Raising goats on our little farm has been interesting. There is always something new to learn and things don't hardly ever go like planned!! We decided to breed 2 of our does. We love goat babies around here! First up, we put Calliope with Crusoe. He's still quite young, but we were hoping she would be bred.
Several months prior to that, we put Jenna with Sherlock. (Since then we found a new herd for Sherlock and decided to only keep one buck) We thought for sure she would be bred! I even thought she was showing signs of labor.....but still no babies.
We decided to stop the guessing games and go ahead and do some blood tests to determine if either were expecting.
The verdict???
Both were negative. BOTH!! I couldn't believe it.
So, we decided to try again. We put Crusoe with Calliope and with Tiger Lily too.
Don't you just love all the dapples?? Can you imagine the babies colors??
Let's just say we think this time might have worked. Hopefully we'll be having springtime babies!!
Then we noticed that Jenna may be in heat. The problem? She's a bully! She's our biggest and oldest goat. She's also a nubian, which is a bigger goat compared to the rest that are Mini Nubians. She definitely thinks she's the queen of Storybook Farms.
When we put her with little Crusoe, she would pick on him and try to hook him with her horns. (Oh the joys of having horned and dehorned goats together!!)
So Patrick came up with the idea of putting pool noodles on her horns.
We went out to put the noodles on. We were hurrying because clouds were gathering and we could hear thunder in the distance.
Then....
Kapow! Thunder was close and it started pouring.
Silas, Micah and I were stuck in the goat stall for just a bit. So thankful for my Prince Charming and Knight in Shining Armor (AKA Expedition) that came to pick us up!
We believe our little plan may have worked!
So far we believe Jenna and Tiger Lily may have been bred. We are waiting for Calliope and Winnie to go into heat. Wouldn't it be so cool to be on goat watch for 4 does!?! Spring is going to be exciting around Storybook Farms!
Kapow! Thunder was close and it started pouring.
Do y’all disbud your goats yourself? I learned how to do our Nigerian dwarfs when I was ALOT younger, where horns/scurs generally don’t come back! There are ways to tell, about a week before delivery if they’re actually bred (utter and tail tendons)…. Maynardfamilyhomestead.com
ReplyDeleteYes, we started disbudding our baby goats last spring. For now we have 3 horned goats and 2 disbudded. Eventually we will go all disbudded, but for now our 3 horned stays, we just can't part with them! :o) I think with Jenna I was so hoping she was bred that I was interpreting things as hopeful signs she was bred. She obviously wasn't! :o) I always get so excited that I take every little "off" thing as a sign. I am learning that loose ligaments seems to be the best way to tell. Sometimes my does bag up 6 weeks beforehand, sometimes the day before, so that's sometimes deceiving for me. We are really hoping our 4 does are bred. I'll probably do some testing in December.
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