Staying busy...

I'm sure staying busy lately!! :) One of my Nubian's "Madeline" kidded Monday afternoon with a single buckling. I had bred her to my Boer buck for meat kids, since I really don't like milking her as she has very small teats. So she's just raising her own kid for meat this year. I actually totally missed the birth, she wasn't due until Thursday so I wasn't expecting her to kid for a couple of days. Monday afternoon I noticed that she wasn't out in the pen with the other goats so I checked in the shed, and sure enough there she was with her big ole kid!! :) He was already up and nursing, probably had been born about 45 minutes prior to me finding him.

Everybody else is doing great!! Reba's kids are getting so big already, I need to get some updated pictures of them, they are looking so nice! It's so funny seeing all the kids run and play, I have a blast just watching them.

Oh and guess what?? Remember me telling ya'll back in the fall that I was reserving another Nubian doe kid from Lakeshore Farms in CA? Well she was born a few days ago!! Actually the mom had twin doelings, so I'll even get to pick!! I'm super excited!! Lord willing she should be flown in, in about 3 weeks or so.

I'm sorry I keep forgetting to answer Heather's question from a few posts back. Yes I bottle raise my dairy kids so I can milk the mom. And also to help prevent CAE which is a disease that is rather prevalent in dairy goats.

Show season is coming up as well!! My first show is coming up really soon...so guess what I did today? :) Filled out registrations and worked on tattooing a couple of bucks. Ya'll might remember me doing a tattooing post a really long time ago, but for my "new blog readers" I thought I'd share some pics. :) Tattooing is basically to identify the goat, his/her tattoo's have to match up with what is on their registration papers. In one ear you put the letter for the year that the goat was born, and it's birth number, then in the other ear I put my herd prefix.

First I clean up the ear real good with some rubbing alcohol.

Then I get the tattoo pliers set in the right place...the gloves are just to keep the ink off myself.

All set, Andrew helps hold the goat still..

Squeeze!! OUCH!

Next I apply the ink and work it into the holes really well.

Same procedure on the other ear...then we're done!!