Gearing up for the 2016 kidding year!

We will have F1 and F2 mini alpines available in May. We have 3 F1 mini does due to kid, as well as, our lovely French Alpine.

Big things are happening this year! We will be adding another mini alpine buck to our herd this year. We do not have one purchased yet, but are looking at one. This will call for a bit of a road trip, but if all works out, it will be well worth it!

We are also adding some new animals to the farm this year. We will be adding Khaki Campbell ducks for both eggs and meat. We are hoping to make our farm more sustainable. More info will be coming!

Thank you!

We have had a blessed kidding season thus far! Our first two F1 mini alpines kidded May 27th, 2015, each with twin does! We retained one doe from each kidding! We then had our youngest F1 mini kid May 29th with a single doe kid! On June 1st, our French Alpine doe, Apple, kidded twin does. We ended with 5- F2 mini alpines, and 2- F1 mini alpines.....6 does, one buck! I can't believe it! What a great doe year! We have since sold all the does and the buck! We had two families each take a pair of does to start their own mini alpine herds. We still have, Sally, our Saanen due to kid. She is also bred to our mini alpine buck, Howie. Her kids will not be registered, however, any doe kids will be sold as family milkers ($75), and buck kids will go either intact or wethered ($50).

Again, we are so thankful for a very successful kidding season (so far!) All of our minis were first fresheners and are all milking almost a half gallon a day and are increasing everyday. It is so rewarding to see the girls that you bred show to be such wonderful milking does. They have such wonderful udders and are so easy to milk, which is not always the case with first fresheners, and minis at that!

If anyone is interested in 2016 mini alpines, we will be taking reservations. To reserve a kid, a $50 non refundable deposit is required.

Kidding trouble. Thank God for small hands!

Yesterday, May 29th, was my kids and my first day of summer vacation.  They were excited to stay home and play with the four little does that were born two days before. I had put my youngest down for a nap and decided to take one myself, since I hadn't slept well the night before.  My son, who is 7, came running into my room to let me know he had checked on the goats and Heidi was having a baby! This was the doe I had been worried about. She is my smallest and she had a very big belly on her. When I got to the barn, I could hear her. I opened the stall door and could see one foot and a nose. I tried to pull the other foot forward and pull the kid, but the forehead was stuck. Each time I pulled, she would cry and look at me with those same brown eyes she did the day I delivered her. She looked at me as to say, " please, mom, help me!" Of course, my husband was at school, as his last day was that day. My mom and dad weren't home either. There was no one to help me, except my son. I pushed the baby back in and asked my son to hold it at its feet until I got back. I ran out of the barn and called my grandpa. He is in his 70s but he had raised cows when my dad was younger so he knew somewhat what to do, but honestly,  I just needed someone else to be there with me. I remembered a meme I had posted on facebook. It said something along the lines as, " I don't want to adult today." I didn't!  I wanted someone else to take over. After I got ahold of my grandpa I ran back into the barn. I could hear my son soothing the doe. He was telling her it was going to be ok. I told him papaw was on the way. I went in and he had managed to pull the other leg forward.  With the repositioning I was able to get the kid out. I braced myself, because I figured the kid was dead. I told my son to go check on his sisters. I didn't want him to deal with this yet after he had been so brave in helping.  As soon as I got the kid out, it moved. I ripped off the sack, cleared the mouth and blew in his nose.  My grandpa had just gotten there, just moments after I pulled the kid out. My daughter brought me a towel and we dried him off. I trimmed his umbilical cord, dipped his hooves in iodine. She had kidded a single HUGE buck kid, and he was  beautiful! 

Mom and baby are doing great. I decided,  since he was a single and my does were all raised on CAE prevention, that I would allow her to dam raise. She worked hard for that baby!

I am so proud of my son! He usually freaks out in any kind of bad situation,  but this time, he kept it together while I fell apart on the inside a bit. I love my goats. They mean the world to me.

Bouncing baby goats!! and DOES at that!!!

Well, it is that time of year on the farm, and we have babies! So far, two of our F1 minis have kidded (on the same night). Merrie kidded a set of broken Chamoisee twin does. They have white on them, and are very flashy girls. Star kidded a twin does, one black and one chamoisee. The black doe will be retained and one of Merrie's does will be retained. The other two does will all be for sale. I will have updated pictures on the for sale page soon, but you can always check us out at facebook! We still have one F1 doe to kid, as well as, our alpine doe and saanen doe. All kids from these does will be for sale.

