kid watch, IT'S A BOY! pix p. 6

[freemotion]

Would a baby monitor "reach" from my barn to the house? It is about 130-150' ?

Bee, I use some dollarstore pails that I drilled holes in the bottom and lower sides, so I can fill them with water and swirl, then hang them from an Amish basket hook over the sump hole in my cellar. I put the "youngest" on the bottom hook, and work my way up, so I always know which one to use. I have one pail with no holes for the first day soak. This idea grew from Harvey Ussery's bucket method.

I did this last winter for my chickens and fed the sprouts on top of the deep litter. Worked great, and along with a light in the coop, I got lots of eggs all winter with my Dutch Brown Leghorns. Then I bought a new bag of oats and grew long, white, furry mold and gave it up. It was getting to be spring, anyways.

I switched off the light this year and moved into more "homesteady" breeds of chickens.

I didn't and won't sprout in the good weather, when they can find their own high-quality food. I just throw a couple handfuls of grain for the hens to keep them tame and supplement the bugs.

It would be better to recycle sturdier pails, if you will be doing it seriously, as the cheap pails crack easily with the drilled holes.

I may do some more serious composting this summer, inspired by the Vermont Composting Company's methods, if I can get some restaurant or grocery store food scraps.

 

[freemotion]

Free, I know just how you feel! Except I had NO clue when my Nan was due, and fully expected her to kid on Mid December. I was quite shocked when I found her in the barn with a kid early morning in late October. I had missed the birth by mere minutes.

Nugget is a real stocky chicken feed thieving pain in that patootie now!

When I moved my chickens into a coop in the goat's pasture, one of my pygmy-cross goats would squeeze her rotund body through the little chicken door and eat their food! I put boards on it two times to make it even smaller, and now the rooster can just make it through, and Te'a can't, finally. She is not a tiny goat, either. Just determined!

I wish Mya would eat like that!

 

[PotterWatch]

I know exactly how you feel! I am keeping a close eye on one of my does as I have the feeling she is going to go soon, of course that probably means she won't kid for another 2-3wks just to torture me.

 

[patandchickens]

"A watched mare never foals" I expect that applies to goats too.

The best way to get a mare to go on and foal already is to make uncancellable plans to be somewhere else and then say to the mare "I know I've been wantin' you to have your baby, and all that, but for heaven's sake, no matter what you do, DON'T have it at such-and-such a time on such-and-such a day, ok, because we won't be here in case something goes wrong".

This is not entirely a joke either. They really WILL wait til they aren't being watched alla time

Good luck, hang in there, I know it's nerve-racking,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

Yeah, Pat, and sometimes they'll squeeze that foal out in the 20 minutes you take to go potty and get a snack! The worst torture for me was having a video feed into the bedroom from the broodmare's stall when I worked on an arab farm. Wow, those mares move around a lot at night!

But I got pretty good at narrowing down the day with the mares.....mostly.

Oh, and animals only need a vet after 5 PM on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday! Or on a holiday, if your budget is a bit tight....

I figured this doe would deliver while I was in Florida, while my city-dwelling friends were having a nervous week in the "country!" And I would come home to a HUGE and unnecessary vet bill! (DH called me in a panic shortly after we moved here and brought the horse home....she was peacefully dozing in the sun with a hind leg relaxed and her head down, and he thought she broke a leg!)

 

[freemotion]

I know exactly how you feel! I am keeping a close eye on one of my does as I have the feeling she is going to go soon, of course that probably means she won't kid for another 2-3wks just to torture me.

I am so good to her, why-oh-why does she torture me?????

 

[patandchickens]

Yeah, Pat, and sometimes they'll squeeze that foal out in the 20 minutes you take to go potty and get a snack!

Yup, best I've seen was going from no obvious sign of anything imminent, to foal on ground being licked by mare, in the ten minutes it took for us to nip down to the house for coffee

I figured this doe would deliver while I was in Florida, while my city-dwelling friends were having a nervous week in the "country!"

Uh oh, there's your mistake, FIGURING on it - LOL You can't fool Murphy, nor Mother Nature, and they take vengeance on those who try <vbg>

Very best of luck, it'll happen *eventually*, betcha miss it ,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

OK, I get it now......I THINK SHE IS NOT EVEN PREGNANT.......CAN YOU HEAR ME, MYA? I THINK YOU ARE JUST GETTING FAT! NO BABIES! OK, I AM LEAVING NOW FOR A VERY IMPORTANT-NOT-TO-BE-INTERRUPTED APPOINTMENT!!!!! SEE YA!

 

[PotterWatch]

 

[patandchickens]

Ok, but you have to MEAN it!

LOL



Pat