Another set of triplets from Molly

Molly finally kidded last week on Wednesday (the 3rd), wrapping up this year's kidding season in fine style with healthy, good-sized triplets.  The first two were girls, as I had told Molly before taking her to be bred that I would very much like two daughters from her and Harry.  I was beginning to wonder if there were only the two when Molly laid down and delivered the boy.  According to one of my goat books, this is unusual, as "95% of the time" when both genders are in a kidding, the boys will be born first.  All three are horned, which means I need to fire up the disbudding iron, and hope I do a better job than I did with Cocoa Puff.  I'm working on switching them over to the bottle, as bottle babies are so much friendlier.  The punchline here is, after over 7 weeks of refusing, yesterday morning Cocoa Puff's daughter Cinnabon decided she wanted to try the bottle.

"Molly loves that camera -
she always thinks it is food."

almost like three peas in a pod

now you can see all three faces

A picture a week of a garden box

Just hubby's weekly pictures of the lettuce and broccoli bed, with the last three being the most recent, where you can see the lettuce bolted, although not before we got several good salads out of it.  The broccoli has sort-of bolted, in that right now there are only three crowns not yet past eating stage.  They should all do side shoots in good style, though, so all is not lost.

Springtime

latest two hatches of Wyandottes

light-colored chick appears RED,
but still a full Wyandotte

Lacey and kits

Brooke and kits

the broccoli and lettuce bed

Dutch-Boy, at Frank & Caroline's

Hope y'all enjoy these pics and vids, courtesy of hubby's smart-phone.  Commentary later.

Add three more goat kids

Maggie finally kidded.  Three little boys, who all look like their sire, Harry Houdini, except one appears to be polled.  The apparently-polled one is also the one most inclined to take the bottle, which will make him the perfect replacement for his sire, who is living up to his name a bit too well for Frank and Caroline.

Pictures maybe tomorrow, if the ones from this afternoon turned out decent.  If not, there will be more pics after the rain passes.

Oh, Brooke is due to kindle sometime tomorrow, and I am gathering more eggs for the incubators.  Busy, busy, busy!  We're both tired right now.

New additions

Pics will have to wait until tomorrow, but a lot of new additions here.   My second incubator kicked things off, with the first two chicks hatching Thursday morning.  Friday evening Lacey kindled a six pack - all six live, healthy, and close enough in size there is no actual runt of this litter.  At first, I was worried she wasn't caring for them, or her milk hadn't come in enough for six, so I gave her a small handful of raspberry leaves and this morning those kits had FAT round full bellies.  Saturday ended the hatch, with a total of thirty-four live chicks out of forty-one that showed development at candling.  I guess the record from two weeks ago didn't last long.

Now, for the new addition I know y'all will want pics, pics, pics!  Yup, a new goat kid, but it wasn't Maggie who kidded this evening.  It was Cocoa Puff, who I thought had another week or two.  She sure fooled me.  One very adorable, nicely marked girl.  Meanwhile, Maggie is huge: the proverbial broad side of the barn.  We're hoping she at least has twins, for her sake.

Another addition, but not a baby: I have a new stud bunny.  I'll get pics of him when he settles in, as right now he's hiding in the privacy cubby of the new bunny hutch.  This one is almost exactly like the one last summer, and is situated under the tress.  We had to move the electronet fence after setting it up, but bunnies need shade.

It's been an eventful weekend, even before the weekend officially started.

Thirty-three chicks

I finally have a GOOD hatch!  On January 11th, I set 41 gold-laced Wyandotte eggs, from Solo and the spring pullets I collectively named "the Young Ones."  Solo is named such because he is the only surviving chick hatched here last spring, and not so much for the Star Wars character.  When I candled the hatch on day 11 or 12, I only saw four obvious clears.  Two more were questionable, but I figured I'd let them go anyway.  So, I set 37 eggs Tuesday evening, and about a handful of those eggs cheeped at me as I moved them (a good sign!).  The first "early bird" chick hatched Wednesday morning, then Thursday they were popping out like popcorn.  I know at least one hatched Friday morning, as I saw a very wet chick when I looked in with the Mini-Mag.  I remarked to hubby there was no counting them until we pulled them out of the incubator because they were bouncing all around in it.

Yesterday afternoon, we set up the nursery, and while I added electrolytes and probiotics to their first water, and fixed up the first chick starter (I wet it with liquid from the fermented scratch), hubby pulled the chicks out one at time to count.  I came back with food to distract the adult birds out running around, and heard, "Thirty ... thirty-one ..."  Sure enough, once all the chicks were in the nursery, there were only four eggs unhatched.

That's an 80% hatch rate ...I think it's also a new record for here.

Oh, hubby got me a second incubator as my birthday present, so there are 42 more gold-laced Wyandotte eggs from Solo and the Young Ones.  The older hens aren't laying well enough just yet, so after I clean out incubator #1, I'll be loading it up with a third hatch from Solo and the Young Ones.  I intend to hatch a LOT of chicks this year.  Most will be sold or eaten, but I want to get another hen like Beauty was ... okay, I actually want a dozen like she was.  The best way to make progress in chicken breeding is to hatch as much as you can, and it is time to "move the chains" on this idea.

First goat kid of 2019

Tangie standing guard over baby

Baby spends a lot of time like this

Baby beginning to explore as Tangie watches

Saturday kicked off kidding season here at the Homesteade!  Like last year, Tangie signaled she was in labor by "talking" to her yet-unborn kid in the morning, but as the day went on and no baby, I began to wonder if she was having a false labor.  I decided to check on her around 1600 (4 P.M.) as the next-to-last check, and by the time I walked around the house to the pasture, she had started to call for help.  Baby was a single, which meant she was big.  I had been hoping Tangie would have twins again.  I had to pull pretty firmly, as baby had herself wedged in with her shoulders square, just like Sweet Pea in 2017.

Sunday it started raining before we got up, and rained continuously until after we went to bed.  Goats and cats began to complain about the weather by the afternoon ... for some odd reason they all seem to think we can do something about that.  Yesterday and this morning were downright chilly - below 40F and hubby and I both sound like bowls of Rice Crispies with our "Snap! Crackle! POP!" as we get out of bed.  I did make the comment Sunday evening, "At least it ain't snow!"

Enjoy the pictures.