Bye Bye Boys/Waiting On Kids

Not a whole lot has happened with our goats since I last updated the blog. We sold our bucklings and wethers at market (the ones we ourselves don't plan on eating), and we realized that we really really really need to get a livestock scale. We were essentially guessing the weight of our boys by having me stand on a house scale while holding the individual kids; we knew it wouldn't be accurate, but at least we would have a ball park weight. Unfortunately this method is not good at all and we wound up sending our boys to market weighing about 10lbs less than we would have liked them to. We'll be looking for a scale for the next while and if all goes according to plan we will have purchased one before the next time we need to send our goats to market.

Currently we are waiting for three of our does to have their kids. We put them in with our buck on May 4, so Oct. 1 was day "150", but there are still no fresh kids in our pen. The average goats gestation is 145-155days, so we have been keeping a close eye on these girls since they were at day 140. We do not watch our goats enough to know the exact day that each of them were bred, so all we have is an earliest date (145 days after being put in with buck) and a latest date (155days after last day in with buck). Lucky for us, we have already experienced approx. 20 different goats delivering so we know a bunch of the signs that will help us know when we really need to start watching for new kids. I say 'a bunch of the signs' because there is no real sure sign that a goat is about to have a baby other than them laying down and having that baby. The ligaments by the tail soften  yes, but for some it's days before and for others it's only hours; there may be mucus present on some goats weeks before they have a baby where as others don't get any until right before; some get nice bags a couple days before, others don't bag up until after the babies have been delivered; some pace and call for their not yet born babies; some make themselves a nest; some find a place of their own far away from all the other goats; some have their babies right by the feeder where all the other goats are hanging out; and I am sure that there are many other 'signs' that a goat is about to have kids, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.

Hopefully my next post will be one about new kids and whether or not we notice any differences between spring and fall kidding.

Three New Does

Yesterday DH and I drove three hours to pick up some new does; two boer and one boerX. Now, these girls may not be show worthy, but we're hoping that they produce some strong/healthy kids for us next spring. It appears that the "blonde" has never been bred, hopefully that means she has never been introduced to a buck. One of the "red heads" has large/funny teats so her future kids might have difficulties sucking; this is something we will be watching carefully when she does kid. All of the girls are in decent condition, so they will most likely be put with our buck this fall so we can get some spring kids out of them.

All three of the girls appear to be a bit copper deficient so we'll be treating them for that soon. It seems that many people do not realize that goats NEED copper in their diet; almost every goat we have purchased was showing signs of being copper deficient upon arrival, or shortly there after. To be fair, we did not know how badly goats need copper until recently, it's just one of those things you learn as you spend more time researching and talking with other breeders. Our entire herd was deficient for a while, but we have since remedied that and will be making sure that their copper levels stay within a healthy range. We have yet to build a system for feeding our goats loose minerals, so unfortunately we've been having to give them a mineral block. Goats do not get nearly enough of what they need from a block so we have had to supplement our girls; hopefully we'll have a loose mineral feeder built soon so we won't have to give our girls extra copper boluses (which is not a fun task).

Two of the three does we bought yesterday, were in desperate need of a hoof trimming (DH and I tackled that job this afternoon). It is really important that a goats hooves be well maintained, but sadly some people either don't realize how important it is, or just don't bother doing it. Even though these does are a little wild we still caught them and struggled with them until their hooves were as nice as we could make them. I am terribly slow when it comes to trimming hooves, but I'm learning and I'm sure with time and more practice I'll be able to keep up with the men no problem.

The new does are currently in "isolation" so hopefully they will get a bit friendlier as we need to bring them water, grain, and hay everyday. Whenever we buy a new animal for our herd, we keep them in a separate pen, where they cannot access our  current herd. As soon as they arrive we deworm them (just in-case) and decide if they need any extra attention (ie. copper or hoof trimming). We monitor them for three weeks, and if all appears well they are then released into the herd :).

