48 Degrees

Cool enough for a sweatshirt this morning while I milk. Now if I can just find those sweatshirts.

Calico has fallen into a great milking routine. She is giving more milk now than she has in past years. She has fully recovered after having mastitis in late June. It was my first experience with mastitis. It was my first experience with a single kid, she had always had twins before. He was getting enough milk from just one side and was not nursing the other side. I was milking her once per day but I guess I should have been milking her twice per day. 

Collette is due to kid on September 8th, so we are getting close. I don’t think that I have to worry about a single with her unless something goes wrong. She is surely carrying multiples, not sure how many. She had Triplets her first kidding but I didn’t see her before she kidded so I don’t know how big she got. I need to get some pictures of her now for future reference.

Bucks

First, I must confess that I have already messed up on my statement that I was going to blog everyday. I will try to do better but I am not promising anything.

Second, I must get this out of the way for those who thought that I would be talking about deer in this post. We did see two monster bucks with huge velvety antlers on our way home last night. They where standing picturesquely in a lush field of clover not far from our place as the crow flies. They were lovely. I longed for a camera.

Now, back to the subject of Bucks, as in Billy Goats. I still have not sold Collette but did trade her triplet doelings for three full blooded Nubian bucklings. I know that it doesn't make sense to trade doelings for bucklings but I just could not sell the doelings. Their color just was not right and they had not been disbudded (dehorned).

The bucklings that I traded for were all spotted and disbudded. Two of them are black and white spotted twins. The other was a roan, spotted and painted buckskin, I say "was" because I have already sold him.

It has been a tough decision and one that has broken my heart but I have decided to sell Cooter. He is just to big and strong for me to handle anymore. He isn't mean but because he is kept in a small area or tied up. He likes to kick up his heels when he gets a chance and when he gets a chance is when I lead him from one place to another.

When he walks on his hind feet he towers over me and that is fine. But when he hits the end of the rope at a dead run, I just can't get him stopped and he ends up dragging me until I yell at him.

So I thought that it might be nice to have a buck with no boer in him, Cooter is a Boer and Nubian cross. He is big and very muscled. One of these little Nubian bucks would fill the bill for me. They are full Nubian which would make them a little lighter framed.

I listed all of the bucks for sale but started leaning towards keeping the Buckskin and had pretty much made up my mind about him, he was the friendliest of the three. Well wouldn't you know, the first person to call and come to look wanted him. So now I have chosen the less wildly colored of the two left. I am not taking a chance this time and have removed the ads for him from the classified sites.

So without further ado, here is my new buck whom I have not named yet.

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.

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.

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.

Setting Eggs

On Sunday evening my cousin who has Mille Fleur d'uccle hens like mine, told me that one of his hens had gone broody. So he came to my house and I gave him the 6 newest d'uccle eggs that I had to put under his hen. Then on Wednesday one of my d'uccle banty hens went broody. She had only 3 eggs under her, so on Thursday I set some more d'uccle eggs under her that I had gathered and had in my refrigerator. I took eggs right out of my refrigerator last year and they hatched out without any problems.

So, we now have a nest of 11 eggs with all three of my Mille Fleur d'uccles taking turns setting on it. Even my d'uccle rooster takes his turn, to let the hens go for a drink and a bite to eat. That's real teamwork. They should start hatching out in 21 days, which will be on the 27th or 28th of this month.

Calico looks like she is about to pop. We feel so sorry for her, but the weather has cooled down some and that will help her, those hot, sunny days were hard on her, she just laid in the shade and still panted like a dog. I have her turned loose in our yard and she can come and go as she pleases but she is staying inside in her stall today, she isn't wanting to move around much. I wish she would hurry up and kid. I am getting concerned about her, she may have triplets. or very large twins.

The mule foal died, his mother just didn't have any milk. When we were there on Sunday we couldn't catch her to see if she had milk and she doesn't belong to us or we would have pursued the matter. Now we feel bad because we didn't, he probably wouldn't have survived anyway without colostrum and no one was sure when he was born, but we could have tried to save him.

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.