Over the past several days, videos of the farm and animals have been uploaded to You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=SheriAnnRicherson
Feel free to stop by and check the videos out. There are some of the livestock, some of the plants and some of other activities that happen here at Exotic Gardening Farm & Wildlife Habitat.
Filed under Horse by on Feb 10th, 2010. Comment. 
Today was hoof trimming day for the baby goats. First on the milk stand was Faith, the white goat in the picture above. Since the baby goats are not tall enough yet to reach their heads into the feed dish, convincing them they really did want on the stand was difficult. It took both of us to get them strapped in. I held each baby while Jerry pulled their head through and fastened the bar in place.
Faith gave a bit of a struggle, kicking her feet, moving around and naying for her momma Darla. All in all, however, it was not as difficult to get her hooves trimmed as it has been at times with the larger goats.
When Faith’s hooves were trimmed and she was released, she ran back to the stall door. We promptly let her back in with the other goats and brought her sister Victoria out.
Victoria was a bit fussier than Faith. She kicked and hollared. She refused to take even a bite of grain, but we were able to get her hooves trimmed. She, too, ran for the stall door as soon as she was released.
Next on the stand on Rembrandt, our cashgora baby. Rembrandtis very shy. He runs from people, like his mother Tulip our cashmere goat. When you corner him, he will let you pick him up and does not struggle unlike the other baby goats.
I was able to get him on the stand and strapped in by myself. He hollared the loudest and Tulip stood on her hind feet looking out of the stall hollaring back. He did not like hoof trimming at all, however, I do believe once he is used to it he will be fine.
We let him eat a bite out of the feed dish on top of the milk stand after he was done. I never feed the boys grain unless is is shearing or hoof trimming time. The does on the other hand get grain twice a day. I have found with Leonardo, my buck, if he gets grain, he will stand pretty as you please.
From what I saw today, Rembrandt will need a good brushing this spring before he is sheared. It is odd that the other fiber goats and the sheep do not get a lot of vegetable matter on them. I am thinking he has so much, in part, because he is still a kid. Maybe as he gets older, he will learn to stay cleaner!
Filed under Dairy Goats, Fiber Goats, Goats by on Dec 29th, 2009. Comment.
I located some Leicester Longwool Sheep earlier this summer here in Indiana. I contacted the lady who said she did have some for sale. We arranged pick up to be on my birthday. We actually ended up getting them the day before which was great since I kept dreaming of the sheep and found myself anxiously awaiting pickup time.
The lamb ram is named Johnny (white) and the ewe is Pearl (black). These sheep are so sweet and pretty. I can hardly wait to spin the fiber.
After looking at a lot of sheep I am glad we decided to choose these. They don’t get excited, even when our dogs bark at them. They come up to us for attention and follow us around when we let them out into the yard.
We need to find a better way to feed them their hay however as it does get in their fiber, especially around their faces.
Sheri
Filed under Leicester Longwool, Sheep by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
I was looking up candling tonight online when I came across a video that showed a chick moving inside an egg. My goal was to figure out why I could not see veining in my eggs until it was almost hatching time. The reason – the light I was using to candle with was too weak!
So, I took the heat lamp off the turkeys, put it inside a cardboard box I had punched a tiny hole in and set it up in the bathroom. I then went into the bathroom with an egg and laid the egg on top of the hole. Low and behold there was the veining! Wow! I had just candled with my other lamp and did not see it.
As I watched the egg I saw movement! How cool was that! Yes, there is a live chick in the egg, and yes, at seven days it does move!
I did not get to watch long as the light was quickly heating up the cardboard and I did not want a fire. However, after seeing this, I will be asking someone to build me a wood box with a stationary lamp that will not overheat.
Looks like in a few more days we will be adding 30 new babies to our flock!
Filed under Chickens, Poultry by on Dec 20th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Tomorrow is the day I have been dreading since the birth of the first baby goat. It is the day that four of the baby goats will be taken to their new home. It will be a sad day for both of us, I am sure.
Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Raphael and Cyrus are the four that will be loaded into the pick-up truck and taken away. I am sure their mommies, Sugar and Spice, will cry for their babies. I know the baby goats will cry for their mothers as we diaper them and load them up. They have never been in a vehicle before so I am sure they will be sacred.
