Happy Easter Sunday and a Beautiful Spring Day !
We hope everyone is having a lovely Easter ! We actually have a beautiful Spring day here at Gullringstorp!! No wind, rain or snow!! A great day for the goats to come out. The boys can even come out today.
The boys were so relaxed when I entered the stable this morning
Sleepy boys
We have 7 little bucks but this morning we decided to place a leash on only two and hope the others would follow. Poor little Toby was the only one who fell far behind the others. He seemed to be a bit afraid. He will be back on a leash until he gets used to going out once again.
Once I helped Toby to catch up, they all followed and walked into the enclosure like little gentlemen
The boys must pass through the girl’s enclosure to get to their enclosure
A quick head count and all the boys are where they should be
The boys always head straight for the hay
It’s’ not always so easy to take the collars and leashes off when the boys are so happy to be in the enclosure
Here are my youngest boys; Pip, Winston, Toby (hidden, but I see his feet) and Phillip. Oh my how my baby bucklings have grown. Phillip is almost as big as his big brother Little Man
I am so happy that both the girls and the boys have a wonderful deep shelter where they can go if they are not happy with the weather
After Milk Stand training, the ladies were out in the enclosure:
Peanut and Pansy share a tender moment.
Our ladies were happy being outside again. Pumpkin enjoys a relaxing nap in the sun while the little Pygmy girls play in the bench in the distance
Wishing everyone a lovely and Happy Easter Sunday!
Pansy & Poppy are Bred With Balder
Our goats are West African miniature dairy goats. Both Nigerian Dwarf goats and our Pygmy goats can be bred year round. This means that our doelings and does come into heat once every month. Most of the world’s goats are seasonal breeders,which means they come into heat once a year. Since ours come into heat every month, we have the wonderful advantage to be able to breed our does when it suits us.
They give us clues when “heats” are on the way. They become very affectionate, much more than usual. Their tails flick and wag like a dog which is known as “flagging”. And last but not least, our does have a lot to say when they are in heat. With 17 females, we have a lot of “heat” sounds in our stable. A doe in heat make a very loud cry in addition to other vocalizations when in heat. When we have a quiet day in the stable, it actually sounds strange to us.
Here Pansy lets us know that she is in heat:
This will be Pansy’s first pregnancy so we decided for her to be bred with a smaller goat. We just try to avoid big babies with first time mothers
Balder knows what he is doing and is quite gentle and patient with our does
Pansy played hard to get for a while.
In this next video, Pansy is in what we refer to as a “standing heat”. This means she is now ready to be bred.
After much time had passed, Pansy was successfully bred Dec. 1, 2012 She has not come into heat since
Poppy, Pansy’s sister was also bred with Balder
- Poppy plays hard to get, in the beginning
Poppy did not make it easy for Balder
We knew she was ready , but the breeding process takes time, especially the first time. Even though this is a natural call to breed, our first timers have been a bit scared.
Poppy did eventually come down and was bred for the first time Dec. 5, 2012. Success! Poppy has not come into heat since
Little Man and Baby Boy exchange some “words”.
Iris Bred With Balder
We are about to start Maternity Watch again at Gullringstorp. We did breeding the last days in November and first of December 2012. As we move into Maternity Watch, we have stopped milking Nanna, Keriana and now we milk Alika only evenings. They will all dry off soon. To dry off means to slow down the milking so that the doe will not continue to produce milk. They will not be bred for at least another year.
This is Iris’s story. Our round little Pygmy doe was the first to be bred, twice Nov. 252 & 26, 2012. She will give birth for the first time in April.
Balder is the perfect buck for our little Pygmy does
He is gentle and kind to his ladies.
Iris “stands” for Balder which lets him know she is ready for him
Balder’s tongue is out as her makes bucky sounds in pursuit of his doe
My handsome Balder has a worn face from his challenges with the other bucks. He even has a bit of a urine scald on his cute nose. All this very typical of buck appearance
Iris lets us know when she is done
Meanwhile the boys in the next box start challenging each other
Welcome back for Iris’ Maternity Watch, coming soon.
