas came back! My goose that flew away over a year ago was at the neighbors the other night. He hasn't found our goose flock yet because they are separated in the front yards, but I will take them off their nests and move them out back for him tomorrow. I was going to leave them there for awhile, but I don't want him to leave before we can catch and clip his wings. I did seriously debate just letting him migrate on his own, especially since he came back....it would be awesome for him to just be a "normal" goose ( I love nature being herself), but here's the thing.... They were given to me as youngsters and raised here. He is not afraid of dogs and was trying to get into the neighbors yard with the killer dogs. I would be afraid he would make a mistake out in the rest of the world and get mauled or even make a mistake on his way home again and be hurt or killed. Even with a wild and free spirit, I would be devastated if anything happened to him. He is too domesticated.

Congrats on the geese- hatching and returning!

Thanks H&R!

My DS is on a trip with some friends so DD and I had to unload the hay by ourselves. Not really as much fun as you might think it would be....

And we have to start exercising the market goats. They told us they were fat. The fattest one is Hazel, who, ironically enough, isn't getting any grain. She gets weeds and alfalfa. We actually forgot to let her out to run around with the wethers, but we had the boys racing around the back yard for about 10 minutes tonight. I think they will actually enjoy it once they realize it is just "playing".....not really us just chasing them . I figure we can exercise them first, once the sun goes down, and then feed so they will want to go back into the pen.

I let Little out with her babies to play in the yard. I must not let kids out this soon....they seem sooooo small!!!! I guess they are only a week old, but still.

Ravis babies are starting to hop and bop...really cute! Their long legs seem to have a mind of their own and they tend to slip and slide around, but they don't seem to care.

The other evening, I had Little and her kids out to play for a few minutes. Her little boy went charging at full speed, straight into a very obvious board. Knocked himself silly and was standing there rolling his poor tiny little head in circles for a few minutes. I swear I saw stars swirling over his head and heard tweety birds right around the same time! I probably shouldn't have laughed but I did anyways...not a whole lot I could do to help. I love him and totally want to keep him, but I should let him go..... He reminds me of the Goblin King from Labyrinth....David Bowies character, with the eye make up and the white hair...But soooo much cuter of course!

And I can't seem to find a new memory card for the camera . They are telling me that it is too outdated and they all use a different type of card now. But I can't afford a new camera so I guess I just keep looking. But that means no new pics.

I had one baby duck hatch, but she had issues. I feel terrible as I had forgotten about her (still developing in the egg) and I had added a bunch of new eggs to the incubator. She hadn't hatched and I couldn't tell if she was still alive or not as when I candled and tapped on the shell, she didn't respond. Sometimes they don't, so I just left the egg in the bator figuring a few more days won't hurt if the egg has gone bad and she might hatch if she is still good. Well, I forgot to add more water and the humidity dropped, but since I was incubating mostly chicken eggs, I was still in the range for them. So I hear peeping from the bator when I got home and knew right away something was amiss. She had made a hole, but before she could get out, the membrane had dried to her face and she was stuck. I busted her out immediately. Her neck was bent and stiff (from trying too long to hatch and not being able to stretch), one eye was fine but the other one looked either damaged or dirty, and her beak was pretty tweaked. I made a special protected spot under the heat lamp, where the other chicks and gosling could see her, but not reach her. Wire basket over the top of her. Good news.....She is able to walk, mostly looks normal, with some neosporin ointment, her eye looks new and her beak is only a tiny bit twisted now. She gets around fine, eats, drinks, and sleeps with the baby flock. She is very cute and most likely a lavender color too. She might turn into a pet!

The other day, DH was gardening. I asked him to take Izma (the fat gosling) with him if he was going to water and just bring her in the house to me if she started to get too hot. About 20 minutes later he brings her to me in the kitchen. I let her just chill with me and the dogs while I prepared dinner. She followed me everywhere, to the sink, back to the table, to the pantry, to the fridge, stopped to drink the dogs water, back to the table, under my chair. ....And I got to thinking...most men might have to ask a second time if they thought they heard their wife ask them to babysit a goose and then bring her to the kitchen when he was done, but this one just said OK.... He said he took her out for a walk on a different day too. Nice! Especially since the animals really aren't his thing.

Babysitting a goose. I don't think mine would do that. That is so cool that your goose came home, I guess they are like homing pigeons. And glad you baby duck is doing good, I had to unshrinkwrap a chick last night. It got a wash and blow dry before sticking it back in the incubator and this morning it is as good as new. I am having a heck of time with the humidity lately which is weird because I usually don't bother it much and it just works...