It’s been so busy here, with kidding season, starting new Spring chicks, getting our garden plants started, and lots of construction projects! We have eleven goat kids so far, with about half bucklings and half doelings. We will definitely have some bucklings available once they are weaned in a few weeks, and possibly some doelings – we still have four more does due next month, and our Nigerians are due later this year. So we’ll see what we end up with and decide whether to sell any of the girls. If you are interested in the bucklings, or know someone who might be, please get in touch. We do have some that would be nice breeding stock for small family farms – they won’t be show champions, as they are unpapered, but they come from nice milking lines and will come at a much more reasonable price than show champions! If you are looking for pet goats, these boys can also be wethered (neutered) – we will require that you either have goats already, or you take two, for pet wethers. A deposit will also be required, since we have to commit to the neutering by a particular age.
We were thrilled this past Sunday when my Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin came over, with my Uncle’s Bobcat skidsteer in tow, and he cleaned out phase one of our goat barn. Phew! There was more used bedding buildup than I care to admit. I’ll put it this way: the goats can’t see over the wall as easily as they could pre-cleanout! We still need to clean out the second phase by hand – we can’t get a Bobcat in that area. We have resolved to keep the bedding maintained moving forward, so we do not end up in the position we were in prior to Sunday. This will be made easier in phase one, because we removed the feeder we had in that area – we haven’t used it in months, anyway. The goats won’t be dragging hay onto the floor (goats are notorious for wasting hay) in that section, which will help immensely. Another bonus is that it gives them more space in that area! Since the cleanup, we’ve been able to open both doors on the back of the barn instead of just the one, which brings more sunshine in – it’s a great natural sanitizer. So we are in great shape, and intend to keep it that way!
I brought the camera on our walk with the goats yesterday evening, and you can peruse the photos in the gallery below. Just click on the first photo, and then you can arrow through the rest. There are also some photos of the cleaned-up barn in the set.
We are looking very much forward to going to see Joel Salatin speak tonight in Ann Arbor. This is a huge deal for us – he’s one of our farming heroes.
Hope you enjoy these photos!
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