# Snake&Egg Farm 2022 Waiting Thread



## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Here are our planned breedings for the year and progress photos!

First is Snake&Egg Erin--she is the great-granddaughter of one of my favorite bucks, J&R Spirit's HT-K Kaitai. She also has Lakeshore and Woodview lines from her sire. Erin is a really big doe, easily 165lbs at her milking leanest. Last year she threw quadruplets, and I would not be at all surprised if she does it again this year. We've been calling her Schoolbus because she's clearly carrying a lot of kids.Last year, she peaked at 11.5lbs of milk a day, so I am anticipating awesome things again this year. She is a 4-year-old third freshener, due on March 13th.

















Next is Buffalo Gal PC Celeste. She is out of J&M Hideaway both dam and sire--granddaughter of GCH Lakeshore Ace Bellagio, who was the 2021 Premiere Sire. On her dam's side, she is a mix of J&M Hideaway and Hoanbu lines. She did okay as a first freshener. She has a beautiful build and udder, but her production was meh. Then again, she got bred early and kidded at only a year old. She is a second freshening 2-year-old, due on March 4th, and I hope to see great things out of her. She had twins last year, and this year she's already as wide. (Also, in this picture, you can see just how big Erin is in comparison to her.) I suspect triplets.

















Here is the buck both of them are bred to, Minted Legacy's White Spots. He is 3rd cousin to the 2019 Spotlight Sale buck from Wingwood. His line is heavy on Wingwood and Lakeshore lines. He is a big boy, and very dairy. I ended up selling him, because he was an awful fence breaker.









Next is Snake&Egg WS Andromeda, last year's daughter of the Celeste x White Spots pairing. She is growing up really nicely. I hope her udder is as lovely as she is. She isn't due until April 11, and she will be a 14-month-old first freshener. Her baby bump is starting to show! I'm really hoping for twins. She's a good size, already almost as big as her dam. You can see her spunky personality in her pictures.

















She is bred to Split-Creek Flagstaff Moment. He is the great-great grandson of my all-time favorite buck, Split-Creek Spinning Top. His grandsire is Goddard Farm Spin a Top Buck, and he has been bred back along Lakeshore and some of the older Split Creek lines. He is only 10 months old in this picture, and look how beautifully he is built! (He is hunched up--his rump is not that steep and his brisket is much deeper when he's walking/moving.) He's a spoiled little baby doll and my stinky boy.









Finally, we have Beep Beep (she's a sheep!). She's our bottle baby meat mix mutt, who has been raised with goats and thinks she's a goat. She is bred to our lovely Tunis ram Rock the Kazbaa. She will be a first freshener, due on March 3rd.









Here's a picture of our three girls who are only a month away. There is much groaning and waddling already....


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## Lamancha Lady (Dec 13, 2011)

Nice looking animals. I think there is an imposter in you herd


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Nonsense, she's a goat, just ask her! XD


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## Lamancha Lady (Dec 13, 2011)

In that case she has to be 😂🤣😂🤣


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

Lovely ladies! I saw the picture of Beep Beep before I read about her and was like… I thought this was goats?  Can’t wait to see all the beautiful babies!


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Gorgeous girls! I look forward to some long eared (and sheep) babies.


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## DDFN (Jul 31, 2011)

Aozora said:


> Nonsense, she's a goat, just ask her! XD


She needs to hold her tail up to he a goat. Lol I kid you not when I worked vet tech they had a training saying for vet students. Tail up goat, tail down sheep. 

Therefore my goats become sheep whenits really cold outside. Lol

Awww we used to have Tunis! Love that breed. I bet she will have those cute red faced lambs!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Lovely girls.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

We had a special delivery from Veteran's Ranch in AZ! Meet Veteran's CodeBlu Kachina Doll. She is a month old, with an awesome pedigree. Her grandfather on her dam's side is an Elite buck at 95%, and her granddam on her sire's side is an Elite doe and a Top 10 Milker. She is also the great-grandkid of Goddard Farm Spin a Top Buck, who is Flag's grandsire. So their pairing should be a great match. Below is a picture of her dam's FF udder.









Kachina is a whirlwind. I put a couple of pictures of her in action. She's currently living in the house until Celeste kids, and then she will have buddies. It is a full time job containing and entertaining her... She's by far the bravest goat I have ever met, although she does like to verbally check in all the time. She does a cute little mutter and I have to respond or she gets upset. I am currently sleeping on the couch cuddled up with a baby goat, because our usual baby gate cannot contain this girl! So she's getting incredibly spoiled and terrorizing the cats.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Oh my! She's a darling!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Aww.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

She is sooo cute!


