Baby Chips & A New Goatie

We probably need to look at them, here get all the eggs out, the eggshells, get it out. A lot of them are blue. See a lot of pips, make sure there's water in there too, you got to keep the humidity up for hatching. We're going to put these guys over here. Benjamin's baby chick endeavors aren't going well I'd say. Alright, you want to carry them out to the barn? I'll go with you. We got six, plus Wilbert, so seven. So I don't know if you guys saw, but William was watching over the removal of the chicks from the incubator, so they're going out to the milk room where they will be safe from the cats. Look at him, just sitting down. He's just born. It's hard work being born. Now they have to get themselves out. Hey there girls. Hey ladies. Hey pretty girls. They're going to have a new friend today. Yep, they are getting a new friend today. They're looking so shiny. Muffin. Sweet muffin. Clo-Clo. Oh, kisses from Chloe. Alright, so Ben's got his little setup in here. He's got one little guy in here that hatched the day before yesterday. You probably don't have to dip their beaks, baby, because they haven't been shipped, so they don't need to even drink or eat for another day or so, because they just absorbed all of the yolk. And they don't, that's how they can ship chicks, is because they don't need to eat or drink for about 48, 24 to 48 hours after being born. But that's why you dip them when you get them, because they are at the point of needing. I didn't know that. Yeah, learn something new every day. Look, he's like, I'm not alone anymore. Good job. So Ben decided he wanted to hatch out some chicks, and we set these eggs. Our hens are old, our current hens, so we're only getting about a 50% hatch rate. In the first batch we set, it was even lower than that. But this time, it looked like about two thirds were developing, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. And we had one little go-getter. They were set to hatch on Saturday, and he hatched on Wednesday. We hadn't even moved the eggs down. So the way it works in the incubator is it has the little turner, and then usually like two to three days before we move all the eggs to the bottom so they can pip and hatch. And he hatched up in the turner, which is not great, because obviously that mechanism that can get caught in it. So we went ahead and moved them all down. But he was just ahead. We named him Wilbert. Wilbert? Just that felt like it? Baby chips. What do you have? Baby chips. Baby chips? Yeah. Is it so cute? So cute. So what we do is we set this little bin up in here as a brooder, where we can keep all the barn cats away. And it's also very warm in here, because this room is not heated and cold. There's Wilbert the go-getter there. Right there. Yep. Wilbert, come here. You been holding him? He's such a cutie pie. He is super cute. Wilbert! They're good in here for about a week or so, a week and a half, and then they start jumping on that. This is just like the baby nursery brooder. And then out here we have kind of the intermediate brooder. This has a bunch of bigger chicks in it. Hey there, darlings. So these guys are almost ready to go out. Yeah. All the smaller ones. They're about feathered. Honestly, they could go out because it's so warm, so they don't really need their feathers for warmth. But we just like to let them get a little bit bigger. And my and the boys are working on the chicken coop and the chicken yard. And so the plan is for these, this flock to go directly into that chicken yard next to my garden. So it's not going to be our main flock? Yeah, we're actually replacing our older flock with this. Hey there. I definitely see a few males starting up here. One right here. Yeah, I'm seeing some big combs. That's good because we need those. Well, we do need some roosters, that's true. I see a silky baby, Ben. You see right there, the black one with the fluffy legs? Hey, what are you going to do? Hold on, let me see if I can get a little video. Should we grab him out? No, he can be with others. There he is. I wonder if he's a full silky or a mix. He's a full silky or a mix. I'm having a hard time getting him. There he is. That was not him. I'm having a hard time catching the silky baby. I went in Tractor Supply a few weeks ago, and they just had some closeout chicks. It was a sexlink marron, which lays a dark, I think they call them mystic marrons. I can't remember what some of the other ones were. They were just some hybrids, but they were super cheap. We had just hatched our first hatch at home, and we didn't have a great hatch rate. We had eight chicks or something like that, eight or nine. How many was it, Denny? Ten. Ten, okay. I was like, dang, I really hate to get the brooder going and all of that stuff for just ten chicks. I ended up bringing home a bunch of those. This is going to replace my flock. Then this next batch that he has hatching right now, he's selling. The ones I bought were probably close to a week old when I bought them. It was the day that the others had hatched, so you can see there's a little bit of size difference. Okay, let's go get those pellets out of the car because they're hungry. Pretty girls. My sweet girls. I'm getting two new goats. My friends Cass and Jeremy messaged me a few months ago. It was actually in a pretty low spot. I don't know that they knew that at that point that I was in such a low spot, but I very much was. They said, hey, we would like to give you a gift. They had had their top milker, they do many Nubians, had had two dolings that were absolutely beautiful. They were like, these are going to be fantastic goats. We just know you'll appreciate them and we would like to give them to you. My fantastic goat. He's like, I'm a fantastic goat. You are a fantastic goat, Muffin. Y'all tell Muffin she's fantastic. Yes, you are. Oh, Chloe's not to be outdone. Chloe is also fantastic. So one of the girls was polled, but one does have horns and they're just getting to the point of being weaned. And Cass and Jeremy had something. They're going to be