Oaken Leaf Goat Farm

Oaken Leaf Goat Farm Raising quality Nigerian Dwarf goats and creating hand made products.

For Memorial Day we put our Flag out in honor of our service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice. May they rest in ...
05/25/2026

For Memorial Day we put our Flag out in honor of our service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice. May they rest in peace.

In the past 2 weeks we've gotten a lot of rain. Our rain gauge recorded 3.75 inches. Our chickens were standing in wet dirt. Not deep mud but very wet. Our runs have several stumps and perches available for chickens to get off the ground or just to be higher up for fun. But this wet floor in the coop was uncomfortable for them. And possibly a health risk. So we put down a bale of straw. This straw offers a dry surface for them and an opportunity to scratch about. A lady confessed to me that she'd love to have chickens but she couldn't stand the p**p on the eggs. It really isn't p**p, but dirt from their feet. We've had a lot of dirty eggs, but after putting the straw down, the eggs are clean.

The goat barn is on higher ground and they are not wet. They also have spools to lounge on because our goats hate to get wet. And they love to be up high.

This goose pair has raised several clutches of goslings on our pond. I'm concerned that the mate has been missing since ...
05/16/2026

This goose pair has raised several clutches of goslings on our pond. I'm concerned that the mate has been missing since we've started seeing the little guys. But this lone parent has gotten the six littles this far. The parent is hyper vigilant and moves the group from pond to pond in our area.

Life with goats. Kiara getting some love while Bell pulls my hair. Love mornings with my girls.
05/13/2026

Life with goats. Kiara getting some love while Bell pulls my hair. Love mornings with my girls.

Another mother discovered on our farm. We have a pair of Eastern Phoebes that build nests on our porch from time to tim...
05/10/2026

Another mother discovered on our farm. We have a pair of Eastern Phoebes that build nests on our porch from time to time. Discovered a new nest today while enjoying the nice weather.

Happy Mother's Day from our farm moms to you!
05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day from our farm moms to you!

04/22/2026

I just love our goats! Every single one is a bottle baby and super people friendly. They are all about knee high tall and stout. Little tanks. We introduced a pair of goats into our herd each time, starting with Karma and Kiara. They are a day apart in age and just had their 4th birthdays. They share a father. These two are almost always together. Then we added Mea and Arwen, who are 7 weeks apart in age. Arwen will be 2 on Wednesday. Mea is feeling frisky and picking on Karma again. Not sure but one or both might be in heat, which for Nigerian dwarfs is every 3 weeks.
Karma is herd queen and could butt Mea into next week. She chooses not to do that. You will notice none of our goats have horns. Thats a conscious decision. Dairy goats show without horns. Disbudding must be done within a week of birth for males and two weeks old for females to avoid scurs, which are small horns that often grow strangely or are miss shaped. Bree has a tiny scur we trim to keep short. Disbudding is done with a hot iron either electric or butane. We found a woman who does hundreds of Nigerians a year. Yes she was hours away. Yes she is 100% worth the trip!
Our goats could still injure each other without their horns. They could injure people without their horns. Sometimes Karma or Kiara will rear up as if to butt us hard. Usually when I'm checking udders. To date they have only warned me. Its good to remember they are animals first.
Our goats drink about 5 gallons of water a day. And eat about a bale a day. Not quite a bale but we over fill the hay feeders. We keep feed and mineral in a stall behind a locked door just in case the goats get out into the barn. Goats can overeat and get really sick or even die. We currently have a hay storage area where we normally keep baby goats.
Our barn has electricity but not running water. Electricity runs heat lamps in the winter and fans during the summer. The barn originally was a box with 3 doors. Al put in 2 windows for cross ventilation. This year we may not run fans as we don't have any kids out there. Our pasture has walnut trees that provide some shade in summer. The overhang also provides a cooler place to nap in the afternoons and protects the goats from the dreaded rain. We fill gallon jugs with water and ferry them out in a little wagon. Today we stopped at the chicken coops and filled their water buckets too. Our coops have electricity too, for bucket heaters in the winter. Gathered 5 eggs. We are up to 26 dozen eggs this year.

Farm chores today. Feeding and checking over the goats. They had over turned their slide. We rearranged their platforms...
04/14/2026

Farm chores today. Feeding and checking over the goats. They had over turned their slide. We rearranged their platforms and play ground to encourage them to move about more. We have our hay feeders set up outside under the barn's overhang. This keeps the hay dry and encourages outside activity. Goat hierarchy dictates that largest and most dominant (Karma) eats when and where she wants, then the second group. Bell and Bree must be creative and a little pushy to get their hay. We feed the grain in three distinct areas so the girls can eat in peace. Two water buckets to ensure everyone has access to water. I'm happy with Bree's skin. With the zinc tablets and higher zinc mineral, her skin is less flakey and less pink. She and Bell have lost their super fluffy winter coat too.

