Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: The15thMember on March 01, 2021, 05:08:10 pm
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My sister's does are ready to give birth for the first time any day! Bella's (the black doe's) due date is on the 4th and she is already showing some early signs, so she's locked in the kidding stall. Prim's (the brown doe's) due date is the 9th. This is the first time we've had kids born, and we are so excited! If nothing gets going soon we'll be getting up overnight and checking on Bella to see if anything's happening.
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Good luck. Hope everything goes well.
Jim Altmiller
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They're here!! I was a late night last night. Actually my sister didn't go to bed until 5:00 AM this morning. I went to bed around 3:00 and slept only two hours before going out to relieve her. The first baby was born at almost exactly midnight, and is a boy. He's the all black one. It was pretty rough on Bella, and my sister did have to help her out. The second baby is a girl, she was born at 12:23 AM, and her birth was no trouble. She's the one with white markings. Bella was pretty freaked out by the babies at first, but she's figured out what the deal is with them now, and both babies are nursing and momma is recovering nicely.
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They are so cute and fun when they are little!
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They are so cute and fun when they are little!
I know! We are having a blast with them, they are up and running and jumping around in the pasture (under supervision) now, and they are a total riot.
Why is it that Kathy is the only one to respond to this post?! I guess crotchety old men don't care about cute baby goats. :wink: :cheesy:
Our other doe kidded last night, and she had a boy and a girl as well. My sister is planning on keeping Bella's girl to add to the herd and selling Prim's girl. We're going to wether (castrate) the boys and either sell them as well or raise them for meat.
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They are cute. But, I'm just not a big fan of goats. :tongue:
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They are cute. But, I'm just not a big fan of goats. :tongue:
What!? How can you not love goats? They are such characters. :grin:
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Congratulations on your homestead progress! tell us about your others critters. Rabbits, Chickens, etc.
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Congratulations on your homestead progress! tell us about your others critters. Rabbits, Chickens, etc.
Thanks, Phillip. But seriously, no one wants to hear more about the goats?! *shakes head* Why does everyone hate them? :sad: :cheesy: We've got another batch of rabbits almost ready to butcher and both rabbit does rebred. We've been feeding the rabbit organs to our cats lately, and they've been enjoying that. The younger chickens are laying at full capacity and we're getting almost a dozen eggs a day. My parents also fenced in the garden so the chickens can get some free range time when the trees leaf in.
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Sounds good! When I was a boy at home I use to sell eggs to the local country store. Made some good spending money for a kid.
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Why is it that Kathy is the only one to respond to this post?
Probably because she has a couple of goats :cheesy:
Mine are huge intact males. Long story...
But well behaved and have been tied out to eat blackberries and scrub since they were little. They were cute then. Not so much now!!
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Why is it that Kathy is the only one to respond to this post?
Probably because she has a couple of goats :cheesy:
Mine are huge intact males. Long story...
But well behaved and have been tied out to eat blackberries and scrub since they were little. They were cute then. Not so much now!!
Oh, that's right, I forgot you had goats, Kathy. But when you said before that you had 2 males for brush clearing, I assumed you meant you had wethers! Could we get some pictures of them perhaps? My sister is curious about them. :happy:
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Could we get some pictures of them perhaps?
I'll try to remember. I probably have some old pics but nothing newish.
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Here are some pictures of the babies now that they are bigger. Not that anyone cares. :wink: :cheesy:
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:happy:
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:happy:
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Good pictures. Are these milk goats?
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Good pictures. Are these milk goats?
They are a dual purpose breed, but yes, we are milking the does. My sister is getting over a quart from each doe every morning. It's absolutely delicious, much better than store bought cows milk.
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Good pictures. Are these milk goats?
They are a dual purpose breed, but yes, we are milking the does. My sister is getting over a quart from each doe every morning. It's absolutely delicious, much better than store bought cows milk.
That is awesome. A few years ago a Mexican restaurant opened here. They featured goat milk cheese dip! It was outstanding with chips and salsa. I think through the years they have converted to regular cow milk. It does not have that good rich flavor that it once had. Do you make cheese as well?
