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| Little Jheri, only an hour or two old with momma Fatty |
Yep. You got it. Exactly 10 days after the first kids were born, I was graced with another baby buckling. This experience was quite different, and much more enjoyable. I'm pretty darn proud of how I handled it all in all, no hysterics, just joy!
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| Look at those glossy black waves!!!!! |
The cool thing is that I pretty much knew it was going to happen. I noticed in the morning that Fatty Patty's udders had grown pretty much overnight, and after sending several graphic goat booty pictures to a goat friend of mine, she confirmed that the arrival was eminent! This farmer is learning, slowly, but learning all the same! The bummer part was I missed the birth...again. I had been checking on her pretty regularly, but ended up dealing with various clerical and family issues on the phone for 2 hours....and the next time I checked, there was that little black lump. I am pretty proud of momma Fatty, too. She has been a great mom, on the overprotective side, but what first time mom isn't!! I'm just grateful that the delivery went on without a problem and that she only had one babe.
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| Jheri hiding while his momma calls frantically for him |
This boy will challenge me a bit more with my farmer/animal husbandry prowess. Being a pygora goat, I have the option of having him disbudded so that he doesn't grow horns. Most goats will naturally have horns, but the practice of disbudding young kids is commonplace for many goat keepers. It is safer for goat and person, there is no chance of getting gored, or having other goats injured when goats are just being goats. Since these are not domesticated animals they don't need horns for protection, and being kept in a fenced area provides lots of opportunity for horns to get stuck in fencing. Goats used in 4H or the show ring can't have horns for safely reasons. The previous kids, being full angora goats, need to keep their horns as a cooling mechanism. They grow thick fleece rather quickly and the horns provide an area for blood to circulate and cool their furry body. The disbudding process is nasty, though, and I am very much NOT looking forward to holding this sweet week old 5 pounder while his little horn buds are cauterized. I'm also not looking forward to removing him from his overprotective and slightly neurotic mother for an hour. She just might have a coronary.
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| Hercules on my lap, he is so much bigger and fuzzier now! |
So, in a matter of 3 months I went from 4 goats to 7. I have the added pressure of deciding who I am going to keep and who I am going to try and sell. I had anticipated this problem, but thought I had many months yet to get a plan together. Now the time crunch is forced due to the fact that all 3 babies are boys. To keep peace in the herd, I only want one buck and Chupacabra (Chupie) is the man. By about 8-10 weeks I will either need to have the babies castrated or have a buyer/plan in place to sell them intact as a breeding buck in which there is less demand. Argh!! The choices of farmers!!! To remove the horns or not, to remove the testes or not!! My brain is quite challenged at the moment with such things, very foreign thought processes for me.
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| Chupie as a young buck, cutie-pie! |
Creating wethers (castrated males) is very common with livestock, in fact, I would bet most male horses, cattle, sheep and goats you see are castrated. From my research I have found that the added bonus of a wether is that his fiber stays finer, longer, so many of those who have what we call in the biz "spinners herds" have wethers. But once castrated, their sales value drops about 10 fold. Another brain bending fact to consider.
That's it for now, I have been a little energizer bunny lately, so soon I will be actually be able to show you some shearing, fiber dying and ohmygosh maybe even knitting??? Isn't this in part what this path is all about???
Til then, enjoy the pictures!! I have no idea why I like this picture. This is little Billy trying clover for the first time, one of his first solid meals at 2 weeks old!
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| Bluebell, Billy and Chupie eating fresh clover |
