CBF Nigerians welcomes new herdsire!

About 2 years ago - when NM hosted the AGS Nationals I was offered a doe Lost Valley TR Esther pregnant to MCH Lost Valley Malachi. As much as I wanted that doe, we were in the middle of Alyssa's treatment for cancer.I just did not feel like it was a prudent time to be buying a new goat. Later, I found out that Hippity Hooves bought Esther (YEAH!!!!!) who kidded in August with twins: Asher and Naomi. They offered Asher to me as buck kid but then changed their mind which was fine.
Well, circumstances have a way of changing and Asher came available recently and while I wasn't looking for a new buck - the situation and time was right! Asher is now ours. WE really appreciate the Allens/Hippity Hooves giving us another chance to own this gorgeous buck. He brings together some of our Favorite Lost Valley lines (Zinfandel, Kingwood and Malachi) as well as one of my all time favorites: Twin Creeks BH Baywatch ++*S!

I am really looking forward to seeing what this boy can bring to the table for our herd.

Last Kids of 2011 - Cleo/Ten Zen

This is Cleo just prior to kidding. Cleo was bred to Rosasharn's USH Ten Zen from Crazy Wisdom Dairy. She showed signs (or so we thought) on Friday of kidding but then abruptly changed her mind and we saw nothing until Monday. On Monday late afternoon she began contracting again and 6pm she had her first and judging by the size of that kid - I was sure she was done. Well, we quickly figured out that indeed she was not as she literally popped out a tiny doeling nearly half the size of the first born.
Right now, this is CBF TZ Itty Bitty Mew as her little Maaa sounds more like a mew! She is so tiny and cute but a little feisty thing!!!! I think it was good that momma waited as I think Mew needed a few extra days growth before she was born.
Here is first born, Dark Chocolate and white, CBF TZ Marina. One of these girls will be retained and the other one sold. We are also considering selling Cleo. Not because we don't like her, we do but we just want to make room to keep some more does with our herdname and right now I have 3 doelings owed to me......YIKES. I wish I did not have to make these choices but living on half an acre dictates that we keep our numbers small but we will not make a decision on this for a few more weeks.

2011 Spring Kidding for CBF is done!

Well, this last month has been a whirlwind for us. We've had one kidding a week and obviously I am behind. On March 11, 2011 Nizhoni's DW Tirzah and Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm welcomed triplet does into the world. They are all 3 beautiful and very different. These 3 are full sisters to CBF CS Hope Diamond. This is 3rd born CBF CS "Toffee" A very flashy chocolate broken buckskin doe. She is the longest/tallest of the bunch and the most outgoing but by far the least friendly. WE are working hard to help her to realize we aren't here to thwart her fun filled days!!!!
Next up is the first born CBF CS "Special Dark". A very dark chocolate Chamoisee. YES, she looks black. She is not. She is wonderful all around and probably has the greatest width of the 3 girls. I really like her build and she reminds me a lot of why I kep t her sister, Hope. IF I was to keep one, this is the one.

But, alas, I have Hope and I am not going to hang on to Special Dark - no matter how tempting it is.
Last of all, but certainly not least is middle born and beautiful little CBF CS "Karmel Kandy" She was small at birth and was really hard to tell how lovely this doe really is but she's grown and matured a lot in two weeks showing me what a nicely built little doe she is. She is a light chocolate buckskin with blue eyes and a great personality. She has taken to the bottle very well and is very independent! All 3 girls are available to go to new homes upon weaning or as bottle babies. We are asking $325 each. Tirzah is milking between 1.6 and 1.8#s once a day and is on official 305 day test. She will be shown at Spring Fling, Quad and July show in hopes that she will follow in her dam's hoofsteps (MCH/CH Esperanza SJ Patience) We believe she can do it and earn her star this year. Buyers can name the girls, their names are temporary but of course if you want to keep their names we are fine with this. I will raise the price on these girls if their dam does well unless someone gets a deposit in before this happens! Tirzah already took Reserve SR. Grand as a FF last year.

Shaved Udder Pictures for Carol

Here is Stars with her backend, legs and udder all shaved for showing in 2 weeks and for milking without getting loads of hair in the milk. YUCK!
Here is what she looks like from the side. You can see the udder much better without all that hair in the way. Less chance of nasty things falling in your milk.

CBF CS Hope Diamond X Ironwoodranch A Good Intrigue

Last night at about 6:30pm Hope kidded with a singe HUGE blue eyed Flashy buckskin buckling. I was really hoping if she had a single it was a doeling but alas, NO. He's a handsome little guy and I hope he will make someone a nice wether pet.
I was NOT thinking of doing it but now that she's kidded a single buckling - Im thinking we may breed her back when we breed back Stars in April for fall kids.

This boy is extremely well built and lovely so she will be re-bred to Intrigue. I may pull this guy and bottle feed him to make sure that Hope's udder stays even. I hate to do it but I'd rather do it than have her udder uneven. Will be watching her the next day or so to see if he nurses both sides or not.

Chickens

Yes, I know this blog is for my goats but really, I have to give some light to the other productive animal here at CBF Nigerians. Chickens. While they don't produce precious bouncy baby goats, an abundance of milk that can be made into: ice cream, soap, cheese, yogurt etc. they still are a part of the productive team here on the mini farm. When we moved into our first house, the ex-owners left us two gifts, their beautiful Black lab (who they told us they were leaving for us) and 2 chickens which they did NOT tell us about. Now, being that I was a Country girl wannabe raised in the city I had NO previous experience. I still giggle about my first experience of discovering our two Older than the hills but still laying occassionally Barred Rocks. I heard strange noises and called hubby about the noises. He told me to investigate. I did and found these two girls wandering the property. OKAY - I had no idea what to do with them but quickly found out and we fed them and found little treasures in the hut built around the well pump - EGGS! A neighbor told us that the chickens had been there for a loooong time and were quite old. Well, I didn't care and we quickly added to the flock - Araucanas, Wyandotts, Hamburgs, and Buff Orpingtons. Just before moving here we lost our whole flock save 2 to dogs who dug into the pen off the ditch. I just didn't have the heart to replace them - yet. But about 4 years ago I got the itch to raise farm fresh chickens and eggs again and the new flock was born. We've added different breeds and are trying to raise an egg/meat flock now. NOT all of them are but still we've had fun trying out different girls.

This morning I found a great article and this weekend I was informed that Albuquerque NM is the Urban Chicken capitol of the US. Apparently raising chickens in Albuquerque is BIG!!! There have even been articles written in the local paper. Personally I'd like to see Albuquerque step up to the plate and allow urban goat keeping too (Nigerians are NO BIGGER than an Australian Shepherd and are usually less noisy!) 2 does per family could keep a family in milk, meat and dairy products and really be an asset especially for folks with food allergies! Since us goat breeders cannot sell the milk to these folks, it would be great for them to have them!

Nothing more fun than having your morning coffee complete with fresh goat milk creamer while watching the bouncing babies play!

But I digress, back to chickens! Anyway, I found this great article this morning thanks to a fellow facebooker who posted it and I think it is awesome!!! Whether you are an urban chicken farmer or farm that raises chickens for eggs and meat or just someone THINKING about it. Here it is:

http://blog.mcmurrayhatchery.com/2011/02/22/7-reasons-to-raise-chickens/

So get out there, build a coop and enjoy your chickens and your farm fresh eggs!

Starting tomorrow I am going to try to post about some of the different breeds we raise and why, complete with pictures. Wanna learn more about chickens? Stay tuned! OH, that is if we don't get pre-empted by the birth of bouncy goat babies that are due - TODAY!!!!!