Farm News 12-11-05
Sunday morning, after chores
New Buck Goat
Last Saturday, the 3rd, Calvin and I drove over half of eastern Kansas searching for a buck goat. Lucy and Peanut have both been complaining that it is time for them to become pregnant, a state which requires that they have access to a buck to get it started. We finally found an ugly Nubian buck at a livestock auction in Ottawa. We named him 'Buck', because all the fun words rhyme with 'buck', after purchasing him for $50.
During our travels Calvin had spotted a freshly killed coyote along the road, so he stopped and picked it up for the pelt. When it came time to load the billy goat the goat had to share the truck with a dead coyote, a situation he did not care for. Coyotes are bad, he thinks, even when they are thoroughly dead and frozen solid. Poor guy, he had to spend an hour and a half shivering in the back of the truck with a dead coyote for company on the drive home.
If aroma is any indication of potency, this goat will be able to do his job well. Male goats have scent glands behind their horns and, during breeding season, they can really stink. He really stinks. Female goats aren't any smellier than cats or dogs, but male goats like to rub their scent on the females of the harem, so in the end they can get smelly, also, during breeding season.
When he got here I put him in a pen by himself with good hay and water to help him acclimate a bit. The next morning I found him dangling by one hind leg from the gate of the pen. He tried to jump out and caught his left hind leg in the gate. Amazingly, it wasn't broken and he was fine. In fact, within 30 seconds of the time I released him he had mated with Peanut. Gestation for goats is five months, so Peanut should kid the first week in May.
Lucy was in heat the week before the buck arrived, so she probably won't be ready to breed again for a couple of weeks, probably. Goats supposedly operate on a 25 day estrus cycle, but many factors can change the cycle length. I've been feeding them oats, and cutting off their supply of oats suddenly can trigger ovulation, frequently.
It's a bit late in the season for breeding. I prefer to have babies in March or April, but hadn't found a buck. Lucy will probably still come in heat again. Goats usually start ovulating in September and continue through December. If they aren't bred by that time they will often skip a year.
Young Mammals (Puppies and Girls)
Dana, who has four orphan Pomeranians, is being prissy and didn't lick the puppies, but she did rub them well. Sunday, she had to take Kinsey and Bree, her two oldest daughters, to dance/cheerleader competitions. The lovely lady asked me to babysit with the puppies. I was delighted. Paula did all the work for me, as usual, and I had a good time.
In case readers haven't noticed, I am quite taken with Alice and Zella, our 2 ½ year old grand-nieces. Twins are four times as much trouble and six times as funny. Alice and Zella came to visit Sunday and to meet the then five day old puppies. Zella, who is usually the more staid of the two, was totally delighted, standing over the basket squeaking, “Baby puppies! Baby puppies!”
Dana is feeding these puppies with a 2 cc hypodermic syringe. The tip on which the needle would mount, if it had one, is just the right size to slip into the puppies' mouths. Then you very, very slowly inject milk into their mouths.
Snow
Whew! It has been cold! Ting, the cognitively impaired Polish Crested hen, has moved into the barn and hasn't been outside for several days. I was sort of hoping she would freeze to death and could be quietly forgotten, but such is not my fortune.
In the morning Ting likes to eat cat food for breakfast. The cat feeder is adjacent to the water faucet in the barn. Ting objects to my filling water buckets while she is eating cat food, so she pecks my hands. She works herself into such a fury that when I finish filling a bucket and leave she jumps down and follows along, trying to peck my ankles and generally being underfoot. Eventually, I suppose, one of us will die of old age and relieve me of the burden of putting up with this useless chicken.
The dogs have also moved into the barn, and Bump the rabbit is staying in there a lot. I strongly suspect that Bump enjoys bothering the dogs and that is the reason he is spending so much time in the barn. He has several rabbit holes he can use to get in and out, but the dogs have to wait for me to open a door. Tessie, the old Westie, pays no attention to Bump and probably can't see him. Trusty, who is about two, now, is still hyperactive and can't stand not being able to chase Bump. When Trusty is asleep Bump wanders all over the barn, leaving a skein of scent trails that Trusty spends hours following.
I go to the barn every four or five hours, except at night, and load the stove with wood. The cats have a chair next to the stove where they can all curl up and enjoy what heat there is. Martha, the oldest cat, is looking well. Calvin thinks she is pregnant, but I think she just has old cat belly.
