Musical Teats

Another three goats have left our homestead.

Adrian (our Ag teacher friend) came to pick up three of the Boer kids for her FFA and 4-H students.  They will stay at the school barn until Fall where they will be pampered and fluffed and fattened up for the County Fair in September.  Two of the goats were Don & Joe, the bottle babies I bought this spring. The other goat was Daisy, Clover's doeling.

While the Don & Joe had already been weaned and have no mother to miss them (although I played mother to them, I absolutely do not miss them), Clover has been missing her baby.  I thought that my newly obtained silence (relative, remember....silence is all relative) on the homestead would be shattered by the bawling of Clover.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong.

Although Clover did bawl a bit here & there the first day, yesterday she was much quieter and today I didn't hear a peep out of her.  Apparently she's found some comfort.

While feeding the ingrates goats this afternoon, I noticed that she was being nursed.  I immediately thought to myself "OMG, Paul sent the wrong kids with Ardian!", but then I noticed that it wasn't Clover's kid nursing, but Lily's.  Lilly's kids are only five weeks old so they weren't ready to go to the school barn, and apparently one of them tried sneaking a snack from Clover and she gladly obliged.

So although I'd hoped to reduce the grain ration Clover has been getting since her kid is gone, I may continue her nursing rations as long as she lets the other two doelings nurse from her.  They will only benefit from more milk and as long as everyone is happy (and quiet), I'm happy.

Paul's Take
Of course the first thing she does is blame it on me.  How the heck am I supposed to know which kids are which?  They all look the same, it's not like I can say, "Oh, are you So and So" and they'll answer me.  She should have been here when Adrian came to get them or spray painted their names on them if she was so worried that I'd screw it up.