So, a little over five months ago, Sue saw Minnie, one of our does, with her hind-end backed up against the fence, and one of our bucks, Shatner, her sire, trying to perform his male duty. From a distance, it looked like he was able to accomplish his task — through the fence; but after Sue told me, I just couldn’t see how that was physically possible. But over the past couple of months, we saw Minnie looking pregnant; and I believe I felt one of the kids through her side.
Well, about a week and a half ago, I was looking over at the goats from our orchard and saw a black and white goat laying next to Minnie. I thought, “Wow, Minnie and Adeline (our black and white doe that is in the same pen with her) are sure cozying up.” But then I realized that the goat next to Minnie had long, floppy ears, whereas Adeline has the tiny LaMancha ears.
I ran up there, and sure enough, Minnie had given birth…to twins — a male and female.
Introducing Ralphie and Alice. Here’s Ralphie:
And here’s Alice:
And them together:
And here is a video of them a few days old:
Although the inbreeding situation wasn’t what we had planned, we are thankful to the Lord for the new provisions, and that they appear to be healthy, and for the safe and healthy delivery for both Minnie and new kids.
Recently, another one of our game hens went broody; and so we put a bunch of eggs under her, once again hoping the Lord might grant continued perpetuation of the chickens, thus helping us be yet a little more separate from dependence on the world.
And He did!
When culling our roosters recently for butchering (since we indeed had too many), we had decided to keep a few more roosters than what we’ve heard is a typically normal ratio, in hopes more eggs would be fertilized, as we’ve had it where no eggs were fertilized for two broody rounds in a row; and it seems to have helped — 10 out of 11 hatched. At this point, we’re probably at 1 rooster to 2 or 3 or so hens that are currently laying; and we’re probably about 1 to 5 or 6 with all of the other hens included — we’ll see how that goes when the others start also producing, Lord willing.
Below are the new ones in live action. In the video I mention helping one hatch out. It had poked a hole through the shell, where you could see its little beak; but then it sat there the rest of the day. I would tap the egg shell, and it would open and close its beak, so I knew it wasn’t dead. By the time the end of the day drew near, I was bothered it hadn’t made any progress, and was trying to think of some way to help, but had heard it’s not good to help them. And so, I had decided to just let it happen as it was going to happen…until…I thought there must be some way to help it as I thought it was probably going to die if something wasn’t done. I looked up online regarding the topic; and the site I found said not to help, but also said that after a day of it not progressing it was possible to help, and the person gave instructions on what they did. And so, figuring it was probably essentially dead already if something wasn’t done, and that in helping it, even if it died, it was going to be in no worse a situation than it already faced, I decided to see what I could do.
The Web site I found with information about helping a chick hatch said to slowly chip away at the shell in pieces, as a chick would naturally do. In the case when an egg has been opened like this one was, the inner membrane dries out, and will I guess stick to the chick; and so, if you see bleeding, they said to stop and drop warm water around on the membrane to soften it, and try again in a little while. Well, in using some pointed tweezers, I didn’t actually heed that advice at first, and saw blood, but was able to chip away at the shell and gently pull back the membrane. I did this until the chick was free enough to basically move its whole body, which meant probably 2/3 or more of the shell was removed. After, I did go warm up some water, and with an eye dropper dropped some of it on the edges of the shell that was left, in hopes to help the chick more easily separate from the membrane. It just laid there all wet and on its side, and I figured it probably wasn’t going to make it; but the next morning quite happily, there were no dead chicks, and this one was running around with the rest of the hatchlings. You could see on it that day a few places where the membrane had pulled away the fuzz off its body; but in general, it appeared to be ok. I was quite thankful to the Lord, surprised, but very joyous too!
We are once again grateful to God for granting this provision, and we pray they are used for His glory and the benefit of His Church.
And again, the Lord in His graces and mercies granted another calf, this one to our cow Casi Blanca (whose dam is Amistosa); and she too is a little heifer calf. She has a little brown island on her forehead, so we decided to call her Clara, named after Montaña Clara, meaning “light-colored mountain,” which is an islet in the northeastern part of the Spanish Canary Islands.
Here is her picture:
And her video:
Video of New Longhorn Heifer Calf Clara
We are continuously grateful for the safe and healthy deliveries of the new calves. And we pray for God’s continued guidance in our lives as we work to separate from the world unto Him and His prescribed way of living — the way of life He invented.
Once again, the Lord has graciously granted another calf, this one to our cow Amistosa. She’s a little heifer calf, and we decided to call her Amilita (little Ami).
Here’s a picture:
And a quick video:
Video of New Longhorn Heifer Calf Amilita
We are always grateful to God for His continued providence in perpetuating our animals; and now we pray for His wisdom, help and guidance in their disposition during this difficult time of drought.
The Lord graciously recently granted another calf to be born to Holga, our Longhorn cow. She’s a little heifer calf, and has a heart-shaped patch on her forehead. With the Spanish word for “heart” being “corazón”, we decided to call her Cora.
Here she is with her mother Holga:
And a little closer:
And here’s her video:
New Longhorn Heifer Calf Cora
We’re grateful once again to God providing this offspring. Given the drought here at this time, we’re having to sell much of our cattle; and so we pray for wisdom in selling them, and for buyers perhaps, or wisdom to know if we should handle them in a different direction.
Once again, the Lord graciously granted another clutch of eggs to be hatched out by one of our game hens. Out of 12 eggs, 11 hatched, although 1 died; but the other 10 are going strong. You’ll see from that video our one Australorp rooster has apparently been busy:
Ten New Hatched Out Chicks
We are once again very thankful to God for granting these new chickens that we pray will be productive members of the flock, for His glory and the benefit of His people.
About three weeks ago, the Lord granted another set of goat kids, this time to our full Nubian goat Betsy. She gave birth to two little bucklings, which are also full Nubian; and we decided to call them Stanley and Ollie.
Here they are shortly after being born:
And here they are now (Ollie on the left in the first picture; Stanley on the right; vice-versa in the second picture):
And here’s their moving picture:
Full Nubian Goat Betsy with New Full Nubian Bucklings Stanley and Ollie
We are again very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions; and we again pray for guidance in raising them and continued provisions for the herd.
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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