Goats For Sale (Northern Alberta)

So the time has come for us to say goodbye to our bucklings and wethers. We weaned our boys a couple of weeks ago, and will be selling them starting August 26, 2011. Although weaning the boys and keeping them separated from the females for this long did mean that we had to feed them longer, we believe that it is important that our boys be in great condition before they leave our farm. If we did not wean a kid before selling it the buyer would certainly notice some loss in condition, and this is something we try to avoid. We are not in control of the health of an animal once it leaves our farm, but we still like our goats to be as healthy as possible before they leave.

For your viewing pleasure, here are the bucklings we are selling. These boys are Boer/Kiko/Nubian/Spanish X's, and are nice and meaty. For more information on each buckling, as well as prices, please visit the "For Sale" section of our website at www.flatlakegoats.webs.com .

Wickham

Collins

Darcy

Bennet

Fitswilliam

Boris

Mufasa

We also will be selling our wethers at this time. Here are pictures of just a few of them.

-H

Pictures of Sally's Babies

Here are our last kids of spring/summer 2011.

 The kids together.

 The doeling: Sophie

 The buckling

Sally and her babies.

We're Officially Done Spring/Summer 2011 Kidding!

There you have it folks, we are officially done this seasons kidding! Stella had a single buckling a few weeks ago, and yesterday Sally gave us a doeling and a buckling :).
It has been a fun season, and we have learnt a lot! Our main goal for next year is to figure out why our goats had such thick sacks, and then try and cure this problem so that we have fewer deaths. We are also quite certain that our herd has a bit of a copper deficiency so we will be giving them supplements this weekend (if all goes according to plan that is), when we de-worm and trim hooves.
I have not taken many pictures of the new babies, but I will hopefully get a few either tonight, or tomorrow some time. In the mean time here is a cellphone picture I took of Stella's baby moments after he was born.

Lambing season is also done for the year, so we now only have to wait for the cows to finish up, and we'll be done with babies until October (if our Does were bred).

Picture Day

I went out and snapped some pictures tonight, thought I'd share as I hadn't updated in a while :).

Peaches, mother of Dawn, Grandmother of Sally

Dawn

Sally

Rambo

Pichelli

It's been a little while

Okay, so I haven't updated for a few days, but in my defense the farm has been really busy.

After the kindergarten class visited on Tuesday, we had a pretty steady day Wednesday. I worked Thursday and Friday so T and MIL were on their own. Unfortunately for them, there were 21 babies born on Thursday! They went out at 9am to do one job and it didn't get done until 6pm because it was so busy in the pen. T told me that at one point she had her arm in a ewe and saw an even worse problem and had to get out of ewe #1, catch ewe #2, re-glove and pull a very stuck baby. Happily there were no serious issues, just a lot of basic problems that would have resulted in the death of the babies if T and MIL had not been there to help (such as the stuck lamb that would have suffocated).

Saturday we had a bunch of friends over for a wiener roast (turned out to be a bbq because of fire bans) and to see the baby animals. The children were all thrilled and did a fantastic job holding and playing with the lambs, kids, and cria.

Today was a lazy day for me. There weren't many lambs so I actually had enough time to finish planting my garden (yeah!).

We did have a new cria today, so that was exciting. He is really cute, and will be our last one this year (hopefully we have 2 or 3 again next year). Here he is, we're thinking of calling him Rusty:

I'll try to get a picture of him with my camera instead of my phone soon :)

Too many babies to remember

Today was once again full of babies and to be honest I can't even remember how many we had. I will try to recount the events to the best of my ability.
This morning #1 had twins, and #2 tried to steal them. Then #2 had a single (big ram!) that we had to pull because it was pretty stuck.
Then the local kindergarten class came to see the animals; imagine 16 young children chasing 30 goat kids, because that was the reality of our situation. The goats and the children all survived, and everyone enjoyed themselves (the children more than the goats I think haha).
Once the kindergarten left we went to check on the sheep again. #3 had had a single, and #4 was trying to have her's but once again the baby was too stuck. So we pulled our #4's two lambs as well. #4 has a weak ewe lamb so we're keeping a close eye on her.

