Farm Update: February 2nd, 2015

It’s been busy here on the farm, so here’s an update for the last month:

On the 4th of January, Charlotte had two healthy kids. Bucklings of course. LOL.

The pigs have been in a paddock in the woods, cleared that, and are now tilling compost into the garden. Note: it is much easier to get the pigs in the trailer if you bribe them with their breakfast. 🙂

On Friday the 23rd, Naomi surprised us that morning (it was raining) with an 18-day-premature buckling. We were able to keep him alive until that evening, when his lungs just gave out. 🙁  So sad, but being born that early, his lungs weren’t fully developed. My thoughts are that this probably happened because Naomi was so poorly conditioned when I bought her in August. We got her condition up well, but the poor nutrition at the time she must have been bred must have contributed having (and losing) just one single buckling. Next breeding season, I will be able to ensure Naomi is in full health at breeding to prevent this from happening again.

Back to Charlotte’s kids…they are growing fast (they are getting more milk than usual because I am letting them keep Charlotte milked out until warmer weather. 🙂 ). At about 3 weeks old they had their first (mild) bout with coccidia. Normally, I treat coccidiosis with a coccidiostat drug, but this year I am trying out more herbal remedies. I treated each kid with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp herbal dewormer, 1/2 tsp wormwood, and 1/2 tsp probiotics for the first day (2x per day); and doses of half that (1/4 tsp) twice per day for the remainder of the week. Within 3 days, all symptoms cleared up…Success!!! 😀 I will be using herbal treatments more throughout 2015.

Shelby and Josie are great with kid; they are due to kid within the next week or two. We’re getting close! More updates on that soon…

We are boarding 3 Nigerian Dwarf does from High Point, NC for stud service; Their antics are so funny!

Through all of this Dixie is still going through her training…and doing well!

Anyway, here are some pictures I took yesterday of everyone hanging out on the farm:

 

Here are pictures of the pigs in the garden:

 

Here you can see our three little ‘visitors’ hanging out in their pen:

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Farm Update: February 2nd, 2015 — 2 Comments