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That is awesome. A few years ago a Mexican restaurant opened here. They featured goat milk cheese dip! It was outstanding with chips and salsa. I think through the years they have converted to regular cow milk. It does not have that good rich flavor that it once had. Do you make cheese as well?
My sister is going to try making cheese, but she hasn't had the time yet. Apparently mozzarella is an easy cheese to make, so she is thinking about trying that first. Maybe we'll be having goat cheese pizza soon!
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That is awesome. A few years ago a Mexican restaurant opened here. They featured goat milk cheese dip! It was outstanding with chips and salsa. I think through the years they have converted to regular cow milk. It does not have that good rich flavor that it once had. Do you make cheese as well?
My sister is going to try making cheese, but she hasn't had the time yet. Apparently mozzarella is an easy cheese to make, so she is thinking about trying that first. Maybe we'll be having goat cheese pizza soon!
I read in the cooking post where your sisters were successful in the cheese making! Congratulations. Have yall tried to make goat butter?
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I read in the cooking post where your sisters were successful in the cheese making! Congratulations. Have yall tried to make goat butter?
Goats milk is naturally homogenized, so it's hard to separate out the cream from milk for butter. My sister has been taking some milk and leaving it sit in a big flat dish in the fridge for several days so the cream will rise to the top, and then skimming off the cream and storing it in the freezer until we have enough to make butter. We haven't actually tried it yet, but it's something we are working towards. She has also tried yogurt, which she is having trouble getting to set up thick enough, but it tastes really good. We are going to start experimenting with soap too.
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What you all are doing is interesting. I love fresh real butter on a hot biscuit. Makes the whole breakfast so much better in my opinion. We use to make our own when I was living at home with my parents. (from a milk cow) What a treat! My parents liked the buttermilk! I do not. I can not get past the smell! lol :shocked: :wink:
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I wonder how a cream separator would work on goat's milk. We had friends with goats and it was the same. Only a little of the cream ever separates out naturall.
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I wonder how a cream separator would work on goat's milk. We had friends with goats and it was the same. Only a little of the cream ever separates out naturall.
Mr Bush my grandparents had and used one on cows milk. I did not think of that. I bet it would help Member and her family.
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I wonder how a cream separator would work on goat's milk. We had friends with goats and it was the same. Only a little of the cream ever separates out naturall.
Mr Bush my grandparents had and used one on cows milk. I did not think of that. I bet it would help Member and her family.
We have looked into getting one but quality models are pretty expensive. It's something we'll probably do in the future, but just don't have the money laying around for it right now. Other things are taking priority at the moment.
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Here's this year's first batch of baby goats! Bella had four kids last evening, 3 boys and 1 girl! My sister went out to check on her around suppertime last night, and she was showing signs of pre-labor, so my sister came back into the house to get her kidding supplies, which only took a couple of minutes, and by the time she got back, two kids were already out! Two more followed within a half hour.
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Nice Reagan! Sorry I missed this one. I do not know a lot about goats but isn't 4 in one litter unusual? Congratulations by the way!
Phillip
PS I sent the latest Way Out West Video to you..
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I do not know a lot about goats but isn't 4 in one litter unusual?
It's not overly common, but it's not that rare either. Twins and triplets are most common in goats, with quads being about as common as humans having twins. It is more common in miniature breeds though, which our goats are.
Our other doe, Prim, had triplets two days ago, all girls! You always want girls because they bring the most money when selling. All our kids will be for sale or butchered this year, we don't have any plans to keep any.
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Here are our new babies! We had Prim go first this year. She had 1 boy and 2 girls. The doelings are black and the buckling is the brown one. My sister is going to be keeping the doe with white side patches. She named her Halo, since she was born on 1/17 (video game people will get the joke). The other doeling will be for sale, and the buckling will be wethered for the freezer.
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Didn't know you guys were Halo fans. Happy belated Master Chief day! :grin: BTW, tell your sister congrats. They are very cute.
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Didn't know you guys were Halo fans. Happy belated Master Chief day! :grin: BTW, tell your sister congrats. They are very cute.
