Everything you ever wanted to know about goats but were afraid to ask
I was feeling some deja vu earlier as I was watching one of our Nigerian Dwarf Does, Meera, waddle around in the snow and sure enough I looked back at last winter in the midst of a deep freeze and found an eerily similar memory. Meera seems to have a habit of kidding in the middle of a frosty cold winter, in fact she herself was born on a cold winter night.
Here are some goat facts:
Fact. Goats are neither completely solid nor liquid but rather a non-Newtonian fluid.
Fact. Fences are just a suggestion.
Fact. The musky drenched stenchiness of a male goats beard is more powerful than the worlds strongest magnet.
Because we live North of the Wall where the snows fall 100 feet deep I do my best to breed my goats for a late spring kidding. But sometimes the goats have other plans.
One morning last year we found our buck, Vader, enjoying a relaxing morning in the pen with all the lady goats, having seemingly apparated from the buck pen on the other side of the yard.
I marked my calendar for 5 months from the date and coaxed him back home with treats (the way to a goats heart is through their stomach.)
About 4.5 months later I noticed that Meera had appeared to have put on some quarantine weight like the rest of us (among others pre-kidding signs). I checked back on my calendar and sure enough Vader's late night adventure is quickly approaching on the calendar.
About 4.5 months later I noticed that Meera had appeared to have put on some quarantine weight like the rest of us (among others pre-kidding signs). I checked back on my calendar and sure enough Vader's late night adventure is quickly approaching on the calendar.
So she is bedded down in the cozy milking room with a couple extra hostages to keep her company and I'm bundling up and heading out to the goat house every few hours to monitor for signs. I always do this way too early and end up spending weeks staring at the back end of goats, my life is nothing if not glamorous.
Meera gave us a beautiful baby boy who we named Moon last year just the day after being bedded down, thankfully I didn't need to wait too long!
Goat Watch 2022 began much in the same fashion as last year, on the coldest day of the year. Now excuse me while I put on every piece of warm clothing in the house and go stare at goat butts in the middle of the night.
Meera gave us a beautiful baby boy who we named Moon last year just the day after being bedded down, thankfully I didn't need to wait too long!
Goat Watch 2022 began much in the same fashion as last year, on the coldest day of the year. Now excuse me while I put on every piece of warm clothing in the house and go stare at goat butts in the middle of the night.
I just hope that the rest of them can stick to the plan so when we are outside with baby goats it looks a little more like this:
