It is that time of the year again where we think and think and think to come up with a theme for our goat kids. When we started we named the kids that we brought superhero names. Mostly of the X-Men variety. Then we did by giving each sire a theme. That meant Supernatural, Game of Thrones, and Wild West. Not all those themes were followed through. 

The year 2020 we did music titles from the 1960s and 2021 was Harry Potter. This year we tossed themes around like the A List with just names that start with the letter A, Percy Jackson, Greek Mythology, Candy, and even dessert names. None of those were fully agreed upon by everyone.

This year the them is everything galaxy from planets, stars, and constellations. Kind of exciting since all the names seem neat and ethereal.  This year we kick off with our surprise twins from Atlas and Zoey. They are going to be registered as TinyHineyFarmNY A Arcturus (buckling P1) and TinyHineyFarmNY A Andromeda (doeling P2). 

We are excited to name and have fun learning the meaning of each of the names the kids are going to have. Stay tuned for the baby goats being born and who is available.   

This gentleman is one of our favorites. We have had three successful breeding seasons with him. However, a hard decision is being discussed as we decide what stays in the herd and what goes. Gunsmoke was the farthest we have personally traveled to go pick a goat up and bring him home. He came from TKs Mountain Ridge Farm down in Tennessee. We are grateful to Kathy McFarlane for entrusting us with him.

As soon as he arrived to our farm we knew he was special. This boy has the looks, personality, and dairy aspects we were looking to add to our herd. He has proven that in the past 3 years. After more discussions on his residency it has been determined that Gunsmoke will stay and be a lifetime head man (he is the oldest in our herd). We couldn't be happier with this decision.

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Taken March 2022

Gunsmoke's pedigree
Dam: Beau Chevre Cookie
Dam's Dam: Flat Rock's Casi
Dam's Sire: Prairie Wood Sumatra

Sire: Flat Rock's Despereaux
Sire's Dam: AGS Enchanted Hill Tom Jefferson
Sire's Sire: Flat Rock's Ginny Weasley

Just a few of Gunsmoke's kids that he has given us. There are more to be seen. Love the way they are set up. If you would like to be on a list for a kid from Gunsmoke let us know. 

Love is in the air and we are excited to continue with our kidding season. (Besides our little surprises at the beginning of February.) This is our fourth year on our small, family farm breeding registered Nigerian Dwarf goats. Our lives are filled with their great personalities and wonderful milk.

Last year we were blessed to add Kindred Souls BR Effervescense. Effye as we love to call her is going to be a 3rd freshener. Last year she kidded quad minis. The dear girl did amazing through it. We got her full of milk and when trying to dry her off she took forever. This little doe is made for milking. 

In her pedigree she has Dill's LC Sweet Baby Ray, Dill's TS Lucchese, GCH Dill's GA Pancetta, Dill's D Two-Step, Castle Rock Shazam!, AGS Dawnland PPS Silver Screen, SG Castle Rock Cleveland Sage, and GCH CRF Castle Rock Rock Sun Saphire to name a few. 

Happiest 3rd birthday to Doshin Aurora! This little lady is a powerhouse and our best milker. She was skittish when we first got her as a kid. Though, it wasn't long before she came around to wanting scratches and cookies. Aurora is a super long girl. Which she passed on to her daughter, TinyHineyFarmNY S LadyInWhite. Cannot wait to see what this years kidding comes from the repeat breeding of Aurora with Silver. 

Aurora is always ready to pose for the camera. Spending time in the barn and catching them doing silly goat things makes the days more colorful. Last kidding Aurora had her first freshening and blessed us with triplets, 2 doelings and a buckling. They were beautiful silver kids. We retained one and sold two. Cannot wait to see how they grow. 

This guy right here is Viridis Montis Fatale Rogue's half brother. We were trying to decide between him and another buckling. I thought it was Silver the deposit was put onto. Ummm no such luck. However, there are no mistakes, just happy accidents. He is definitely a happy accident. We ended up purchasing both of them to add to our little herd. Viridis Montis Silver Surfer is quite the ham. He is easy to handle, calm, and friendly. Just might have to say he is our favorite buck. Shhhhh! Don't tell the others. 

Last breeding season, Silver proved himself with his first kids on the ground. He had five does to cover, Daze, Snowbell, Aurora, Lapis, and Vixen. All took and were confirmed pregnant. Unfortunately, Snowbell ended up reabsorbing her kids with a stalled pregnancy. The other does gave us ten healthy kids from this breeding. There was a lot of silver and gold. Many of them with blue eyes. We are waiting to see what this boy gives us this year. Special scratches today for him.

This year we ordered some new chicks from Tractor Supply Center and they were delivered nice and healthy from Hoover's Hatchery. Between, great customer service as the Light Brahmas were not going to be ready to ship with the barred rocks. They reached out and asked us if we wanted to wait for them to come together. Of course we did just to keep the chicks at the same age and size. 

Here on the farm we keep only a few different types of chickens. It was going to be Light Brahmas, Dark Cornishes, and Buff Orpingtons. Unfortunately, our pup Umma Lumma, has a thing for chicken and the number of Dark Cornishes have dwindled. To make things a little easier in our hectic, busy life we are only doing two breeds. After careful discussion we decided to switch out the orpingtons for the barred rocks. 

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Barred Rocks:
​*Docile
*Dual Purpose Meat/Eggs
*Large, Brown or Light Brown Eggs
*About 280 eggs a year
*Easy to sex at hatching
*Cold Hardy
*Not normally broody

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Out of the ten barred rock chicks that we received, we have 4 that are pullets, 4 that are definitely cockerels, and 2 that could go either way. As the weeks go by we are excited to see how close we were to being correct. Plus, we just added 8 blue barred rock pullets to our barred flock. Looking forward to chicks for next spring 2021. 

