New babies, then a new fella comes over...

Well, here's the newest additions!  These 4 little buggers all came tumbling out of Tink on the evening on 3/12/2013.  I could tell it was the day when I came out in the morning to do chores and noticed that Tink wasn't as interested in breakfast as usual and she was breathing differently.  As they day progressed, she became more restless, so around lunchtime, I isolated her in the kidding stall in our tiny barn, got bundled up, brought out a huge stack of towels, my kidding supply kit, a couple of good books and proceeded to sit in the barn all day with the super-pregnant goat Tink.  It took until about 6:30PM for anything to happen, but when things get going with goat labor, they happen fast.  I was glad to be there when the first kid appeared in his amniotic sac bubble - cute little muzzle and hooves - normal position for birth, then surprise - THREE more quickly followed!  Tink had tripletts last year, so that's what I thought would happen again, but goats are often full of surprises!  I had to call Charlie to come help with the drying off since they were all arriving so quickly.  They seemed so small, but with 4 of them, Tink was carrying quite a load.  Surprisingly, they were all very equal in size, with a variance of only 4 ounces between the smallest (2#12oz) and the largest (3#).  Tink's a great momma, and got right down to business cleaning them up and feeding them.  They've since about tripled in size and I'm enjoying watching them grow every day!  However, with 4 mouths to feed, Tink won't have extra milk to share with me and Charlie until the kids are closer to being weaned - but I'm happy to have her feed her kids - and we're still getting milk from Maggie.

Speaking of, Maggie's turned out not to be pregnant after what seemed like 2 very successful driveway breedings to the lovely buck, Jester.  I'm guessing she may have reabsorbed the fetus, but I'm not sure why.  So, after wrestling with the idea of driving her an hour each way back to Jester again, I decided to go ahead and buy my own buck to breed to Maggie & Lily.  A bit crazy, since I just had 4 kids arrive, but I felt pressure to get the two open does bred soon so we were not expecting kids too far into the cold of next fall.  Thankfully, while trolling craigslist, the perfect buck appeared for a good price!  Meet Rocky!

There's a ton of goat literature out there, and they mostly say, don't keep your own buck if you've only got a few does... but these books were either written before contagious diseases such as CAE and CL became a real problem, or the authors are just plain neglectful of this important detail.  Basically, the quandary that doe-owners have is that most goat breeders now keep a closed herd - meaning they don't let any of their animals mix and mingle with strangers for fear of introducing one of these diseases to their herd.  Even with blood testing available to ensure animals are negative for these diseases, most breeders just don't want to deal with the hassle.  So that leaves many doe-only owners high and dry when it comes to breeding their female goat... and that goat needs to be bred to produce milk... a real catch-22.  There's also a lot of stories of mean bucks that are super stinky and out of control, running rampant over their farmers and female counterparts... thus the "never keep a buck" mentality.

I always love a challenge to dispel any rural mythology that rears it's ugly head, and this whole buck quandary was starting to sound very much like a greek folk tale.  I also hate neglecting the "other half" of goat keeping, bucks contribute 50% to a herd.  So, I do what I always do, and start researching.  I hit up the goat message boards and start searching the internet for stories from people who have successfully kept bucks, especially people who keep bucks with their does, as I don't have the space to keep a buck and a companion (2nd buck or wether) separate from my girls.  Low and behold!, a whole bunch of folks keep buck with their does, no problem - does it negatively effect the flavor the the milk - NO, do bucks injure their kids or chase their does constantly - NO.  There are, of course, still some challenges, but I think with creative problem solving, I can fit a buck into the farm here.  Right now is the off season, but come late summer/fall, Rocky will go into what is referred to as rut... his glands will become more powerful, he will start to urinate on himself all the time and get really stinky and gross.  I'm bracing myself for this, and I've come up with some plans to deal with that come time... first haircuts and baths, second a buck-apron device that he will wear... sort of like a mudflap positioned in front of his penis to block him from urinating on himself and also prevent him from breeding any doe that I want to keep open for a while.  Argh, urban dairy goat keeping is complicated, but a constantly fun rubix cube puzzle that I'm completely inspired to try & solve.