I picked up another goat doe this weekend and she came with 2 three-day-old doelings. I got a really great deal on her. Our plan is to have two does in milk so that we have enough milk for the family to drink and also to start making cheeses and yogurt. Penny will freshen (deliver her kids) late April. With three does in milk this summer we will have plenty of milk to make cheese and yogurt and anything else.
Just as with Felicity, we will let the doelings have 24/7 access to their mama for 2 weeks then start penning them up separately at night. That will give us once a day milking of both does until the babies are 8 weeks old and we wean them and start to milk twice a day.
Here is our newest farm animal, Clarabelle and her doelings, Pippa and Kate (cheesy? Yes, but I love the name Pippa and I could not resist when I got sister doelings.)...
These are quick photos I took in the shed since it was getting dark outside and raining. Better pictures to come.
Penny checking out the new arrivals.
Kate
Pippa
The boys, growing like weeds.
So . . . how exactly do you accomplish weaning at your place? All of the advice I read tells how to accomplish this on a big piece of property. All of the goat people I know in real life have several pastures, too. And we did wean our goats initially, as we bought them as bottle babies, but there were no mamas with full udders around!
ReplyDeleteI know I should have thought of this earlier (blush). We separate our littles overnight by having them sleep in our garage.
Congratulations on your new additions! I can picture Pippa's coloring when she's grown as being quite striking.
We actually have 2 areas that we can keep goats in. If we need to we can put the babies in the smaller area, but last summer we only had the one smaller area and I taped the doe (you can read about it here http://washingtonfarmerchick.blogspot.com/2012/07/update.html) I did eventually go to taping with bandage tape, one piece down one side over the orifice and up the opposite side, then one piece around the top to hold the U shaped one in place). It worked pretty well.
ReplyDeleteOooo, taping! Or . . . actually . . . that kind of gives me an idea. I wonder if something like a cover could be rigged up involving a velcro belt (wheels turning . . . ). Thanks :-) ~~Kimberly
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