Between the next group of kiddings approaching, and my hubby being home for the week, we've gotten lots done and spent lots of time with the goats this week!
At the beginning of the week, our studly adult bucks got all prettied up...well, okay, they got brushed a bit and their hooves done, and their scurs tended to. Here is Sunday, preening on the stand a bit:
Sunday is our coming 2 year old purebred Nigerian Dwarf buck, and he sure is turning out nicely! This summer, both boys will be shaved down and bathed. The sure do, uh, perfume, themselves heavily!
I completely forgot to get a current picture of Chai while he was on the stand, but here is a picture of him from last summer:
Vanilla Chai is a coming one year old purebred Nigerian Dwarf. He is the father of the upcoming group of kids, so we are very excited to see what he produces next month, as these will be his first kids!
The next group of due dates begins next month, so the expectant mamas all got their CDT booster, BOSE supplement, and first pre-kidding hair cut this week as well. All three does are in the process of being registered (got a little behind on paperwork last year, oops!) and will be all set by the time they kid. Due dates fall between 3/8 and 4/8, based on when Chai was in the pen with them.
It was fun to shave them down a bit and find their little first freshening udders hiding under their winter coat! Please excuse their lack of posing, they were pretty done with being on the stand at this point :) Here, in no particular order, are the expectant junior does:
Pilsner (Pilly), out of Amber and Sunday; bred to Vanilla Chai
Jail Bird (Birdie), out of Alibi and Sunday; bred to Vanilla Chai
Double Dutch (Dutch), out of Peekaboo and Sunday, bred to Vanilla Chai
Our other big job this week was to muck out the barn and replace the bedding in there and re-ground the pen as well. So today, my awesome husband went and got a huge load of shavings form a local mill and we cleaned out the barn, and laid down shavings in the kidding/baby stall, the doe barn and pen, and the weaning pen. It looks great and the goats love it! We had recently put down fresh wood chips, but as they were already partially composted, they didn't hold up very long. We were using horse bedding saw dust pellets in the barn, but since we were getting sawdust in our eyes, I was concerned it might irritate the goats as well. So, now there are shavings both inside and out, and we will see how they hold up (we've liked using the baled shavings before; so this should be a more cost-effective solution, and supports a local business as well). Sure looks nice and smells great out there! It was getting dark as we were finishing up, so I will try for frolicking goat pictures tomorrow :)
