Spring is just around the corner, and on the farm, that means babies, of all kinds!
I thought I would take a moment to tell you about farm babies, after all, who doesn't like babies?
Cows:
Bovines have a lot of names, bull, heifer, spring heifer, etc.
But we are here to talk about babies, So a baby cow is a calf.
A girl baby is a heifer calf.
A boy baby is a bull calf.
A bob calf is a calf going for veal.
( we don't raise veal)
A healthy full-term beef calf when it is born weighs about 100 lbs.
A cows gestation is the same as a human, 9 months.
A calf will nurse for 6 to 7 months if allowed to.
Dairy calves are taken off the mother after about a week, and they are fed with a bottle.
Some people think this is cruel, but after a day or two the cow and calf settle down and are perfectly happy.
Just think of this, if no dairy farmer did this, there would be no milk for us to drink.
Daisy as a calf.
Pigs:
Pig babies are called piglets.
A girl pig who hasn't had piglets is called a gilt.
A boy pig who is left intact for breeding is called a boar.
A male that has been neutered is called a barrow.
A girl pig who's had piglets is a sow.
A pig's gestation is 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days.
They can have around 6 to 12 babies and that is called a litter.
They are a maybe 4 lbs when born, but they triple their weight in a short time.
When the mother gives birth, it is called farrowing.
Babies nurse off momma pig for about 8 weeks.
They start eating grain with her in about two or three weeks.
A litter of piglets is just about the cutest batch of babies on the farm, almost.
Priscilla as a piglet.
Chickens:
Baby chickens, as well as peacocks, Guinea fowl, and most wild birds, are called chicks.
Momma hen lays eggs until she thinks she has enough, then she starts to 'set' on them.
She keeps them warm and sometimes will not leave her nest for days.
A chicken that is doing this is said to be 'setting,' or she has become 'broody'.
She will get up to stretch her legs, eat and drink, and to turn the eggs.
This is needed so the embryo of the developing chick doesn't stick to the membrane inside of the egg.
(That thin, little skin-like piece of fiber that lines every eggshell.)
It will take around 21 days for the chicks to hatch.
They almost always hatch within an hour or so of each other.
A group of chickens born together is called a brood, or a clutch.
A new chick will have a little horn tip on its beak, that is there to help it break out of its shell, this falls off naturally in a few days.
Teenage girl chicks are called pullets.
Boy chickens are roosters.
A baby bird imprints on the first adult is sees.
If you are hatching them in an incubator, that might be you.
Ducks:
Ducks lay eggs too, and they also set, but ducks must leave the nest to wet their feathers and get washed up.
When they return to the nest their wet feathers add moisture to the eggs, so if you decide to hatch out ducks in an incubator it is recommended that you mist the eggs often.
Duck eggs take about 28 days to hatch unless you have a Muscovy, then it's more like 35 days.
(Muscovy ducks are larger land ducks.
They lack the body fat that other ducks have under the skin, and their babies don't have the waterproofing that regular breeds do.
They still enjoy swimming from time to time, but like wading.)
Ducklings can swim right away and have waterproof fluff, this is because the waterproofing oil that momma duck has on her feathers gets shared with the ducklings when they hide underneath her, for warmth and safety.
All water birds have an oil gland near their tail and constantly " preen" themselves to keep their feathers in good shape and/or remain waterproof.
Chicks and ducklings stay very close to their mom and need to be kept very warm.
They do not have body fat to keep themselves warm yet.
Boy ducks are drakes. Girls are hens.
This concludes the animals that I have on the farm, but I will tell you about some others that I don't have right now.
I grew up with lots of other kinds of critters so I know about them as well.
Turkeys:
A baby turkey is called a poult.
A turkey nests in the same way that ducks and chickens do,
however, their eggs are bigger and so are the babies.
It takes about 28 days for a turkey poult to hatch.
They are not the cutest things, they have long gangly necks and big feet.
They eat their weight in food every day as they grow.
Boy turkeys are called toms, and girls are hens.
We are considering raising some poults this year.
Geese:
Baby geese are called goslings.
It takes 28 to 35 days depending on the breed of goose.
It may take the little guys up to 3 days to get out of the hard shell of the egg.
Boy geese are called ganders and girl geese are simply called goose.
One goose, two or more, geese.
Goslings are yellow and fuzzy babies and cute as can be.
They can swim just as well as ducklings, pretty much immediately and transfer the same oil from their parents to the babies so that they remain fluffy when swimming.
Rabbits:
I do not breed rabbits, my best friend does.
Here's what she told me.
Gestation is 31 days.
A baby is called a kit.
About 6 kits in a litter,
But larger meat breeds can have 10 or more kits!
Kits are weaned between 5 and 7 weeks.
A good mama hides her babies in the nest so well that if you don't pay attention and know when to expect them, you might not know she has had them.
Boy rabbits are called bucks.
Girls are called does.
(Just like deer.)
Sheep:
I grew up with sheep.
My two favorite sheep were named Belle and Dolly.
Baby sheep are called lambs.
Girls are called ewes and boys are called rams.
A sheep's gestation is 147 to 150 days depending on the breed.
Lambs are born without body fat so they look very scrawny and long-legged wobbly-kneed, very lively and cute.
Sheep have long tails when they are born.
These are usually docked for hygienic reasons when they are a few days old.
Sheep nurse until they are around 45 pounds.
It is a safe weight to discontinue nursing from their mother.
It takes a lot of food and energy for a sheep to make milk.
Their milk is very rich a lot of times richer than the cow or goat milk.
Some people even milk sheep and make wonderful cheese with it, such as sheep feta.
Goats:
Girl goats are called does,
(or old school term Nanny goat.)
Boy goats are called bucks, or rams.
A male goat that has been neutered is called a "whether"
Baby goats are called kids.
A goats gestation is around 50 days, that can fluctuate slightly either way.
It is more common for goats and sheep to give birth to twins than other animals such as cows and horses.
Baby goats are very, very playful!
They are really adorable!
They like to run around and jump on things, they climb up to get as high as they can. Sometimes that means jumping on the dog's back.
A baby goat needs to nurse either from a bottle or its mother for about 6 to 8 weeks.
Goat milk is also a wonderful milk to drink, bake with, and make cheese with.
I grew up drinking goat's milk and I have always been very healthy.
Goat milk is also good for people who have difficulty digesting cows milk or allergies to cows milk.
Horses:
Again I grew up with horses, although we never bred any of ours.
I would like to someday.
A baby horse is called a foal.
Stallions are boys that are intact.
Geldings are boys that have been neutered.
A filly is a young girl horse.
When she is older, after she's had a foal, she is called a mare.
A horse's gestation is around 11 months.
A filly left to her own devices will nurse for longer than 6 months.
Once a foal stops nursing and is still under a year old it is called a weanling.
Foals are long-legged and badly coordinated.
Very cute!
Farm Babies come in all shapes and sizes from Tiny gerbils and little fuzzy kittens, sometimes puppies and fuzzy baby birds of all kinds.
It really doesn't matter what species they are.
babies are adorable and endearing and we love them.
After all, they are our future, in more ways than one.