:grin: We've been slowly working through the Master Chief collection on Xbox One for several years. We always thought it was fun, but the Paramount+ show got us hooked into it for real. We're doing Halo 5 right now. It think the only other core game we haven't done is Reach. We are super bummed out that they aren't making the new games local multiplayer anymore. It drives me crazy how few local co-op console games there are, other than like party games. :angry:
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I am not a fan of co-op only because I don't have the time to do it justice. Halo is the one series that I have played through more than once. There are others I like but I can always go back to Halo. Grab Reach when you can. I enjoyed it more than ODST or one of the others that ticked me off trying to finish it. 3 maybe.
I do like multiplayer games. played WOW for years. Played Destiny 2 for a while. A few others. Again, time...
Anway, sorry to take this OT. I'll quit now :cheesy:
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I am not a fan of co-op only because I don't have the time to do it justice. Halo is the one series that I have played through more than once. There are others I like but I can always go back to Halo. Grab Reach when you can. I enjoyed it more than ODST or one of the others that ticked me off trying to finish it. 3 maybe.
I do like multiplayer games. played WOW for years. Played Destiny 2 for a while. A few others. Again, time...
Anway, sorry to take this OT. I'll quit now :cheesy:
No, it's fine. This thread never gets a lot of action anyway. I'm pretty sure Reach is included in our collection, we just haven't played it yet. I agree, ODST was frustrating, so much retreading the same ground to try and find stuff. And almost impossible to follow the story from the multiplayer menu. I feel like the whole concept of that game was interesting on paper, but just didn't come together in a way that worked well. In our household, with so many people, it's just more fun to be able to play something together. The only game I do regularly that is single player is Forza Horizon 4, which I'm like addicted to. I play that game constantly. It's great because you can easily play it for like only 15 min. or like 2 hours, and it's equally fun.
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We have Halo and the buckling, who we are calling Issachar, in the house this afternoon. My sister wants to supplementally bottle feed them, since Prim is shy and tends to teach her kids to be afraid of us, and feeding can really help to tame a kid. They are too little to really know anything yet, so they are just chilling in the play pen. We left the other doeling, who we named Nicola, with Prim so she wouldn't be upset that all her babies are gone. She can't count very well, so if one is in the warming barrel, she just thinks they are all in there. :grin:
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Here's our next round of goat babies! Bella had a girl and two boys last night. It was a rough birth, since the first two kids were positioned strangely, and my sister had to help, but everyone is doing great. We have a waiting list of people looking for kids, so the spotted girl is already sold to a lady who purchased a doe and a wether from us last year. She has an Elvis theme with all her goats, so she named the baby Ann-Margaret after one of Elvis's mistresses. My sister named the spotted boy Mr. Moon after the Asheville Tourists mascot and because colored spots in goats are called "moonspots", and he couldn't possibly have any more! We have someone looking for a buck, so he will probably go to them. She named the black baby Blu, mostly just because she felt it fit him, but she took the spelling from the movie Rio.
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My sister made a disappointing discovery today. Mr. Moon has a third teat. Extra teats (the technical term is supernumerary teats) occasionally occur in goats, and it is a heritable trait, which means Mr. Moon is ineligible to be a breeding buck. It's also concerning that the trait showed up at all. My sister contacted the breeders of the dam, Bella, and the sire, Phantom, and unfortunately, Bella's breeder has seen the trait twice this year, with both babies coming from the line of Bella's father. My sister isn't sure what she's going to do yet, since this throws a wrench in her breeding plans. Although she was glad to find out which parent was the culprit, she's still very disappointed. :sad:
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What are the problems with goats which have this trait?
Phillip
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>What are the problems with goats which have this trait?
Breed rules are all about conformation, and those are often not practical other than they won't let you in the registry...
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>What are the problems with goats which have this trait?
Breed rules are all about conformation, and those are often not practical other than they won't let you in the registry...
This isn't a practical problem for bucks or wethers obviously, but it can be a practical problem for a doe, which is why you don't want to potentially pass the gene. Extra functional teats can lead to improper udder development, and extra non-functional teats can harbor bacteria which can lead to mastitis.