Bird Flu Notice
I received the following notice about Bird Flu:
The Center for Disease Control has released a list of symptoms of bird flu. If you experience any of the following, please seek medical treatment immediately:
1.High fever
2. Congestion
3. Nausea
4. Fatigue
5. Aching in the joints
6. An irresistible urge to shit on someone's windshield.
The Ottawa Livestock Auction
On Saturday Calvin and I went to the Ottawa Livestock Auction, our second visit. Again, we found a dead coyote along the road on the way, which was worth enough to pay for the gasoline consumed. There were four lots of hogs, the first lot being a single piglet of about ten pounds, a skinny, scared little guy. Calvin bought him for six dollars.
The pigs were followed by three lots of goats: a tiny Alpine type wether, a very homely Boer doe, and an ugly Boer buck. Alpines are dairy goats of Swiss origin: dainty, bright, and lively. Boers are meat goats of South African origin: bulky, dull, and slow. Nubians are dairy goats of North African origin: tall, slim, bright, and docile, with big floppy ears. Lucy had a Nubian mother and a Boer father. Peanut, Lucy's daughter, has a Nubian father.
This is the second Saturday on which I have gone to Ottawa with Calvin and returned with an animal and a dead coyote. That little pig was not going to stay in the pen in the back of the truck with a dead coyote, no way. I had to drive so that the pig could stay on the floor in the cab of the truck between Calvin's feet.
The first thing it did was bite him on the ankle. Quickly, though, the heater came on and he immediately settled down in the warm breeze. Calvin would occasionally reach down and scratch him behind an ear, and the piglet eventually started making a happy sound when scratched. By the time we got to Calvin's house the piglet had found a friend and protector.
The piglet definitely enjoyed the warm air from the heater. I, on the other hand, had the dubious pleasure of breathing warm air freshly wafted across the outside of a rather dirty pig. Clean baby pigs are odorless, in the ordinary human sense of the word. Actually, you can smell them easily in a warm, enclosed, space. Dirty little pigs are highly aromatic in a warm, enclosed, space, such as the cab of a pickup truck. Don't forget the dead coyote in the back; I kept hoping a cop would stop us.
We reached Calvin's house without encountering anything unusual. Feeling that it needed to immediately meet the rest of the family, Calvin picked up the piglet and carried it to the house. The image of Calvin, happily, proudly, walking through the door to present a tiny hog to his mother and younger sister, will stay with me for a while. What a fine young man.
New Buck Goat
Last Saturday, the 3rd, Calvin and I drove over half of eastern Kansas searching for a buck goat. Lucy and Peanut have both been complaining that it is time for them to become pregnant, a state which requires that they have access to a buck to get it started. We finally found an ugly Nubian buck at a livestock auction in Ottawa. We named him 'Buck', because all the fun words rhyme with 'buck', after purchasing him for $50.
During our travels Calvin had spotted a freshly killed coyote along the road, so he stopped and picked it up for the pelt. When it came time to load the billy goat the goat had to share the truck with a dead coyote, a situation he did not care for. Coyotes are bad, he thinks, even when they are thoroughly dead and frozen solid. Poor guy, he had to spend an hour and a half shivering in the back of the truck with a dead coyote for company on the drive home.
If aroma is any indication of potency, this goat will be able to do his job well. Male goats have scent glands behind their horns and, during breeding season, they can really stink. He really stinks. Female goats aren't any smellier than cats or dogs, but male goats like to rub their scent on the females of the harem, so in the end they can get smelly, also, during breeding season.
When he got here I put him in a pen by himself with good hay and water to help him acclimate a bit. The next morning I found him dangling by one hind leg from the gate of the pen. He tried to jump out and caught his left hind leg in the gate. Amazingly, it wasn't broken and he was fine. In fact, within 30 seconds of the time I released him he had mated with Peanut. Gestation for goats is five months, so Peanut should kid the first week in May.
Lucy was in heat the week before the buck arrived, so she probably won't be ready to breed again for a couple of weeks, probably. Goats supposedly operate on a 25 day estrus cycle, but many factors can change the cycle length. I've been feeding them oats, and cutting off their supply of oats suddenly can trigger ovulation, frequently.
It's a bit late in the season for breeding. I prefer to have babies in March or April, but hadn't found a buck. Lucy will probably still come in heat again. Goats usually start ovulating in September and continue through December. If they aren't bred by that time they will often skip a year.
Young Mammals (Puppies and Girls)
Dana, who has four orphan Pomeranians, is being prissy and didn't lick the puppies, but she did rub them well. Sunday, she had to take Kinsey and Bree, her two oldest daughters, to dance/cheerleader competitions. The lovely lady asked me to babysit with the puppies. I was delighted. Paula did all the work for me, as usual, and I had a good time.
