Another KID, of course!
It was no surprise to have Lee fall in love with goats. His grace in movement, accuracy in leaping and climbing, is pure caprine.
This spring, his dream is coming true. Just not exactly how we planned. Does that ever happen, by the way? A plan unfurl just as predicted??? Not in OUR world, that's for sure! Anyway.
We had arranged for the arrival of two lovely Nubian milking does for this spring, from a local goat farm. Lee wants to make goat cheeses to market to friends and neighbors. That part is still on track. What we did NOT plan for, was having two young doelings given to Lee by a well-meaning neighbor who had taken them in along with their moms - she got the moms for feeding bummer lambs, but did not want the kids, who would need the same milk the lambs needed. Rather defeating the plan (and you already know about plans...)
As it turns out, the kids were in bad shape for various reasons, so they have turned into a very good learning experience for our new goat-keeper. He has had to take on bottle feeding 3-week old half-wild unhandled kids, checking for worms and coccidiosis (they had both), giving meds, providing good housing and exercise area, grooming, and teaching them to be handled.
"Baby" is a Toggenburg/Alpine cross, as evidenced by her black-and-white coloring and more complacent Alpine temperment. "Pumpkin" is full Toggenburg, with accompaning attitude (stubborn, wilfull, and stand-offish). Lee is doing a good job with them. Now about 7 or 8 weeks old, they are healthy, happy, and handling well (mostly).
Under better circumstances, kids are disbudded (preventing horns from sprouting) before a week old. Since they were too old for that process by the time they came to Lee, some research indicates we can band them this fall when fly season is over and get rid of the horns. We don't want to deal with horned goats around punks or other livestock, for obvious reasons. Too much energy there, easily mis-directed.
Yes, I mean YOU.
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