HOWTHORNE HOMESTEAD REVISITED
(Page 2 of 5)
March/April 1975
By Jane Musser
LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY
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Oh, what our poor birds and animals have been through since we moved! For instance: When we arrived, there was an insulated water and animal tight shed in front of the house which served as a temporary chicken coop. The problem? The structure was located right on a fairly busy road with woods on the other side and we were afraid to let our birds run. As a result, they led a pretty cramped existence for a few months.
To make matters worse, a new batch of chicks was arriving and we needed the shed for them. At first, we tried enclosing one corner of our barn for the laying flock and discovered that we had chosen the draftiest place in the whole building. We eventually decided to house all our livestock and poultry on one draft free side of the barn which has a cement floor and proceeded to build a complex permanent structure.
The completed chicken coop occupies a third of this space and is divided into two separate areas one for our pair of Muscovy ducks and their young, and the other for brooding new batches of chicks. (If at some time our flock becomes larger and we have no young stock to brood, these two sections can again become one.) In another third of the barn
we have our goats one pen houses our two milch does, another contains a doe kid (she'll be raised for milk), and a smaller area is set aside for milking. The rest of the space is used for our rabbits three does, a buck, and several young. The barn is dry and tight and electricity has been installed so I have light to milk by during the long winter months. All is well on "animal row".
Our first Hawthorne Homestead kids were born last March what an experience that was! Such adorable animals! We had read all about kidding (or so we thought) and figured we were prepared for any emergency. Luckily, Nellie did a beautiful job all by herself. (I'm sure we won't always be so fortunate.) Our first notice that she was about to give birth was an awful bleating coming from the goat stall and by the time we got out there Nellie had just about completely dried off her first kid (a doe). Within a few minutes she stopped cleaning the baby, made a strange noise and while still standing plop, out came the second (also a doe). No trouble whatsoever! Nellie then went to work sprucing that one up and within 30 minutes both babies were looking for milk. It took them a few hours to find the source they looked awfully funny hunting around under their mother's chest and belly but they finally discovered Nellie's teats. Our only job was dipping the umbilical cords in iodine and feeding Nellie a warm bran mash which she loved!
We let the kids nurse for the first three days while there was colostrum in their mother's milk and then separated them from Nellie. The little ones were then fed a milk substitute which they accepted after another three days and herein lies our first (and last, to date) major mistake with goats.
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