I will miss their soft fur and the way they come up to me, anxious to see me when I go into the barn or out into the pasture. I will miss their warm noses muzzling me and their wet tongues licking my hands. I will miss their dirty little paws jumping on my clean clothing covering it in mud. I will miss looking into their innocent little eyes and seeing them suckle milk from their mothers.
I wish we had enough land to keep them here, but alas, we do not. I wish they had been does so I could have justified keeping them through the winter.
I know they will be happy in their new home. There was lots of tall grass for them to eat and the pasture is certainly bigger than it is here.
Tomorrow will be a hard day, for both of us. However, it is a day that I know will come around once a year as long as we continue to breed goats. It is a day, that I hope, with each passing year will get easier.
Filed under Dairy Goats, Fiber Goats, Goats by on Dec 5th, 2009. Comment.
I sure didn’t intend all these little Guinea to hatch, but momma sure did! She hid her nest in a tall pile of weeds. I knew she was missing but could not find her. One day I went out and there were tiny keets behind her. It took several more days to locate the nest. Most of these she hatched but once I located the nest I took the eggs and finished them up in the incubator.
I guess you just never know what is going to happen on a farm!
Sheri
Filed under Guinea, Poultry by on Nov 2nd, 2009. Comment.
We finally settled on a name for our angora buck – Leonardo. He seems to like it although it will take some time for him to get used to being called something other than little boy which is what we had been calling him.
Tulip, our cashmere goat, has taken quite a liking to Leonardo. The two of them are stalled together, right next to the dairy goats. Needless to say the dairy goats are acting like they are really missing out, but they were the ones who wanted to beat the two smaller goats up all the time.
We have spent most of the day working on the room next to the stalls. We thought we were going to make that a sheep room – but suprise, there is concrete curbs and a metal stand in there that is unmoveable without more work than we want to invest. So, back to the drawing board. We have decided to use the room as a milking room and feed room instead.
We are considering purchasing a pair of Leicester Longwool Sheep in late July or early August once they are weaned and need a new stall area to keep them in. One is black and the other one is white.
Sheri
Filed under Fiber Goats, Goats by on Oct 30th, 2009. Comment.
Last night we brought our six month old Angora buck home. The girls, even Tulip, are being a bit pushy. The buck is rather timid and has not started showing them who is the new boss yet. He did ok in the pen overnight and is eating, but not with the girls yet. Jerry keeps reminding me this is the way it goes everytime we bring a new goat in.
He does not have a name yet. I think we should name him Loverboy! He is such a sweet little guy and after all he will have all those does to himself!
He came with health papers and is CL free. Woo Hoo! I cannot wait until spring to see what the babies he creates look like. The lady we got him from said his father was huge. She had got rid of him in favor of a white buck. His mother was a pretty good sized doe and just loaded with fiber. His fiber is so soft. Of course the first cutting is always the prime mohair.
Sheri
Filed under Fiber Goats, Goats by on Oct 30th, 2009. Comment.
The afternoon of June 25, 2009 I went out to the barn to check on the goats and found Sugar had given birth. She had two gorgous white kids with her. They were both boys.
I am happy to announce that everyone is doing well. The goat kids are so cute the way they jump around. Sugar is such a good mother to them. I can’t wait until the other does give birth!
The birth went well, there were no complications. In fact, Sugar did everything. That was a relief. I was prepared in case something went wrong. I hope the remainder of the births go as smooth.
Here are photos of the babies a few hours after they were born.
Sugar's baby boy - June 25, 2009.
This is Sugar's baby boy, born June 25, 2009.
We do have these two for sale. We are asking $150.00 for the top baby and $200.00 for the bottom baby who is showing signs of curly fiber. Both seem like they will have long hair.
Filed under Dairy Goats, Fiber Goats, Goats by on Oct 30th, 2009. Comment.
Last night I went out to pick up an older Peahen and a Royal Palm Turkey. I had tried to raise both from babies and did not have success. I put them both in the chicken coop with the chickens, ducks and guineas. So far, so good. They seem to like being in the coop more than being out of the coop which really suprises me given it is hotter inside than out and also darker.
Later today, once it begins to cool down, I will head out to the garden to check on the new plants I added. I planted more butterfly bushes, the rainbow knock out rose and a few assorted perennials. I was hoping to get more weeding done before winter but I am not going to hold my breath on that. The weather is either hot and dry or cool and rainy this year and neither of those conditions make good weeding weather.
Sheri
Filed under Peacock, Poultry, Turkeys by on Oct 30th, 2009. Comment.