We also had one bull calf today, just a little guy (only 83lbs).

I now have a lamb in a XL dog kennel in my living room. The poor thing was apparently abandoned by it's mother and probably hadn't had anything to eat until we found it curled up behind a bale. We brought it in at 4pm, T gave her some Cal Mag and Vit B, and this really helped; we also kept her on a heating pad. By 5:30 she was strong enough to drink, and happily guzzled down 3 ounces. We were a bit concerned about her because she hadn't urinated, but (lucky for me) she peed everywhere as I was giving her her second dose of Cal Mag and Vit B. I'll be getting up every 2-3hours to check on her, and I'm really hoping that all we've done for her will work, and we'll end up with a healthy ewe bottle lamb :).

Babies, Babies, Babies

As the title states, today was a day full of babies. We had one calf, and twelve lambs today (and one was delivering when I went home).

We had one set of twin lambs early this morning. Then, while we were ear tagging and needling yesterday's babies, Ewe#1 had one lamb, then Ewe #2 had twins (ewe and ram), and then Ewe #3 had one. Ewe#1 tried to take Ewe#3's lamb, so we moved Ewe#1 and her baby into a building; she looked like she was going to have a second lamb, so MIL put on the gloves and pulled out lamb number two (two ewe lambs). By the time we were done dealing with Ewe #1, Ewe#3 had had her second lamb, so we went in for some lunch. When we came back out Ewe #3 had had a third lamb! (two ewes and one ram).
About an hour later Ewe #4 had twins (ewe and ram).

This evening we caught all the cull goats and ewes so we can send them to market tomorrow morning. While chasing the sheep, T noticed that Ewe #5 had a lamb hanging out of her. FIL and I chased her down, and I pulled the lamb out; she stopped at one (ram). Another ewe was starting to lamb just after this so T and MIL stayed out to watch her (I'll let you know tomorrow what she had).

Just a note- hairless ewe didn't make it through the night, her mom just hadn't been taking good enough care of her, and although we tried our best to save her she just wasn't strong enough.

Such a Lovely Day

We had five more lambs born last night, but none so far today. T says it looks like there are a number of ewes who look like they're going to pop any day now, so we may have a few busy days ahead of us.
Had one more bull calf born today as well.

Today was incredibly hot, and because I wasn't thinking I forgot to put on sunscreen; I now have a farmers burn (hopefully it will soon be a tan). DH and I brought the dogs to the lake for the first time this year, and were pleasantly surprised with the temperature of the water. Gertie was not impressed with swimming and was grumpy for about an hour after we got out of the water.

I planted my cucumbers (two types), carrots (two types), lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes, cabbages, and zucchini tonight; corn (two types), peas (two types), butternut squash and watermelon are all going in tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be taking pictures of my garden as it progresses (I'm just cool like that).

Little lambs chilling in a bale.

 First white faced heifer of the year.

I forced the heifer to take a picture with me :P .

It was so hot out that Pepper decided to sit in a container of water; Gertrude just drank it.

*One Hour Later: we have four more lambs. Also, hairless ewe has taken a turn for the worst, here's hoping she makes it through the night. *

Hairless Lambs

I snapped a couple pictures of our bald lambs this morning. They are just so odd looking!

 This is what a normal Suffolk, Katahidn X lamb looks like. A Suffolk, Canadian Arcott should be similar, just maybe a slightly different color.

 This is what our bald Suffolk, Canadian Arcott X lambs look like. (Ewe on left, wether on right)

She is just so pink!

We are wondering if these babies are a bit premature; T said the boys testes were small and were not quite descended when she was trying to castrate him (she got it figured out though). So maybe the small testes and lack of wool are because these babies weren't actually quite ready to come out yet. As long as they continue to eat and build up some strength I won't worry too much about them, except for sun burns that is.