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Celeste kidded triplets, just like I suspected. We induced her to kid, because my husband had a daytime class he was forced to attend and there would have been nobody home if there was a problem. Boy, am I glad we did. The second kid got stuck, head only legs back position, and I had to go in and pull his legs forward and help deliver him out. The third kid came out moments afterward. Impatient! It's the first time I've had to assist in a birth. I'm very grateful to resources like this forum that I knew what to do and did not panic.

Two moonspotted bucks, one very splashy doe!
















Here's our little roadblock buck. He had an adorable moonspot on his head that looks like he rolled in mud.









And of course, any time you try to take photos of kids, you end up with pictures like this where the doeling was trying to eat the camera.









Celeste is doing fantastic! She is extremely overprotective of the kids. I'm concerned that she might have a bit of a congested udder because it feels like she is staying full, but whenever I milk out extra she will go back to the stall, look me in the eyes, and deliberately feed two of the kids at once so I think she's just refusing to let down for me. See: extremely overprotective.


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Congratulations!


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

What flashy kids! Congratulations!


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## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

Congratulations! They’re beautiful!


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Kudos! You stayed with her!GOOD JOB! That could have been bad! Beautiful Triplets...flashy & spotted! 💝💗💞


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

How cute.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Erin wasn't due until Sunday, but starting yesterday she was giving me all the signs that she was due imminently. Her udder filled and filled and filled, and then held out... I thought for sure she would go last night. Instead, she went this morning while I was at work. My husband called me to tell me her water broke, and I broke all kinds of speed limits getting home. Did the 45 min drive in 35....

She did have quadruplets, just like we thought! 2 bucks and 2 does. The third born, a doeling, was stillborn. She came out in a very strange position. The first things out were her ears.... crown of head presenting, with front legs back. I was able to pull her head out and she got kinda stuck again. I wiped her face and nose clean, but there was no response. I knew it was not good... We got her out, and I tried everything I could to get her to live but she had no heartbeat. She was the spitting image of mom. The only thing I can figure is that Erin's water breaking was her amniotic sac, and she drowned while the first two were being born.

The little firstborn buck has one heck of a voice on him. I love his black ears and his lightning bolt blaze. If it wasn't for the fact I name the kids from their dam lines, and so he will get an Irish name, I would call him Hairy Potter...









The last born,the roan buck, was giving Erin a lot of trouble and I thought I would have to assist, but he was eventually born butt first. Good thing Erin is huge and they are little. I love how he is only roan on his front half--past the belly band, he's mostly black.









The little doeling is much smaller than her brothers. It only took two contractions and she literally squirted out. She was so little that the contractions didn't clear her lungs very well, so it took a few minutes to get her breathing easily. But FINALLY, after repeating this breeding 3 years in a row, we got a doe! And what a stunner she is! I think we will call her Maeve.









Erin isn't feeling well. She's shocky after the two rough births. I wanted to leave her kids with her, but she was snorting and stomping at them when they tried to nurse. I now have newborns in the house, joy. Round the clock feedings... I did get her to eat some, and tomorrow morning I will be hitting her with a ton of vitamin b12 and some flat dark beer since she loves it and it will help rebalance her. She did finish cleaning at about 9pm tonight.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Congratulations! They are lovely! I'm sorry about the stillborn, though. :'(


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

Awww! What cute little babies! Sorry about the little stillborn girl. 
I didn’t know contractions cleared their lungs.  That’s cool!


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

What Beauties you have! So sorry about your loss of one. And you are not alone with 3 bbs in the house! I hope Mom recovers quickly and takes them back!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Congrats, they are adorable.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Well... Erin wasn't doing well, and we were really concerned for her. She had some placental material still hanging out of her, and she kept squatting and gritting her teeth. When I was feeding everyone tonight, she made a grunt like she was in labor and having contractions. Oh god.

We took her to the kidding stall and I went in. Yep. There was another baby, stuck and dead, butt-first again. I had to push it in, uncurl a hind leg, and then get traction to get it out. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but Erin was screaming and I knew I had to get the kid out. It was another doe. So she had quintuplets, 3 does and 2 bucks. We dosed her heavily with LA200, gave her a bunch of Nutri-Drench, and a big dose of banamine. Hopefully she should start feeling better now.

