I posted a picture of Twyla, our tank, back in early November. Here she is on 12/12/07. She is due Friday and she is one miserable goat! Her hooves still need work and they will receive attention after she is through kidding. She had better produce more than one kid this time! She delivered two kids and a blob in April of 2006 (when we brought she and the other Hope Joy Farm does home..they had been settled to our polled Nubian Rudy the Winter before). She then settled back three months post partem and delivered a single buck kid last Christmas. I had thought it was out of her own son, but after bringing him home to run clean-up..he is the spitting image of his daddy William (Boer/Saanen).
She is settled to Bo, the Boer buck. She was the first doe bred for this season.
All of the following pictures were taken at feeding time on 12/12/07. I clip each of the up close does in the cow barn for each feeding. This helps tame down those dam raised FFs and it ensures each gets all of her feed ration. The rest of the year it is a grunt and growl affair at feeding time.
Kitty was bred to Bo after Twyla was and is also due the 21st. She's our little dragon (no ears). Her real name is Squeek-ums but she is always Kitty to us. This will be her fourth freshening. I'm hoping for some little doelings to raise on prevention. Along with at least one buckling to leave on her! Kitty is at least 1/4 Pygmy, 1/4 LaMancha/Alpine and beyond that? Your guess is as good as mine. She may be linebred on the P/L/A or she could be 1/4 Boer..I just don't know...too many intact bucks running around that Fall!
Jane Doe (Thanks, KimM!) is due December 23rd. She is settled to our newest Nubian buck, Achilles. I am excited to see his first kids hit the ground! I had wanted to breed her to Rudy since Rudy's sire was spotted, but Achilles was the only Nubian buck here at the time...I drove her the half hour to where Rudy, Will, Boomer and JH were summering, but it was too early and Rudy was too much of a gentleman to force the issue. I wasn't driving her back the next day and so I had her bred to Achilles instead.
Nibbles...poor poor Nibbles, who has been moaning and singing since she was 3 months along is about the most miserable doe down there. She came from Hope Joy Farm and freshened for the first time as a 5 year old with twin bucks. She did not settle last Fall as she did not recover from Bottle Jaw as well as the others in that group. I am hoping for triplets but will accept twins. She is not near as wide as she is deeeep in the body. She is settled to Achilles as well. She is due on Christmas Eve. She will be a second freshening 7 year old...*sigh* Yes, she is still a bit thin over the top. She was brought up early for extra attention.
Kait, the oldest doe on the farm, also came from Hope Joy Farm. She will be ten this coming year. She had not been bred for 4 years plus when we brought her home. She did not settle to Rudy that first Winter. Rudy was a youngun and I guess not impressive enough. She did deliver a single, perfect, polled Nubian doeling out of Rudy this past year. She is settled to Achilles and is due December 27th. A live healthy kid is all we ask of her.
Then we get into the oopsie breedings! Achilles and Rocky (the dud) were bad boys! I was at a family reunion in MI.
Achilles and Rocky kept getting with the herd. Achilles is our younger Nubian buck and Rocky is our Boer dud.
The last four-five breedings were not intended.
May is due December 29th with her third freshening. I don't have a picture of her. She is a black Nubian and isn't very big. I'm not getting my quads out of her. She is a quad herself.
The next four were bred the day I returned home. I went down and discovered the two boys in the doe pen.
Star Baby is due with her second freshening on the 31st. Her first was a nightmare. I was away in KS last March (nobody was supposed to be due until a week after I returned home!). She went into labor and for the first time in ten years of kidding the vet had to be called in. The buck kid was upside down and backwards. They ended up removing his head to get him out and the doeling that followed was already dead. I'm only slightly concerned but not much since I will be here this year and she will get her BoSe shot!
Lil' Bunny Foo Foo will be a coming 2 year old FF. She is due December 31st to Achilles. The kids will be almost 3/4 dairy...not really the direction we were heading!
Liza will be a coming 2 year old FF as well...also due to Achilles on December 31st. She is 1/2 Boer, 1/2 Alpine. Nice udder developing on her.
There are two others does possibly due the end of this month or else setteld to the January due dates I have down. Moondust-P is most likely due to Achilles on the 31st though. Grrr! She is the polled daughter out of Twyla and Rudy so the kids will be 3/4 Nubian...1/4 Boer...
This covers the does due the end of this month...There are about 20+ due in January, three in February, and the another 15-20 due in March and April....lol
