Too Much Milk

I was not expecting to have to be milking right now. But here I am having to milk two to three times a day. I am putting Collette's doelings in a separate pen at night then milking her in the morning before turning them back in with her during the day. Calico is producing way too much milk for her twin bucklings and I am having to relieve some of the pressure, they are also only nursing on one side.

Collette did really well with her first milking. I put the hobbles on her with no problem. When I put the syringe barrel on the first teat and she tried to kick, it lifted her whole back side up off of the milking stand and dropped her off of the table.

This was something that has always scared me because I was afraid that it might break a goat's neck if they were latched into the neck stantion or stanchion (however you spell it).

She fell off the milk stand on the opposite side of the table from where I was sitting. I jumped up and ran around the milking stand to find that she had already recovered herself and was eating her grain. She had her hobbled hind feet on the ground, her front feet up on the stand, her neck fastened in the stantion with her nose buried in the grain, typical goat.

I had to unhobble her, release her from the stantion, tug and pull until I got her nose out of the grain and then reload her onto the stand. From there the milking went very smoothly, she decided that kicking with a set of hobbles on was not a good idea. She learns very quickly.

Right now while I am typing this I am tasting Collette's milk for the first time. Her milk does not have nearly as much cream in it, as Calico's does. It is more homogenized and it tastes totally different. It is very good just tastes different. All goat's milk tastes different from goat to goat. You should always taste the milk of a freshened milk goat that you are thinking about buying.

I have been letting Calico run loose in the yard with her babies. She comes to the door and cries until I come out. She then runs and loads herself onto the milking stand and makes me milk her when her udder gets tight and heavy. She is producing enough milk for us, the dogs, the cat and her babies. I have been having to milk her twice a day but as the bucklings are getting bigger they are taking more and I am only having to milk her once per day, whether she likes it on not.

Frost??

Did anyone else get frost last night? I happened to check the forecast before going to bed and it said 'patchy frost'. So I ran outside with blankets to cover our flowers and strawberries.

Sure enough, frost is everywhere this morning in our valley in southern Indiana.

My outside thermometer said that it was 31 degrees at 8:00 am. It is always colder here than anywhere else.

Sludge

Our barn is just full of it, last night it was rain water, today it is sludge. It has been years since we have seen this much rain. Indian Creek has rerouted itself into our lower pasture and is still rising. The roaring sound of the creek, that is temporarily a river, is filling this valley.

Poor Calico and kids are on the only high spot in the stall. She isn't even wading the waters to go to her hay feeder. I was awake all night, it started with a glance at the weather radar when I knew something bad was going to hit us, there was no escape.

By the time that I got the computer shut down because I was starting to hear the thunder, it was here. There was no sleep after that. The lightening, thunder, hail and wind were really scary. I was just sure that we were going to get hit by a tornado any second. My DH just kept snoring, I talked to him anyway, he even answered.

I was expecting to find things blown all over the yard this morning and trees down but nothing seems out of place but our spring creek and Indian Creek. However, it does look like a jungle out there, the grass and weeds all grew several inches over night. The horses will have plenty to eat, they will all start getting obese again.

Poor Angus was outside in all of that mess, I don't know where he was but he didn't come into the barn before I had to close up everything. I had just closed the big sliding door to the barn, locked it and gone back to bed when I heard the cat hollering to be let in. So I went back out to let him in and he had already found another way. He looked like something that the cat had drug home. There was a lot of hail so I wasn't surprised to see him looking quite confused.

Calico Kidded

It turns out that Amy over at Twelve Acres was right on target with her guess of large twins for Calico, hopefully she is right on Paris as well. She didn't guess the sex or color of the babies though.

Calico went into labor at 9:00 last night. It seemed to take her forever compared to the way her mother always kidded. We missed Calico kidding last year, so I didn't know what to expect. She didn't seem to be in any distress at all and was quite calm and relaxed about the whole thing. By 9:30 she had the first big buckling, he is brownish with no spots. She took her sweet time cleaning him up.

