The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: ballingall on January 09, 2011, 10:45:00 am
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Hello,
Saw a similar thread in the sheep section, and thought it was a great idea.
So- what are you up to this month with the goats? Are you dosing, vaccinating, getting some goats, selling some...... anything really!
Beth
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I'm eagerly awaiting the birth of my kids! They are due very very soon and I have brought them in to make sure they are all ok!
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Delousing (unplanned I have to add) - but done now, I am still itching though.... does Spot-On work for humans????
Planning the feeding schedule for the next two months, first kidding due on March 8th
Had planned to take wether kid to abattoir, but had to re-schedule as he also needed de-lousing...
Trying to get organised for milk recording (but failing)
Making some goat coats
Actually it is quite a quiet month on the goat front (I hope!!!)
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It's a quiet month for us too. We don't start kidding until the 9th March, so only just starting to think about seperating out the two that are due first, so that their feed can be monitored.
Trying to get some mucking out done before they get too heavily pregnant (switching them around different pens when heavily pregnant can upset them a bit) it's being hampered by it keeping snowing, and I can't get the goats out.
Feet trimming.
Going to fluke and worm last year's female kids this week.
Have one goat who is supposed to be going away this month to a new home- can do a reshuffle round when that happens.
I need to make some goat coats too Anke, also need to think getting organised and copying leaflets for the shows!
Good luck with the kidding Lee- let us know how it goes and what you get! It's an exciting time- you can start dreaming of the kids you might get.
Beth
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my new goats are coming this week sooo excited !!!
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ooh, what breed? (sorry if you've said before!)
and Lee, what are yours? and how long now?
Our goats need a few shed repairs ... they may have to wait til the weather's better, if we have to take the roof off and start again.
Geraldine looks to be back in kid ... fingers crossed for a girl (but will be so upset to see Max her firstborn go to a new home - we cant keep a wether)
milk again , woo-hoo!
She needs her feet doing. But HATES it!
and they get more brushing when they cast the winter coat - Gera will stand all day in a trance, but Cesar is more flighty.
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Don't forget I make goat coats. Give me the measurements and they/it will be in the post the same day.
Price, including postage is £35. Will not slip, waterproof and lined with a 200gm polyfill.
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Goat shed roof repairs, injections tomorrow, taking them for lots of walks into our other field on the lead and generally hoping it doesn't snow again for a long time!!
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Planning our new goat house which will be an old large chicken house. At present it's got 6" of ten year old dried chicken manure on the floor, perching rails, nest boxes, the lot. It 'should' be fairly easy to board up the nest boxes, remove rails, muck out, disinfect, divide in two- one end for milking and feed, stalls in the other. I hope!
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Just mucked out the two in-kid females and so have got the 'kids' pen and the male pen to do. Gotta a new little goat shed too, and so will hopefully move the boy into that sometime this month and then I can swap the others around to make sure the two pregnant girls have the big pens and plenty of room. First one due in March ;D ;D
Which wormers do people use on their goats?
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I am also getting ready for my herd of Pygmy Goats to kid! Start w week friday!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
Will post photos when they are up and about!
Richard
www.richmorpygmygoats.co.uk
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I have a mis-match of breeds. They include Toggenburg, saanen and anglo-nubian. We bred all of them ourselves, except the billys', and use their milk to feed our pet lambs( lambing has started too). They are due any day now!!
We grow on the boys after castration and eat them. We have a small market of people who get it from us as sausages and diced meat, its a very undervalued meat and everyone should try it!
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two bagots which are in-kid, il post fotos when they arrive!! :goat: :wave:
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so you got some Bagots, cool!
whats their pedigree?
and yes.. photos please! :)
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i've just moved my fellas into their new house. I've got 2 pygmys and 2 AN wethers- 6months old so not too big yet.
I got myself a large double horse box- and have made it into a goat house. I can close it up at nights- and it is well cosy with all the straw. It seems to be rodent proof as its well up off the ground. It is well sheltered as its got the vents up high. I can also tow it about from paddock to paddock and can leqave the small door open for them wwhen i'm not here during the day. Its miles better than the large shipping container that I had them in initally- it must have been cold and draughty and I've seen a long tailed friend in there at the back where my other stuff was stored.
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will tell u wen they are here - dont want to tempt fate - long journey ::) ::) :goat:
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ok, I'll let you off! ;) I want to know all about them when theyve arrived though!! :)
Our big hay rack has fallen off (split the wooden batten) and it is currently propped up against the wall so Max doesnt lie in it! either has to wait til the weekend or a torch-in-the-dark job cos its really heavy (or I'm just weak!) & takes both of us...
