Nine and we are done!

Baby Jacob

Our last babies were born a bit over a week ago. We had a bit of a rough go with momma Hyacinth, but she is mostly recovered now. This little guy was a bit much for her, he weighed 10 pounds! What amazing coloring, though! His father has these gray polka dots, but he is brown and white, so they don't show up as distinctly.

We have six boys, which will all need to find homes. The two oldest are actually weaned already, but we will wait a few more weeks to list them for sale. However, if anyone is interested, I can place them anytime. Castrated male goats - wethers - are terrific pets. All my boys would make great bucks, but not every male goat can have that privilege. If you are interested in pet goats, they have to go in pairs.

We got the garden started last week. We planted potatoes, peas and onions and their kin. The plants in the greenhouse are coming along nicely.

After a busy spring, I realized I don't even have time to move my hives, let alone find time to manage them properly away from home. So, hope springs eternal, I will just keep them here again this year. I have two nucs on order. I will keep everyone posted on how that goes. There are honey bees in my yard this spring. Somewhere a hive overwintered. I doubt it was managed, because other beekeepers in my area experienced the same thing I did. So, maybe I will also get lucky enough to get a swarm, we will see.

I will be experimenting with a new venture soon. A hay customer remarked they they were using their goats for brush control and had found a collar system that works on GPS, so it is a virtual fence that can be moved. I searched and found Nofence, a Norwegian company that makes the collars and manages the virtual fencing. I am going to try to use this system with my male goats so they can pasture on my hay field. I have wanted to do this for years, but the cost, upkeep and difficulty of fencing has prevented it. This will make sustainable grazing possible and will help the boys to keep the outside of their pasture fence cleaned up as well. Stay tuned, I will try to update on how that goes!