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Thanks Reagan, I understood the registry would not accept this trait. I was not questioning the registry rules. My question was meant in simple terms, concerning the goat itself such as physical 'disadvantages' or 'health problems' associated with goats which have this trait? Thanks for your answer..
Phillip
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My sister has decided to just keep Mr. Moon for now. He is freakishly friendly, he follows us around like a little puppy, and it can be handy to have a wether around in case a goat needs to be separated from the herd for some reason, since goats can't be alone. She is contemplating getting rid of Bella, since she doesn't want this to happen again, and Bella has been having some trouble getting along with the other goats lately, being extra bossy and butting them aggressively and not letting them in the barn when it's raining, so my sister is kind of feeling like this might be the last straw.
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Mr Moon reminds me of a goat on a Car type video channel, "Sleeperdude" which features a nice family from Texas who is 'sort of homesteading' and reminds me of your family Reagan from what you post. The goat is 'ALWAYS' right in the thick of things. He seems to think he is one of the family! (and seems to be accepted as such) :shocked: lol :cheesy: :wink:
Phillip
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Mr Moon reminds me of a goat on a Car type video channel, "Sleeperdude" which features a nice family from Texas who is 'sort of homesteading' and reminds me of your family Reagan from what you post. The goat is 'ALWAYS' right in the thick of things. He seems to think he is one of the family! (and seems to be accepted as such) :shocked: lol :cheesy: :wink:
Phillip
:cheesy: My sister brings all the babies in the house to get their coccidia prevention, but she has brought little Moonie in just for fun, since he always cries at the gate when she leaves. But your description fits my others sister's favorite chicken better. My younger sister has a chicken named Beaky who will come in the house and just hang out with the little kids while they are doing their chores or watching TV. My sister even made her a special nest box so she can lay eggs in the house, and now Beaky always asks to come inside to lay eggs instead of laying them in the barn. :grin:
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Since my sister doesn't want to keep any goats just as pets, she's decided to train Mr. Moon as a pack goat, so he has a job that will contribute to the homestead. He seems like he'd really enjoy packing, since he loves following people, and she's already got him on a leash. She's been doing a lot of research and we're going to start taking him in the car with us when we go somewhere close by so he gets used to it. We aren't serious hikers by any means, but we do hike a good bit when the weather is nice, since there are so many trails around us.
Our last doe, Murphy, is due this week. It's her first pregnancy and she's my sister's favorite, so my sister is a little nervous. Murphy is the first doe we had born on our homestead. She's the baby in the first and third pictures on reply #2. Now she's all grown up and having babies of her own!
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Will your sister have to notify those who bought this line for breeding? That really could throw a wrench in profits. Are these any good for meat at least for you guys?
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Will your sister have to notify those who bought this line for breeding? That really could throw a wrench in profits.
She did, and offered them a discount, which they took. It's the kind of thing that it may never show up again, but you just don't know. The buyers are new goat owners, so they were okay with the risk.
Are these any good for meat at least for you guys?
Absolutely, the kinders are a dual purpose breed, but we already have two wethers earmarked for the freezer, and just didn't really need a third. On top of that, my sister just loves the way he looks and his disposition, which is why she was really hoping he could be a breeding buck. And since she can't pair Bella and Phantom again, she may never have another baby who is this gorgeous. His coloration is pretty rare, and after her initial expectations for him, she wasn't keen on making him a freezer wether, especially when we don't really need one. She could of course have sold him as a wether, but she doesn't have any buyers needing any at the moment, and like I said, it can be handy to have a wether around. And as much as she doesn't want to just keep him because she likes him, she really, really likes him. :smile:
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Murphy had her babies overnight last night and we missed it! Thankfully my sister put her in the kidding stall last night, just because the other goats were beating up on her a little bit, and when Mom went into the barn this morning, the babies were out and dry! She came running in the house shouting, "Murphy had her babies!!" :grin: They hadn't nursed yet, since Murphy didn't really know they needed to, being a first time mom, and babies often need help getting latched the first time, but my sister and I got them drinking quickly, and they are no worse for the wear. The brown baby is a boy, and the grey one is a girl, and they are our first babies with wattles! We were hoping they'd have them, since their father, Arthur, has wattles. My sister named them Duncan and Tessa after the characters from the Highlander TV show, which we are watching right now. My sister has been thinking about replacing one of her original bucks, so she is going to keep Duncan, and Tessa will be for sale.
