The Big Boys Get Some Treats

As you have seen in the last few days we goats over in the doe pen have been getting some yummy treats from the male person's garden. We have had beet greens and carrot tops and they were delicious. We also had leaves from the brussels sprouts but you did not see that nomming. Maybe you will someday but I might keep those photos a secret as the paparazzi seem to like to show me being a piggie goat and I don't like it. I still think it was Abby that sold me out!

But on to the bucks. They also get to eat treats from the garden too. The publicist just has a harder time getting photos of them. But I begged her to get me some new pictures of the love of my life, Luke and she couldn't say no to me. She is very nice to me like that....so she risked her dignity and went into the buck pen to show you how the boys enjoy their treats. And I get to stare a Luke. Am I a lucky doe or what?

Here is Michael enjoying some of those delicious carrot tops that I indulged in myself. He does look a bit threatening in this photo, doesn't he. I am going to have to have a talk with my kid about how he treats the publicist.

Luke (isn't he just the HANDSOMEST!?!) wasn't as enamoured of the carrot tops as the rest of us. He gave them a sniff but that was about it. 

Michael REALLY made out on carrot top day.

Aaaah, but my cutie pie enjoyed the brussels sprouts leaves. He tore into them and truly enjoyed that treat!

 

How could anyone resist that face? HI LUKE YOU GORGEOUS GOAT YOU.

 Michael made sure to give them a good sniff first.

And then he chomped them right up!

 Of course I will end this post with a photo of my love...what else would you expect?

Oooooh Luuuuke...we have a date for the Rhumba in December. Be sure to mark it on your calendar!

I hope you all enjoyed seeing the big boys today. I really don't write about them enough.

Tomorrow is AbbyDay and as you know on AbbyDay ANYTHING is possible!

Be sure to check out the publicist's blog - she is giving away 2 sets of 500 Business Cards! 

Happy Father's Day

From the Farm daddies to all of you daddies out there...




we all hope you have a very Happy Father's Day.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for my second installment of Goatucation - where I answer your questions about goats.

Wordless Wednesday - Michael's Opinion

Michael expresses his opinion to the publicist when she won't let him out to graze.

GOATUCATION - How Long Will it be Until Kevin is Full Grown?

Today is my very first Goatucation post! I asked for questions to start off and Daisy the Curly Cat was the quickest on the draw so today I will answer her query: How long will it be until Kevin is full grown. I will be using photos of Michael the goat to illustrate because he IS full grown.


A little goatling gets up and walks within minutes after he or she is born. A good nanny goat is quick to nudge the goatling and lick it off and get it to drink the rich milk with colostrum in it from her udder. Colostrum is the first milk a doe produces after kidding and it is full of rich nutrients a kid needs to grow big and strong. This is Michael just after he was born






He was up and walking a few minutes later. His sister Sarah was born not too much later. This is our first family photo. It was taken about an hour after both kids were born. That is Michael facing the camera and Sarah with her little butt to the camera. Aren't they cute?




Goatlings grow very quickly and little bucklings are capable of impregnating does when they are as young as 12 weeks old. Does need and should be older before they get pregnant for their health and the health of the kids. (Someone asked about how old Kevin would be before he had any kids. Kevin has been wethered which means he won't be having any kids. It is just like when you take your cat to be neutered. It hurt him a little for about an hour but then he was right back to his hopping.)

So at about 3 months old you have to be sure to separate your bucklings from your doelings if you haven't done it already.


As I mentioned in an earlier post, goatlings get weaned from their mothers at about two months of age. If they are nursing; some goatlings are bottle fed after the first week with their nannies. They all need to get that rich colostrum. That is where Kevin is now. Although he hasn't quite been weaned yet due to the male person being so busy. I don't mind so much as I like having him around me....

Here is what Michael looked like at about 2 months. Michael was a bottle fed baby and I think this is why he is so attached to the publicist.




From this point on the kids eat hay, green grass, weeds and grain just like we big goats do. It takes them a little bit to appreciate treats like apples and carrots but at about a year old they figure out how good they can be. Here is Michael at about a year...



At this point he has reached his full size and while his horns are still growing his body is not.


A doe can have kids starting at around 8 months to a year. Whereas I mentioned before the buck is ready much earlier. It does make things, uhm, easier if the two animals are of the same size. Height wise, you know?


