Barnyard update: She's just fat.

The other day the both of us were lookin' at Nibbles and thinking... um.... do you think she is pregnant? You might remember that this could be a very real possibility because of that buck we had and his jumping thru the window shenanigans.

We honestly couldn't tell.

Nibbles - just fat.

But then on Tuesday the 10th it was pretty obvious that Nibs was in heat. So while we are glad we aren't going to have babies in October.... we have a hot goat on our hands. Next up was Dahli in heat-ish yesterday. I'm noting these so we can start thinking about what happens in three weeks when they go back into heat.

Of course neither one of us has thought about a "breeding plan." Especially since our whole big failure with the other bucklings. So someone has to get their act together.

We are considering NOT breeding Nibbles this year - and we are on the fence with Debbie. Nibs is just kind of a pain to milk compared to the big-bagged full sized girls. And Debbie has just always looked pretty ratty - and now even more so. The great thing about Debbie is that she really puts it in the bucket. The bad thing is that she really puts all of her energy into her milk and so her condition isn't great. Remember also that she had some congestion in her extra huge, ground dragging udder.

I have a lead on a meat buck that isn't too big... so that might be the way to do. We can get him next month, lock Nibbles up, and then see what happens. Then our breeding plan will end in a big butcher day.

Elsewhere, very sadly two of the surprise chicks did not make it. I was so glad that I found their momma! I think she had gotten locked in a coop at night with the babies still under that momma duck. That explains why the babies were running around loose. I found the momma hen sitting on the duck later that day - so I scooped her up and showed her the babies. They ran to her and she sat on them very happily. But unfortunately I think she stepped on two of them. The last singleton is still hanging in there and if he makes it the next couple days I think he'll be in the clear.

Also one of the chickens flopped over dead yesterday. I have no idea why - no sign of obvious sickness, injury, or being egg bound. She was in the middle of a terrible molt and then that was just it. So drat. I'm noting this just in case we see others die of mysterious causes.

One last note... did you see that there is a big solar storm coming? I just think it's amazing that we have space weather updates. I have no idea what, if anything, will happen but I'm pretty sure that it's going to make the goats go completely looneytunes. But hey! Space weather! Whoot!

Happy Friday everyone! Do you have your goat breeding plan in place?