Goat Kids Have Started to Arrive!!!

This morning when we went out to the barn we were slightly surprised to find two slimy, wet doelings.  About a week ago Precious (our Nubian doe) appeared to be starting to loose her plug.  Since then she has been dry every time we checked.  The only indication that she was starting to get close was her utter filling.   So we were a bit surprised to find her with kids this morning.

Primrose

Having them still very much in need of drying off and Precious doing her best to clean them while still trying to pass the afterbirth, I went and got some towels and dried them off for her.  Above is a photo of Primrose still a bit wet.

Primrose and Butterfly

They soon were dry and happy!  Butterfly has a great set of lungs on her and is quick to let you know that she is not really a fan of heights.  She would much rather have her feet planted firmly on the ground, thank you!  Mother and kids are doing great and resting well.

Butterfly and Primrose

 So tonight Faith (our Alpine/Toggenburg doe) who is as big as a house, and Katie (our Alpine/Sanaan doe) who was starting to seriously form an utter, are both deposited into cozy birthing stalls. 

We will see what tomorrow brings. 

Venturing into Sheep???

My true goal is to farm full time.  I believe in this economy the only way to do this is to be all purpose.  I believe we need to produce near everything that we consume here at home. So when a friend called to say she has a lamb ram that had been rejected by it's mother and asked if I would like it, what else could I say but YES! 

But very quickly my youngest daughter, Rhiannon, decided that she was to be his mother.  She carries him everywhere and feeds him his milk from a bottle.  If she puts him down and walks or runs away he quickly follows her.  So I am believing that instead of gaining a lamb for meat, I may now need to look for a ewe for him.  She does not become overly attached to any of the calves that we bring home.  But she was even up bright and early this morning to feed him.  I think that he only is in his pen when he is sleeping and sometimes she holds him so long that he sleeps on her.

Naming critters this year seems to have been a bit of a challenge for us.  The calf that we recently got had no name for days.  Now Rhiannon is calling the newest addition "Little Big Man."  After quite a discussion it was finally decided that his name would be "Clark", as in Clark Gable.  However I believe she will continue to call him "Little Big Man" and that may be the only name he ever truly knows.

Now the search for a ewe is on.   We will see, plans always have a way of changing around here. 

Goat Hoof Trimming

Today was goat hoof trimming day. 

We try to ensure that we do this at least every six weeks.  As I am sure you can imagine this is no easy task.  The actual trimming is not really the difficult part, but it is an art form and takes a great amount of practice to do it well.  The difficult part is convincing the goat that they really do need this done.

The way that we handle this is to put each goat on the milk stand and give them a bit of grain, this will keep them busy long enough to trim at least one hoof, but maybe two if you are lucky and quick about it.  We are not usually lucky.  My job is to soothe the goat and hold the light while my husband does the real work.  He has to hold the foot up while trimming.  Naturally the goat does not like this too much.  Most of our goats are used to having this done so there is less fighting then there used to be.

There is an art to trimming hooves however.  It is important to trim them accurately to ensure that the goat walks on the hoof correctly.  You will need a good pair of hoof sheers.  Online you can purchase a good pair that are relatively inexpensive.  

Above is a photo of a pair found on the Valley Vet site.  They can be found on several different sites as well.  Jeffers and Hoeggers both carry them. We also find it helpful to use a hoof pic and a hoof knife.

Above is a photo that shows a good idea of what hooves should look like.  I did not think to take photos while the process was happening.  I was too busy ensuring everyone was on their best behavior.  Anyone who has goats know that in itself is a full time job.  But we did get our task completed and before any of the girls decided to have babies too. 

We have a total of 9 goats who all have nice trimmed hooves after today.