The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: thegreenlot on January 04, 2010, 01:20:06 pm
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hi we are small holders in suffolk where we keep goats chickens and geese, this is a really great site, hope to share thoughts and knowledge and learn a great deal. :goat: :chook:
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Hi and welcome to TAS. Always good to have new members for the new year to perk us old stagers (see Thinner and Slimmer, the "alternative TAS" to se why we need perked up!)
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Welcome from another Clackie. Ducks, chickens, dogs and a cat, with a few veg if I can get motivated this year.
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Hello & welcome from Derbyshire, what sort of goats do you have?
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hi we have anglo nubians an alpine billy goat and one female pygmy, which we hope to get a billy for this year, :goat:
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just being nosey.... we have a Saanan milker and a Toggenburg 8 months.
both looking for a billy...
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Hi
Hello from snowy Midlothian (central scotland). We have not long started so at present 36 chickens, 2 rabbits, 4 cats, 1 drake, 1 duck and hopefully some pigs in the spring....... also 15 duck eggs in an incubator, with lots of fingers crossed.....
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next season will be putting, our billy up for stud, I am sure he will be very happy when we tell him. He is very enthusiastic, quite friendly, has his moments certain times of the year, but is very amusing, so if there any female goats in suffolk and norfolk, Mr.Bertie Basset will be available, next august. :goat:
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Hi welcome, hope you are not having to milk at present, must be freezing!!!
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Hello from me in snowy south lanarkshire ;D
Look forward to hearing more about you.
Karen x
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Hello and welcome from a snowy North Devon :)
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hi to you all and many thanks for the warm welcome on this very cold day, here in snowy suffolk, unfortunatlly, we are not milking at mo, our nanny died quite suddenly, in october, so we are having to buy milk, which is a bit of a chore, until our other nanny gives birth in march.
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Hi from snowy Derbyshire!
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Hi there,
We are in central Scotland, with the usual ducks, chickens, dogs, cats, rabbit and guinea pigs. But we also have some goats- 6 female Anglo-Nubians, and a male, plus a British Alpine female, 5 British Toggenburg females, and a few AOV's (2 British Saanen type, and 1 BT type). That currently makes 16 altogether, with 1 milking, and 8 pregnant (eeek!).
Beth
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God that must cost a lot to feed :goat: you are going to be busy are they due all at the same time. :goat:
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Lol it does! Fortunately the cost is spread out as I have some, so does my mum and my boyfriend and we all split the costs. They aren't all due at the same time, the first one is due end of February, then a bit of a gap, and the rest are spread out from the end of March through to the end of April. 5 of them are all due over a 2 week period end March/beginning April, so those two weeks will be busy. I just hope we don't get too many kids, though we will keep some male kids to sell most likely (off the breed champion females anyway). I think might be the most we have ever kidded- we normally just have between 1-5 kidding but we kind of expanded over the last couple of years.
Anyway I am so glad we have none to kid in January! In this weather it would just be horrible for the poor wee souls.
Is your one due to kid been put to your Alpine male?
Beth
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yeah she was, i hope it is ok, i've never had a billy goat before, when they are off heat do they all run together I know that sounds a bit lame but as I said I've only had nannys, at the moment he has a seperate enclosure, in the spring they will all be in the field. would welcome your advise :goat:
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We don't run ours all together, because of the risk of him mating them too early in the year, and even the risk that he just pesters them too much. But Nubian males are very focused on breeding, and other breeds aren't always as bad. I know someone who always used to run her Pure Toggenburg males with her females through Spring and Summer and only take them out in September.
Our male lives in the same shed as the girls, but he has a seperate pen, and sheeted hurdles for the side of his pen so he can't poke his head through and annoy them, but he can see them for company. We put the females out in the field (regularly from about April time to October) during the daytime, bring them in, and then put the male out in the evening. Once it gets into end of May/June we leave him out all night in the field, and he comes in about 8am, and the females go in. Sometimes we have 2 males, and we put both out into the field together. We do have a 10 ft or so wooden shed in the field as a shelter for them, although it has no doors but is openended.
Try it out and see what works for you. Some males will be better behaved than others.
Beth
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thanks very much for reply, we did have bertie next to the girls but he was pretty full on and literally, wrecked the place, so we had to move him out of harms way, but he can still see them, and its a lot quieter now he,s not head butting everything, I'm not sure if he will be all right, running with them in the spring. but I will give it a go. maybe we can put a secure divide in the field, it seems a shame for him to be on his own. although he gets lots of attention.
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Hello from clackmannan, so been a while saying Hello been sorting my Christmas decorations etc and not been reading posts. Welcome