Pan, our Nigerian buck, has been living in an enclosure right behind the house. The rest of the herd live in the front. So I have to make two separate visits each morning and evening, in opposite directions, to feed & water the goats. The extra exercise definitely isn’t going to kill me, but it isn’t a very effective usage of time. Not only that, but having Pan behind the house meant that for like five months out of the year I can’t hang my laundry out. I have my laundry line suspended by the posts for the back porch and he smells sooooo bad during rut that we’ve given up the use of our back porch for anything, including hanging laundry.
This weekend I finally made Pan an enclosure closer to the rest of the girls.
It’s definitely a downgrade for him as he probably had four times the space in the back yard, but at least he’s closer to everyone else. I am a bit worried about him stinking up the rest of the herd, but since they can’t touch each other I’m hoping that it will be ok.
Eventually we’re going to fence in a larger area so we can bring the mule & mini down here and hopefully everyone will live happily together. Well, everyone but Pan. He’ll still be close by, but I don’t want him running with the does. The main reason is because I like knowing exactly when everyone is going to kid, the other reason is that he stinks so darned much. I had brought Nettie down to his enclosure this fall for breeding and left her with him for half the day. She got so stinky that I ended up giving her a bath. I just can’t imagine the entire lot of them smelling that badly.
Speaking of breeding, I’m a bit worried about Nettie. She’s due in seven weeks and she’s not looking the least bit large. Usually she’s showing by now. I’ve also noticed that her behind has been pink & swollen twice now in the past two months. I even brought Pan up by her those two times, but Nettie wanted absolutely nothing to do with Pan and he didn’t even seem that interested. I’d be really bummed if she’s not pregnant, as I’m sure she will be when everyone else has their kids. She is such a good mother. Nettie even adopted one of the other doe’s kids when she rejected it. I can imagine her trying to steal everyone’s babies if she doesn’t have one of her own this year. I wonder if she’ll still go into milk? I’ve heard of things like that happening, but never had the experience here.
I was thinking about having a blood test done on her to see if she’s pregnant or not, but since it seems that Nettie and Pan want nothing to do with each other this late in the season, it’s doubtful that she’d be bred anyhow. So I guess I’ll just have to wait and keep my fingers crossed. It’s going to be a long seven weeks.
In the past I always knew when a doe was bred and due to kid. This year is all different. Got some dwarfs from a lady that had to let them go and though she bought them from different farms she raised them all together and dumb me kept them that way. I am now doing the butt check 50 million times a day to make sure no one is kidding. I also have the baby monitor hooked up. Never again. Like you the bucks will be in their own pasture. I am too old to be checking butts all time of the night. LOL
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine not knowing when my does were scheduled to kid. My first year I was out with my first freshener a dozen times a day (even took naps out in the barn....brrrr!) for several weeks and I even KNEW when her due date was.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can come up with some sort of electronic "butt-checking" contraption that we could put on our does. I bet we'd make a "butt-load" (pun intended) of money!