Have you ordered or brought chicks this year? What type are your all time favorite? Do you raise your own or let the hens go broody? We would love to hear from you on how you handle your flock. Blessings from us to you. 

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Viridis Montis Fatale Rogue!.... We cannot believe that you are three years old today. It doesn't seem that long ago when I made a major flubber with were I was supposed to be and what buckling we put the deposit down on. Let's just call this a happy mistake. 

She is always ready to have some goaty antics planned for fun. Loves her crackers and tea isn't bad either. Have to say that Rogue was not impressed with the tutu by any means.

Last year was her first freshening as a two year old. She blessed us with triplets, two does and a buck. Each one flashy and gorgeous. The first one born is Kitty a little doeling we have retained. She is so mischievous. Now we wait for the next kids to arrive from this gorgeous doe. Enjoy your day beautiful girl.

This is now the start of the hard part of raising animals. The part where they move on to their new homes and we must say until later. Goodbye is too final and we would love seeing updates and hopefully production from all our kids in their new herds. 

TinyHineyFarmNY C KingsLanding went to his new home on Moran Family Homestead. Josiane Moran is super sweet. She spends a lot of time with her goats along side her husband. They go on walks with them twice a day for the girls and twice a day for the boys. Have to admit that I am a little jealous of the beautiful and peaceful haven King is heading off to. Tempted to go for a ride with him.

The best thing is Josiane let us know that she was more than willing to share photographs and updates. (Which she has already done and they are so cute.) King or MunchKing as she fondly calls him, is enjoying his new friends. This boy has the sweet life ahead of him. Not to mention she has some amazing does to boot.

Now to just get ready for the next kids that are coming in the very near future.  Enjoy the below picture of  King with his new momma. Blessing be to you and yours.

Since we only had one hive left of our hives that we wintered, it was time to add more bees to our apiary. We like to help the environment where can and we love HONEY! It is great for our allergies and quite a few of us have them. Now where to get the bees from? That is a good question. We have traveled up towards Plattsburgh  for bees and all the way near Binghamton for nucks and packages. 

 There was an ad on Marketplace  that showed someone local had bees for sell. They were running an amazing deal. Buy a package and get an extra queen for $150.00. This allows you to create two hives out of one. What not to like on this deal? Packages are normally $135 to $150 by themselves. Hawkshaw Meadworks offers apiary supplies, honey  bees, honey, and more.

The day has to be nice to introduce the colony to their new hive. They don't like it windy or rainy.  It needs to be warm because they don't like it too cold. Guess when you work as hard as a bee then you have the right to be picky. These images don't capture how massively impressive a colony of bonded bees is.

During this process, Donald learned that his  hive was getting ready to split. Good thing her worked them when he did. He removed some brood from our established hive and put it with the hive with less bees in it. The queen for the one was found in her hive and the other queen was still in the cage but put in the hive to have them help her out. Both will be marked on the next inspection.

 Donald's suit is hot. Maybe they should be made of some white summer material, too. He didn't get in to his existing hive for inspection but did see the activity of the queen there. A extensive inspection will be done later. We really enjoy our little bee friends. The little ones are not scared of them. They call them their friends. It normally goes something like "I see you there, my friend." Appreciating nature and working on our small part to bring up the bee  population. 

Back in November 2018 we purchased a sweet first time freshener, Shailey Hill Jude's Luna and her twin doelings. They all settled into our herd nicely. Luna is a sweetheart. Her girls are absolutely adorable. On top of getting home we couldn't settle on a name for either of the girls. They were referred to as "Wattles 1" and "Wattles 2", just as if you were reading The Cat and the Hat by Dr. Seuss. 

Finally, after owning them for awhile the girls have names that are their own and that fit each of them perfectly. Tiny Hiney Farm is proud to present Red Maple's DL Bianca and Red Maple's DL Darby's Girl. 

Red Maple's DL Bianca is the one that we referred to as "Waddles 1". This is due to the fact that she only has one waddle. Doesn't seem to cause any sort of off balances. (See last photo for her crazy capers.) Bianca as she is known in the barn is from a search for celestial style names to go with her dam's, Luna. She is a gold pinto for her coloring.  This girl is solid. If you see Garnet and Bianca together (which you will in the last picture), they are pretty much the same size. Even though the twins were born in July and Garnet is a little over a year old. Bianca is curious and a nosy little thing. 

Red Maple's DL Darby's Girl, is the little darling we referred to as "Waddles 2". The reason being... You guessed it! She has two waddles. Our family was still trying to come up with a name for her when we got news of their sire crossing the Rainbow Bridge. Has it all SD Darby Saffron *S was an amazing buck and lived a nice long life. He made some very beautiful babies. In honor of this handsome boy, our little girl got her name. In the barn, our family lovingly calls her Girlie. She is dainty and quiet. Girlie is a red/gold pinto with two waddles. 

Adding some more gold into our herd was a great decision. In genetics, gold comes through a lot of the other colors. Future breeding pairs will make some nice looking kids with great milking genetics. Pretty and flashy is nice but is a bonus over top of milk production. 

Bianca is great friends with Garnet. These two get themselves into all kinds of crazy antics. There is never a dull moment in the barn. Both of them know they are not to be in the hay feeder. Both of them look like they are saying to me, "I am not doing anything mom. It wasn't us. Girlie did it!"  That face on Garnet is priceless. 

Coming up with names for goats can be more challenging than you would think. There are many different ways to name them. Classic and easy or fun and themed just to name a couple. We are still working that out for ourselves. If you know of a cute barn name for Bianca, please leave a comment. Also how do you name your goats?