HoneyDreameMomma
True BYH Addict
Even though we have a few months before we'll have any kids, I thought I'd start this year's kidding thread anyway (can't help being excited! 
). Due to family and personal illness, we've been behind on our usual breeding schedule this year - we prefer to breed our does in October or November. Fortunately, things are getting better, and we're hoping that in the near future we won't hear the bellows of any more does in heat. If all goes well, we should have our first kids on the ground in early May.
Below is the gender pedigree I made for the eight does we're breeding this year. The larger boxes are the goats we currently have, and the smaller are the ones that we've sold. Our little herd started with three doe half-sisters. We found a few problems in one of the lines, so we thinned the remainder of that line out last year. Two years ago we brought in a line from another breeder that we sold out after our first year of breeding them (issues with udders and lousy moms), so all our current does come from two of our original girls: Holly and Queenie. Unfortunately, we lost our sweet Queenie to bloat last summer - almost lost Holly too - never found what they ate in the field that caused it. Both have been super-star lines for us. I know the doeling count really depends on the buck, but given we've switched up bucks every year and our girls still produce a high doe:buck ratio, we feel like they should get some credit. We're excited to see how all our first freshners do. Lol - and see if our pink streak has run out yet...
Last year I thought I wouldn't breed Lucy again, but she's actually bigger than she was last year (guess she was just a late bloomer) and her hips have spread as wide as some of our best breeders, so we're hoping she is good to go. She was such an awesome mama, we decided to give it one more try. We deliberately found a smaller buck to breed her, just to be safe, and I plan to be there to assist at the delivery if needed. If she has complications this year, we will not breed her going forward.
We generally try to keep our herd at about 8-9 does, but we may make an exception this year. We kept the best of the best last year, but I actually found I still regretted selling 2 or 3 of the doelings we did. Lol - I know I can't keep them all, but really one or two more won't make that much difference...
). Due to family and personal illness, we've been behind on our usual breeding schedule this year - we prefer to breed our does in October or November. Fortunately, things are getting better, and we're hoping that in the near future we won't hear the bellows of any more does in heat. If all goes well, we should have our first kids on the ground in early May.Below is the gender pedigree I made for the eight does we're breeding this year. The larger boxes are the goats we currently have, and the smaller are the ones that we've sold. Our little herd started with three doe half-sisters. We found a few problems in one of the lines, so we thinned the remainder of that line out last year. Two years ago we brought in a line from another breeder that we sold out after our first year of breeding them (issues with udders and lousy moms), so all our current does come from two of our original girls: Holly and Queenie. Unfortunately, we lost our sweet Queenie to bloat last summer - almost lost Holly too - never found what they ate in the field that caused it.
Both have been super-star lines for us. I know the doeling count really depends on the buck, but given we've switched up bucks every year and our girls still produce a high doe:buck ratio, we feel like they should get some credit. We're excited to see how all our first freshners do. Lol - and see if our pink streak has run out yet...Last year I thought I wouldn't breed Lucy again, but she's actually bigger than she was last year (guess she was just a late bloomer) and her hips have spread as wide as some of our best breeders, so we're hoping she is good to go. She was such an awesome mama, we decided to give it one more try. We deliberately found a smaller buck to breed her, just to be safe, and I plan to be there to assist at the delivery if needed. If she has complications this year, we will not breed her going forward.
We generally try to keep our herd at about 8-9 does, but we may make an exception this year. We kept the best of the best last year, but I actually found I still regretted selling 2 or 3 of the doelings we did. Lol - I know I can't keep them all, but really one or two more won't make that much difference...
