Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Well, it has been another eventful day for young Marmite - and to think he has only been living here for nine days!! His arrival has obviously encouraged our female pygmy goats to come into season: on Saturday Thyme came into season, yesterday it was the turn of Nutmeg and Sage and today the remaining three girls (Onion, Garlic and Parsley) decided they were missing out on all the fun and so all three of them came into season as well!!
Without going into too much detail... mating with SIX females in just three days has perhaps been a bit of a tall order for dear Marmite!!!! We think he has done his best but we are prepared for the fact that in around three weeks time, some of our six females may well come into season again indicating that they are in fact NOT pregnant! But time will tell and we may be underestimating him!!
We gave Marmite time with each of the girls on their own in the morning but then let him spend the afternoon with them all! It became very obvious that he had rather taken a shine to Parsley as he spent most of the rest of the day just with her. She did not seem to mind all the extra attention and at one point they played a most hilarious game where she stood on the picnic bench in the middle of the paddock and Marmite tried, in vain, to jump up with her! We were amazed at how nimble and quick she was in keeping all sides of the bench covered - she would probably make a great goalie!!!
In the photo Parsley is having a bit of a rest!!! Well-deserved we think!!
Away from the excitement of pygmy goats mating and the thought of all those cute kids next spring, our wonderful light golden bantam in the second photo is sitting in the egg basket in the barn because... amazingly she is broody - AGAIN!!! Would you believe this is the FIFTH time this year? It is far too late for us to do any hatching and so our task now is to get her out of her broody state!! Our initial idea was to remove the egg basket which we did this afternoon! This did not phase her at all, she simply sat on the table where the basket had been!!! Hmmmmm... Time for 'Plan B'!!! (When we have worked out what Plan B is we will let you know...)