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Velvet is looking like a aircraft carrier so should be twins, bagging up nicely so maybe another week and we might have kidds :o
Did foot trimming on all girls except velvet. Need to do the billies but they stink @ the minute ;D
Waiting for two girls to come back in season to be covered by one of my young billies, so far he has not done his job >:(
Diane :wave:
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I am a sad bunny with no babies due at all for the first time in a few years. I sold my breeding sheep after lambing this year and only have two female sheep/goat, the rest are wethers. Looking forward to not getting up all through the night but its terribly sad missing out on everything else. Had two tortoise eggs hatch over xmas which are fabulous. Feel the need to get that daschund which I have wanted for years but have too many dogs for hubby's liking. There is a chance he may have to work abroad for three days a week for a year, so I may get one anyway, depending on how brave I feel !?
So many jobs to do, snow damage repairs, redecorating to name a few but just can't seem to get them started for some reason.
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they are here!!! ;D ;D ;D
Bampton Bellini and Bampton Bling Bling
im very happy ;D ;D they are gorgeous
Kids are due in not too distant future! fingers crossed
:goat: :love: :goat: :love: :wave:
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horray! Glad they arrived safely...
not related to my boy then, with Bampton name.
Are you going to call them by their full names?!
dont forget to post up photos when you've got a minute, and tell us all about them ;)
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theyv had a few days to settle in but caught them up today, bling-bling sat on my knee and had a scratch , kiss and cuddle, she put her head on my shoulder, gave a big sigh and shut her eyes and had a nap!! how cute is that. we might hand raise the kids to make them super-tame so it will be a fun year ahead. ;D ;D ;D
not quite sure what there pet names will shorten to yet!
does anyone know where i could source a billy kid that had breeding potential? i think they need to be licensed though not 100% sure.
will try for fotos tomorrow!
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does anyone know where i could source a billy kid that had breeding potential? i think they need to be licensed though not 100% sure.
what do you mean by "licensed" ?!
And how far are you prepared to travel? Am I right in thinking you're in Scotland??
cant wait for the photos! how long til they kid?
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( i may be wrong but im suffering from information overload at moment!!) i think i read somewhere that for a bagot billy to have registered progeny, they need to registered but also licensed (same with some breeds of ponies) to make sure they are up to breed standard. we are in NE scotland but will travel anywhere to get the right one. Would prefer a young billy so we can tame it, but then run the risk it doesnt come up to scratch when its older and it has to get licensed.
i think there is a farm park up in scotland that has bagots, so might be some contacts there, also there was a breeder in anglesey, but i think mine are related to those. Theres no hurry though, but would be nice to have an idea by autumn.
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I've not heard that ... but then, our boy is to mate with our toggie,not another Bagot
I've sent off his registration paper to the BG society (though had no acknowledgement :roll:)
if you contact this place
http://petsitting-derbyshire.com/Contact-Us
they could tell you if they have any boys available and probably where their lads have gone (one is in Derbyshire, with me! Cesar, of the Aldernham Joshua line (spelling?!) :)
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thanks i will try that. :love:
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say Cesar's "mum" sent you!!
;)
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Little blue, some breed societies demand that in order for them to be properly classified as suitable breeding stock, they are inspected to make sure they meet the breed standard. I know the Old English goat club do this for their stock, although I'd not heard of the Bagot society doing it, it's not unheard of.
Beth
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here they are!!! ;D ;D :goat: ::) :goat: ;D ;D
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im chuffed i can use my new camera (hurray!!)
they are still quite flighty but im sure they will settle. i still need a shepherds crook to catch them but they give a big sigh when they are caught and you can feel them relax, so im hoping they will come good. they are not a year old yet. really pleased with them so far.
what do you think?
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Beautiful goats, although I don't know anything about the breed standard. Are Bagots kept with their horns on? I always find that goats look so different if they have horns, just carrying themselves quite differently.
I am sure they will become tame, my GG girl that came to me as a kid had been raised on her dam, so was quite flighty. But now, even though she doesn't like to be caught, she can be handled and will always come for a treat.
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well, their markings are supposed to be a straight line behind the shoulder so these girls are far from perfect as they have patches in the wrong places but their conformation is quite neat,
im not sure how u go about improving that from a breeding perspective. will be interesting to find out tho!
they keep their horns which is lucky cos i prefer that. our old GG had a floppy horn that was wrongly dis-budding before we had her, and kept growing back, until she ripped it off in field. she was ultra tame before we had her, our other little nanny was a bit feisty but followed the GG everywhere so she wasnt a problem. glad i didnt have to milk her tho! :D
id be happy if i could get them to come to call/bucket cos then if (ir when) they ever escape, then i can control them a bit. they run really fast!!!!