Now Michael is just about two years old and in the full glory of his "teenage" years. We Nigerian dwarf goats have a lifespan of around 12 - 15 years.



So I guess to answer Daisy's question Kevin will be his full size at about a year old. By then he will be as big as he is going to get.

I hope you liked this first Goatucation post. I have the question for the second post...but keep the questions coming!

The Big Boys

I can't forget to post every now and then about the big boys on the Farm; Luke and Michael. We don't want them feeling left out now, do we? I realize they are not as cute as Kevin the goat but they are good looking bucks if I do say so myself. Michael, after all is my kid and Luke is Kevin's daddy. So I thought today I would give you all a chuckle by showing the big boys doing something big boys do called flemming. Now we does find this very attractive but most humans I have encountered think it's pretty silly. When a buck wants to let a doe know how he feels about her he will curl his lips as part of the flirting stage. Here is Michael showing off his flemming style...



Isn't he just the handsomest?




Here he is really giving it some uhm, effort?




Michael gets a bit confused sometimes and will do this at the publicist. He is a silly goat!

She has the male person.

Now with Luke it is a little harder to see since his cute little goat face is all black but look closely and you can see his flemming style.

Here is a front view. Woo hoo...come to 'Cilla!

I really should be a more controlled goat, but hey, he's cute!

So who do you think is better? I know you are humans but you must have an opinion of SOME sort...

Starting on Monday I will have my first Goatucation post. It will take the place of AbbyDay since Abby is on her maternity leave. I have the topic of my first post thanks to Daisy the Curly Cat. She is a smart and curious cat, as well as curly! Any one else who has any questions, just ask!

Mallory Teaches Kevin

My little Kevin has been spending a fair bit of time playing with Jillian and Mallory. I think this is a good idea as I get a bit tired and it is nice if he can go run off some of his energy with some younger goats. I am not a spring chicken any longer and sometimes having a kid hopping on you over and over again can get tiring.

Mallory has been especially patient with him. She has been teaching him how to butt. It is an important skill for him learn and I am thankful to her for spending the time with him.

She will gently put her head to his and push lightly against him. He likes this.

He will back off a bit and come back for more. They almost look like they are bowing to each other, don't they?

He will also stamp his little front hooves as if to charge her; but she knows he is just practicing.

One day he will be as tough looking as Michael the buck when he gets on his hind legs...

Only 9 more days to sign up for the newsletter and be entered into the drawing for THREE BARS of my rich soap. I won't spam you. I am too busy trying to keep the hopping Kevin off of my back....

Michael's Big Date

I haven't talked much about my other son, Michael for a bit. It's been all Kevin. I can understand that; Kevin is new and little and cute. But I can't forget about Michael. He is a good boy too. He has grown up to be a very fine looking buck.

He has been making eyes at the new girls. And yesterday Jillian was making doe eyes at him. Ha! Get it "doe" eyes? Jillian is a doe...ha ha ha! So the publicist arranged for Michael and Jillian to have a date. Jillian was very excited and couldn't wait for Michael to get to her pen.

Michael went in their pen and Mallory graciously left them alone.

I think they have been watching too much "Dancing with the Stars" because it looked to me like they were trying to do the paso doble. But I guess dancing is a good thing to do on a date.

Michael seemed to really like Jillian. It was Jillian's first date with a buck. On her old Farm there were no bucks.

Afterwards Michael went back to his pen where he started to sing Jillian a song.

I think both goats had a lovely time. Hopefully Mallory will get to go on a date soon too.

Don't forget my newsletter contest; all who sign up for my newsletter(over there to the right) through May 16th will be entered into a drawing for THREE BARS of my rich soap. I am not a spammy goat. I am too busy with little Kevin and setting up dates for Michael. So you don't have to worry about too much mail. But you will get discounts....

Inspector Goat Michael

It is good to know that all of the goats here on the Farm are looking out for me. Well, I don't know about Abby - I think she is just waiting for me to go on my maternity leave so she can take over the blog. From there I think she thinks she will become the new spokesgoat for Happy Goat Soap. But I know that is not going to happen. I won't let it. But I digress. Today I am going to tell you how nice Michael the goat was to inspect my new pen and make sure it is safe for me and the new kids. Isn't he a nice son?

He insisted on going into the barn with the publicist to check things out when he saw that the male person was done with my new digs.