away from their house for the next day or two. And she keeps getting her head stuck in their setup because she has horns. And so they're actually bringing me the first one first. And then I'm not getting the other one until next week because they don't want to pull both of them off of the mom at the same time. So I will have one new goat today and another new one next week, which will bring me up to a total of four goats. And actually Muffin and Chloe will get bred this fall for the first time. So we will have kids from them next spring. You want to wait until goats. I like to wait until they're at least 18 months old. You can technically do it earlier than that if they are at the weight that you want them to be. But I like to do 18 months old. I got to find a buck to breed them to. I don't want to get a buck. So I may actually end up using Jeremy and Cass's buck and just take them over for a little date. Y'all sure have helped make these very sweet girls by handling them so much. This is the benefit of having a small herd. They are very much pet goats. I expect Chloe and Muffin are going to be good milkers. Their moms were really good milkers. They come from good lines and the new girls are going to be good milkers. So I might not keep all four of them in milk at the same time. Maybe I will. We'll just have to see what it's like when we come down to it. The new girls won't be ready to breed for another year. I'm pretty excited to be back in that. I definitely miss milking goats. And I'm really excited to get the new girls here. The one that's coming today, I'll tell y'all her name in a little bit. She's already named. She's actually been here before. Cass has brought her over and she hung out with me. I sat at my fire pit chatting with Cass for hours holding this goat. And we've bonded. Muffin's just a good chick. Runaway goat. Make sure we lock that down so no cats get in there. What'd you just say? You told her you scammed her. Where's my food? Ben wants to show y'all something. He's been saving his money for a lot of months. Yeah, this whole year pretty much. Look at it. I finally got one. You finally got it. Just got it today. Can't ride it yet. I have to have headgear. Yeah, I gotta get his headgear. And his tires need new tubes. Yeah, but you can fix that, huh? Yeah. It looks awesome. Fits you perfectly. It's like a perfect fit. Yep. I'm really proud of you for saving up your money for so long for something you wanted. Yes. I'm sitting on the front porch waiting because my new goatee is almost here. I'm so excited. Bear, are you excited? Are you excited for a new goatee, friend? Oh, come here. Oh. She doesn't want to come. She's like, what is happening? I know. Hey, pretty girl. She's so sweet. She is. She's gotten so much bigger. I know, I know. You want to go to your forever home? Huh? You're going to love it. So her name is actually going to be Calypso. I love that. So they all have bluey names. Yes. And I was out here the other day and I had been debating between a couple of names. So it was Indy and Honey. I had a couple. Yeah. And I don't know the bluey show super well. I've watched some of it with the kids, but not a lot. And I thought, I just keep thinking of the name Calypso. And I looked it up and there is. It's an Australian Shepherd in bluey, but she's tricolored. And it's the same colors. Oh, that's perfect. That's perfect. And so I think Cali will be a cute nickname for her. Oh, yeah. Plus she came from a Cali girl. Yeah. That's perfect. What do you think, Maya? Well, she's a mini Nubian. And she's young. Yeah. She's still little. She's cute, though. She's so cute. She is so cute. She's one of the prettiest goats I think I've ever seen. Yeah. She is beautiful. And she has that gene. She carries the gene where the babies might be pulled. Yeah. And her mom's a great milker. Yes. Yeah. She has great lines. It's a brand new place. Hi. It's okay. Yeah. It's like, where's mom? Hello. Sweet girl. So I was talking in the video earlier about, like, when you messaged me and offered me the goats, I was in, like, a really low spot. I was just going through a really hard thing. And I was like, I don't think you knew that, actually, at that point. Not at the time, no. When you feel led and you follow it, it definitely, those kinds of things happen. Look. When we knew, like, we knew we wanted her to go somewhere that she would be loved, she would be cared for. You know, where she would have a good space. Yeah. A good herd. So, we were like, who came to mind? Perfect. Maya put Helen over in the other yard because we didn't want. Oh, here we go. You better be sweet to that baby. Aw, sit. Aw. It's okay. Y'all will be good friends. Yeah. They're really sweet goats. They don't have real pushy or dominant personalities. Like, they're really sweet, so I think they'll get along really well. Here comes Harlow to see the goatee. Ready to see her? Hi, goat. That's Calypso. Yeah. Do you like that? Yeah. You can call her Callie. Yeah. Hey, take a knee. Hey, Callie. Take one knee. Like this. Watch. Put one knee on the ground. There you go. Here, put your hand out. Is she just going to live with this goat? The muffin wants to say hi to you. I came here to bring the goat. Yeah. I didn't bring the rest. The kids aren't here. Yeah, she wants to have her kids here. I didn't bring Thayla or Mariah or Jeff. It's okay. Yeah, she's going to be really sweet. Yeah. Hey there, girls. Hello. Look who's fitting in. Getting along well? Hey, tiny goat. Okay, you too. You need some affection also? You're good? So, it's a few days from the first part of this video, and Calypso is fitting in nicely. She's very chatty, and I wasn't sure at first if that was just because she was adjusting, because goats can be extremely vocal whenever they're not happy with a situation. But she also may just be a chatty goat. The other girls are pretty chatty. Nubians are, this breed is known to be pretty vocal. And she's a mini-nubian, so she's going to have a lot of those traits. So, our friend Nick, who Ben hatched the chicks for, is