From here on out, I will assist in every kidding Erin has.... Her very first kidding was twins, and one was a stillborn who wasn't delivered until the next day. This time, she had another stuck kid who I had to reach in and deliver the next day. I will always go in from here on out.

Her only surviving doeling, Maeve, is doing very well. On a whim, we weighed her. She's a whopping 4.4lbs! She was probably another .2lbs smaller when she was first born. That's large Nigerian sized, not Nubian sized.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Oh good... Now she has mastitis too. In both halves. And despite all she has been through, she is a BIG girl and it took both of us fighting her at full strength to get Today in both of her teats. I hope between that and the LA200 we can knock it out.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Oh man! I'm sorry you're having such a hard time! I hope things begin to look up for you soon!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

What a bummer. I am so sorry.
Hope treating her works quickly.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I'm so sorry.


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

I’m so sorry you and Erin are having such a rough time.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Well, Erin seems to have turned the corner. She looks terrible--extremely skinny, with huge hollows and the "squeezed toothpaste" look like she is newly kidded. She's not eating as much grain as I would like, but I think part of that is that we have been pouring treats into her and she would rather have her animal crackers/peanuts/bananas than boring ol' grain. She's alert and interactive and wants attention all the time, and she gets snorty stompy mad when I break out the Today or the syringes. 

She just completed her course of Today and LA-200, and one side of the udder is completely back to normal. The other side was definitely more heavily affected. There is a hard spot in there that might be scar tissue, but the rest of it is doing better day by day and her milk is increasing. On the one hand, it would be good for her to dry off and just focus on recovery, but on the other hand, she's made this much of a turnaround in under a week and she is a VERY heavy milker, so I would be concerned about doing more damage than good to dry her off this early.

The kids are doing fantastic. It got extremely cold this past weekend, and so we had to bring everyone into the house... 7 baby goats in my entry hallway oh lord. Actually, 6--Kachina is an escape artist and cleared the baby gate in seconds. So she got run of the house for a while. She's nearly 30 lbs, and thoroughly enjoyed peeing on everything I love and "redecorating" the bathroom when I locked her in there for a while. But she made up for the evil by sleeping next to me on the couch, snuggled up and sweet. At one point, I woke up and shifted, and she shifted too and put her head on my shoulder and we both went back to sleep like that.

Celeste's kids just got disbudded, and they sailed through with no problems. The boys are filling out and stretching out and they are STUNNING. They inherited their sire's dairyness, with long necks, smooth toplines, and good rumps. Polaris (the doeling) is no slouch either, but she is taking a little longer to fill out. All three are registered and will be sold. Celeste's udder is really nice this year, and she's already milking over a gallon a day. 

Spunky little Maeve has absolutely no concept of size. She was happily (attempting) to butt Celeste's boys and playing along with them. She is very good about screaming at me if I take too long between putting her on my lap and getting the bottle in her mouth. Erin has amazing ears and facial character, and I think Maeve will be an improvement even on her. She and the boys are bottomless voids that consume all milk within a mile radius....

Andromeda is doing well and getting wide and deep. I need to get an updated picture of her. She's already building her FF udder. I'm not thrilled with teat placement so far, but it's too soon to tell what the final result will be.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Glad they are doing well.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good to hear.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Andromeda is under 2 weeks from her due date. Her ligaments are starting to get squishy, although they're definitely still there. She's much larger than she looks in the picture, as she's a wide doe. I cannot get a decent picture where you can see her width, as she is sooooo needy right now and will come right up as soon as you look at her. She's built a nice little FF udder--can't wait to see what happens when she fills it! I still suspect twins, and I felt one of them kick me when I was checking her tonight. Poor confused first-time mama!









Polaris is going to a new home in Virginia, but I took a picture of her for her new owner and I love the ear shot. She's a pretty thing, and very very spoiled.









Maeve has unfolded into more of her real shape, and wow! She's long like her dam and sire, and leggy. Her neck could be longer, but she's going to have a deep build once she grows up.I love her uneven ears--one looks like a frosted ear, but you can see the back edge is black because it's actually an ear-sized moonspot. The other ear only has some moonspot and the rest is solid black. She is a princess and knows she is a princess, falling asleep in my arms as I held her one night. She has doubled in size to 9 lbs, so after a while even I had to give up and put her down. I think her actual registered name will be Snake&Egg WS Queen Maeve...


