goats
sastyk | February 4, 2014We had a fence crisis this summer, and for two days had no good containment for our bucks. As is entirely predictable, we also then had a spate of baby goats beginning New Years Day.
Now there is a good reason why most people in the Northeast do not plan goat births for January unless they have heated barns - the week the babies were born involved extreme cold - we had -28F here one night, and weeks where we rarely left the single digits. And to our sorrow, we did lose three babies, but the majority of them (10 so far) survived in our unheated and not very tightly sealed barn, and are doing…
sastyk | October 17, 2013If you want to know what we've been doing these last few months, read the next post down. But suffice it to say that nothing on our farm has really had the time and attention it deserves. And since we're legally not permitted to feed our goat or cow's milk to any of our foster children (yes, no matter how we pasteurize it, we are still prohibited), we've decided that right this moment, we need fewer dairy animals. Which is really great for you - I have a number of really lovely does from our herd (and some wethers if you are looking for a pet or brush clearing, and a nice buck as well)…
sastyk | January 24, 2013
I get a lot of inquiries about goats that go pretty much like this: “I’d love to have fresh goat’s milk all the time, and cheese, but my schedule just isn’t compatible with milking twice a day at 5am and 5pm, 365 days a year, so I guess I can’t have dairy goats, but I love to hear about yours.”
Well, let me start by saying that my schedule is also not compatible with milking twice a day on that schedule. Once upon a time I was routinely up at 5am, and I still start my day between 5:30 and 6, but now that my children sleep later, I’m into sleeping too. Moreover, I can’t face…
sastyk | April 24, 2012
(Mina with Goneril and Cordelia - Regan is on the other side of her out of sight)
No-drama Obama has nothing on No-drama Mina, who calmly gave us triplet doelings last night with no muss or fuss. Yes, that's three little girls from her over-achieverness. And she politely waited until we were done with dinner, and by the time we realized she was in labor, she had delivered three goats and had them all up and nursing. All in all, an incredibly auspicious beginning to our kidding season and just one more reminder of Mina's basic awesomeness.
As you may remember, every season's kids get a…
sastyk | April 18, 2012So you had babies, or are about to, right? Now you have to milk. It really, really helps to see it:
We're on baby goat watch here, and looking forward to the run of milk!
Sharon
sastyk | March 29, 2012I know some of you have already BTDT or started earlier this season, but I do know I have some readers expecting their first mammal babies and maybe a little bit nervous about it.
My feeling is that there are three things you should remember in kidding.
1. 99% of the time, the animals should be able to do this fine without you.
2. Even if you have to intervene, 99% of those times, everything goes ok.
3. It gets easier if you know what to expect.
Here's a (very silly, non-technical, done by someone who likes to make a big deal of how gross it is - of course, he's a guy and never given birth…
sastyk | January 31, 2012My fellow geeky Jewish goat-farmer Reb Deb sent me this, and I couldn't resist posting it:
sastyk | April 17, 2011(Just in case you didn't grow up in the 1980s and need the reference.)
Two years ago, we bought Jessie the goat from our friends Jamey and Carol. We wanted Jessie because of her great genetics - she's a milk machine, and a sturdy, healthy goat who makes stunning babies. Zahra, her first daughter is still one of their best does. Her brother was sold as a breeding buck. We were thrilled to be getting Jessie.
Even more thrilled because Jessie swiftly became my favorite milker. (Sshhhhh, don't tell the others I play favorites.) She's sweet, she's gentle, she's easy going - whatever you do…
sastyk | April 15, 2011Well, first there's the baby goats. Last Friday, we collected our foster goat, Tayish. He belongs to a friend from our synagogue who won him in a raffle, believe it or not. He's a 10 week old wether, and the kids have made a pet of him. Here's Simon holding him:
Then, on Sunday, Bast gave us our first birth and our first doe of the season, Calliope. It was nice for Bast that she just had the one little one - last year in her first season she had triplets!
Each season's babies name choices have a "theme" - this year is Greek mythology. Calliope was a (probably hopeless) expression of…
sastyk | March 24, 2011Life has been proceeding more or less apace, and it feels like a long time since I've sat down and contemplated anything, much less my Anyway Project goals. At the same time, all this business is a series of steps on the way to actually many of the things done. I hope that's true of all of you!
As you'll remember, the goal of the Anyway project is to integrate our preparations for a harder future with our daily life now, to turn them many parts into a whole. As I wrote previously:
The larger idea of the Anyway Project is to make our lives work more smoothly. Most of us stand with feet in…
sastyk | February 24, 2011
(Rubeus the cat meets Nigerian Dwarf Baby Meadowsweet last summer)
Tuesday's New York Times has an article on the expansion of miniature dairy goats in urban areas. It is an interesting article, and has some good points - among them it rightly points out that dairy goats are a bigger deal than chickens. That said, however, it is also pretty clear that the reporter is fairly ignorant about goats in general (this is probably not surpring, I'm guessing the Times Goat beat is pretty small ;-)), and I'd hate for people to get all their information about small scale dairy goats from this.…
sastyk | February 3, 2011These were taken before the 18 inches of snow that fell the other day, so you can actually see the ground, but the scene is still basically the same - white, with scattered critters. We're all definitely starting to dream of spring!