On a slightly different note, we have already had two more sets of twins today, and one heifer calf :). The animals were nice enough to give us a break so T and I were able to check out all of the garage sales in town before lunch, the weather was beautiful so it was great to be able to walk around in shorts rather than my dirty farm overalls :P .

*Two hours later*-we have a new heifer and a new bull calf. The heifer is our first white faced girl of the season, so far all the white faced babies have been males.

Lambs Galore

We had 12 lambs born today (six sets of twins)! Sadly one ewe lamb was dead when MIL found her; she suspects that she was still born as there was nothing apparently wrong with the lamb. We also had 3 calves born today (all bulls), so overall we had a busy day.

One of the ewes had to be caught and helped as she had a lamb coming out head first who was stuck; happily this lamb survived. T put on the gloves and reached in the ewe, she had to go past her elbow to find the second lamb! After she pulled it forward, I put on some gloves and got to reach in and find out what a lamb feels like while it's still in it's mother. Boy was I confused! The lamb had pulled back in a bit before I got my hand in, and so I too was past my elbow in a sheep; it took me a while to locate the legs, and then I couldn't find the head. Sounds odd considering that the head is attached to the same body as the legs are, but I just couldn't find it. So, T had to take over once again, and after a bit of a struggle she was finally able to get the lamb positioned correctly, and pulled it out (it too was alive).
T said the head was turned all the way around (imagine it's nose resting on it's back), so that's why I was having problems finding it. She had to maneuver it around quite a bit so that it was coming out the right way.
Having your arm inside an animal fishing for a baby is a pretty strange experience. You can't see what you're doing so you're going by touch alone. It's like being in a pitch black room, searching for a banana in a large bowl of warm jello, except there is blood and other bodily fluids and the 'banana's' life is depending on you removing it from the 'jello' quickly and correctly.

We also had a set of twins born today who are quite bald. They remind us of hairless cats as they are wrinkly and pink; chances are they're going to need little coats or they'll wind up with sun burns. It's tempting to breed them and sell them for $1500 just like those hairless cats  : P .

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my phone while out in the pen today, sorry for the crumby quality.

 A half Canadian Arcott ewe lamb. I think she's the cutest thing :)

 The first hairless lamb just after it was born. Lamb #2 was still waiting to come out.

The hairless twins together with mom. I'll get some better photos of them tomorrow so you can all see just how pink they really are.

Some Current Pictures

Today is a beautiful day, so I thought I would snap a few pictures of some of our goats so everyone can see what they look like now. Hope you enjoy.

 Mishka is on the right, and her daughter Weeble is on the left.

Stella (C's goat)

A group of babies. The three laying down are triplets.

Trying to cool off in the shade.

Cassie (on the left) and her brother.

Alex and Billie.

The buckling with the lions mane.

Eggplant's buckling has a heart on his leg :).

Tommy the LGD watching his goats while keeping in the shade.

Before We Started Kidding

Back on March 25, before any of our kids had hit the ground, we purchased a purebred (or so we are told...) Boer Doe and her two kids, a doeling and a buckling. The Doe goes by Kirby, and we have named the doeling Peanut Butter (P.B. for purebred also equals Peanut Butter) and the buckling is Rambo (their father's name is Bodacious).

 Kirby with Rambo in front.

Rambo on the left, Peanut Butter on the right.

We will be using Rambo to breed our 2011 doelings in 2012. We're hoping for some good strong meat babies, with lots of color.

Jump ahead a bit to April 14; the day was miserable, it was snowing and blowing, everything was wet, and we had to bundle up as if it was January. For those of you with any farming experience you know that this means it is "perfect" weather for having a baby; enter Zorro. FIL had been told that one of the llamas we had received last year was due to have her baby in May, well that was wrong because she decided that a snow storm in April was the perfect day for a baby. He was quite chilled when we found him, and he had some raspy breathing, but happily he perked right up after a couple of days in the barn with his mom (I'm sure the antibiotics helped too). For those of you who are interested to know, a baby llama is called a cria.

 Zorro and his Mom

A closer look at Zorro, boy was he ever wet!