The Poultry Keeper

jaydee67 · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:11 pm Post subject:

How are Snovit and Baldr doing? ANy sign of any more kids yet?

poultry poofs · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject:

Congratulations Nigel and Stephen Sue told me all about the stressful episode and I clean forgot. Sorry you lost one of the kids but fine Kid you have there and Mum looks super.

Hope next time isnt quite so stressful

Rich

nigel · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:06 am Post subject:

I am now 99% sure that Mimmi is pregnant, since i can see a bump now. If she has read the same books as me that means 4-5 weeks before the next exciting episode of Goats Kid Easily. Still not sure about Blåblomme but she was only mated the week we got her. She certainly hasn't been in season again since..

Thanks Rich, both Mum and baby Baldr are doing fine, I'm hoping that once the stitches are out I can get Snövit back in with the other goats, she misses them, but loves being able to get into the food without all that pushing Smile

CP · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:21 am Post subject:

Ooh, more sounds of tiny cloven hooves to come then! Very Happy

I found this quote from Nigel whilst trawling through the old recipe section:-

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7165 Location: isle of lewis

i've had a conversation with rich about the practicallities
of keeping yak ,maybe nigel could add those to his list Wink

american buffulo is a way to go ,i looked at some wool ,it was £48 for 50 grams ,
how many acres do they have Cool

nigel · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:01 am Post subject:

There is a farm about ten miles from here that keeps a herd of yak, I see them for sale occasionally. They claim on their webpage a reduction of 70% on winter feeding compared with normal cattle for the same amount of beef production. They also use Yak for milk too

see here for more info on Yak.

For now I'm happy with goats Smile

poultry poofs · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:56 pm Post subject:

I would definately consider the Yak if I had a smallholding big enough.Dexters are good too. There are some Bison on a farm near here.
Deer too so thats something else you could add to the list of must haves Nigel Laughing

Good luck with the next kidding, get pleny of sedation in Wink

Rich

nigel · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:16 pm Post subject:

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7165 Location: isle of lewis

wow love the photo ,looks like you've already started Wink

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7165 Location: isle of lewis

are you starting to milk yet nigel

stephen · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:15 pm Post subject:

The withdrawal period for the antibiotics after her caesarian is just ending, so we've not had any for us. I know he has tried a couple of times to take some, but she wasn't too thrilled Wink

I'm busy in the kitchen at the moment preparing the cheese culture.

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7165 Location: isle of lewis

stephen · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:51 pm Post subject:

Well just failed with the first test cheese. It didn't quite set. Or rather, bits did, and bits didn't, so I'm now trying again. I have 3 books plus an instruction leaflet, all contradictory, and leaving me feel a bit frustrated at the moment. Anyone have any tips?

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7165 Location: isle of lewis

did you use snovits milk Question

was it just the starter that you where making Question

cheese making is definatly trail and error Confused

i've got a freind who keeps goats and cannot make cheese at all ,they couldn't understand why
they lived in an old brewery and the yeast was in the wood work
all their cheeses exploded Shocked

stephen · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:14 pm Post subject:

No, this is a test run with some locally bought farm milk. I wanted to test on something that I didn't feel was wasting our produce. The starter made fine! The first batch of cheese didn't work.

I'm just trying a second batch now. The first one didn't properly set in over 3 hours - it was more like french yoghurt. This next one has a watery layer forming on top after 45 minutes, so I guess it's possibly working?