The First Kids Have Arrived!

[dggoatlover]

Our first kids for the season arrived this morning. Twins for Ellie - only bugger is that they are both bucks. Six more does to drop over the week so fingers are crossed for some doe kids!

[Heidi]

Congratulations!! So what do proper breeders do with bucklings? I hope they are being mothered well in all this wet weather.
H

[Hayhay]

COngrats and good luck getting some baby girls next time!

We've just had 5 baby chicks (and nearly another) hatch. New babies are exciting!

[minnie]

Hi Desley,

Congrats! Do you put the bucks in the freezer?? And do you have to castrate them like bulls?

Fingers crossed for more does, and fingers crossed for hens for Hayley... babies lovely unless for 11 chicks you get 10 roosters like ours did.

Vicki

[dggoatlover]

Another doe kidded (Mia) - three kids - two live and one dead. So I have a nice healthy doe and buck kid. Total so far is three bucks and one doe.

The majority of bucks are castrated and sold off as pets or freezer. I don't keep an entire buck unless it has been ordered and a deposit paid by a purchaser. This was good advice I received from another breeder as many people order bucks and then don't collect them and you end up stuck with an animal you can't use for breeding. Paying a deposit encourages people to collect their purchase

All bubs will need to be disbudded tomorrow and I will put rings on the boy bits when they are about two/three weeks old. I will also have to register and tattoo the little doe. Five more does to kid and then milking will be in full swing!

[dggoatlover]

I love baby chicks - they are so cute and little and fluffy! I can just sit and watch them for hours All babies are great time wasters!

[Hayhay]

Congrats on two new kids!

How do you disbud?

6 baby chicks hatched and survived so that makes 8 chicks in the laundry. And my goodness Vicki 10 roosters from 11 chicks! Last year we only had two roosters out of about 20 chicks!

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

Yes Mum wasn't impressed... she'd taken the hens and chicks for us, carpet snake food where we were at Hogarth and we were in the throws of moving etc. And she ended up with all these aracana roosters (no good for the pot even ).

Luckily one of the local ag stores took them in two lots...

Vicki

[dggoatlover]

Kidding has finished! All up I had seven does kid and I ended up with 6 bucks and 6 does with only that one dead kid lost at birth. All are now on the bottle and thriving! Pretty full on at the moment with milking twice a day and bubs on the go! Definitely keeps life intersting!

Disbusdding - I use a gas iron disbudder - Portasol brand. We heat the iron up to full temp and then place it over the horn bud on the kids head for a count of ten. It burns the bud and kills the horn cells and stop them from growing. If done properly the goat should grow up without horns. I prefer my goats not have horns as they are dairy animals that are handled daily and in close proximity with people so it is safer for them to not have horns.

[minnie]

Hi Desley,

Wonderful to get at least half and half... so you bottle them as well as let the goat feed them?

Same with the calves with dehorning to a count of 15 but they're stronger to hold, all our last years have horns as we couldn't restrain them to dehorn... which ultimately is a pain.

And of course Fatima, I just couldn't bear to do her, in case it had stressed her too much.

Vicki

[dggoatlover]

The kids are fully botle fed - no trips to mum this year. I'm planning on trying to do some milk testing/recording so need to have the girls at full milking capacity to achieve the best results I can.

[minnie]

Where are you getting the testing done?

Very interested in your results etc...

Vicki