Baby Boy’s Return to the Enclosure With the Rest of the Herd
We had quite a scare with little Baby Boy on July 19th. He came around on the 20th and has made a steady climb back to good health. This is a little cutie you just don’t want to see not feeling well. What a sad little fellow he was. Yesterday, July 26th was his first day out in the enclosure. The vet recommended some days off fresh grass, grains and just have hay and straw. Boy it really felt good to let him and his buddies out to play! Their enclosure had been reinforced and a door put up to keep them in and the girls out.
Baby Boy with his pal Balder
Baby Boy almost lost in the flowers
My two little boys, Balder and Baby Boy
My husband put a door on the fencing to help secure the enclosure. There is chicken wire around the entire enclosure. This would keep the live electric wires on the inside to deter the boys and the girls could not try to climb through the electric ropes. The entrance was a problem. A door was the solution. So far it’s working!
New door for the boy's enclosure
The boys really enjoyed their day out in the enclosure and so did the baby girls and the others, including our mothers to be.
Sweet little Nanna
Nanna has claimed this bench for herself
Chiyoko and Nakoa like to be together
Balder enjoying fresh hay, tastes better outside!
Sleepy Nanna’s three steps to a nap:
Step #1
Step #2
Step #3 Nap time!
Nanna was not the only one enjoying the day and taking a nap:
Baby Boy resting and more important, CHEWING! All systems working!
My expectant mothers are all a bit tired in the July heat. They rest as often as they can and they are a bit grumpy. they get really grumpy when new branches are brought into the enclosure or when we give another attention and not them.
Pumpkin taking a rest
Pumpkin laying near the mineral licking stone
Frida is getting a bit grumpy with her daughter Keriana. Frida would like to rest alone at times and poor Keriana is having a hard time with this. Frida eventually gets her space and Keriana must find a different place to rest.
Keriana licks the mineral stone before trying to settle down as usual, next to her mother
Keriana, ready to lay down
Frida made it real clear that this was HER spot and she had no intentions of sharing
Hilda has found her peaceful place to rest
With the mothers-to-be resting , alone, my yearlings Keriana and Alika had to make new arrangements for themselves:
Alika and Keriana sharing a tender moment. So nice to see since Keriana had a difficult time accepting Alika into the herd.
After rest time, everyone heads out to enjoy the enclosure and all the yummy grass and flowers:
The boys head out to enjoy their enclosure.
The Baby Girls enjoy the grass and flowers
Chiyoko and Nakoa find yummy grass along side the boy's enclosure.
As Chiyoko and Nakoa eat, Nanna tries to get the boy's attention. What a little flirt!
Nanna looks really close to that fence, but believe me, she has respect for its unpleasant jolt.
Hilda heads out to the grass and flowers, showing her beautiful udder. She is due mid August.
Frida and Keriana out in the far end of the enclosure, followed by my trusty herd dog Max.
My ladies out in the enclosure
One of the climbing items in the enclosure was damaged by the goats so it needed some repair work. Finding things for goats to climb on safely is not so easy. We don’t have a natural rocky area for our herd so we have to bring things in for them. My husband began working and our Pumpkin who has a crush on my husband, was right there to check it all out:
My husband heading toward his repair project
Pumpkin has to inspect everything.
Pumpkin has to be up close and inspect the repair job
Pumpkin making sure it's done right!
The Baby Girls just had to come and inspect the newly repaired stand.
I can’t say I wasn’t nervous with Baby Boy out eating grass after his problem, because I was. It was a long night as we kept checking on him in the box, only to find him happy and chewing his grass all over again! Best thing we could ever see! He was kept inside today just to give his rumen time to settle with all the grass he ate yesterday.
My expectant mothers are doing very well and seem happy and comfortable. Frida will be the first to deliver in the beginning of August. She is large, has a bit of trouble walking and lowering herself to rest but there are no real problems.
Welcome back for more from Gullringstorp!
GullringstorpGoatGal
