[ballingall]

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

[thegreenlot]

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

[ballingall]

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

[thegreenlot]

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.

[sandy]

Hello from clackmannan, so been a while saying Hello been sorting my Christmas decorations etc and not been reading posts. Welcome