My little Japaneses Hen hatched her eggs yesterday. I am not sure how many chicks she has yet but I know they will be just the cutest things. They are so tiny.







The warmer weather is lowering the creek and our grandsons are waiting for it to get low enough for them to be able to safely go swimming.








Princess has been up to her usual mischief. I left her unmuzzled while I went into town and this is part of what I came home to.
This is fiber that I spent hours working on. It was ready for spinning. It had been sorted, bagged and tagged. Some of it was kid mohair some was a bend some was straight mohair.
Now all I have is a mess.

This post is in answer to Sara from Farming Friends question: Why did you decide on this particular breed.

In 2005 I went to visit my family in Bristol England. I met my cousin-in-law Sue for the first time and we hit it off right away.
Sue and her husband Brian, invited me to their home for a visit one evening and Sue showed me her spinning wheel.
I found out that she is a master spinner. She showed me how to spin and let me try it for myself.
I was hooked almost immediately. Which was a total shock to me as crafts of any kind have never interested me.

When I returned home to Canada, I found a spinning group that met weekly, I rented a wheel and joined the group. I was fortunate enough to be given some Alpaca fiber and some sheep wool to practice with.

After a while I decided to buy my own wheel.
I used up the fiber that had been given to me and was trying to decide what would be the best fiber to buy so that I could continue spinning.

Sue had told me about the Angora goat and how wonderful they are and how nice their fiber is. I thought rather than always having to but fiber from someone else it would be fun to have my own fiber goat.
I already had a couple of pygmy goats as pets and adding a couple more goats just seemed a natural progression.

I had no clue when I decided to get angora goats that they would not be that easy to find.

I still have so much to learn about goat keeping. I joined the Vancouver Goat Association and have found the members to be a wonderful group. They are helpful and willing to show me things like hoof trimming, de-horning and castration. As well as answering the many question that I still ask about goat keeping.
So far hoof trimming is the only thing I have done myself. As my confidence grows I hope be able to do the other things as well.

I have ordered 6 new goats. Only two are for me.
A couple of people have called me looking to buy Angora goats. I only have two adult Angoras and one doe kid so am not in a position to sell goats.
Angoras are not a common breed of goat here. In fact, there are only two of us who belong to the Vancouver Island Goats Association that have Angoras. The other members all have milking goats.

I was pleased to get the calls from people looking for the Angora goat and decided to do what I could to help them find goats for sell. I would like to see more people with the Angora and will do what I can to help promote them.

When I was looking to buy Angora goats for myself, I researched them for a while on the internet and made phone calls and sent emails to the breeders that were shown online. Most of the ones that I contacted didn't get back to me and the ones who did, didn't have goats for sell.
I knew I would have to look farther afield for them so contacted a breeder in Alberta. She not only had Angoras for sell, she was also willing to drive and meet us half way with them. (She is a 15 hour drive from us)

This time I have found a breeder on the mainland who has 3 kids that will be ready mid July.
I will go over and pick them up when they are ready as well as the breeding pair that I want for myself. The other kid will be ready a little later in the year.

Well I am most disappointed over the eggs that I had in the incubator. The problems that I had with regulating the temperature did indeed make it imposable for the eggs to hatch.
I had 11/2 doz Guinea fowl and 2 doz Black Austrolorp eggs that I was hoping to hatch.
A new incubator will cost close to $200. Not sure if I can stretch my budget that far as I am working on getting a couple of new Angora goats.
I say 'working on' because I am slowly 'working on' getting Rob use to the idea that that is what I am planning on doing!

Jenny, our Angora doe had her first kid last Saturday. She had the easiest labor and delivery that you could imagine but she is not the greatest mom. We had to force her to stand still while we held her doeling on her to feed. By Sunday she had it figured out that this is what she is supposed be be doing. However, even though she is feeding her, she spends very little time with her baby, who we have named Abigail.