Pups, chickens and kids, bees

Mama and Victoria are watching the Echeveria kids this morning while Erin goes to the doctor. This is one of the longer visits, so it is not practical for Erin to have the kids with her. It should be interesting since Mama is in the middle of finalizing all the crafts that are being priced and packed to be taken to Bowie tomorrow. Things are still scattered about; on the dining room table and floor, in the garage and in the shop. At least Victoria is there to help. Not that the children are difficult to manage, just that Mama still needs to get a lot done before tomorrow morning and the house is filled with extra items that Mama does not want to lose rack of.

Later today Mama and Victoria will be taking Kobe to the Cantrell’s to see I Leo and Kobe will breed. Victoria has vacillated on the issue of Kobe having more pups before getting her fixed. Kobe is difficult when it comes to breeding. She keeps herself so clean that it is nearly impossible to tell when it is the right time to take her to Leo and she is quite aggressive with Leo unless the circumstances are just right. Kobe can be very fierce. None-the-less, they are scheduled to try today. If they are successful, I will have to clean and sanitize the birthing center which is now being used to finish out our Cornish Rock hens.

Speaking of the Cornish Rocks, Mama and I are a little disappointed that they are not as heavy as we were assured they would be by this time. I think the largest of the six we have left weighs about five pounds. Dressed out, that will be about a three-pound chicken. The rest will be smaller. I am disappointed. Raising them has been an additional expense and workload. To see that work and expense yield poor increases is not encouraging, but we will follow through with the experiment and see if we were told correctly about the quality of the meat the chickens yield. We will probably not do this again, but we bought the chicks for fifty cents apiece at the end of the season. Not a huge loss. But not much of a gain either.

Lilly and Dolly have not kidded yet. Mama is a little worried because of the very cold temperatures we have forecast for early next week. Three nights in the twenties. Days in the low forties. I suppose the babies will do fine. There is little we can do to change the situation or offer warmth to the newborns should they come during the next five or six days. Next year, Mama and I will be careful to move up our breeding program by a month so that all the kids are born no later than October. The other kids, now two weeks or more old, are doing very well. They are a delight to watch.

Just before Thanksgiving we will have to take three of them to be de-budded; have their horn buds seared off to keep them from growing. Horned Myotonic goats are not a hot item. Plus, the one horned male we have is a Myotonic wreck-em- Ralph. He is constantly hooking his horns into everything he can and then pulling with all his might. Fortunately, he is not big. If he was, we would have real issues. As it stands, it is simply irritating. He gives Mama fits every time she feeds the boys, trying to hook her clothing, butting her, pushing against her. He likes his horns and is quite proud to show them off at every opportunity. She talks about getting rid of him, but he is still with us…for now.

At our bee keeping meeting last night I volunteered to go with one of the other members to do a bee removal about two hours away. Probably next Saturday. His friend sent a picture of a bar-b-que grill filled with bees. The owners of the camp where the grill sits wants them gone. Hunting season is coming very soon. How it is going to be managed is a mystery, but I would like to tag along to help. I ordered a suit – a very cheap one – last week so it should arrive in time. I ordered it so that Mama and I can fit ourselves before we order a more expensive suit. A more professional suit. I ordered an extra large. But for the coming excursion, if I get to go, the cheap one will have to do.

Mama and I are in the queue to get two hives set up in the Spring of next year. We are excited about that.