rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

After the coop and pen are done I have plans to begin fencing some of our woods for goat consumption. That is a little ways off though. It will take a lot of work to do that too. The ground here is definitely not sandy loam.

Btw, @Bruce if you did ever want to come for a visit and needed to stay the night we'd probably want you to wait for us to put up a guest bed first. Right now it's just a room that we haven't gotten to yet. In-laws don't seem to mind, but it's a little embarrassing. We've got this big house, but very little furniture still. Eventually we'll figure out shopping here, but right now we are hiding behind denial and just letting the kids run in the open space. The guest bed is near the top if not the top of the list though.

 

[Bruce]

Spend the money on the animals! Guests can sleep on the hay bales

Or do like @B&B Happy goats did, air bed. They used it for themselves before they got their bed. After them living there 2 years, I was overnight guest #1 , their air bed is quite comfy. Pack it away when you don't have guests and let the children have fun in the open space.

Interesting about the Barred Rocks. I've not ever had a mean chick and I've had 12 different breeds. Now as adults some are more aggressive than others, but never toward people.

 

[rachels.haven]

Heheheheh. YES. An excuse to buy more hay.

Or an air mattress, but I like hay better.

We will get something. The in laws are coming back in May. At this point that's all I've got planned that would require a bed, so I've got two weeks to figure something out.

 

[rachels.haven]

I might be getting another buckling. This guy's mom produces over 1000lbs per lactation and so does his paternal grandmother. I hate spending so much on an animal, but I really wanted one out of this breeding, and there it is, and we can do it, so I guess we will. I have a deposit down on him and we're working out a pickup day.

On a positive note, I think Avalon, who I am trying to turn into a FF so I can see her udder, which is supposed to be nice, is solidly bred to Ronan aka Buckeye. If she doesn't take I'm not sure what to think. They had a pretty wild party day.

Olivia, my other FF hopeful, is either bred to Ronan and a month pregnant, or has gotten away with going through her whole heat screaming/bugling with her bum against the wall for 4 days straight AGAIN (she was loud this "heat" but that was while Ava was in heat and Ronan was in there, since they tend to cycle together and there was a buck in her pen and that always makes her bugle and freak out). While I was watching last couple cycles, Ronan just looked freaked out at the incredibly loud, unfriendly, never receptive doe in the corner that was making the whole barn a nervous wreck and did not make any attempt to breed her the whole 4 days BUT I penned them together anyway, and I wasn't watching the whole time so maybe, MAYBE he plucked up the nerve and got lucky. If she is not bred by November, which would mean we've been trying to breed her for over a year, she may have to be sold to a companion/pet home. She doesn't have blue eyes, but she is quite pretty and flashy with her black tights and black and white spots, and has become affectionate to me and the boys despite being a nervous goat. She could be somebody's pet. I guess if she cycles again, I could try penning her with Durango, but he's 8 months old and under 40 lbs still, and while he has great genetics, he's not very wide, and I'm not sure I want a herd of miniature nigerians, so I was planning on just watching and waiting to see how he grew up instead of using him as a buckling. He's so tiny feminine looking I'm not sure if he'll make my cut or not. He might be good at refining corse does or bringing down a herds average height though. I like his personality, so I'll keep him around for now.

Angel and Junior are doing great. The kids decided to name Junior "Sir Finnegan", so I guess I should start calling him that. I ran chicken wire around the big doe pen I set up and turned Angel and "Finnegan" out in it and let Mom hash it out with Ava and Olivia and things are going great. Nobody beats up Finnegan. And Finnegan definitely knows he's a buck.