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## Tanya (Mar 31, 2020)

Beautiful. Andromida looks beautiful in her glory.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Very nice!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Beautiful.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Andromeda kidded twin does this morning! She was very much not thrilled with the process and was convinced that she was going to die when the kids crowned. I did have to reach in and help, as the first doe kid was sitting with her head on her hooves, so I had to straighten her legs and pull her out. Little stinker was not helping, kept trying to pull her legs away from me. Her behavior continued when she was upright and playing within an hour of birth... 

Andromeda was being very good, cleaning her kids and letting them nurse, although she wasn't talking to them at all. Just silent, rapt attention. Then a switch flipped in her brain and she decided she only wanted the doeling who looked like her, and she attacked the roan doeling. Full on head butts and biting, knocked the poor little thing into the wall and pinned her before I intervened. So now she has lost all kid privileges.

These are my first kids from Flag and I am thrilled! Look how W I D E they are! And very solidly built. And I've never had kids so vigorous straight out of the gate.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Cutie pies


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Congratulations! Sorry mama is being a pain


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Adorable little ones!💞


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

Oh my goodness! How adorable are they?! Sorry she was so mean to the roan.


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## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

Aozora said:


> Andromeda kidded twin does this morning! She was very much not thrilled with the process and was convinced that she was going to die when the kids crowned. I did have to reach in and help, as the first doe kid was sitting with her head on her hooves, so I had to straighten her legs and pull her out. Little stinker was not helping, kept trying to pull her legs away from me. Her behavior continued when she was upright and playing within an hour of birth...
> 
> Andromeda was being very good, cleaning her kids and letting them nurse, although she wasn't talking to them at all. Just silent, rapt attention. Then a switch flipped in her brain and she decided she only wanted the doeling who looked like her, and she attacked the roan doeling. Full on head butts and biting, knocked the poor little thing into the wall and pinned her before I intervened. So now she has lost all kid privileges.
> 
> ...


Congratulations! They are beautiful! I’m sorry mama rejected one


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

So cute.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

We legitimately thought that our ewe Beep Beep wasn't pregnant after all, or maybe that she lost her pregnancy in some of the scuffling that they all have been doing. Then yesterday, suddenly her teats were visible and she was acting very spacey. Hmm, well that's interesting... When I see my goats doing that, we're about 3 days away from kidding. We decided to keep an eye on her.

This morning I got to come home from work early, and as soon as I got out of the car my husband came up to me saying, "Beep Beep is in labor!" We went into the barn to see what was going on, and she was licking on an adorable little ewe. Well, uh, that was different from goats.... Especially as a first timer, I expected a minimum amount of thrashing and screeching and that it would take a while. Not so much. Beep Beep, despite being a bottle baby, is an excellent mother.

Kinda surprised at the little girl's color. Kazbaa (sire) is a red Tunis wool sheep, and Beep Beep (dam) is a white hair sheep meat mutt. I didn't expect a paint as an outcome! Sadly, the little girl has 4 teats and it looks like one of them is non-functional, and as a hair/wool mix her wool isn't really worth spinning. So she will have a wonderful life with us for about a year and then she will go to freezer camp.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

She's adorable!


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

What a cutie!


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## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

So cute! Beep Beep is the cutest sheep name


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

How cute.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Awww such a DOLL!💖💝💞 Love the name Beep Beep!


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

😙🎶_Beep beep I'm a sheep. _Am I right? 😅 I never thought anyone else knew that song but me.

That lamb is super cute. Too bad she's a bummer. 😌


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

I don't go around singing that song to her as I pet her, nooo. I don't know what you're talking about.....


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

Ugh, I'm so frustrated.... I had reserved a buckling from a really good breeder back in October, and put down a $400 deposit. Come March 5 months later, nothing. So I reached out to her "oh sorry your first choice doe was attacked by dogs and lost her kids. So did my other senior doe." Aw man, that's really really rough. I had picked out a name and everything. So I picked out a 2nd choice (a FF), since she only had 5 does kidding this year. "Oh okay, she's due April 8th, here's a bunch of pictures from the sire's line."

Fast forward to yesterday, I hadn't heard anything so I reached out again. "Oh sorry turns out her breeding never took. But you can see about getting a buck from 3rd choice?"

