Today is the day that the chicks arrive! It started this morning with a frantic call from the feed store: ‘Come and pick up your chicks! They’re here!’. Actually not so frantic but the store was filled with the ‘peep peep peep’ of baby chicks so they wanted to get them out of there as soon as they can. Miss Piggie wondered what was in the box and the chicks were just happy to get out of the box after their shoulder to shoulder ride from the hatchery. The other animals are curious too but I haven’t let the goats too close to them yet. For now they’ll stay inside the playpen and then they’ll take over the building. Next job, build a little fence or chick tractor to keep them contained and safe.

We don’t have any roses blooming but we do have our bit of Atlanta, a Saucer Magnolia! When my sister-in-law had a source of some interesting varieties, I snatched one up.  This is ‘Sunsation’.   It is a soft yellow with a bit of pink.   It’s only a few feet tall with a few blooms but in the years to come it should provide quite a show each Spring.

The After Shot

The Before Shot

It’s about a year later and we’ve just finished having the boards replaced and the doors rebuilt. Last year was the footings and levelling off so that the roof was somewhat square.  We reused as much of the old hardware as we could and had the latch on the small door built to be similar to one in the house. The before photo would have been taken last Spring.   Next will be painting, adding windows and down the road some electricity and water.  Never thought I’d be so excited about a barn but who knew… click on the top photo to see a few more of the after.

The new kids certainly enjoyed the sunshine and warm temperatures yesterday afternoon.    The kidding season was short (but not necessarily sweet) as eight of the ten all arrived in one day, last Saturday the 31st of March.    Luckily all are healthy and none are being bottle fed!   For more photos, follow the links on the right to visit our Facebook page or see the photo albums on Picasa.

Of all the goats that are due to kid, Devora was the smallest and we thought she would be last, assuming she actually WAS pregnant. She didn’t show much and it was only the past few weeks. She gave us two beautiful kids, one buck and one doe. She is a great Mama, congratulations! I gave her a bowl full of fresh clover before taking these.

Thanks to the kids from Kampus Kids Early Learning Center who visited Kricklewood Farm! It was a great day except for the weather being a little dreary. We got to feed the goats, hunt for eggs, see Miss Piggie do her trick and a whole lot more. The best part was probably eating the goat milk fudge! Or was it petting Butterscotch? We even had a name the 2012 baby goats contest and the winner was (drum roll please): Daisy, Minnie and Clairabelle. We hope everyone had fun and learned a lot too!  Photos from the visit.

Now that the snow is gone here in eastern Ontario and goat kidding season is almost upon us, (the first should arrive the last week of March) we’re starting to schedule our goat milk workshops.   The first will be cold-press goat milk soap making on Sunday April 15th at 1:00.   For more info or to sign up for this or the other workshops, visit our workshops page.

Butterscotch is a 2 week old Nubian Doe that was rejected by her (first time) mother so she is being bottle fed. I had her for the day when her owner had to be away and unable to feed her at noon. At first I had her in the barn and watched her squeeze out of the pen and into potential harm’s way. Then I had her in the house in a play pen for a little while but she would have nothing of that.  So outside I went with her to do some work in the barnyard. Luckily it was a nice sunny day so she had a chance to soak up some rays and meet Miss Piggie and some of the other farm animals. She’s not very big as you can tell when the rooster is nearby. She is a real doll, thanks Judy for letting us take care of her! Our does are expecting within the next week or two so we are looking forward to some kids of our own real soon!