Oh, and get this, Finnegan's apparently POLLED. So I guess Angel is too, despite being disbudded (the buck I used from Ava's breeder certainly wasn't). So I guess in the next month or so I'll be selling a polled, black buckling. He's developing great. He's got nice long, straight legs, and his rear legs seem to have a nice spread, and if he had an udder there'd be a good place for it. His back is VERY straight. If he weren't related to my herd while I'm starting I'd consider keeping him, but I'd rather have unrelated bucks that can cover all the does if needed. Also, Angel's udder is not my favorite. She does have a nice rump angle, straight, strong, more correct legs than an average nigerian here, and she's nicely wide. And she's not pot bellied with a swayback-which actually a lot of middle of the road nigerians are around here oddly enough. So someone could probably use a "Sir Finnegan" in their buck pen. The hard part will be getting good pictures.

Getting a quart of milk per day now from Angel at morning milking. I think she enjoys getting a break at night from her buckish buckling so she can sleep. Plus, he's not far away. She can still see him. He's just in a crate in the same stall.

 

[rachels.haven]

CAncel on the polled. All it took was for me to say that and the horns that had been under skin for the past FOREVER-the skin came off in my hand today and there were horn buds. Weird. But that's life.

 

[rachels.haven]

Disbudded the delightful Sir Finnegan who was too big and wide for the standard issue disbudding box. That was the difficult thing. Next time, EARLIER.

So earlier I'd ordered an iron but got the pygmy tip. That was dumb. By the time I realized it wouldn't work Finnegan was a few days old. Then the breeder down the street said he was polled so I quit worrying. So last Friday I ordered the portasol dehorner, clipped his incredibly fast growing buds down to the cup size and did it. It's a more expensive iron, more for cows, and especially $$ to rush it (because I was dumb), but it worked really well and fast. I do not like searing off goat buds and horns, but I feel like it could have been worse. Hopefully I did well enough there will not be scurs. Now to cancel the rhinehart coming from Jeffers. I like counts of 3-5 that come with the butane portasol one better than having to burn for longer anyway, so I think it's worth a phone call.
My poor baby goat has a shaved head top and disbudding injuries now, but he's officially hornless. Turning the worry on that subject down.

 

[rachels.haven]

Yesterday I noticed something was wrong with Ronan aka Buckeye's male bits. His sheath had dark crusting on it and his poor wizzer seemed stuck out. Put him on the milk stand today and took pictures (gosh, the things I do for my goats) and put them on a FB goat tips group fearing the worst. One of the admins came on and told me it looks like he bit himself while performing a self service...Well, if that's the case I'm glad I didn't go running straight to the vet.

I brought home another buckling on Sunday. I really like his breeding and right now he's a sweet little 8 week old guy. I'm sure eventually he will grow up and be just like the others. Regardless, now I feel like I've got enough genetic variation to say I'm done collecting bucks. Now those young does just have to prove they've settled. This year is supposed to be Ronan's year to get the ladies. Oops, Ronan. Looks like we're missing this cycle. I exposed them last time, but one enjoys spending her whole heat backed up against a wall screaming if I put a buck in the pen so she never gets bred and the bucks avoid her because she makes them nervous and the other young doe parties it up, gets all the attention but never settles. Aw well, maybe in the fall. My buck of choice can just live with them for a few months. Maybe it'll work.

Got to see the prettiest, most awe inspiring buck on Sunday while at Mr. Little Guy's breeder. He was huge and way overheight for a ND, but he was amazing. He's the sire of my little buckling, so my guy might wind up big too, but if he is half as beautiful as his dad I will be lucky.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

You had me laughing out loud reading your post, silly goat bit his own wizzer sounds like something that would happen here

 

[rachels.haven]

Lol, maybe our goats would be great friends... but not friends I'd want to watch the reunion of. The does would be rough and a touch insane and the bucks would thoroughly enjoy being obscene. (Sure glad animals aren't people.)
But still, I can't even be mad at the little guy. He's so sad. He just is what he is.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Lol, maybe our goats would be great friends... but not friends I'd want to watch the reunion of. The does would be rough and a touch insane and the bucks would thoroughly enjoy being obscene. (Sure glad animals aren't people.)
But still, I can't even be mad at the little guy. He's so sad. He just is what he is.

Poor little guy, lol
I think that their are people that act like animals...that's why we have jails for them