DustyBoot
Loving the herd life
Guess it's about time I started one of these. We moved here in February and took some time to evaluate and get settled in. New perimeter fences started in August because they were in poor shape and wouldn't hold cows, let alone goats. It's been a long process, but should be finished today!
We added three beehives in late May, too late to get honey for this year but hopefully they'll be well established for next year.
Three Kiko-Boer doe goats arrived in August, along with their two Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd guardians. We've been using electronet fencing to create rotational grazing paddocks for them with good results so far. We bought a buckling in September but he didn't work out; replaced him at the beginning of November and I suspect we now have baby goats due in mid-April.
Chickens and guineas arrived in early November and seem to be settling in well. Eight Rhode Island Reds, four guineas. The coop is on skids and we move it regularly so the birds have fresh pasture. They're surrounded by electric poultry net that's turned off during the day but on at night to keep predators at a distance from the coop. Eventually we may open up the fence during the day to let the birds range farther, but we want them well trained to return to the coop before we consider that. We also need to see how our LGDs respond to them. Our hope is to use the birds to follow our larger animals to help reduce bugs and parasites and hasten the decomposition of manure.
Later this month we'll have a few steers arriving as some friends are renting our pasture and allowing us to see how cows do on the property. Depending on how it goes, we may decide to raise our own cows or raise stocker calves.
Our next project looks like being meat rabbits. We've never eaten rabbit, but we're not too picky so I'm pretty confident we'll be happy with the results. We'll start small, though.
Possibly on hold for spring is an aquaponics system. Do fish counts as herds?
Not sure what else will end up on the agenda, but there we are for now.
We added three beehives in late May, too late to get honey for this year but hopefully they'll be well established for next year.
Three Kiko-Boer doe goats arrived in August, along with their two Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd guardians. We've been using electronet fencing to create rotational grazing paddocks for them with good results so far. We bought a buckling in September but he didn't work out; replaced him at the beginning of November and I suspect we now have baby goats due in mid-April.
Chickens and guineas arrived in early November and seem to be settling in well. Eight Rhode Island Reds, four guineas. The coop is on skids and we move it regularly so the birds have fresh pasture. They're surrounded by electric poultry net that's turned off during the day but on at night to keep predators at a distance from the coop. Eventually we may open up the fence during the day to let the birds range farther, but we want them well trained to return to the coop before we consider that. We also need to see how our LGDs respond to them. Our hope is to use the birds to follow our larger animals to help reduce bugs and parasites and hasten the decomposition of manure.
Later this month we'll have a few steers arriving as some friends are renting our pasture and allowing us to see how cows do on the property. Depending on how it goes, we may decide to raise our own cows or raise stocker calves.
Our next project looks like being meat rabbits. We've never eaten rabbit, but we're not too picky so I'm pretty confident we'll be happy with the results. We'll start small, though.
Possibly on hold for spring is an aquaponics system. Do fish counts as herds?
Not sure what else will end up on the agenda, but there we are for now.