After she was convinced that she couldn't do anymore to make the first kid any more comfortable, she started on having the second kid. He was a little larger than the first and a buckling also. I am not sure of his color, neither has spots like their daddy.

Since it was dark and they were still damp last night, I haven't gotten a good look at them or good pictures. This morning they are all curled up together in a tight little ball with hay on top of them where their mommy has been eating.

At first I thought that they were identical but the second one is darker than the first.

How Many?

So how many do you think that they are going to have, what gender and if you are real brave, what color? Calico is the dark one who is due today and Paris is the mostly white one who is due on the 31st.

All was peaceful and quiet until someone called the other one fat, then a fight broke out. It must be hormones.

Teaser

Coming soon to this blog! Don't miss even one of these exciting posts.

* Updated Pictures of Calico and Paris (how many do you think they will have?)

* Husband brings home an Orange Harley Davidson (complete with photos)

* Bantam Hen Prolapses (and what I am doing about it)

* High Blood Pressure!? (Doctors are only practicing)

* Updated Photos of Sky

* Pictures of Calico's New Kids (hopefully arriving soon)

Classified Ads

I know that I said that I would update you on my milking experience with Collette this morning but it was storming last night and I had to put Cooter in one of the horse trailers. So I didn't have any place to separate Collette from her kids. I may have to wait until Monday to do it now.

I really need to sell Kia, Collette and the doelings. I don't need the extra work or the extra expense. I have posted them on a few classified sites and these free sites are getting ridiculous. Craigslist is just so sleazy and you get so many fraudulent inquiries plus your ad gets nuked as soon as you post it for no good reason other than there are people on there who feel powerful when they delete your ad.

I listed Kia as a farm animal because that is what she is, she isn't a pet. She loves her job and while someone could make her a pet, I am sure she would miss her role as protector. Anyway Craigslist has some kind of rules against selling pets on their site. I don't understand their rules because there are all kinds of pets being sold on there. They just whitewash it by calling it rehoming fees. Oh, the power of words...one must always use the correct terms.

Then again, if you try to give an animal away free on Craigslist then you get a lecture about your animal falling into the wrong hands by giving it away or selling it too cheap. What a perfect world that we live in. Someone is always trying to tell you how to live your life. Craigslist has become a place to avoid. It strikes me kind of funny that such a sleazy place tries to preach to others.

I did list Kia and the goats for sale on Kijiji, it just seems all together cleaner. It is also a little easier to use, a much better setup, they allow 8 pictures.

See myClassified Ads

**Kia has found a great new home with lots of animals, human kids and room to roam, she is loving all of the attention.

General Update

Spring is a busy time for us even when we aren't having any foals. It seems like I don't have much time to blog anymore. I have taken on the new responsibility of Collette and her three doelings. I separated them for the first time last night. My plan was to try to milk her this morning but since the milk stand wasn't ready, I decided to work on that today and try to milk her in the morning.

I fed and watered the doelings and then took some pictures of Collette's strutted udder in case anyone who might be interested in her wants to see it. It is a little lob-sided with the left side being larger than the right but she has a lot of milk. With the three kids nursing her I had no idea what her udder looked like when it was full.

I put her back in with her babies after I took the pictures and they were happy to see her. This is the first step in the weaning process, spending the night apart. Hopefully she won't give me too much trouble in the morning when I try to milk her. I will post the results tomorrow.

Angus is doing great and eating us out of house and home. He is dying for a playmate and tries to play with the doelings, that doesn't work very well, when Collette tries to fend him off they get into a head pushing competition that he always wins. We have to keep a close eye on them.

I still do not have any broody hens and I don't understand it. Last year they all wanted to go broody and this year no one does.