The barn is now warmer than the outside. We have windows open and the fans on. This is the first spring we haven't had kids living solely in the barn. Ensuring they are warm or cool enough was constantly my concern. I look at how pretty Arwen is. She is long and wide like her mother Karma. She comes from a long line of good milkers and would have had pretty kids with those characteristics. But with prom, high school graduation, and her last year in 4H, Katie Royer was probably correct in not breeding any does last fall. Probably.

The chickens need water and feed. 4 gallons total for the two coops. A bucket and a half of feed. We feed the chickens a couple times a week. We have the large galvanized steel feeders that hold several pounds of food. The coop with eight hens always need refills more frequently. Barbie had her legs treated for mites a few weeks ago and is now up and about. She was even in the nest box last week laying an egg at 10 years old! 10 of our hens were raised in a brooder and are people friendly. They will run if you try to pick them up but otherwise as nosy as a goat when I am out there. Suzy is the worst. She was right in my way as I refilled her feeder and pecked my ring. Collected 4 eggs from the 2 coops.

Introduction to our flock: AngieAngie is a Large Fowl Ancona hen. She exhibits in the Mediterranean class at our 4H show...
04/01/2026

Introduction to our flock: Angie
Angie is a Large Fowl Ancona hen. She exhibits in the Mediterranean class at our 4H show. You say she looks just like Willow? You are correct! Angie is black with white and Willow is white with black. A subtle difference. Angie is even more shy and quick than Willow. She lays a white egg. She is also very small, about the same size as Willow. The two are often together running about their area.

All the girls are getting over the zinc deficiency. They are enjoying the zinc tablets smushed in peanut butter on anim...
04/01/2026

All the girls are getting over the zinc deficiency. They are enjoying the zinc tablets smushed in peanut butter on animal crackers. Bree was the first and worst affected and got a tablet tonight. Switched to a higher zinc loose mineral that the girls are enjoying. Applied Nu Stock cream to the bridges of noses on Kiara, Karma, Mea and Arwen.
Mea is in rare form and is challenging Karma. Karma is being gentle with her but Mea isn't backing down. Karma retreats to a riser or onto the stump, but Mea is right there pushing her. No horns on our goats and no injuries to report. Could be the nice weather, or might be most of them are in heat. Arwen placed herself next to Mea, as if to say "I have your back". Mea is about the same size as Bree. Never a dull moment.

Introduction to our Flock: Willow/WiFiWillow is an Exchequer Leghorn large Fowl hen. All the chicks from.last year are n...
03/29/2026

Introduction to our Flock: Willow/WiFi

Willow is an Exchequer Leghorn large Fowl hen. All the chicks from.last year are now a year old and are now hens! She exhibits in the Mediterranean class. She is half the size of the other hens and would not be your first choice for dinner. Her strength is laying white eggs frequently. Not more than one a day, but more in a year. She is a fast moving, flighty bird. She will fly up onto the swing and other perches in the run. She will fly up out of a cage.

She has a large single comb and might be mistaken for a rooster. The large comb and being a lightweight makes her breed not as cold hardy as the other breeds of chickens we have. The comb can get frostbitten if the run has high humidity during cold months. Part of the reason we wrap our coop in plastic every winter.

The white eggs you purchase in the store are likely laid by a variety of leghorn chicken. We've had 3 varieties of leghorn chicken in our journey, the others being a brown leghorn and Ancona. We started with 3 leghorn cross hens called Tetra Tints. They lay a lot of white eggs and are difficult to catch. In Katie Royer 's first year in 4H she attempted to compete in the showmanship class with her Ancona Ann. Ann flew up out of her cage and attempted to escape. Not the ideal chicken to exhibit your chicken handling skills.

We started treating Barbie's scaley leg mites. We've treated her at least 5 times using different methods. She will have periods being mite free and able to walk easily. And then the mites come back. She is the only hen we've ever had with this issue. Another hen had chronic vent great. We'd treat, it would be gone, only to come back a year or so later. A friend mentioned she'd like to get chickens but couldn't stand p**p on the eggs. Its most likely mud from their feet, or the next hen's feet after them. A quick swipe with a damp cloth is all that is needed if there is something visible on the shells. Wendy laid her egg outside of the nest box today, so no change in behavior there.

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Trafalgar, IN
46181

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