Well, an interesting Thanksgiving weekend.
Wednesday night, Brie would not go into the goat shed as she has done every night since she has been here, but kept laying down outside. Then about 2 am, all the guineas went off and came flying out of their roost tree all over heck and gone. Steve went out with the pellet rifle (we are in city limits and they frown on the firing of actual firearms) and found a opossum in the tree, so he tagged it between the eyes and knocked it out of the tree, then finished it off on the ground.
Then he saw Brie getting with it, so he went in and helped her deliver Goatburger. Little black and tan buckling, single birth.
She is being a very good mama.

Saturday after dog training, we went to lunch with some of our puppy people that drive a pretty long ways. Before we left, I said, "If Gouda doesn't deliver pretty soon, she's going explode, her udder is so full".

Got back from lunch, went out back and Steve said, "Oh no, something has happened to Goatburger's umbilicus! It's hanging down!" I took a look, and said, "No, that one is still wet!" Another buckling, thus "Lunchbox". Almost identical to Goatburger, except he has a white patch on his head and chest and the black on his legs goes further down.
He was much stronger to start with than Goatburger, he was agile and hopping and bucking up within an hour, which Goatburger was just starting to do at two days. Gouda is not as good a mother as Brie though, plus her teats are situated pretty far back, and when her udder is full, they almost point backwards. Lunchbox will headbutt and search, but teats aren't where he expects to find them. We helped him get his colostrum and nurse several more times thru the afternoon, then finally I thought maybe if I milked her down some, he would have an easier time. That did help quite a bit, but obviously we are going to have to keep her milked down until he gets big enough to keep her down himself. Yesterday they were both playing king of the hill on the compost/dirt pile and having a great time. They are cuter than cut buttons, but I have to remember that they are destined for the freezer.

Little goats are so darn cute... I don't name the chickens I know we aren't going to keep - it makes it too hard for me to harvest them. The one exception was one mean a** little roo - he was named "Peckerhead" and when his time came, it was not hard at all - name or no name. Mean little sucker!

Little goats are adorable:-) I kinda like the big ones too.

I would fail miserably as a farmer. I can harvest veggies and love having animals around, but I totally lack the stones to raise my own meat.

I was going to buy chickens for the eggs and because I think they're good watching, but then one of my friends pointed out that in a few years I would just end up essentially running a retirement centre for old hens

You can always seperate the chickens that you want 'dispatched' & let the dogs do the rest. Most dogs will work for food, ya know.

Kristel....I'm the same way that you are. I couldn't do it either. But my dogs would be happy to apply for the position.

Kristel, you probably would not have a hard time finding a "home" for your older hens - if you are able to give them to someone else who might harvest them. Since I feed the slaughtered roosters to my dogs, I'd be the type of person who would take them off your hands. However, I would NEVER let my dogs do the job for me. Once they have the opportunity to chase down and kill the birds it would be a living hell keeping them off of the birds I do want, and probably would quickly lead to killing cats, etc... JMHO - I don't let my dogs kill other animals.

Not here either. When we first bought our guinea fowl, the stupid birds walked right into the dog kennels and Ozeta killed one. Now the dogs have figured out that they "belong" and we can turn the dogs loose with them and they won't go after them. The birds, however, are stoooopid with all capital letters. I had to go run the goofy $%^&ers off the training field Saturday; they were disrupting the bitework! They seem to have an obsession with the dogs (or maybe it's just a death wish!)

 Quote: barbara schuler

Kristel, you probably would not have a hard time finding a "home" for your older hens - if you are able to give them to someone else who might harvest them. Since I feed the slaughtered roosters to my dogs, I'd be the type of person who would take them off your hands.

I would probably keep them as pets, even while continuing to drive 40 minutes to a chicken farm every month to buy 50 pounds of chicken backs Sad, sad, sad, I know Between the dog and my daughter and I, we go through an obscene amount of chicken as food, but I kind of love chickens. My favorites are the Araucanas that lay the blue eggs.

Murphy has killed squirrels, and it turned his squirrel problem into a PROBLEM so I definitely wouldn't let him do the killing. Also, there was the 'ick factor'...

Chickens are absolutely interesting, entertaining animals/pets. I have one hen who has definitely earned the "pet" category, Champagne. She is just to friendly and goes broody occassionally keeping me in extra birds. The other three which will probably get to hang around way past egg laying age are Dorothy, Rose and Blanch - the last three "sisters" hatched by Champagne. They are just too darn cute and hang out together like three best friends.

 Quote: becky shilling

Not here either. When we first bought our guinea fowl, the stupid birds walked right into the dog kennels and Ozeta killed one. Now the dogs have figured out that they "belong" and we can turn the dogs loose with them and they won't go after them. The birds, however, are stoooopid with all capital letters. I had to go run the goofy $%^&ers off the training field Saturday; they were disrupting the bitework! They seem to have an obsession with the dogs (or maybe it's just a death wish!)

That bird was extremely depressed and needed intervention. Strangest case of suicide I ever saw, went from bird to snack in a millisecond. can't say Steve and Becky's dogs don 't have prey drive

It is funny to watch their inner struggles with their nature and what they are being told. I wouldn't leave them alone with the guineas loose, but they can control themselves as long as they know we are there, even if only watching from inside the back door. When the birds take off on one of their goofy-looking sprints, or they chase off the "odd man out" (there is one guinea, I'm guessing a small rooster, that hangs on the edges of the group; the rest run him off), you can see the dogs urge to chase like a glowing light bulb over the head, but they hold themselves in check.

Today we are off to find someone that can dis-bud the babies, not something I want to try until I've seen it done at least once. They are really laugh out loud fun to watch. Lunchbox especially is just full of piss and vinegar, which probably means he will become a major PIA as he gets bigger!