Life on the mini Farm.

there is never a dull moment here at CBF. It's always something - changes, chores, happenings. Yet, at the same time there is always some comfort and familiarity in the routines of the day. I am not big on winter and despite the insanity of Spring - Fall - I enjoy it. Recently I found that some lovely folks who had bought two of my does a few years back ran into a few walls on their "homestead" and sadly had to give up their goats. Since two had my herdname I brought them back - albeit somewhat temporary! CBF TD SG Pepper

is a daughter of Nizhoni's Joie De Vivre*D/*M out of Piddlin Acres KM Tapdance and CBF CS SG Ammi (means Cumin) daughter of CBF Ent's Whistlin' Dixie and Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm.
Neither girl had been milked but they were in milk, and came without babies. SOOOO, they had to endure a crash course in becoming milkers! While neither girl has just completely embraced the whole milker thing wholeheartedly - they are actually doing pretty good at it. Pepper is going to go to a new home in the next month and for now, Ammi is staying. Both girls are showing me that they are doing what they were bred to do - MILK. For that I'm happy. Right now we are milking 6 does. 2 are for sale/sold and eventually

We will be down to 4 milkers and a few babies (we hope!!!!) YES, for anyone wondering - we still have several wonderful babies for sale!!!!!
And because we have such an abundance of milk - we are back to making soaps, yogurt and cheese (CHEESE GLORIOUS CHEESE!!!) Something I was REALLY missing those cold winter days without a milker. For those who don't know the story, Priss, our main milker just decided to dry up one day in Oct. (all other goats already dried up) and wouldn't get pregnant so we had to wait until the Nigies freshened in Feb. It was a REALLY long wait! We are now down to Nigies only!
And if our milk abundance wasn't enough, the feathered friends have also stepped up to the plate and graced us with an abundance of eggs as well. Nothing better than farmfresh eggs! And they are beautiful to boot. We are also slowly getting our garden started and PRAYING the cold (unseasonably for NM in April) doesn't damage any fruit trees!!!! Thanks so much for visiting us for an update on our little goat/chicken/veggie farm.

Come back again soon - there's always something going on here!

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!!!!!