Lazy J Bar C

Lazy J Bar C

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Goat Girls

I love my goat girls! :) I always wanted chickens and dairy goats but I started with Boer goats because the lady at the feed store had a couple of baby girls for sale and Jerry bought them for me. What a guy! :) Next, one of Jerry's friends gave us 2 registered Alpine does (Nike and Tundra) and a young, unregistered Alpine buck (Pancho Villa). He had bought them to breed and sell to the 4-H kids but "stuff" came up and he could no longer keep them. He had the young buck in with the does but didn't think he had done his job! Well....the girls kept getting fatter and fatter and pretty soon there were baby goats on the ground! I didn't know how to milk a goat! Luckily, there was a nice lady down the road who let me come over to see her milking shed set up and showed me how to milk Nike. Also luckily, Nike was 8 and knew more about milking a goat than I did! LOL!!

Nike
Nike had 2 does that first year, Madeline and Sissy. I kept Nike and Madeline and sold all the other goats. It was just TOO MANY goats all at once! LOL!! The next year, Nike had 3 does and they all did well. I ended up selling all 3 of them to another of Jerry's friends for pets. The next year, I bred Madeline to a Toggenburg buck and she had 2 bucklings. Nike was actually still in milk from her set of triplets when I started milking Madeline. I always told Madeline "If you are half as good a milker as your mom I will be happy." Well, she is twice as good! LOL!!
 
Madeline
Nike got to retire. The next year, I bred Madeline to a Nubian buck and she had a doe, Abigail, and a buckling, Brodie. I was SOOO happy to get a doe! I had been regretting getting rid of all 3 of Nike's little does.


Abigail
 This past year, I bred Madeline to a different Nubian buck and she had 3 little bucklings. I just sold them last week. Abigail was SOOO jealous of the little boys, she was no longer Mama's baby! So, in 3 years, Madeline has had 7 babies and 6 have been bucks! I told her the other day "No more triplets and only little girls!" She just looked at me! LOL!! I am going to breed Abigail this fall (gotta try to find an Alpine, I like them better) and hopefully keep milking Madeline until Abby kids and I can start milking her. My plan is to alternate breeding and milking them because I hate to have to buy milk at the store! I sure hope Abigail is half as good a milker as her mom! :) It's kinda cool to have 3 generations!


 

     


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