Expensive milk!

I'm going to break down the list of stuff so far I've bought for this goat- not including fencing, I'll estimate that one.  Its amazing how quickly its added up!  I probably could have bought a less expensive doe, but I wanted to start with good genetics so here we are:

2 goats $450.00 ($400 for the milker, $50 for the wether)
1 bag of ADM goat feed 50# (lasts about 25 days) $13.00
2 bags of alfalfa pellets 40# $20.00 (lasts about 25 days)
1 bag black oil sunflower seeds 50# on sale for $15.00
estimated fence upgrades $250.00
baking soda 3# $5.00
loose goat minerals 8# $20.00
diamond v yeast culture $6.00
kelp 10# $24.00
herbal wormer $20
udder wash $6.50
charcoal gel (emergency use x3) $22.00
milk kit (pail, strip cup, udder spray, funnel, filters) $70
goat first aid kit $58.00
shoo fly spray $21.00
mo milk supplement $10.00
10 bales of straw $35.00

I've left off a few things that we bought and turned out to be a waste ....like a goat mineral block.  I'm leaving out cheesemaking supplies too because I would buy those with or without a goat.  I'll be glad when we get things down to just reorders on the couple of things they need monthly.

We've been having some issue with keeping her supply up so we've started milking her 3x a day.  That's a lot of pail washing!  I don't know if we will get to stop that anytime soon so I may have to invest in a second milk pail to cut down on all the washing.  I also need to invest in a stainless steel pot that can hold 2 gallons of milk for hard cheese.

Expensive milk indeed! 

5 week weigh in

roo chicks are averaging about 1#, one RIR was about 1.25#  (I thought they might be bigger by now)
pekin ducks are just below the 5# mark
the remaining goose is right about 3.5#
and the turkeys are right about 3#

I gotta tell you for as much trouble as those ducks are they sure are growing very well.  I heard somewhere that pekin ducks were the cornish x of the duck world.  Sounds about right.

Just call me the turkey mama!

I'm going to try to post a video of this phenomenon I'm experiencing.  Our now 4 week old turkeys have begun following me.  I hear this loud "peep!peep!peep!" and turn around and 2 young poults come chasing after me wings flapping full force run through tall grass the other day.  Now we are up to 3 babies doing this.  Once they get to my feet they start making all those cute turkey chortle sounds and quieter peeps.  Just call me "mama".

Also, our milker Kissee has broken out of her electric fence a couple of times.  Not to get away but to get to ....US!  She's so attached to us (or people anyhow) that she will risk electric shock to hang out with us.

That's all I have for now, signing out now as Critter Mama.

about that celery

I forgot to explain the celery.  I noticed one of my celery hearts looking like it had roots so I put it in water just to see what it would do.  Well it put out nice roots and I planted it.  That was a month ago and I've since added a second celery heart since then.  I'm thinking they may allow me to grow celery enough to harvest from the store bought celery waste.  How cool is that?

they look like small chickens now- 4 weeks old

another view

our pitiful sick little turkey, I'm keeping her isolated so she'll stay warm and hope she won't pass it on

the rest of the turkeys (nearly 4 weeks old)

Kissee wishing she could go out and play

grape vines waking up from their winter rest

irises

celery (I'll explain more below)

ducks

ducks and the tail end of our goose

I finally put up some more pictures!  All the babies are moved to the barn and are now or approaching 4 weeks old.  My husband is making tractors for them but for now they have a home in the barn.  The turkeys are taking liberties of flying out of their pen and exploring which is really cute and makes me nervous but I'm hoping that like most creatures, a little exposure to dirt and germs will make them healthier.  One little turkey is sick and I think its coccidiosis.  I've been treating all of their water since with ACV (apple cider vinegar) to help boost their immunity.  The same night we isolated the sick turkey, one of our geese (the chinese goose) unexpectedly died.  We can only presume it was stress since it had no symptoms.  So much for the possibility of a breeding pair of geese.

The goats have settled in great.  We finally put them out into the electric fenced pasture and at first they both would burst right through it.  I made one minor spacing adjustment and now they respect the fence.  They have spent the last several days out in pasture and I couldn't be happier since we don't have a reliable hay source yet and our hay field has yet to been cut.

Mother's day came and went.  I always find Mother's day a little difficult, even though I am a mother I still remember all the babies we've lost on the way to getting here and all those horrible not-yet-a-mother Mother's days of the years before our son came along.  It didn't help that on Facebook, some friends of mine were complaining about Mother's day, I just wanted to confront them and say "do you know what lengths I went to to become a mother?" but I didn't.  Everyone had their reasons to love or hate it and I guess I'll respect that.