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Feather & Colin’s Farm

@feather_farms

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Off-grid Nubian dairy goat farm in Amador County. Powered by the 🌞 small orchard powered by ducks 🦆 🍑🍏🍇🫐 haunted by a mess of chickens 🐓

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Road cleanup with our crew. Marvella doesn’t let anything stop her from going down the steep side, not even having only 3 functioning legs. by @feather_farms

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9 months ago

We grew so much squash this year!
When the vines are done we feed them to our chickens, geese and ducks. There will be nothing left in roughly an hour.

#fastcompost #squashplant #garden #geese #ducks by @feather_farms

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a year ago

This is how his face should look!
A week ago, I found him with a very swollen face . I had never seen it in my own herd, but I knew that this was bottle jaw. This is caused by barberpole worms,
Luckily, I had never treated my herd with ivermectin. If you treat them every year as a lot of people say you should then they have a resistant class of worms. I gave him ivermectin orally as you should do with goats. Then I treated him with our normal dewormer, which is mostly copper based then I gave him a high-quality supplement to build his minerals back. Now he is back to his normal horny self! 🤣 by @feather_farms

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a year ago

Rainy morning walk with the goats! by @feather_farms

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a year ago

We grew a few tiny melons this year and bought a few at the farmers market. Each time we eat one I put the rind into one of the small duck ponds. Then this happens 🤣
No matter what size the entire rind will be gone in minutes. taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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a year ago

This is the first year I didn’t plant sunflowers. So of course we grew tons of them.

They grow deep tap roots so it’s best to plant early when there’s still lots of moisture. Don’t transplant, either. They don’t like their roots disturbed. These were inadvertently planted by giving seeds to the ducks. Nothing exotic, but still so pretty!

Reasons to grow sunflowers:
1. They are a joy to behold 🥹
2. The entire flower is edible!
3. Bees love ‘em! Hummingbirds too.
4. Dried petals can be brewed in tea. Tastes like sunshine.
5. Goats can eat all parts of the plant, plus it’s a treat.
6. If you raise dairy goats you can taste sunflower essence in your milk 🌻🌻🌻

#sunflowers #flowerpower #pollinatorgarden #bees #tournesols by @feather_farms

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a year ago

Early this year a duck decided to hatch her eggs in a strange little hiding spot near our house. At 2am we were awoken by a disturbance. Something (skunk?) had chased her away. There were 10 tiny ducklings in the nest!

After some debate we took them inside. We thought maybe they could go back to mom in the morning. By morning mom had moved on, though. She was busy cavorting in a pool and living the single girl life. So we ended up with 10 house ducklings.

We gave some to a neighbor and kept the rest. We were expecting at least half to be boys, but every single one is a hen.

Ducks announce their gender around 6 weeks with “the quackening”. Their little peeps suddenly become quacks.
Only the girls quack.

The ones who don’t quack are boys. They will eventually get a curly feather on their tail, the drake feather. Around the same time their voice will change to much deeper sound that resembles a percussion instrument.

#duckfacts taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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a year ago

Baby goat and plentiful goat milk season is upon us. It’s a lot of work but also we get to play with baby goats and eat lots of cheese. taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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2 years ago

Patrick snacking on toyon 💕 by @feather_farms

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2 years ago

It’s been perfect fall weather during our morning goat walks. We do this every day. The goats love it and it helps us reduce brush in areas that aren’t yet fenced in.

People often ask if they run away. When they do it’s only to go back to their barn. The goats generally follow us. Most of them know their name, and will come when called.

#goatfarm #nubiangoats #brushclearinggoats #fireseasonpreparedness #fireseason taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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2 years ago

This boy was originally thought to be a Royal Palm turkey but in truth he was a Broad Breasted White Turkey. Royal palms are closer to wild turkeys as they can still fly and don’t continue to put on weight after they are full grown.

This breed, by contrast, was basically created to give American households what they wanted in the ‘50s. There was a demand for more breast meat and a bigger bird to feed growing baby boomer households. Also, no one wanted to see dark feathers on their turkey skin. It seemed too dirty and rustic in the era of Wonder Bread.

The result of all this genetic manipulation is a bird that can hardly breath once he attained his full size. His strong legs could hardly hold him up. And while he put on quite a display for the ladies he was unable to do anything else. He was probably 50 or 60 lbs at the time of his demise.

We didn’t exactly plan on turkeys. Colin was offered 6 turkey poults for $1 as they were starting to get too large for their cage at tractor supply. They grow extremely quickly. We had no idea what we were signing up for.

We found out that turkeys are large, charismatic birds with tons of personality. I’d heard once they were too stupid to know how to feed themselves. It’s weird the lies we are told to dehumanize animals.

We had planned to eat them but found ourselves getting far too attached. Then a bobcat showed up and forced our hand. It was a very rough day. Goodbye sweet boy. You will be missed 😭

#raisingturkeys taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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2 years ago

Learnings from raising turkeys:
- be prepared to buy lots of high protein feed as they are voracious eaters who grow very fast
- they are sweet, curious and interactive birds
- they’re much more sensitive to parasites than chickens so if you have a mixed flock it helps to deworm them at least once while they’re still juveniles
- we are very careful with dewormers as most animals can build a resistance, so don’t go too crazy
- Toms don’t always present early on (we have one more Tom than we realized!)
- bigger feet might be the earliest sign of a Tom taken in Amador County by @feather_farms

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2 years ago