Nigerian dwarf goats

Meet Buckie and Dot, I have never had this breed before but from what I’ve read they have a higher milk fat content than some breeds so next summer I guess I will find out.

They are the cutiest little things! Their personalities are adorable, they make me laugh every day.

Two baby goats

We have two new babies here on the farm, (one was given to us by a neighbor) his goat had four little ones so he let her (the mother) keep two and plans to bottle feed one and gave one to us. My Mom and Grand daughter are ecstatic, for the time being the little one is in the corner of our living room in a play pen.

She is so tiny I am surprised all four have made it so far.
 

Mom and Sid are waiting on her hand and foot! :)

Our other new addition came a few days later, Coco had her first baby and since it was a single birth her little one is almost twice as big as our bottle baby.

Coco and two day old baby

She has cute markings with a nice little star
on her head

It doesn't seem like that long ago that Coco
was born, here she is with her sister and
Mom (Connie) at two days old

This picture with Sid and Coco also shows how
much my grand daughter has grown

With these two little ones running around makes me want spring to hurry up!

With no rain...

Sad time at the farm today, with not enough rain this past summer when it came to getting hay this year it has been....difficult. The farmer we usually get our 60 bales of hay from is delivering only 30 bales and this is only half of what we need to do us for the winter. The only thing we could do is to sell some of our animals :(

I could only keep three goats, little Gilbert (our bottle baby that thinks he is a dog), Coco and Jill. The others all went to the auction last night, the auction barn is about an hours drive from home. I knew my goats would be missed, but not to this extent (I cried this morning) I got out the four wheeler to check on the animals and my goats always come running to inspect the inside of the trailer (in case something has changed) and since Coco and Jill are in the fields crying no one came to inspect the trailer. Then to add to it animals are down so I got less than half of what they are worth. The glass is half full though I know a few of the people that purchased some of them and they went to a good home. With the goats gone that is 8 bales less we will need for the winter and since we usually have about 10 bales left over at the end of the year we are about 12 bales short. I may have to sell a few cow's also but I am going to wait a few more weeks to see if anything comes up. The problem is the hay we are getting is over double what the usual cost is so even if we found more hay not sure if I can afford to buy anymore. 

With a note on the up side our internet has been down for over two weeks but the tech came out today and repaired it, feels good to be back on line again.

Goats into something again

When the goats came in from the fields yesterday evening two of the goats had gotten into something (it was all over their mouths).....I am sure whatever it was Cuddles was the instigator......

Kirsten has a little on her mouth.....

Cuddles on the other hand....a picture never lies....whatever it was they were both fine this morning, so it didn't hurt them thank goodness!

All of my goats know they are goats, except for our little bottle baby Gilbert.

He eats with the dogs, plays with the dogs

and loves to pay ball like the dogs, but when he gets to close to the goat fence and one of the goats make a noise he runs to the house screaming! he is so confused poor little guy.

 

KK's baby

This is KK's new baby boy she only had the one. He is now four days old and jumps and runs so much KK has had a hard time keeping up with him. He goes through the fence and stands and watches her as she throws a fit for him. I ended up adding another fence four feet around the fenced area just so he can't get though. Oh and good new's I have to three more days and I have another goat to milk (more cheese) yay!

His eyes do not look so big in the picture, but they are huge!

Baby Goat and Joint Disease

I had to take Gibby's baby to the vet today (my bottle baby), last night his left leg (in the joint) started to swell and he could no longer walk or straighten it and this all happened within a few hours. The vet ran tests and the poor thing has a joint disease, if not caught early he would have died. The vet gave him an antibiotic shot and he will have to have another one in a week, since it was caught early though he should be fine. This is something he was born with, it passed through the cord

Here he is laying down because he cant straighten it or stand on his left leg.

 In the car on his way to the vet, you can see how swollen the joint is.

