Category Archives: Farm

Farm Chores – Cleaning the Chicken Coop

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One of the recurring farm chores is to clean out the chicken coop periodically. The cleaning process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours depending on how long between cleanings and how thoroughly you want to clean the coop.

Chickens coops don’t need to smell bad and a bad smell (usually a strong ammonia smell) is usually an indication that cleaning is actually long overdue.

The chicken coop right before fall cleaning.

The chicken coop right before fall cleaning.

Click through to see the before and after pictures from the coop.

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How to Integrate Goats

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How do you integrate goats?

Don’t worry, knowledge of calculus is not required!

So far, we have needed to integrate new goats into our main flock twice.  We received a lot of varying information about integrating the goats. The local advice ranged from no isolation period to over two months of isolation in separate pastures. We decided to go with  Continue reading →

How to Transport a Goat

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This past weekend, we adopted two additional goats from a rescue group (a separate post will follow with more details about the new goats).  We needed a way to transport the goats from the rescue shelter to our farm which is a little over an hour and a half away by car.

A goat on a dog leash as we led him out of the shelter.

Elf on a dog leash as we led him out of the shelter.

The shelter’s transport vehicle was in the shop for repairs and we don’t have an animal trailer, or even a pickup truck. So, how do you transport a goat without a truck or trailer?

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Hay!

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Even though it seems like summer is just winding down, the slight chill overnight serves as a good reminder that winter is coming.

As the pastures are usually covered in snow for months at a time (last year, there was still snow on the ground until at least late April), we need to have enough hay on hand to feed the goats throughout the whole winter.

And where do you store all the hay? in the hayloft, of course!

Hay wagon pulls into the driveway.

Hay wagon pulls into the driveway.

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Tenant Cows

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With only 2 goats at the start, we had plenty of extra pasture land available that would quickly become overgrown and need to be regularly mowed if it wasn’t grazed.

Luckily, a neighbor was looking for additional pasture space for 3 of his cows for over the summer months. We agreed to a basic pasture lease arrangement where his cows were grazing on our pastures. He also provided assistance with our goats and answered many of our farm-related questions. He came by every day to check on the cows and was an excellent resource for pasture management techniques.

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