rachels.haven's Journal

rachels.haven

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Yes, definitely. Dairy, but correct.
There's a trend among show lamancha breeders to breed for bigger and taller and I want no part of that. And neglect production, which is not good for any dairy breed.

If I wind up not wanting to keep or use Brownie (like if his legs began turning out upon maturity like dad) Longvu lamanchas is only a 40 minute drive away, where I got Summer. I LOVED what I saw there. I'd be happy to get a buckling from him, and I'd wait for the right one to come along. The main reason I didn't this time was concern over how close they may be in relation to Summer. I don't need to worry about it today though. I think there's a very good chance Brownie will be a great herd sire though which is good because I like him.
 

rachels.haven

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Ugh, collected a fecal from the black lamancha buck, and discovered lots of tape worms all over it in my gloves hand. Eprinex doesn't kill that. I might get some equimax into the two L bucks and the doe that came with them and watch my other goats...unless this is something you're supposed to wipe out, but I don't think so.

And here's a cute picture of some ducks I found laying around. Man, I wish I had me some poopy ducks.
Beginning Week 1
IMG_20200205_104027570.jpg


Week 2???
IMG_20200218_141139148.jpg


There is what I am assuming is a tape worm in this pic. A few got stuck in the glove, but this one made it to the picture. I guess I should finish the fecal now. Blah. Everyone's eyelid color is great.
IMG_20200218_125330366.jpg
 

rachels.haven

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Lol, I just held him on the clean milk stand until he ran out of food, got mad, and pooped. He's the only one of mine I know for sure does that quickly. Kind of funny in a mean way, but no butt digging today. No patience does sometimes pay off.

I'm actually only seeing tapeworm eggs today. That's weird. Maybe winter is getting together with the hoeggers stuff and we're going to get a break. He's up to 800 eggs per gram of tape worms and tape worms alone-not tons, but apparently enough to start shedding pieces of themselves into his poop. :idunno
 
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rachels.haven

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Me too. I've come to the conclusion that they are one of those "there's a niche so we must fill it" types of things. They want that stray, unused nutrition and safety. I think they'd say that existing only for themselves is plenty reason to exist.
 

farmerjan

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The sex links are fantastic layers for 2 laying seasons, after their 2nd molt, they slack off. If you want to produce eggs, that would be the way to go. Get red sex links, the next year get black sex links. Then you would know the difference. I used to have them and slaughtered on their 2nd molt.
That is what I have done, even actually using 3 colors so that I could keep some of the older hens because of needing some x-x-large/jumbo eggs for a customer that year. Plus, you can weed out the hens not laying and they will be fat great for soup and chicken salad.
If you are looking just for layers the different sex-links are the way to go. The blacks usually get a little bigger as they mature, but the also tend to be more aggressive. They kill out better for size but they also eat more overall. All of the sex-links are egg laying machines.
 

rachels.haven

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That's very interesting. I've never heard that before, but I believe it.

If I wanted to do that I could do red sex links, black sex links, and California whites. The whites will always be my favorite temperament-wise, although out of the four I got, I lost two to laying complications, so that should be taken into account if I did go that route. I bet the other sex links have better livability.
 

Baymule

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Sex links will continue to lay after their 2nd molt, but drop off dramatically. They still eat as much though. I had a black sex link that I kept as a pet. Robin had a bad attitude, was Queen of the coop and lived to 7 years old, even making the move with us here. She is buried by the garden gate.
 
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