Stormy....

or at least that is what i would call him if I was going to keep him :) We had a pretty good storm last night & this morning. I was checking on Daisy about every hour between about 5pm & midnight. Checked her again at 5AM & she was finally getting serious.

I fed the bottle twins & checked her again. No progress. So I fed the chickens & gathered eggs & checked her again. No progress. So i fed the bucks & checked her again. Definitely having contractions now. I went & milked Violet, put milk away & checked her again. She had kidded by the time I got back to the barn.

Another big healthy boy....I was sure there was more than one in there from the size of her, but I guess the size is all just her.

I used to groan when bucks were born, but not any more. I am really happy to say I have found what I think will be really good homes for all the boys this year. And the problem with having beautiful girls is then you have to decide who to keep & who to sell....I hate that....

so here are some pics of the new boy who in a few weeks will have a new home with Rebecca.

Sweet Violet's twins

I just thought I would share some of the pictures I took yesterday & today. The kids sure were enjoying the sunshine while it lasted. The little girl does not have a name yet, so let me know if you have any suggestions :)

Daisy has not kidded yet. She is 150 days on Weds,  but I thought she might go sooner rather than later. waiting, waiting, waiting......

Twins!

Violet kidded this afternoon with twins. One of each. I had not planned to keep any of Violet's kids, but this is the first doe I have ever had with moon spots!!! So I am planning to keep her....sorry.

Sweet Violet about 20 hours before she kidded.

I knew  Violet was getting ready when I came home from work last night & she had bagged up. This morning when I checked her, her ligaments were "gone" so I figured less than 24 hours. Sure enough, she had them this afternoon around 3:30.

The doe is the spotted one.

The buck is a TANK!!

I will post more pictures tomorrow when they are awake :)

Follow up to browse post

This is the same area from the previous post. The girls have been allowed in here off & on for the last week. I usually let them out when i get home from work & on the weekends.  Time to keep them out of this area again & let the grass recover. Note the difference between the grass on the outside of the fence versus inside.

Dahlia, Liza, Violet, Clementine & Penny

The grass is always greener......

Heidi Goat with a big fat cud in her cheeks

Three way game of king-of-the-hill. Sisters stick together.

Liz contemplating the jump

Did it!

I'M THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD!!!

Daisy due in 17 (+/-5) days

How many kids do you think are in there?

in this pic Annie, Gracie, Rosie, Violet, Liza & Chief

I was trying to get a picture of just Violet, but she is kind of a moving target. You can not really see how big she is, but you can see in this view that she is developing a nice udder already.

You can also see that the grass has been mowed pretty well. Time to give the grass a break.

Chickie babies

Chicks started hatching yesterday. They are just so dang cute i can hardly stand it! You can not help but have a good day with these guys around.

Not much cuter than a baby goat, but this might be it :)

I keep newborns in an old water trough. Works great for a brooder. I have read over & over not to use straw as bedding because they say chicks can not walk well on it. I have never had that problem & i think they do just fine. It gives them something to poke at, because you KNOW they will try to eat anything that looks interesting. I would rather have them peck at straw than wood shavings or newspaper or whatever.

Sleepy chickie

Our goat barn

I have had several folks ask about my barn so I thought I would post some pictures of it while it was under construction. It is easier to see how it is put together this way. It was done with almost all recycled materials. I have a friend Art who is a contractor.  He had removed an old redwood fence to put up a new one & brought most of the old fencing to me for this little project.

  

Right "shed"

I drew him a picture of what I wanted & this is what we got.  The barn is basically two sheds tied together with a center isle roof. The overall size is about 13x16 The timbers were small cedar trees that were cleared out of the meadow at my parents property. The metal we used for the "skirt" and the roof is very old, very heavy corrugated metal roofing. Not really sure where that came from. My dad was always collecting useful stuff (and not-so-useful-stuff). I think he bought it at a scrap yard (same place he got all  the fencing we used for the hodge podge fencing....not pretty but the price was right :).

the only thing we purchased new were the 2x4s & 2x6s

The floor was left as dirt because that is the way I wanted it. This allows us to use the "deep bedding" method. It makes it a total pain the 2 to 4 times a year it gets cleaned back down to the dirt, but it does keep it toasty warm in the barn. And when it does get cleaned out, it is pretty much already composted & goes straight on the garden. Good stuff!

This main center beam Art cut with his chainsaw from a cedar log   

First pieces of roofing on the center isle

Here you can really tell it used to be a fence :)

And here it is a few months later. I was really taking pictures of all the wind damaged trees, but this gives you the "see thru" view of the roof. I am really pleased with how it turned out. There is plenty of ventilation, but it is not drafty at all.

Goat care basics ~ Vaccinations & hoof care

Hoof Care

Your goats hooves will need to be trimmed on a regular basis, just like a horse. Usually once every 4-12 weeks depending on what surfaces they are exposed to & how much walking they do. Here is a great tutorial. I really like it because it is pictures of actual feet & not just drawings.

http://www.infovets.com/healthysmrm/C322.htm

Vaccinations

Much like your dog or cat, goats need a series of vaccines as kids and annual vaccines as adults. I use Covexin 8 on my goats. I give the does their annual vaccine 2-6 weeks before they are due to kid. This way the kids are exposed to the vaccine/antibodies both from the dams blood supply before they are born and colostrum after there are born. I always make sure that for the first week after theya re born, the kids get the miolk from their moms only & not “pooled” milk.