In case readers haven't noticed, I am quite taken with Alice and Zella, our 2 ½ year old grand-nieces. Twins are four times as much trouble and six times as funny. Alice and Zella came to visit Sunday and to meet the then five day old puppies. Zella, who is usually the more staid of the two, was totally delighted, standing over the basket squeaking, “Baby puppies! Baby puppies!”
Dana is feeding these puppies with a 2 cc hypodermic syringe. The tip on which the needle would mount, if it had one, is just the right size to slip into the puppies' mouths. Then you very, very slowly inject milk into their mouths.
Snow
Whew! It has been cold! Ting, the cognitively impaired Polish Crested hen, has moved into the barn and hasn't been outside for several days. I was sort of hoping she would freeze to death and could be quietly forgotten, but such is not my fortune.
In the morning Ting likes to eat cat food for breakfast. The cat feeder is adjacent to the water faucet in the barn. Ting objects to my filling water buckets while she is eating cat food, so she pecks my hands. She works herself into such a fury that when I finish filling a bucket and leave she jumps down and follows along, trying to peck my ankles and generally being underfoot. Eventually, I suppose, one of us will die of old age and relieve me of the burden of putting up with this useless chicken.
The dogs have also moved into the barn, and Bump the rabbit is staying in there a lot. I strongly suspect that Bump enjoys bothering the dogs and that is the reason he is spending so much time in the barn. He has several rabbit holes he can use to get in and out, but the dogs have to wait for me to open a door. Tessie, the old Westie, pays no attention to Bump and probably can't see him. Trusty, who is about two, now, is still hyperactive and can't stand not being able to chase Bump. When Trusty is asleep Bump wanders all over the barn, leaving a skein of scent trails that Trusty spends hours following.
I go to the barn every four or five hours, except at night, and load the stove with wood. The cats have a chair next to the stove where they can all curl up and enjoy what heat there is. Martha, the oldest cat, is looking well. Calvin thinks she is pregnant, but I think she just has old cat belly.
Bird Flu Notice
I received the following notice about Bird Flu:
The Center for Disease Control has released a list of symptoms of bird flu. If you experience any of the following, please seek medical treatment immediately:
1.High fever
2. Congestion
3. Nausea
4. Fatigue
5. Aching in the joints
6. An irresistible urge to shit on someone's windshield.
The Ottawa Livestock Auction
On Saturday Calvin and I went to the Ottawa Livestock Auction, our second visit. Again, we found a dead coyote along the road on the way, which was worth enough to pay for the gasoline consumed. There were four lots of hogs, the first lot being a single piglet of about ten pounds, a skinny, scared little guy. Calvin bought him for six dollars.
The pigs were followed by three lots of goats: a tiny Alpine type wether, a very homely Boer doe, and an ugly Boer buck. Alpines are dairy goats of Swiss origin: dainty, bright, and lively. Boers are meat goats of South African origin: bulky, dull, and slow. Nubians are dairy goats of North African origin: tall, slim, bright, and docile, with big floppy ears. Lucy had a Nubian mother and a Boer father. Peanut, Lucy's daughter, has a Nubian father.
This is the second Saturday on which I have gone to Ottawa with Calvin and returned with an animal and a dead coyote. That little pig was not going to stay in the pen in the back of the truck with a dead coyote, no way. I had to drive so that the pig could stay on the floor in the cab of the truck between Calvin's feet.
The first thing it did was bite him on the ankle. Quickly, though, the heater came on and he immediately settled down in the warm breeze. Calvin would occasionally reach down and scratch him behind an ear, and the piglet eventually started making a happy sound when scratched. By the time we got to Calvin's house the piglet had found a friend and protector.
The piglet definitely enjoyed the warm air from the heater. I, on the other hand, had the dubious pleasure of breathing warm air freshly wafted across the outside of a rather dirty pig. Clean baby pigs are odorless, in the ordinary human sense of the word. Actually, you can smell them easily in a warm, enclosed, space. Dirty little pigs are highly aromatic in a warm, enclosed, space, such as the cab of a pickup truck. Don't forget the dead coyote in the back; I kept hoping a cop would stop us.
We reached Calvin's house without encountering anything unusual. Feeling that it needed to immediately meet the rest of the family, Calvin picked up the piglet and carried it to the house. The image of Calvin, happily, proudly, walking through the door to present a tiny hog to his mother and younger sister, will stay with me for a while. What a fine young man.
posted by The Geezer at 8:41 AM
1 Comments:
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