157 to be exact!

Our Saanen doe had twins on Monday night, both does. The kids named them Daisy and Buttercup. We are bottle raising them and I am doing well milking the mom, even though I have never milked before. She is giving us about 2 1/2 quarts a day (I don't have a dairy scale) although she seems to give just a little more at each milking, so that amount is steadily increasing. My kids all love the milk, except for my 5 yo daughter who made up her mind that goat milk would be "yucky" even before we bought the goats. One thing is that we have another doe who is nine months old, and up until the babies came she was such a pet (or pest?) always following us around and wanting attention. She has not been herself since the older doe freshened, and I think she is jealous. She butts the kids all over the place and no matter how much attention I give her she is just not satisfied. She reminds me of a moody teenager.... any ideas?

The rest of our babies are chicks; 155 of them. We ordered from McMurray.... we ordered 133 chicks. I knew to expect some extras, but I wonder if there was some sort of mistake? We have had seven chicks die in two weeks (mostly banties that we tried to brood with larger chicks and got trampled, til we got smart and moved them to their own brooder). My husband and I counted them last night as we moved them to bigger brooders and we were shocked. Does Mc Murray routinely throw in that many extras? Just wondering, as the invoice did not reflect the number we counted and I thought it might have been a mistake. I know we ordered ten Buff Orpington pullets but we only have eight of those, and none have died. And since this is our first experience ordering in chicks by mail I don't know what "normal" is.

Thanks so much; I just wanted to share about all of our babies. We will probably butcher some other chickens here in a week or two and I am sure I will want to post about that as well.

-- Leighanne T. (robertt@click1.net), March 09, 2002

Answers

Hi, Wonderful about the babies, and yes McMurray always throws in that many extra chicks. Its their way of covering incase a few should die from shipping stress and probably saying thank you. They are a great company. If you call and tell them about the Buffs, they will make it right....

-- Barbara (vozarbi@sensible-net.com), March 09, 2002.

Good for you!! Getting chicks always puts me into a good mood for a while after I get them. They're so much fun to watch. I'll be getting mine the middle of May.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), March 09, 2002.

Leighanne,I cant find fresh goat milk in my area.Does fresh milk resemble the stuff reconstituted from canned, or what is available in cardboard boxes off of the store shelf.I have tried both and found the flavor off, strong, maybe goaty??

-- Brian (brilas@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

Brian, this is the first goat milk I have ever had, so I have nothing but store bought cows' milk to compare it to. To me it tastes a lot like cows' milk, but creamier and more "milky". It has a stronger milk taste. I hope that makes sense. It is sure neat to drink milk that was in the goat just a few hours before... although we don't have that much to drink for ourselves after we feed the babies. Does anyone know if my doe's production will go up in time? She had babies Monday night.

Thanks for the chicken info. We have had these chicks for almost two weeks but I have been offline due to computer problems. I don't mind the two missing Buff Orpingtons, since there are so many others! There are only four that I cannot identify, two are yellowish with grey and black markings on their wings and what looks like the beginnings of a pea comb. The other two that I cannot identify have reddish beaks, reddish brown faces, and mottled brown/black wing feathers. We did buy the banties on special, my children all wanted some and so when McMurray had the sale on mixed lots of banties they all pitched in some of their own money and bought them. So we don't know what any of them are... but we are having fun guessing.

We sure are enjoying all of these babies!! Thanks for the answers!

-- Leighanne T. (robertt@click1.net), March 09, 2002.

Hi, congrats on your new babies. So nice they are does.Did you know there is a dairy goat forum on greenspun? lots of us "goat ladies" hang out there. fresh goat milk is great, but the store bought IMO is just plain nasty. Try mixing in chocolate syrup and see if that doesn't change your childs mind. The goats milk supply will increase for a few months and then decrease slightly. also the amount depends on how well you feed her. The archives here have some good info on that. So good luck andenjoy you goats!

-- VickiP. (countrymous@wbtv.net), March 09, 2002.

OOPS! That should be your goats.

-- VickiP. (countrymous@webtv.net), March 09, 2002.

Brian,

Please see my posts in the milk section of the Lusenet Dairygoats forum. The goat milk that you buy in a cardboard continer from a grocery store is TERRIBLE. I want to get dairy goats after I clear some land and build paddocks but I wanted to make sure my family is 'compatible' with goat milk. I bought the grocery store stuff and it tasted like buck sweat.

As it happens there is a large, modern and extremely beautiful (there's not much jealousy here) goat dairy operation south of town and I purchased milk from them. There is no comparison between the good-tasting fresh milk from the dairy and the mystery milk from the grocery store.

Point being, you can find goat milk in a store but do not base your opinion on what you find there. If you can possibly find a goat dairy in your area, try it fresh from there, or maybe order it from the place near here (Caprine Estates)). The source makes all the difference in the world.

By the way, VickiP, there are guys on the dairy goat forum too, we're just a little bashful! :)

Mark

-- Mark in West Central Ohio (mark@marksykes.net), March 10, 2002.

My apologys to Mark and all the other goatguys. It' s just that it does seem to be mostly us girl's there.

-- VickiP. (countrymous@webtv.net), March 10, 2002.