Now that did not ring right at all. How the hell does an experienced breeder with only 5 does not suspect that a doe didn't take until a week after her due date? And how the world are we so non-responsive? And wanting to push it out to a 3rd doe? No, I demanded my money back. She pushed back about the 3rd choice, and I pushed back that if 3 of her 5 does didn't kid, surely the other reservations she had to move around would mean my chances at getting a 3rd choice buck were extremely small...

She is giving me my money back, but this really left a bad taste in my mouth. And it would have been an amazing udder buck, which I really need. And it's one of only 2 udder breeders in my region of the country. But there was something Not Right about the whole situation.

I'm also having a lot of trouble selling my bucklings, even wethered and offered at a cheap price. I'm going to hold them until Thursday, when we have an auction, and then dump my beautiful healthy hand-raised boys at an auction where God knows what will happen to them. And I will probably have to do this again year after year because people here only want itty bitty babies for $100 or less.

I'm so so upset, to the point my husband had to talk me down from selling the goats and getting out of them completely. It's not the goats who are the problem--I love them so much--but it's the people I have to deal with. Cost me a breeding buck, and is making it hard to deal with my bucklings I produce.


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

I’m so sorry things aren’t going very well for you. There are so many bucks for sale everywhere.  Instead if selling your bucklings, could you just keep them for the freezer? Or are you like me and would have a hard time doing that?


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

Aozora said:


> We legitimately thought that our ewe Beep Beep wasn't pregnant after all, or maybe that she lost her pregnancy in some of the scuffling that they all have been doing. Then yesterday, suddenly her teats were visible and she was acting very spacey. Hmm, well that's interesting... When I see my goats doing that, we're about 3 days away from kidding. We decided to keep an eye on her.
> 
> This morning I got to come home from work early, and as soon as I got out of the car my husband came up to me saying, "Beep Beep is in labor!" We went into the barn to see what was going on, and she was licking on an adorable little ewe. Well, uh, that was different from goats.... Especially as a first timer, I expected a minimum amount of thrashing and screeching and that it would take a while. Not so much. Beep Beep, despite being a bottle baby, is an excellent mother.
> 
> ...


This is the cutest lamb ever! Too bad you can’t keep her.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

KY Goat Girl said:


> I’m so sorry things aren’t going very well for you. There are so many bucks for sale everywhere.  Instead if selling your bucklings, could you just keep them for the freezer? Or are you like me and would have a hard time doing that?


I love goat meat, and I have no problem raising extra bucks for meat. But when I raise meat boys, I know from the first day and I treat them like that. These boys are beautiful and from a very good milker and very good lines. I thought for sure, on their beauty alone, they would sell as breeders or pets and treated them like that from day 1. So I can't eat these particular boys. 

In the future, I will not bond with my bucklings. Especially because of ADGA rules changing about DNA testing, I will not sell any intact bucks ever again, so I will just prepare for bucket baby wethers to be dumped at auction or wholesalers if not picked for meat.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

I'm so sorry you are having these issues. I'm surprised to hear you are having so much trouble selling your bucklings. I'm not very far from you, (I'm in wester NC) and I don't have that much trouble. Must just be your local market. 😕


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

I hear your frustration. Its so hard when you put in soooo much work. Have you personally contacted any 4H leaders or FFA teachers. They know people from the kids they see dailey. They may know of people who could be interested in your bucklings. Its worth a try.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

I talked to our local 4H a few months ago, and I was told, word for word, "Kids don't want to do dairy goats--it's too much work." 

lololol

I talked to someone today at the supermarket who has a daughter who wants goats, so I think we will get a good home for my wethers.


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

That’s great! Hope it works out for you!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Sorry you have had a tough go. 

But glad things are working out for you.


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

The girls were out playing the other day, and I had to grab a photo. Here are my keepers for the year, and look at all the lovely spots and ears! You can see they're already nice and deep and wide. They're going to mature into beautiful does. Apparently my herd is going to be black.

Left to right: Nebula, Kachina, and Maeve


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Beautiful does! Good job!💗


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Looking great 😊


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## Aozora (Mar 28, 2018)

It's almost time to post my 2023 waiting thread, but I wanted to do one final update on my 2022 kids. They're all turning into beautiful does!

Kachina, 11 months old:









Maeve, 9 months old:









Nebula, 8 months old:


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Very pretty Does! Good job!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Very nice. 😊


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