Goats!

We are relatively new at raising Kinder milk goats, and are enjoying it and learning a lot about the good, bad, and ugly. Within two days I witnessed both a horrible death and a wonderful birth. I’ve also had my own nose in books studying hard about what to feed, how to feed, etc etc etc. And the one thing I’ve taken is that, truly, there can’t be a *right* way to do this. It’s a matter of trying to fit our own philosophy of husbandry with the experiences of those who have gone before….but sometimes our philosophy isn’t really formed without our own experience, and those “who have gone before” disagree completely with one another. So I am thankful for God’s grace in it all, both successes and failures, and for the pleasure of raising these wonderful creatures.

This is Lee. He was the second born of triplets on January 28th, and has wonderful markings, with brown and gray in places as well as black and white.

Here is the mom. She is just two years old and this was her first kidding. I am delighted that she was from the get-go a nurturing mama, even taking on an orphan for a day, and I am patiently waiting my turn at her udder.

Here are the other two babies nesting in their box. My son told me that with a camera flash, as in this photo, goat eyes are blue, unlike rabbits, which are red. Wild! I had the babies in coats for the first day, and decided against using a heat lamp. Instead I used a heating mat underneath and they love snuggling up on top of it. But I’m sure my yellow labrador misses it.

I really did try to get a good photo of the other two bucklings. They move fast! This one is Jackson, who is mostly gray but also has some of the same black and white markings. He was the third born.

This is Lincoln, the first born, taking a stretch. He has the most spots! All of the bucklings are very, very active, and very friendly. All were disbudded on day four, and we are waiting to wether them in case someone needs or would like to buy a buck. We are strongly considering keeping one for our own use, with other doelings we hope to purchase this spring. We plan to keep a closed herd (meaning, we won’t be leasing out our bucks).

So now you’ve met most of the family. Portabello is a beautiful tawny colored weather we have, and he is a sweetie (and, apparently, camera-shy). These bucklings, though, *whew!* they were running around and busy climbing on me and nibbling on my skirt. I’m just glad I got the photos I did!

Blessings,