My New Goats

After waiting on Collette to kid in January and nothing happening, we decided to give up on her. We sold Pascal after I was certain that Collette was bred. You can read about them here: In One Year.

We sold Collette this spring and I was totally goatless for quite awhile. Then I bought Hazel who had just had a wether weaned off of her and was ready to milk. She was born in 2011 and had been raised on a bottle. She was bred in the fall and had twins in the early spring. The owners took the doeling off of her and bottle fed it because Hazel didn't have a lot of milk. But she raised the buckling twin on her own.

We brought Hazel home and she drove us crazy. She was a lonely goat and she was not happy. She cried constantly and a goat crying constantly will wear you out pretty quickly. She was fine if I went out and sat with her but the minute I left, she was howling again.

We thought about buying another doe but in the end, we went back and bought the little wether that she had just weaned. She was happy, he was happy and we were happy. Having him here meant that I could be lazy about milking her. When I want milk, I just lock him up away from her for a few hours and milk her. He is getting pretty big now and I know that I will have to really wean him sometime soon.

Hazel

Gimli

Kids For Sale

Collette is the doe that I sold, at my DH's urging, last fall. She was bred to my buck, Cooter. On or around March 15th she had triplet doelings. The lady who purchased her from me has decided to sell Collette and all three kids because she doesn't have the time to take care of them.

I told her that I would take her and the kids to try to sell them and teach Collette how to be a milk goat.

She had originally bought Collette for milking purposes but with the three hungry mouths to feed poor Collette didn't have much milk to offer for anyone else. She has done a great job and continues to put everything that she has into producing milk for these three growing doelings.

Some goats have to have at least one kid pulled off and bottle fed when they have triplets. But Collette has been a great producer. However, she has not been hand milked at this point but I plan to start milking her as soon as they all get settled in here.

The three kids are currently for sale and should be good milk producers like their Mommy. They will have to stay with their Mommy for a little longer but if you are interested, you need to purchase them now. I will be selling Collette sometime in the near future after the kids are weaned and she is used to being milked.

You have already met the littlest of the three doelings if you have read my previous post "When Goats Fly". Her name is Francine and she is mostly white with a Champagne colored head and neck. She is very feisty.
Renee is the biggest of the three girls. She is mostly white with a medium brown head and neck.
Nicole is mostly white with a multi-colored head and neck that is black, tan and white. She is colored like her mother.The girls are priced at $75 each or all three for $200. They should make good milk goats.

My Goats

Since my eldest Son is now calling me "Chicken Lady" because he says all I blog about is chickens, I will change the subject today.

My goats are running full time with the buck now, so come the end of March, I should have my first kids and a fresh doe to milk. My eldest Son should be happy to hear this because he gets free milk and he is a big milk drinker. Something is clucking at the door, I will be right back.

Cinder is my oldest goat, she is a Nubian, Giselle is around 75% Nubian and 25% LaMancha, all the rest of my goats are around 75% Nubian and 25% Boer.

Cooter, my buck was turned in with the oldest two goats, Cinder and Giselle, on the 25th of October and then I put the young does, Colette, Calico and Paris, in with them on the 13th of December, so they shouldn't start kidding until the middle of May.

Giselle is a three year old first freshener. We had her in with a buck for a short time as a yearling and she came up empty, then we took her back to another buck as a two year old and she came up empty again. This was her last chance, my husband didn't want to continue to support a barren goat. But she is obviously pregnant this time, she is going to have multiples by the look of her.

Cinder is my herd queen, she rules supreme. She has always given me twins, always a boy and a girl. She is the mother of both Giselle, three years ago and Calico, last year. We sold Giselle and Calico's twin brothers. I think that Cinder herself was either a triplet or quad.

Cooter, Paris and Colette were all triplets from different does. So I have a good chance of getting multiples from all of my girls.