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Congratulations Reagan. Very cute.
Jim Altmiller
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Moonie went on his first car ride today. We had to run to the post office and one of the local farm stores, so we brought him along. He did so well, he wasn't stressed at all in the car. My sister had him on her lap, since he's still little and he feels comfortable on laps. At the post office, our postwoman came outside to see him, and she said he was the most handsome thing she'd seen all day, and she'd seen her husband that morning! :cheesy: Mr. Moon let her pet him and acted just like he would have if we were at the barn. He did very well at the farm store too, although the dog who lives there did scare him a little bit, even though Cash is very friendly and polite.
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Today my sister Haley purchased her last goat for the foreseeable future. She named her Louise after the main character in Arrival, which is my sister's favorite movie. We got Louise from a farm we sold a buckling to earlier in the year, but unfortunately, they had almost all their fencing destroyed in a wind event and are now having to sell all the goats because they can't keep them in until the fencing is replaced. Because of this, Haley got a really good deal on Louise, who has a pretty expensive pedigree, including a grand champion in her lines. :cool: As a result of them having to have all their goats together in the one remaining paddock, Louise is probably bred to the buckling we sold them, even though she is a little too young to be bred, but my sister feels confident she can handle the situation.
We are going to be butchering two wethers and one buck this fall, and we will be butchering Bella, the black doe who threw 3-teated Mr. Moon, next year. That will leave us with 4 does and 3 bucks, plus Mr. Moon who is wethered now, which is what my sister has been working towards for several years. So that will be our herd until our oldest buck Phantom "dies of natural causes", as Haley has been saying. :cheesy: All the kids from here on out will be sold or butchered.
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Pretty colored goat.....
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Good news, Louise went into heat a few days ago, so she is almost certainly not pregnant! :happy: Haley is very happy, since it would have been rough on her body being so young and still growing, and oftentimes does who are bred too young will reject their kids, so this could have meant bottle feeding a baby too, even assuming everything with the pregnancy and birth went well. This will also make her integration with the older does a lot easier and safer, since there is usually a good deal of beating up on each other before they get their pecking order resettled, and as the newcomer she was likely to take the most hits.
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We're expecting our first kids of the year this week. Prim's due date is tomorrow, and we are expecting very bad weather, rainy and extremely windy. There is some evidence that does try and have their babies during bad weather to protect them from predators, so she'll probably be on time!
Mr. Moon's training as a pack goat has been going extremely well. He now gets in and out of the car on his own without any hesitation, and a few days ago he went up and down stairs for the first time when we took him for a walk over at WCU. Haley commented on how much better he is than a dog to walk, since he doesn't need to be trained not to pull.
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Reagan,
We have a cow that was about to drop a calf on one of the coldest nights of the year and it was raining all night. The cows were out in the field, not a barn. I went out to check on the cow in the morning. Sure enough she had had the calf during the night. It was as healthy as can be. I was shocked. A couple of weeks later we had freezing rain with ice on everything. I talked to my buddy who has large herds of cattle and he had three calves born that night and they all survived. I doubt the same would happen with most other farm animals.
Jim Altmiller
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Well the bad weather came last night and so did the baby! We had a buckling born at 1:48 AM, and we waited until 4:00 thinking she must have another one in there based on how big she looked, but the placenta came and nothing seem off, so that was that. It's the first time Prim has had a single.
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Here's some pictures of the little dude. We named him Asher. Since he's a single and can't even begin to drink all the milk Prim is producing, Haley started milking right away. This afternoon she milked out a bunch of colostrum to freeze in case of emergencies.
