Yesterday, March 4th, was a crazy day.  Over the past couple of days, we had been very worried about Apple, because she was not going into labor and went well past her due date. On day 153 (normal gestation 145-155 days) Apple was not looking any closer to kidding, so we induced her that day with hormones to bring on her labor.  Oddly, she did not respond to the hormones as we expected.  Normally, the dose of lute and dex takes 36 hours, but Apple did not go into labor until well beyond 40 hours.  The anticipation and worry over a doe in labor is, for me, excruciating!  All the worry was for nothing though as Apple delivered two healthy bucks in under two minutes, unassisted.

As I was drying off the new bucks I heard a goat begin loudly crying behind me.  It was Cali, who apparently had watched the whole thing, and was jealous.  When I got the bucks dry and comfortable, I took Cali out of the pen and checked her ligaments.  Sure enough, they were gone. Thankfully, my husband arrived home and prepared a kidding stall for Cali.  It wasn't long before she was in labor.
Just before midnight, Cali delivered.  There were four babies in all, and one was a toxic little peanut baby (long dead premie) who we think weakened the systems of the other three babies.  Two did not survive the birth, and one little 2 lb doeling was left to struggle for survival.  She had a very rough start as she was very weak, but I worked with her throughout the night to get her body temperature up, tube feeding her and trying to get her to take a bottle.  At four hours old she tried earnestly to stand for the first time. She was not successful. Shortly after, she had her first bottle. By nine hours old, she successfully stood up and took her first steps.  This sweet little doeling is now doing very well and she has a great chance of survival. She will be reunited with her anxious dam as soon as she is strong enough.

Introducing our newest retained doeling, Lotti.

Check our FOR SALE page for more information.

Gypsy Moon Kat von D freshened on February 28th with four beautiful doelings sired by Helmstead Minis FF Scorch. One doeling did not survive. Two of these does will be available.  Names, individual pictures and availability will be announced shortly.

I honestly thought that we would have more babies by now, but a couple of does that are due are REALLY holding onto their kids.  We have Apple Blossom at day 147 and Kat von D at day 145.  Apple's ligs are finally starting to soften and her udder is slowly filling.  This will be Apple's first freshening, and we are so excited to finally have babies out of our first babies born on the farm.  Keep checking back.  These next two can go anytime!  We also have Cali due next week, and then Annie right before Open House. Finally, our Spring season will conclude with Airianna who is due the first of April.

With a little more than three weeks left until our 1st Annual Open House event, I just wanted to give everyone a glimpse into the prep work that has been done and continues to be done. This is my dining room table, which has looked like this for at least a month and gets worse everyday. Everyone who attends will have a Welcome packet with lots of information and goodies stuffed inside, and each clinic has literature that will be handed out for your reference later. For those that have asked, YES, you can still reserve your free tickets. I'm still sending out tickets every day and will continue to do so until I can no longer mail them in time. Getting so excited!!

Since before we had the farm (pre-2011) I have always dreamed of raising and breeding a flock of java chickens. I always thought that it was so interesting that the Java is a very old breed that was extremely plentiful in America, but was literally nearly wiped out by the public demand for a faster growing meat bird.  The Garfield Museum in Illinois, with the help of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, developed a program to repopulate the Java breed of chicken. (When you visit the chick hatching exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, those are JAVAS!)  The Java breed has bounced back somewhat due to their efforts, but it is still endangered and rare. Twin Willows Farm will be joining the effort to preserve this rare heritage breed.  We have just ordered 15 black java chicks to become our new breeding flock. I am so excited for them to arrive and to have this dream finally come to fruition!

- New pricing structure for kids can be found on our SALES POLICY page.

- Reservation prices for kids and availability can be found on our KIDDING SCHEDULE page.

- First Freshened udder pictures of American Honey can be found on her pedigree page.

- Third Freshened udder pictures of Trixie can be found on her pedigree page.

- DHIR Production Data page added.

Tomorrow, Twin Willows will complete our very first EVER monthly milk test on the ADGA 305 Standard testing plan.  We are a little nervous, but also very excited to start this important journey to improving our herd. We have three does to test this month, with a total of five more does to be added to the program over the next two months. Since we are dam raising, we will also be able to get pictures of the udders at 12 hours full. I'm mostly excited to see American Honey's udder since she is our first homegrown doe that has freshened so far.  We are confident that we can milk star some does this year!

I wanted to let everyone know that if you requested tickets to our Open House before today, your tickets have been mailed.  Watch for them to arrive shortly. It's not too late to request tickets!  Follow the link in our banner above to reserve them and I will mail them right out!

I have not been very good about keeping up with photo updates of our animals, so I starting thinking about a way to make it easier to do so. I built this photo staging area in the barn to hopefully make it more convenient to snap a pic when I need to. I used some plywood and re-purposed a stanchion that hasn't seen much use lately. I'm hoping to have everyone updated with new pictures after they receive their spring haircuts in a few months.