Monthly Archives: July 2007

Nothing but goat pictures

First, the keepers:
Spot, now renamed Lily
Lily

Next is Jeffrey’s goat Ragnar:
Ragnar

Wetherizing

Did a little wetherizing this weekend. We have four buck kids and the Scamper twins have basically been horny from birth. They are big stocky boys too. Since all the goats are closing in on three months old, it was time for a change. I used the burdizzo again, which bloodlessly crushes the cords to the testicles. I then give a shot of Owee-Eaze which is 55% grain alcohol. It also has some herbs in it but is like giving them a shot of whiskey. I try to make sure that I catch the cords the first time, so I don’t have to do it again in a few weeks. We’ve done the bands and cut them, but this really seems to be the least painful.

The difficult decision was Ragnar. We’d considered keeping him for a buck, as we are still thinking about selling Bucko. The problem is that there is a chance that he might not work out as a buck and we’d have to get rid of him. We really like this little guy and I’ve been trying to convince Jeffrey to train him as a pack goat. So we decided to go ahead and do him as well. The goats were a bit subdued afterwards. They are not used to strong drink. The deed has been done and is behind us.

I got my hoof trimming set from Hoeggers and it is worth every penny. I did Scamp, Maddie and Bucko’s hooves. It slices right through them. It also sliced through my thumb a bit when Scamp moved at a bad time. I bled quite a bit but it’s healing up okay. And that’s about all the goat updates I have. I’ll try and post the latest pics this week.

sorry about the detour…

I was late re-registering this domain, so things were down for a few days. I will try to find time this week to upload the latest goat kid pictures. We’re going to keep two. We’d already planned to keep the orphan buck, Ragnar. (And we are debating whether or not to turn him into a wether or keep him for a buck.) Well we also want to keep his sister, now renamed Lily. She is so affectionate that I think I would really miss her. So I’ll pay the balance owed so we can keep her. We are also thinking of maybe selling Bucko and getting a different buck. I want to go with milk goats and he is probably not going to bring good milk lines into the mix. Oh, and it looks like I will also be getting an old milk doe, probably next month. Not a lot of details about her except that she is Togg/Nubian cross and is free. Was quite a milker at one point.

I’m off on Friday of this week and am still hoping to put in a fall garden. I’ve got to clean out the goat shed to get ready for fall. There’s still time for fall crops.

Intruder

We had something try to get into the chicken house last night around 2am, most likely an old male coon. We think they were using a hole at the bottom of the house to reach in and grab eggs from under the sitting birds. We had a Rock back in that corner that turned out to have no eggs under her after sitting for a month. We’ve had a turkey sitting there recently. Well, brother coon grabbed our rooster by the tail, the one that we’ve been working with all week to even get him in the house. When I heard the noise, I yelled out the window and could hear the rooster run off across the neighbor’s place. He turned up okay today with a few tail feathers missing. We went outside to check but couldn’t get a good light on the trees. I’d heard nails clicking in the maples above the house, so I knew he was still there. About an hour and a half later, I heard him come down. Jeffrey is working on repairs today.

I have the Fourth off and will likely spend it doing nothing. I have a large, grapefruit sized bruise on my left arm from Bucko. He startled as I was stepping across the fence holding onto his rope. It pulled me down onto the fence. Jeffrey thinks it looks like a tattoo. I would call it “Picture of my goat”. The little goatlings are spending less time with mom. We could easily wean all of them, if we had a pen to separate them. It will be good to see the does go off to their new homes. They will pay for Bucko. We will wetherize the bucks and likely keep the orphan wether to train as a cart goat. It’s looking like we will eat the other three. If you’re not willing to eat them, you shouldn’t raise meat goats. Besides, goat meat is tasty!