Bucket Math

OK, I will admit that those two words in the title do not go together all that well - buckets are solid, tangible objects and math is abstract. For us, the number of buckets in rotation tells us something about where we are in the year.

To wit,

1. Winter - we keep 12 does, 4 bucks, and 20 chickens over the winter. The does get 3 buckets of hot water, bucks get 1 hot, and the chickens get 1 hot. So 5 buckets in the morning. Then 2 more in the evening with the evening hay. So we need only 7 buckets that day.
2. Spring - as the does get more and more preggers, the water goes up to 4 buckets in the morning, this is especially true on those odd days in April that are warm and humid. No evening buckets, so we stay at 6 buckets till kidding season.
3. Summer - with no pigs or turkeys, the chickens stick at 2 buckets (chicks + hens) for the day. The boys seem to need 1 1/4 buckets, so they now get 2 buckets. And the does + kids (12 does + 20-some kids) move up to 6-8 buckets, depending on how hot it is. Now we are up to 10-12 buckets.
4. Late Summer - today was the last pickup (aside from our buck Cody if a buyer picks him) of goats. We are back down to 12 goats in the doe area (7 seniors and 5 juniors) and 4 bucks in the back buck pen. We are back down to 10 buckets per day. Whew.

At the end of the day, we like to keep 2x the number of buckets, so one set is cleaned for the next morning.

This is how the infrastructure creeps up - all the small things that are almost impossible to account for ahead of time. Adding an extra doe or buck has a cost (their price) and then the estimating the other costs becomes fun. One more doe needs - an annual CD&T, feed, hay, minerals, sundry medical supplies and her annual blood testing. Those are the costs that are really hard to nail down - blood testing is easy, but feed and hay depend on the goat's size and age, the weather's effect on the pasture, and how many babies she is or may be nursing.

Bucket math is the guide - becoming a good guesser is the point of the game.