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Murphy was our next doe to kid this year, and somehow we missed the birth again! Since we missed it last year, Haley was checking on Murphy every several hours Wednesday, and even overnight Wednesday, and on Thursday she was checking every hour. Haley checked on her after milking Prim at like 8:15 PM, and there were no signs of labor. Murphy was just standing in the kidding stall eating hay. Then we watched an hour of TV, and Haley went out to check again at 9:30, and there were 3 babies on the ground, the last one of which had just been born! Haley said next year, she's just going to have to live in the barn for 48 hours if she wants to see the birth. :cheesy: Once again Murphy did a great job by herself, and the babies who were born first were quite dry.
Murphy had a girl who looks just like her who Haley named Arwen, like from Lord of the Rings, because someone on her goat forum desperately wanted Murphy's name to be Arwen, so much so that this person still calls Murphy "Arwen". :cheesy: She also had 2 bucklings, a white one who we named Peter Lake, after the main character in Winter's Tale, and a caramel one who a repeat buyer of ours has a tentative reservation on, and Haley likes the names she chooses, so we're going to let her pick his registered name. We are just calling him "Caramel" for now. The boys, particularly Peter, were having some trouble drinking consistently on their own for the first 24 hours, but they finally got the hang of it last evening after Haley milked Murphy a little bit to relieve some pressure on her udder. Here's some pictures of them. You can also see Nova, one of our LGDs, in one picture. Her and her brother Mason always park themselves at the barn when there are new babies, because they feel they need extra protection. :happy:
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How are the little ones doing?
My three ewes are bed and we should be lambing I think late March
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How are the little ones doing?
So good, thanks for asking! :happy: Asher is SO HUGE since he has no competition for milk, so we are doing an experiment where he isn't going to get any grain, just milk until his mom decides to wean him and hay. He's going to be a meat wether. Haley is also really happy because he is the first buckling she has successfully disbudded. Murphy's babies are all for sale and our repeat buyer will be taking the brown buckling, who she named Abraham. Peter and Arwen have yet to be reserved. All her babies are drinking well now and growing fast, just not as fast as Asher! :grin:
My three ewes are bed and we should be lambing I think late March
Yay! Post pictures when they arrive!
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I like the bag feeder idea, that's a great use for all the feed bags. I end up throwing a lot away between dog food bags and grain bags. I bent some hog panel into a capital M shape and put the hay in the top for a makeshift feeder of course a lot ends up on the ground having no bottom. All good though. It's soil building and I need all the help I can get in that regard on my land, the soil is so compacted and degraded. I think I'll be copying the bag idea for the other paddock though, cheaper than a hog panel. As long as the dogs don't think it's a toy and shred it lol
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That's my sister's own invention and everyone was so interested in it on her forum that she actually made a tutorial about how to make them. Here's the link if you'd like the directions. https://www.thegoatspot.net/threads/how-to-make-a-feedbag-hay-feeder.224555/
She wanted me to add something she does that isn't in that tutorial. To keep the hay string from fraying, she now burns the ends with a lighter.
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Thanks!
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No problem! She uses them everywhere. She even made a small one out of a bird seed bag so that Mr. Moon could bring his lunch too when we go hiking. :cool:
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We had our last batch of babies for this year born very early Monday morning. Bella was the last doe this year, and it seemed like things were starting to get going late on Saturday night, so we were hoping that maybe for once we have kids born during the day on Sunday, but instead she kept us strung along until after 1:00 AM. She had a white average sized buckling, a huge tan buckling (the biggest kid we've ever had), and a small tan doeling (the smallest kid we've ever had). We are kind of on a Winter's Tale jag after naming one of Prim's kids Peter Lake, so we named them Pearly, Cecil, and Beverly. Haley is worried about Bev being able to compete with the boys since she is so little, so she's been in the house all day trying to learn to take a bottle in the hopes that Haley can supplement her if need be.
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Here's some pictures of Beverly in the house today. She finally took the bottle around suppertime, once Haley tried a new style of nipple. This is the first time we've successfully bottle-fed a kid, so Haley is very pleased. Bev will come inside tomorrow too, just to be sure she's got the bottle down, and then hopefully she'll be able to take one whenever it's needed.