Fall Breedings

We are gearing up to begin fall breedings in the next month or so for a late spring kid crop. We will be using are F2 mini alpine buck, Howie, that we purchased from Sweetwater Farm out of Idaho for all of our kids this year. We have decided that it is time for our Nigerian buck, Orie, to go to his new home. He will be starting a new Nigerian herd with a friend of mine! I hate to see him go, but I know he will be much appreciated at his new home. That means we will have F1 and F2 mini alpines available in the spring. Right now all of our minis are registered through the MDGA (miniature dairy goat association), however, we will be dual registering through TMGR (the miniature goat registry) and will be registering all kids we keep through that registry from now one. However, if you wish to register a kid purchased from us through any other registry, we are happy to help you do that. 

We are also open to shipping goats through the airlines, or even driving kids for the cost of travel. Please do not feel that our goats are off limits just because you might live a distance from good ole Indiana! Please feel free to contact us for any information you may need!

Saanen Doe= Mini Saanens/Sables

Feisty Farm is please to announce that we have added a 2 yr old 2nd freshener doe to our herd. She is ADGA registered as End 'O Lane's Zola's Candace. My children have given her the barn name of Sally. Currently, Sally is 2 weeks fresh and is averaging around 7 lbs of milk a day. She is no where near her peak, so I am expecting her to peak above 8lbs, which is a gallon. Saanens are traditionally high producers. She will be used as our family milker, as well as, to begin breeding mini Saanens/Sables. If all goes well, we will have one crop of F1 mini Saanen/Sables in the spring of 2015!  A link to her pedigree can be found on our Doe page!

We brought Sally home in the back of our Trailblazer, with 2 kids and a 4 month old in the back seat! She rode for 1 1/2 hours with her head resting on my son's shoulder! She is such an awesome tempered goat!

Goat's Milk! It Does a body REALLY good!

We first began our journey with goats and goat milk in the spring of 2008. I was quite sick for the first six weeks of his life and was unable to nurse him myself after the first 2 weeks. I was devastated, as I felt that formula was not the right choice for my family. However, I was left with little option. After numerous formulas failing and making my son very sick, I received a call from my grandmother on April day. She told me to come up with the truck and a large dog cage, she had something for me. When I arrived, there she presented me with an Oberhasli doe. She took me to the barn and taught me how to milk. She gave me her old pasteurizer and said to milk this goat, pasteurize it, and give it to my baby. Throw away the canned formula; and so I did. That goat changed my son's life and my family's life. My son was now a happy baby, thriving and not getting sick. My husband and I were introduced to the wonderful world of goats and goat milk, and all the wonderful things that can be done with it. We began making cheese and soap; the passion of the goat was in us. We had purchased another doe during the summer, so the milk was ample and wonderful. 

From there, we decided that goats needed to be in our family plans, but not simply having a milk goat, but breeding quality animals that we could be proud of. We then sold the two does we had in the spring of 2010 and purchased a French Alpine doe kid, a Nubian doe kid, and a Nigerian Dwarf buck kid. We were going to raise minis!

Our first kidding season was in the late spring of 2012. We were blessed with twin buck mini Nubians, and twin doe/buck mini Alpines. The milk was ample in our house again. The children were thriving, we were thriving, our family was thriving. Milking became a family affair and my then 4 year old son and 3 year old daughter were having a great time bottle feeding the kids, learning to milk our very patient first fresheners. 

We have since decided to focus strictly on mini Alpines. Our journey with dairy goats has been ever evolving, as we live and experiment with what our vision for our goats should be. I feel that we are in the right place! 

Now, we call upon the power of goats milk to nurture our our third child. I have seen wonderful things when it comes to babies and goats milk. My son, who is now 6, is one of the smartest in his class and was raised on goats milk from the time he was 5 months old. My baby girl, now, is almost 5 months old and has been on goats milk for a few weeks to supplement my own milk. We have changed things a little bit in these 6 years, and are now following this infant goats milk formula recipe. This recipe fills in the gaps and our daughter gobbles it up! I am not a doctor, and many would say to get the store bought can if you cannot provide it yourself. However, through research, instinct, and prayer, I have found that this works when I, as a mother, fall short.

For more information on the wonders of goats milk and why it is superior to cows milk, there is a great article entitled the benefits of goat milk vs cow milk. The website www.mtcapra.com has some wonderful information and even some goat milk products! The infant formula recipe is also from that website.