The Chicken that laid on golfballs

On our Homstead we have some pretty silly chickens.  Today I am going to tell you about our chicken who laid on golf balls.  Now you must problably be wondering why would golf balls be in our chicken coop.  Well, our chickens used to eat eggs.  My mom wanted to do something about it but did not want to kill them so we put golf balls in the chicken coop.  She had read somewhere that if you put golf balls in there then when they go to peck them it will hurt there beaks.  It worked and soon our chickens stopped eating eggs. Well, we left the golf balls in the chicken coop just in case.  One day when I was doing animal chores I noticed that a chicken was sitting on what seemed like eggs.  I was excited hoping she would hatch some chicks.  A few days later I was doing animal chores again and I saw that the chicken was still sitting there. I went inside and told my mom. We were both excited.  About a month later I was doing animals when I noticed that the chicken was still sitting there.  I went inside and looked in one of my mom's books on homesteading for how long it takes for chicks to hatch.  In the book it said around 21 days. I knew that the chicken had been laying longer then that so I went outside to check and see if they were bad.  I checked under the chicken and to my suprise I found golf balls.  The poor chicken had been sitting on golf balls for over a month! She looked really skinny and weak.  I picked her up out of the laying boxes and put her by the food. She ate and drank like crazy.  I picked up the golf balls and went inside and told my mom.  We laughed together and felt sorry for the chicken.  Moral of the story - make sure that you're chicken is laying on eggs and not golfballs. 

Our Full Size and Mini Goats

Hi!  I thought that today I would introduce our full sized goats.  We have three full size (ours are a La Mancha and Nubian mixes) and one Mini.  Here is some information about the breeds.

Minis- Minis are a cross between full size and Nigerian.

La Mancha - La Mancha's are easy to recognize because it only has small ears or no visible ears at all.  La Mancha's come in many different colors and are considered to be the calmest of the dairy breed.

Nubians - You can usually tell a Nubian from any other goat because of it's rounded nose (called a Roman nose) and long floppy ears.  

Now that you know more about the breeds let me introduce you to our full sized goats (and Mini).

- Mazzie is the mother of Fern and Feather.  She is a full time milker and is the best milker on our homestead. We have had her for a year. One unique thing about Mazzie is that one of her hooves is curved in.

Mazzie

- Fern is a full time milker too.  This was her first year that she had babies.  Her babies are Little Ann and Old Dan.  We sold Old Dan but we still have Little Ann.  She is a Mini.

Fern (right), and Little Ann (left) 

- Feather is a weed eater. She does not have any babies we are planning on breeding her soon.  She is also not the best tempered but she is a good goat.

Feather 

So those are our full size and mini goats. I hope that you learned something new about goats!

Goat Information

Hi!  This is a list of questions that the Homestead Lady asked me if I could do for an online newspaper and I thought that I would put the questions and answers here too.

Do you give treats or supplements?
We give all of are goats an herbal dewormer. And as for treats they get most of our kitchen scraps (vegetables and fruits)

Why did you pick goats and not a cow?
Goats are easer to handle, they eat less, and they take up more room then we had.

How many goats do you have now or have you had this kidding season?
We have nine goats right now. We had 11 baby's. 9 of them were Nigerians and 2 of them were mines.

How do you find buyers for your excess babies? 

Mostly by word of mouth. This year we sold 9 goats by word of mouth.

How do you find a buck to breed with?  Do you keep a buck?

 My mom usually asks her homesteading friends and we usually find one. This is the first year that we are going to keep a buck and we will see how it goes 

Do you use your goats as a source of income in any way?  If so, how? 

Yes, we trade milk to some our homesteading friends to get cows cream or other things and when we get baby's we sell most of them. 

Do you have plans for when your milkers are to old to be milked/have babies?  Will they just become pets or…?

We would probably keep her as a pet. 

What are you top least favorite thing about goats? 

They are super stubborn and pushy

What do you feed your dairy herd? 

We are feeding them alfalfa ever day and the goats that we are milking we give grain.   

Are there any changes you’d like to make to their feed program? 

Someday we would like to do Fodder, Sprouts, and Pasture grass. 

If you’re raising only dairy goats now, might you do meat goats in the future? 

No once I have had dairy goats and have loved on them I would be able to even if a different goat. 

How many dairy goats (which breeds) would be your ideal number? 

Probably two full size, three minis, and ether three of four Nigerians.

What breeds of goat have you raised so far?  

We have raised Nigerians, and Minis. And we were given some Full size. 

Which goats where your favorite and why?

I think that my favorite goats are Nigerians because they are so cute and spunky and my second favorite is the Minis because they are so floppy and will stay with you all day.

What are your plans for your current herd?  

My mom wants to specialize in breeding Minis and I want to breed and specialize in Nigerians. 

What your top five favorite things about goats? 

They are so sweet and cute. It is fun to watch them play. They bring you joy. They give you undivided attention. They love you no matter what. 

Describe a daily routine for you with all your farm, school and family work – you don’t have to get uber detailed – just give us a rough idea of how much time you spend on your responsibilities.  Include any other animals you care for, too, please. 

We usually get out at 8:00 or 8:30 to do animal chores my sister takes care of feeding and watering all the animals. Me and my mom milk all the goats. the night before we put away baby goats so that the moms will have lots of milk in the morning I milk the Nigerians and my mom milks the full size. Then we go inside and put the milk in the freezer. Then we take care of house chores and go on to study 

Sometimes parents end up with garden/homestead kids when they themselves don’t know much about those activities – can you help them understand what a kid with a homesteader’s heart might need?

If you do not have a homestead yet or do not want one you can try to find an animal group and see if they like it or ask some one you know that has animals if your kids could help with animal chores

If you could give advice to kids interested in homesteading but not really knowing where to start, what would it be?

Try to find some activity's with animals

If you want to find out more about homesteading you can also check out the Homestead Lady's blog at homesteadlady.com

Introduction

Hi!  My name is Liah and these are my animal adventures.
Just to tell you a little bit about myself... I love animals.  My favorite animal is the horse.  I live on a one acre homestead.  We have a huge garden, and thousands of animals (just kidding). We have nine goats, probably thirty chickens, three chicks, three ducks, a tom turkey, one rabbit (who is as old as the creation), one horse (who just came two weeks ago), a cat, and a dog.  I love living on a homestead and I would not trade it for the world.