He looked over the construction.

He checked out my sleeping bench.

He dutifully made sure my hay feeder was A-OK. I think he might have taste tested my hay!

He even looked over my water bucket. He was VERY thorough!

I am so glad that he wanted to do this for me. It makes me feel very safe. Although I already knew that my new pen was perfect. The male person wouldn't build me anything that wasn't! I just think it was very nice of Michael to want to make sure. Although I suspect that the extra grain he received for the inspection was part of why he did such a good job.

Fighting or Playing?

I was asked about the bucks. About their head butting. I know it looks rather rough and as if they are really attacking each other but they are playing. At least most of the times they are. How do I know, you ask? Well, if you could see video instead of stills you would see their tails wagging a mile a minute. Add that to the fact that they cannot wait to get together to bang heads and you just know they are having a good time.

The only time it gets serious is when they are trying to attract the uh, attention of one of us girls. When a buck thinks a doe is interested in having a, let's call it a goat getaway, he will get rather, uhm, happy. That's the word. Happy. If more than one buck is around when a doe wants a goat getaway the boys will sometimes try to show the doe who has the bigger horns. So to say. THEN their head butting can get a bit more serious. The publicist doesn't let the boys out to play at head butting when Abby or I am looking for a goat getaway.

They are fun to watch when they get going though. The publicist is going to have to learn how to make the video part of her camera works. One of our readers has told her about something called an instruction manual. She is going to investigate this and see what she can learn. I am sure you would like to see video of the boys butting heads. But if I know the publicist I wouldn't hold your breath.

I hope this has answered any questions that you might have about the boys and their head butting sessions. They do eventually calm down and then go about munching on their hay together as peaceful as can be. Silly bucks!

Battling Bucks

I know a lot of my posts lately have been about the boys. But they are just so cute! Plus I get a lot of comments when I write about the bucks; I can understand that. Especially when I post photos of them when they are butting heads. When they are together that is pretty much what they do. I don't know about you humans but I just don't understand males...

If the publicist brings the two of them down from the barn at the same time she has to jump and run and watch out for her knees because the boys are fighting and butting heads and they don't care if she gets in their way. But if she brings them down one at a time they are as docile as puppies. They walk right beside here and will even stop to rest their head on her leg for a butt scratch. They love them as much as I do.

But I know you readers! You want to see the butting scenes. Well, here you go. In this corner I present Luke the goat - younger but by no means out horned.

And in this corner I present Michael the goat -
older but by no means any slower.

And they charge!

They butt heads!

The fur rises!

Eventually the publicist gets tired - not the boys mind you, the publicist - and she puts them back in their pens so she can stop hopping around to avoid the battle. Whew! I hope you have enjoyed these photos of the boys at play.

Oh, the publicist wanted me to pass on a message to our nice Entrecard visitors. We are still having problems with Hughes Net, our satellite provider. They now seem to think we should know exactly how many megabytes a website will add to our download capacity for the Fair Access Policy BEFORE we open it for the first time. Isn't that nice of them? So it seems we will not be able to visit as many wonderful blogs as before until our DSL line gets installed. It is certainly not because we are not interested in reciprocating all of your nice visits to us. IT IS BECAUSE OF STUPID HUGHES NET. The publicist thinks they just want to force her into buying the next level of service. Well she is buying DSL and telling Hughes Net goodbye.

If we exceed their supposed limits - not that we even know what they are - we get EXTREMELY limited service for 24hrs which basically cuts us off from doing much more than reading emails. Our DSL should be in within the month at which point we can go back to visiting all of the wonderful blogs we would like. We are so very sorry and hope that you continue to visit us until this gets fixed.

Mmmmm, Hay

In the winter our biggest source of food is hay. Since the ground is often covered with snow and all of the yummy weeds are dead we don't have much choice in what we eat. I am not complaining, mind you, I loves me some hay. Especially the hard crunchy bits. Oooh, and the small tiny pieces I like to call hay dust - mmmmm, that is like candy to me. And then there are the tender blades. But I ramble. I guess I can be rather food obsessed, can't I? Now, when I eat my hay I try to be dainty and graceful.

Not at all like the bucks.

Here is Michael stalking his hay pile and eating his hay.

Luke is a bit more genteel, but not much.

I guess all the boys have to say is, "nom, nom, nom" in the words of a famous Curly Cat.