Calico is due on Sunday, Mother's Day. I have her and Paris in the foaling stall right outside our door, I put them in there for the first time last night. She is getting very close by the looks of her. Her udder isn't strutted tight yet but is getting very full, she is very indignant when I touch it. She thinks that I am going to milk her and she knows that just wouldn't be right. I have to touch it quickly to check it because she anticipates my move and out maneuvers me.

Paris is definitely bred also. I don't think that I have posted that my doubts about her have been erased. She isn't as big as Calico but she is big and is in the process of making an udder. She is due on the May 31st.

I have a ton of work that is going to have to be done. Cooter destroyed my dog kennel, that is where I usually separate the kids at weaning time. I have repaired it before and it is a big job. We need to get a bottom strand of wire put up around the goat lot so that the babies don't just walk under it like Angel does.

Sky, our new filly is growing more beautiful everyday. It has been raining so much that I haven't been able to get out there and play with her and take pictures.

I am not complaining about the rain because rain brings grass and our pastures need grass right now for the amount of horses that we have. Of course, the yard looks awful and since our miniature horse, Mr. Shorty has already foundered once this Spring, he has lost his job as our official lawn mower.

Trouble, our Cushings Disease mare, hasn't shown any signs of improvement. I started her on the Chaste Tree Berry Powder on April 24th, so it has been two weeks today. Maybe I am being too impatient. The article said that we should start seeing results in three weeks, so I'll try not to be discouraged yet. The first result is that you will notice they are drinking less water, but she is sharing a big water tank with our large herd, so there is no way for us to notice a difference. Her long curly hair is still hanging on for dear life. We plan to shave her as soon as we get a decent day.

Kia

Kia is our new Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dog. She is a full sister to Angel my first Great Pyr but from another litter. Abby, my second Great Pyr is her mother. Kia needed a new home and I took her on a whim. She is a great LGD, she never tries to get out of the goat lot and she is great with the goats, chickens, Angus and the Grandkids. What more could you want in a livestock guardian dog?

The problem is that I don't need three big dogs to feed. Dog food is way too expensive and I really don't need an LGD for each goat that I own. If I were smart and thinking logically, I would keep Kia and sell Angel because Angel won't stay where she is suppose to be. But the old emotions kick in and I realize that I can't think logically because I love Angel.

Abby is a perfect LGD, she is vicious with anything that gets close to her goats but she is very people friendly. Angel is not people friendly but does love the Grandkids. Kia falls somewhere in between, she isn't as friendly as her mother but is not as untrusting of humans as Angel is.

I really need to sell Kia before I get too much more attached to her. At this point I am going to have to know that she is getting a really good forever home. She is 2 and a half years old, is not a real large Great Pyr, she is happy and smiles all of the time. She is spayed and up to date on all Vaccines and Wormings.

**Kia has found a great new home with lots of animals, human kids and room to roam, she is loving all of the attention.

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.

When Goats Fly

Goats tend to be built with the rare ability to fly. They are aerodynamically designed for flight. Nubian and Boer Goats are more likely to use their sleek characteristics and generous wingspan to practice take offs and landings than are most other breeds. Though staying aloft for long periods of time is generally not achieved by most goats.

Having witnessed Goat flight on several occasions, I have never before been able to obtain actual footage of this phenomenon before now. To prove my theory, I offer these actual, unaltered pictures.

This is Francine, she has come to live with us here until we can find her a suitable home. As you can see she is built for flight. Her wings are perfectly placed, broad and held away from her body. She has not two but four landing gears. She also has a movable rudder at her stern.

Francine is proud of her flying abilities and practices as often as possible. Here you see her practicing an emergency landing with only one landing gear.

The photo above shows her unique ability to take off with a backward thrust, that is, achieving lift off while traveling backwards.

Francine has aspirations of joining the United States Military when she is old enough and weaned. Here you see her practice lifting off from an Aircraft Carrier.

If you are interested in purchasing this exceptional doeling from us, please let us know and she can be yours for only $75.