He did stay at the vets for a couple of hours after the shot was given today, but within four hours of getting home he was trying to stand a little. He tries to straighten the leg and stand but has not put any weight on it yet. The leg has to be massaged and straightened 4 to 6 times a day, but with fingers crossed and another shot next week he should have a full recovery. :)

Freckles

Freckles got dis-budded today, my sister-in-law purchased the iron (she also has goats and has watched the vet do this a lot)! Anyway she came to our house and did it sooo.....no more trips to the vet! :) I really hate to have this done but we let them roam around a lot in the summer and I always worry if (or when) they get their head stuck in a fence somewhere on the property and I don't notice and something gets one of them. That is the reason my horned goats (along with my milkers) have to stay in the barn area. The ones without horns can roam around during the day and then they come up at night to get shut up in their area.

Eve and our fence panels

Has anyone had a problem with a goat/goats that will not keep their head out of the fence? I have to get Eve's head out of one of the fence panels at least once sometimes twice a day and a few times I had to cut our cattle panels to get her out!

This has been going on for the last 2 to 3 months, I don't think she is ever going to learn! Does anyone have any suggestions please. She is such a sweet goat she just cant seem to stay away from the fences....

Little ones like the same bucket to sleep in...

The babies were being cute again this evening, Freckles and Tyler both try to get to the same feed bucket to lay/sleep in it off and on all day,  (its gotten so bad I don't even put feed in this one anymore)...

 well this time freckles got to it before Tyler.

and tried to lay down in it, before Tyler could...

Once in the bucket she tried to get (sort of) comfy, while Tyler proceeded to try to shove..

and shove...

When that didn't work he decided to play nice and lay down beside her

and they both like usual fell asleep. I have other buckets around the lot but like I said they always go for the same one, even if I set one beside this one! :)
Sorry just noticed word verification was on again, just turned it off again. Wonder...how does it just "come on" when me, myself and I did not do it?  

New babies and a storm

We had both Cookie and Eve give birth within hours of each other on March 15! Problem was I only had the one birthing stall ready so I had to hurry and prepair the 2nd stall. Both mommies are doing fine, Cookie on the left had a single birth and Eve on the right had twins. With cookie just having the one he would make two of Eve's boy and girl, he is huge!

We had a fairly bad storm/s the evening the babies were born, the picture on the left is how the sky looked over the barn lot (after the first storm) and the picture on the right is behind the house (before the second storm).

Shirley and her brush with death

Just when you think everything is fine and your looking forward to getting ready to turn in and read a good book after checking first on the animals.....never make plans on a farm, it'll bite you a lot of the time!

This is our sweet Shirley dried off, but still shaking. When checking and feeding everyone again before bed, Shirley was not to be found. After a few minutes of hubby and I frantically searching, she was found (in the water tank) up to her neck in cold water, the temp last night was in the 20's. I do have a tank heater, but the water was still very cold she was just making a tiny noise but still standing. When hubby pulled her out and we ran her to the house, she was so cold she could no longer stand. She could not be warmed up to fast so we took her to the coolest room of the house and hubby started rubbing her down while I blow dried her hair on a low setting.

This is her after about an half hour, she is now dry but she is still grinding her teeth and shaking, but both have gotten a little better. Sorry the pictures are so dark, I turned the lights down low trying to keep her calm.

This is her after almost 2 hours she can stand now and move around slowly,  her shaking has stopped and she is no longer grinding her teeth. She is going to spend the night in the house (utility room, with blankets on the floor) so I can keep checking on her, now I am just worried about phenomena setting in.

I took Shirley back to the barn this morning, she is acting like nothing happened! We are very lucky we found her when we did, this is her in the barn stall (with a heat lamp) she is the one in the middle. I'll leave her in the stall all day, after spending the night in the house I don't want her to cool down to fast. This evening then the door will be open so she will be back to roaming where she wants, but (hope) no more jumping in the water tank. :)

Goats will be Goats....