;D :wave: ;D
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they're lovely... quite dark then .
Are they really in kid that young? when are they due?
our lad is very timid, he comes over to be talked to and have the tip of his nose tickled but wont stand any more than that.... whereas the other two demand a full body massage and nuzzle every time you go near them! But I'm sure your girls will come to a bucket...
:)
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I thought you said they were in kid too- seems very young to me as well. It might be the norm for Bagots.... I wouldn't know. They are attractive looking animals.
Beth
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i know it is very young, they are supposed to be due feb!! theres no hurry to get a billy, so they can have a long rest and finish growing. not ideal but i supposed different people do things differently. what age are goats normally mated? i never bred them before. is the pregnancy the same lengt of time as goats?
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i know it is very young, they are supposed to be due feb!! theres no hurry to get a billy, so they can have a long rest and finish growing. not ideal but i supposed different people do things differently. what age are goats normally mated? i never bred them before. is the pregnancy the same lengt of time as goats?
goats gestate for approx 155 days
commercially, some goat breeds are mated at around 8 months... it apparently prevents them growing as large overall as they might if fully matured.
with Bagots being abit more "wild" then this could be why they were mated young. I suppose out on the mountain side, they would meet up to mate during the Autumn, kid late winter / early spring and the female kids mate much sooner.
do you know who yours were studded by?
keep us posted on the expectant mums ... its all very exciting! :)
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bampton bodacious is the unborn kids sire. shouldnt be too far away, at least they travelled safely, was long journey from oxfordshire to aberdeenshire!!
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Is gestation not around 154 days? If they are due in February and are first timers they will soon develop and udder, but that could be a few weeks in advance of kidding.
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5 days longer than sheep
if served 20 september due 19 feb (example only)
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Is gestation not around 154 days? If they are due in February and are first timers they will soon develop and udder, but that could be a few weeks in advance of kidding.
doh! I've got a typing stutter ... it really says 155 days (see edit!)
Thanks Anke
Princesspiggy, If Brampton is the girl's prefix, was the sire born on the same holding? IE they're not related are they?!
It crossed my mind when I realised how young they are, but hope Im wrong :)
I do think theyre lovely by the way .... did I say that already? ;)
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Gestation is normally 150 days, roughly same as sheep. http://www.allgoats.com/breeding.htm#What%20is%20the%20gestation (http://www.allgoats.com/breeding.htm#What%20is%20the%20gestation)
Our "kidding book" actually agrees with this, and not only that, over 40 years, we have a 52% of females to 48% males.
Beth
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Beth - interesting %'s - I will hopefully be due a couple of girls this year, last year 4 boys and 2 girls maybe this year the opposite!!
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officially not the same sire - we'll see..
is it possible or inexpensive to get dna test done? (crossed my mind aswell.)
i think id be happier if they werent in kid, cos im a stickler for rules (army family upbringing - lol)
they are very cute and seem happy and extremely nosy, they are fascinated with the pigs and cows and labrador.
;D :o ???
i was cutting some branches for them today, is there anything that you cant feed them?
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stuff thats poisonous, like yew.
goats love "native" stuff ... willow, beech, hawthorne,
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Ivy leaves in smallish quantities - the only green stuff around atm. Take any berries off. Also veggie peelings (not potatoes), they love bananas (peel and the inside), most fruits.
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Mine loved brambles at this time of year.
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ours do too :) we took them on their leads to the orchard the other day and they found the hugest pile of brambles stood there for a while munching. hubby was squirming and saying " how DO you do that?! doesn't hurt your mouths?!" not surprisingly they didn't answer. too busy eating. :goat:
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leylandi is poisonous i presume?
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Yes. With the exception of ivy I treat all evergreens as suspect. Rhododendron is onw of the worst.
I can't find any brambles with leaves on atm!!!
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oh Anke, come over here we've got more brambles with leaves than we can cope with lol. tripping over the things yesterday, ouch. I think we've got early spring here, its quite weird!
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I have got some dried willowherb still in the polytunnel, they love those.
I also had some nettles, but they got a wee bit damp, so the male lambs/tup got them instead. They fought over them!
saw some snowdrop (just the green top though) poking through this weekend - so maybe there is spring in the air.... wishful thinking. last year we had our last bad snow/hail storm on March 31 - my first lambing day!
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I think it feels 'sleety' here today. its been raining, not hard but very cold and horrible. we did have heavy snow this time last year (school boiler broke down - boo!) so anything is possible...
do you lamb indoors? must be hard going in snow and what a late snowfall, that's almost easter!
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This years lambing is later into April! I have some indoor space, but most of mine choose to lamb outdoors (especially if the weather is bad!)