Five mls of Covexin is given SQ at 10-12 weeks of age. A booster of 2ml is given in 6 weeks. Your veterinarian can administer the vaccine for you. You can also purchase Covexin (I know Lee's Feed carries it, not sure about the other local feed stores) and give the vaccine yourself.  

the boys of summer...

....or spring as the case may be.  I get a lot of inquiries about what mini nubian wethers look like. I always tell folks that you just never know. Every kidding is like Christmas morning opening a much anticipated package. Will the birthing go well? Will the kids be healthy? How many kids will there be? Does or Bucks? What will the ears look like? (with minis in early generation, it can vary A LOT; but airplane ears are very cute on a pet goat & they sure do add to the expression of their  personality).

  

  

Color is what I get asked about the most. You can get a pretty good idea by looking at the adults in the herd, but you really just never know with Mini Nubians....I had a lot of white last year because the Nigerian Dwarf buck I used was largely white & clearly had an influence. Here are some pictures of boys from years past. Hope this helps & please contact me if you have any questions.

Tina's brother 2009

Rosie's boy #2 2010

Rosie's boy #2 2010

Rosie's boy #2 2010

Rosie's Boy #1 2010

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Rosie's boy #1 2010

I will post "birth announcements" here when the kids are born. Can't wait to see what we get!!!

Goat Care Basics ~ Water & Minerals

Just like any other pet, goats need access to good clean fresh water. Seems simple, right? It is as long as you do not have hard water. It took me a long time to figure out that hard water causes all kinds of trouble with the uptake of other minerals, specifically copper. Copper deficient goats are not happy looking goats. I wont get in to the details of copper deficiency, there is lots of info out there on the web (here is a good summary). I am just mentioning it here so that you can maybe avoid the problems I ran into by being forewarned.

Your goats will need a good mineral supplement. “Salt” blocks are not sufficient. DO NOT USE A PRODUCT LABELED FOR SHEEP!! it will not have enough copper in it for your goats because sheep are very sensitive to copper toxicity, so the levels in sheep minerals are kept low. I use loose minerals because part of the solution I found for my copper/hard water issues was adding copper sulfate to the loose minerals; cant do that if you are using a block. Also, take a look at the salt content before you buy. For example, Purina goat minerals has a good level of copper, but it is 41-45% salt. With that much salt, the goats are less likely to eat the volume that they need to consume to get the minerals they need. We use Sweetlix Magnum Milker because it has the same level of copper but only 10-12% salt. The goats need to consume more to satisfy their salt cravings & therefore consume more minerals. We also add vitamins to the loose minerals. We like Equerry's plus because in addition to basic vitamins, it also contains nutritional yeast and probiotics.

Polled Goats

Polled goats are goats who are born without horns. It is a genetic and therefore heritable trait. We love our polled goats because we HATE to have to burn the heads on tiny baby kids. We have chosen to select for the polled trait whenever possible. So, if it makes it so you do not have to disbud kids, why doesn't everyone breed polled? Because there is a lot of misinformation and old wives tales out there that have given polled goats a bad reputation. There is the fear that if you breed a polled goat to a polled goat, the resulting goats are all sterile. According to the published information available, this is just not true. I have tried to summarize what i have found below. I will try to add references in the future, as time allows :) The first peice of information to understand is that there are two gene sites that control two traits.  One controls polled versus horned. The other controls the intersex gene. These two sites are linked together (they are located very close together on chromosome #1, so they always "go together." In other words, if the goat has the polled gene they also have the "potential" to be a female hermaphrodite (intersex). The other 3 pieces of important information: #1 Polled is dominant over horned (so you can get a polled goat if that gene site is (+/+) or (+/-), #2 The gene that causes hermaphrodites (intersex) is a recessive, it only shows up with a homozygous recessive (ie, two genes, one from each parent, that are the recessive (-/-). If it is heterozygous (+/-) or homozygous dominant (+/+), then they are normal polled goats. #3 Only females end up hermaphrodites.  So, if you have a polled goat that you know was produced from a polled and horned pairing, you know it is heterozygous (-/+) for the polled gene. For the intersex gene, if it is not a Hermie, you know it is not (-/-) but you don't know if it is (-/+) or (+/+)....so if you were to breed that animal to another polled animal, the chances of getting a male is 50/50 and they will never be a hermie. A female has either a 50/50 if one parent is (+/+) and the other is (+/-) or 1 in 4 if both parents are (-/-). So worst case scenario is about 1 in 8 chance of getting a hermie. We have never actually had one yet, but when we do, we will just treat like a wether, so no big deal. It is well worth that "risk" to not have to disbud kids all the time. OK, that is the goat genetics lesson for ya'all. Hope someone finds it useful.