I’m a little irritated right now. I noticed these white specks on the bottom edge of the square hay bale. I reached out to the guy we bought it from and he told me it was mold he told me it must have gotten wet, I explained that it’s been under a tarp and on pallets to keep off the ground then I didn’t hear back from him anymore. My question is… is this just a total loss at this point? Am I able to cut the edge off and feed the rest to the sheep? The middle doesn’t have any mold and...

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Cassandra has decided she wants to do breeding sheep shows. Premium books aren't up yet but I gathered following list of shows from looking at result lists.


So Cassandra's showing line up will be Oreo (March 2023), Socks (April 2024), and potentially a Dorper ewe lamb. Dominic will work with Coconut (April 2024) for showmanship.

Gee Whiz, it is raining here for a change . Ya think we have had enough yet?

"Local" station about 50 miles north; the next closest is about 50 miles south, both in the Shen Valley so pretty accurate for us here in the middle; anyway, they say our year to date normal is about 32-33 inches. Total YTD normal in any year is around 36" total, which is about 3" a month give or take, more in the spring, less in the summer....
We have had about 53 inches so far...

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Hello!
It’s been a while (at least it feels like it) since I’ve been here. Just wanted to hop on to say our ewe Peggy gave us our very first lambs EVER last night around 9pm. 2 beautiful ewe lambs! I saw her laying on her side for a long time through the game cameras and when we got out there to check she had lambed but was stuck on her side, she was unable to get up but was trying to lick her babies every time they passed by her. We turned her over to her belly and she got up immediately to...

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It's Jan 2, about 32° this AM. Clear and going to be about 45° today.

Januarys are always full of new hopes & dreams & promises & plans.
2023 started off with a cleaning & refresh of the barn that has made a huge difference in my ability to get chores and projects done. Adoption of Birdie and a huge, bold move to leave a 20yr career to start something new.
2024 started off with a multi-county flood, loss of a job & Birdie (and my confidence) and ended with a whole new career.
2025 will...

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Hey folks, when BYC switches over to 'look but don't touch' for several days we're going to need a coffee stop. I've set up a big tent with coffee pots and hot water supply. It isn't fancy, but it will work for a few days. Always accessible, and milk is in the refrigerator. Throw your trash in the cans, tidy up, and first person here each morning please get things started. Stop in to say, "Good Morning".

Sour your temporary coffee man.

Well I'm not braggin' y'all so don't put me down
But I've got the cutest little coop in town
When foxes come up to it they don't even try
'Cause it's got hardware cloth right up to the sky
She's my little Hoop Coop
You gotta see what I got!

Hat tip (& apologies) to The Beach Boys

This is my hoop coop build thread, come and join me!


First hoop coop - July 2023

I just wanted to say hi from southeast Louisiana.

In 2007, we left my home of almost 30 years, along with my training operation (I spent my life as a professional horse trainer) my family and my friends, and took a job on a 250,000 acre cattle ranch in SE Oregon beneath the Steens
We are 2 hours from closest town, which has very little to offer, so all our shopping, errands and Dr appts are in Idaho, 4 hr away. There are no telephone landlines and our cell phones only worked in random places so for 14 years the only contact I...

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Ok, I am starting a journal - a little late since I have been enjoying this site for several years and posting on it too. We have had livestock for 30 years now but never had any time till the past couple years due to kids, livestock, gardens, canning, 4-H, work, volunteer, etc. This sounds fun but I don't think I can recreate the past 30 years . . . . Consequently I might jump around a bit as I write.

Most of what we built 30+ years ago is starting to fall apart, so now we are having...

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What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? We are in Rains County, Texas.
How many people are in your family? Marital status? We are a family of 10. I am single.
How would you define your farm? Survival of the fittest
Have you ever built a house, barn , or other types of building? Do you want to? Does a pallet hay shed count? Yes, I would love to learn how to build stuff.
Who or what inspired you to be...

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Since I'm still establishing my foundation herds, I bought and bred a LOT of animals this year. (well, a lot for me.) I'm very excited for what my new herd sires will do for both the sheep and goats! I will also be retaining my first doelings and doing almost all bottle babies for the goats. I plan on keeping most of the ewe lambs from this year, but may sell one or two. I also might consider selling a ram lamb out of Mocha or Butterfly and my big ram. So, without further ado, here is the...

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First - I wish I'd found this group years ago - I'm loving reading everyone's journals and learning a lot as I do. You all rock and thank you for sharing!
It's HOT here in So Cal - and I've been staying cool inside reading, and decided - what the heck jump into the journal pool under the AC vent with coffee in hand.
I did an intro when I first found you all.
I'm not sure how I'll journal-up --- perhaps current and a bit of back track.
We bought our land in 2017 -- 12 2/3 acres of old avocado...

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This is an interesting read. It just explained why we can try for early spring breeding and we don’t get fall lambs.


Found a good article about how much to feed sheep and goats. Thought I’d park the link here so I can find it again. LOL

Looks like we're doing this after all.


2025 breeding groups & Name Theme

Lambing to happen between May & June. Bottle lambs available immediately. Weaned lambs available 8wks later, July through August. There is no wait list and no early reservations, all lambs are first come, first served. Lamb substitutions will not be allowed, as this has caused buyers to loose out on lambs early on and left other lambs unwanted in previous years.


Three Groups-
Two spot related and one...

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We have 2 ewes and are looking to breed them. We do not want to own a ram, but didnt know if there are any breeders in New England that offer breeding services?

I'm fuzzi, from eastern NC. I have a small yard with gardens and bird feeders and ponds (100 gallon each). A couple years ago I got back into chickens after a 30 year hiatus.

But I want goats.

I got to know goats a little, back when my children were small, at a friend's mini-farm. I milked her Nubian.

This photo was taken at Goat Milk Stuff in Indiana. We've stopped there twice while on vacation.


And now that I am close to retirement and will be at home more, I can start...

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Sooooo, even though I've been raising goats for many years and have been a member here for quite some time, I've never had a dedicated kidding thread. So, here goes.

I've got a few pregnant ladies in waiting around here. Probably 15-17ish. We could start as early as this weekend, but I expect it won't start in earnest until maybe 2-6(ish) or a few days beyond. This kidding season may well stretch out until May with gaps here and there. A large majority of the does are bred to the new...

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We have been members on BYH for awhile now and have posted pictures in several different threads about our home and progress (or lack of in some cases). So rather than bounce all over the place I'll post the remainder in this thread until we are actually there full time.

Our little 19 acres is in the beautiful foothills of Giles Country in southern Middle Tennessee abvout 15 miles north of the Alabama state line. We are due north of Huntsville, Alabama and due south of Nashville.

My...

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Hi out there! Normally I don't really care to share much and would much rather hear about others' adventures, but I'm having a lapse of normal judgement, so I think I'm going to start my thread. I've kept yard birds of various forms for a long time, but just started keeping rabbits, and when writing up pedigrees you need a rabbitry name, so this year when I decided to start breeding rabbits in earnest we became Firebird Gardens. We are very much not a farm, unfortunately. We live in a suburb...

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