heading over here in a minute. I'm going to be on a meeting, and he's going to come out and get the chicks, but I just wanted to come out and check on everything before he got here. Hello, dudes. So, Calypso's sister, the other new goat I'm getting, she'll be here tomorrow. I'm sure she'll be happy for her to get here, but the ladies have been very inclusive of her. There was a little bit of head-butting that first day. They're still kind of pushing her around a little bit. It's totally normal. They're establishing dominance. All right. Things are looking good in here. Ben is with Maya and the boys. Look at that. So, these are just... Oh, gosh. Hold on. This little one's still got a bit of eggshell stuck to him. All right. Got it out. There's one little sliver in there. Yeah, these look really good. This is just a barnyard mix, but we picked our prettiest and most colorful eggs to set, so these are going to be really nice, colorful egg layers. Well, I'm counting 31, maybe 32. They move fast, so it's hard to tell. Funny story. One of my oldest friends, his name's Peter, he and his family came to South Carolina for their vacation, and he messaged me. They were in Myrtle Beach, and we made plans to meet up in Charleston, and just went down there and got lunch and did a little carriage tour. It's always Chloe. She's always trying to get in where she's not supposed to be. Peter and I sat next to each other. I think I was in 10th grade. I can't remember, but we were in an AP biology class together in high school, and we've been friends now. We were trying to nail down exactly when it was. I think I was 13 when we became friends. Anyway, it was great to be able to see his family. We haven't seen each other in years. We got to meet his little daughter. We were chatting about how I was not a great student. I'm one of those millennial women that has a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis that explained a lot, looking back. I was a fantastic student until I wasn't anymore, because it wasn't what I was interested in. By 10th, 11th grade, whenever it was, when I was in AP biology, I was smart, but not studious at all, if I wasn't interested. I was not interested at all in that class. Peter, who was extremely smart and interested and studious, did his work. He would turn around and be like, Pay attention. You can do this. You are smart enough for this. I vividly remember one specific lesson that was about recessive and dominant genes, Xs and Ys, and figuring these things out. I was like, When am I ever going to need this? I remember vividly looking at Peter being like, This is ridiculous. When am I ever going to need this? Years later, when I got into breeding chickens for egg colored, I found a chart with all the Xs and Ys to figure out the gene dominance of egg color and how to figure out to cross them for those really dark colored eggs, because it's not a specific breed that you get the really dark olive eggs from. That comes from selective breeding other breeds and getting the right genes. When that happened, I had to send Peter a message and be like, Welp, I found one. I'm going to need it. He was bringing that up the other day. This is funny. These are all rainbow egg layers. Blue genes are dominant. The breeds like Americanas, like true Americanas, breeds like Crested Cream Leg Bars, there are a few of them that have true blue genetics. If that's the case, that's a dominant gene. If you cross a true blue egg layer with anything, you're going to get a colorful egg. Then you have your Marans, which are Marans, the ones that have the really dark brown eggs, which, that's actually a spray, it's not the egg. The egg color itself is brown, like a lighter brown, whereas blue genetics, the actual egg color is blue. You want to cross those two, and in the first generation, all of them, you're going to get a green egg, like a good, darker green egg. If you want the truly deep, deep, deep olives, you have to go into F2, F3, multiple generations, but you don't have one of those dominant genes at every single thing, so you're going to get some that lay like a light brown egg anyway. I went deep into it. Peter was right, I did need it. You were right, Peter. I did need to pay attention in AP Biology, but I did learn it later. In the case of hatching out rainbow layers, if you put a whole bunch of colorful eggs in the incubator, you're going to get a pretty good mix out, and that's what we've done here for our friends. Oh, it's Muffin this time. She's sitting there pulling on that thing with her lips, trying to get it open. I don't know if they've identified the gene for it, but I think mischief in goats is definitely dominant. Huh, Muffin? So I was talking to my friend Cass that I got the little goats from this morning, and she has sent me the papers for the buck that she has, and he's an F3 mini Nubian, so when you start crossing things, you deal with the recessive and dominant genes, and I want to use him to breed Muffin and Chloe this fall. I mean, we're really down to it. I need to determine when I want them kidding, but we'll probably breed late September, maybe early October, because I don't want to go too late into the spring. They're pregnant for 150 days, and I prefer them to kid when it's still cold. Since we have the barn, we can close them in if we need to if it is really cold. But it's more of a risk to push it into the warm weather here because then you have parasite issues. But I was talking to her about, like, starting to play with having mini Nubians and the fun of that and bringing out fun colors and all of that, and I told her, I was like, Oh, Lord, if I don't watch it, I'm going to end up with a goat collection again. Need to stay moderate, Muffin. You know, the benefit of homeschooling is when I teach my kids the X's and Y's, they're going to have, like, a hands-on way to learn it. I might have paid attention more in high school if there were actual colorful eggs involved, you know? Thank you guys for hanging out with me today and all the days you do. I bless you. Until next time.