We are almost into kidding season here at Quartz Ridge Ranch so we took the beautiful weather as a sign to clean out the barn! I know our winter isn’t over but it has been mild to say the least!
The barn is getting a bit of a reorganization to allow for kidding pens and some protection from the cool breezes. We are also changing our old horse pasture to a kid corral so they have some room to roam.
I will be blogging our progress as we get closer to kidding time!
We have very specific requirements when we look into a new breed of animal for our ranch. We wanted hogs but did not want the large commercial breeds that are hard on fencing and dangerous for kids.
We found a smaller heritage breed called American Guinea Hogs. They have an amazing disposition, they are hardy and the are delicious!
This is my boar King George and he is registered with the American Guinea Hog Association. He is 8 months old.
We have a breeding pair that will give us piglets in the Spring. Pippa is our sow and she is smaller than George she is 6 months old. They love to cuddle up together when the sleep at night.
I love the guys and so do our kids! This is Emily and Jack hanging out with the two hogs and our two Great Pyrenees.
If you are interested in these hogs for meat (weaner or finished pigs) or looking to purchase a breeding pair for yourself give us a call or shoot us an e-mail we would love to hear from you.
We focus on heritage breed animals around QRR and chickens are the next breeding adventure.
“Dale” my Delaware Rooster is so handsome! We were lucky out of the twenty we bought only one was a Roo!
He takes good care of all of his lady friends. Delaware’s make excellent broiler chickens with the males weighing in at 8.5labs and the females at 6.5lbs. This breed of chickens can adapt to confinement or free range and are very hardy. They lay large, rich brown eggs making them a great dual purpose homestead chicken.
We plan on having Delaware chicks available in the Spring! We will keep you all updated when they hatch!!
Our breeding season is coming to an end. I cannot wait for all the little goats next spring. Laura over at Elemental Farms helped us out with breeding our Nigerian Dwarf’s this year and we now have a buck for our herd for the next breeding season.
This is Elemental Farms SM Joe:
He is very handsome just like his Daddy Max. You can find his Sire’s pedigree here. We are so excited for him to join our ranch.
I am still waiting for my new Sanaan/LaMancha to gain some weight and get a healthier coat before I breed her but she is coming along. She was used as a milker/brusher from her previous family and needed some supplement to her diet. We are doing a round of BoSe and Copper Bolus to see if her coat and appearance improves. We have a photo of her from the previous owner showing how beautiful she was in the California State Fair so I know what she should look like.
My two Oberhasli’s have been woo’d by my lovely Oberhasli buck Smokey. They have been spending some time by his pasture on the way to our home. I guess they wanted to check out what we were doing!
My Indian Runner Ducks have been enjoying the sunny weather and spend all hours in their pond. I even catch them out there in the middle of the night! Crazy ducks! I am looking forward to incubating some eggs in the Spring. My drakes have great conformation and I would love to share the joy in raising these little guys.
My newest set of chickens are growing bigger by the day. I recently moved all my older layers down to the barn area and made room for my Delaware’s and Dominique’s. Both of these are heritage breeds and excellent for meat and laying eggs. I will be incubating these two breeds in the Spring also. The Delaware’s are prettier than I ever imagined and they are very sweet.
I think we have the ranch close to being buttoned up for the Winter. It has been so beautiful here that it is hard to imagine we will be covered in snow eventually. I am keeping my eye on the Spring and hope we get through the winter quickly and safely.
I would like to introduce you to our ranch up here in California’s Sierra Nevada’s. Jeremy and I raise meat and dairy goat along with heritage breed hogs, chickens and ducks. We strive to create a happy and healthy home for our animals using as many natural and holistic methods as possible. We are looking forward to our first group of little ones in Spring 2012. It is going to be a busy season with Oberhasli’s, Nigerian Dwarfs and American Guinea Hogs all birthing within a month of each other!
I plan on updating our blog to show changes around the ranch, new animals coming in and of course all of our fuzzy/feathery friends here. If you have any questions about our ranch please feel free to e-mail us or give us a call. We would love to hear from you!