I forgot all about taking a picture last evening when hubby and I went to feed and check on everyone, the animals (as usual) were all quiet and getting ready for bed. Hubby and I proceeded on our evening rounds, the goats were fine so we shut them up and the calves were fine so we also shut them up The cows were slowly headed to the field to bed down and we shut the chickens up (cant believe it January and we are still letting the chickens out on good days). On our way back to the house we heard one of the goats making a funny noise, checked and sure enough something was not wright with KK. She would not look at me and was jerking one of her back legs and shaking her head from side to side, I ran to the pen and looked but could not see anything. Upon closer inspection (I am not sure how she could have done this so fast), she was fine a half hour ago, she had gotten one of the ropes that holds the round bales together around her leg and neck!  I cut and throw away all the ties from the round bales when they are dropped, so where did it come from. Well KK had gotten the hay tie wrapped around her neck three times and her back left leg had at least 6 wraps. The way it was wrapped every time she jerked her leg the rope got tighter on her neck and when it got tighter on her neck the more she jerked her leg. I was happy it was the weekend and hubby was home, he kept the other goats from being goats and running around me. I keep a pocket knife in my pocket all the time (being on a farm I don't know what I'd do without one)! I cut it off her leg first, she had the rope so tight around her neck I could just get one finger in between her neck and the rope to cut it. I checked on her again last night before bed and she acted like nothing happened, goats they seem to need a lot of  attention! I have not yet ran across anything that at least one of them can not get into! They sure are a fun animal to have on the farm  :)

I checked on her again this morning, she acts fine, no worse for her trauma of last night.

Goats yearly shots and trim

Another item that got checked off our list was the goats, they all got prettied up! Their hoofs were all trimmed and new collars were put on. They did also get their shots and worm medicine (they were not happy about that) but its all done for another year! Yay

I know Cuddles looks like she is being mistreated, but trimming their hoofs do not hurt. Hubby has never gotten to the quick, he is very careful. Not counting the two new babies, all thirteen (I know unlucky number, boy was I glad when babies were born)! Anyway out of all thirteen Cuddles was the only one that really needed a good trim, I don't know why but hers is always longer. Leave it up to Cuddles!

This is Coco and Shirley they both seemed to like the stand and did not mind getting prettied up! I think the food had something to do with it, they both think with their tummy's! :)

Cuddles......

How do you teach a goat to share..... its been
 over a week and no one else can play!

Cuddles

Cuddles is weelllll Cuddles, she walked around for
a good hour with a piece of straw Sid put in the side
of  her mouth. Sid (my grand daughter) also had a piece
of straw in her mouth . Cuddles has yet to realize she
is a GOAT :)

Calista has news!

Calista had her babies yesterday morning, I am pleased to say mommy and babies are doing fine!



These two pictures were taken when they were about three hours old. Isn't the black spot by the tail cute! Perhaps this little ones name could be spot?


 

The close up pictures were taken this morning, they are now one day old! The tan and white baby (the one on the left) seems to be very curious, while the black and white on the right (spot)? is shy. Calista is a very good mommy, they will stay in this small area (with the heat bulb) while she gets to know them for a few more days. Then they will move to the next area and they will stay in there for at least a couple months. In this area they can run around outside but can still go in the barn through a side door and sleep under a heat lamp. Sorry I forgot the see if we have boys, girls or one of each! Will post about this later.  :)

KK

This is KK our new addition to the farm, in this picture it kinda looks like she is smiling. She is a very sweet goat, a registered LaMancha so of course has (almost) no ears. I did not realize this until we brought her home, this makes 13 goats! Calista had better get busy and have her baby/babies, you know the unlucky number thing. I guess I could look at it like we have 1 male, 7 that are under a year old and 5 mommies, I think this sounds better. :)

Calista's bed

Its getting close to Calista Flockheart having her baby/babies, her due date is November 2. I know I have been cutting things close what with winter just around the corner! I have been trying to get all the animals houses ready (along with ours) and get the wood cut and.... well your get the idea (I have procrastinated)!. Well I spent the morning getting her bed cleaned out and fresh powder and hay down so she will be nice and comfy, so now its just waiting on her. Yay

This is Calista, she has just been standing
back and calmly watching all the activity.

This is her new bed, the heat lamp is
hooked up, all is ready and waiting.

 Drum roll please......after careful
inspection of the outside door area...

and the inside bedding, we are very happy
to announce...we got the Hen of Approval!!

Toys and Goats

Hubby came home yesterday from work with some toys for the goats. They were happy and wanted to investigate wright away. The only problem (as usual) was Cuddles, no one could touch them until she thoroughly inspected them! With Cuddles this will take quite a while!

She is a sweet goat, just a little bossy!

Dawn on top of her world!

Dawn has the best spot to eat, no one to bother
her.....yet!

An hour later, I don't think she has plans of
going anywhere in the near future!