The creek in winter
Asher at the Creek
Isaiah, finding material to repair our (very primitive) footbridge
Hauling wood is a daily chore. When the snow is falling hard, my fuzzy, frosty spouse looks vaguely like a yeti after a few loads ;-).
With all this weather, it is good thing all the stuff in the root cellar is still holding up! At least we don't have…
sastyk | October 21, 2010
(Stachys, at about 3 weeks)
Today Stachys and Hemp enter the monastary. They are the youngest of the boys and at 8 weeks plus, it is time for them to leave their Moms. Stachys is just about 8 weeks, and at that point, could conceivably start breeding his sisters and his Mom (he's *huge* too - I need a current picture - he was a singleton and has gotten all of Mom's rich milk, plus Jessie's, ummm...circular physique). Hemp doesn't have that problem - he was wethered last week, but he'll be going home soon with a new family, along with Basil (who with brother Goldenrod moved up with the…
sastyk | September 2, 2010It isn't that I'm not athletic, I am - but my strengths in the athletic zone were never speed and agility - more forceful forward motion and tough elbows in basketball games. I've never been the kind of person who makes that rolling catch to save the game.
Until now. You see, I've got a new sport - the baby goat roundup. This is definitely a speed and agility event, and I am now the queen.
You see, we let our goats roam loose. Believe it or not, they don't go wandering into the road, but stay in the pastures. We only do it when someone is around to keep an eye on them (the rest of the…
sastyk | August 29, 2010Jessie finally kidded early Monday morning, giving us a solid ten baby goats, five does and five bucks. And on Thursday while celebrating one of my best friends' birthdays, we set them almost all out on parade (we ran out of kids to hold them before we ran out of kids to be held):
(From left to right, Isaiah and Poppy, Simon and Hemp, Josiah and Marshmallow, Asher and Heliotrope, Gideon and Stachys, and Rachel and Licorice.)
Missing from the lineup are Calendula (seen here in a not-terribly flattering picture of me - Calendula is the top doe, Licorice is hanging out on the bottom)
And here…
sastyk | August 11, 2010You asked for baby goat pictures - we've got baby goat pictures!
(Calendula meets Rubeus the cat)
(Basil, one of Bast's two boys in her set of triplets)
(Goldenrod, the other buckling - not sure if you can really appreciate his gorgeous coloring!)
(Asher holding Calendula, Goldenrod and Basil's sister)
(Phil the housemate holds Marshmallow - or we assume it is Marshmallow, since she and her sister are pretty much identical)
(Simon and Isaiah were told they absolutely should not smile while holding Licorice, Marshmallow's twin).
(A visiting friend, Gideon, holds Meadowsweet, the first…
sastyk | August 9, 2010Wendell Berry has an essay in which he argues that the greatest single evidence for the merits of British culture is that they developed sixty-five breeds of sheep:
What does it mean that an island not much bigger than Kansas or more than twice the size of Kentucky should have developed sixty or so breeds of sheep? It means that many thousands of farmers were paying the most discriminating attention, not only to their sheep, but also to the nature of their local landscapes and economies, for a long time. They were responding intelligently to the requirement of local adaptation. The result…
sastyk | July 23, 2010
Yesterday at 3pm EST, I was part of a critical stage of labor negotiations between SEED Media and Science Bloggers, and I'm happy to report that through the sole grace of my diplomatic skills, the strike was resolved. There were some other folks there too, but I cannot tell a lie - it was your Blogiste who saved the day, got Science Blogs back on track and came up with a critical strategy for making us better, faster, more relevant and bionic.
Or, I would have, really, if I hadn't had my hand up to my wrist in a goat's vagina. I was totally on the conference call - for the first 15 minutes…
sastyk | May 24, 2010
(Our new buckling, Cadfael, bred by our friends Jamey and Carol at Weathertop Farm (who are a great place to start if you are looking for little goats.) We arrived at their place recently about three minutes after he was born!
Note: This is a repeat from last year, since we've got visitors and family coming and the spring planting rush upon us. The baby goats in question are now bred teenagers, we own our own buck, Selene is no longer herd queen and Mina has mostly stopped driving Eric insane...mostly. But otherwise, all is much the same.
I've had many people email and tell me that my…
zooillogix | August 27, 2007Domestication has enabled many a bizarre mutation to endure that almost certainly would have led to doom in the wild. The fainting goat must be high up on this list. This entire breed of domestic goat suffers from myotonia congenita, which causes the animals' muscles to freeze for approximately 10 seconds when excited. This usually results in the goats collapsing or standing motionless, but can also lead to a stiff legged hop.
Also called Tennessee (Meat) Goats, Nervous Goats, Stiff-leg Goats, Wooden-leg Goats, and Tennessee Scare Goats, the animals were brought to Tennessee in the 1800s by…