About 3 weeks ago I drove down to LaGrange, Georgia to visit with Roger Daniels and pick up my two newest fainting goat doelings. I picked up Lucy (pictured to the left up front) and Crystal (part of her head is visible). They are both as precious as can be, but still hesitant to come up. They have already figured out that I mean food, so they come running to the fence calling for their daily pellets and grain.
While I was there Roger had me look at one of his donkeys. She had a cantelope-sized fleshy pedunculated mass hanging from her chest. Luckily, he already had an appointment scheduled with his local veterinarian to come out and look at it, since it definitely needed to be surgically removed.
Roger has a really nice herd of fainting goats, but he doesn't dehorn, so I made the road trip back in January to dehorn these two after picking out which ones I wanted. I'm so excited because Crystal is my first blue-eyed fainter.
Roger has good bloodlines in his herd, and both of these girls are at least a degree of 5 as far as their fainting ability, but Roger doesn't register his goats, so that part of their registration/pedigree is unknown.
With the purchase of these 2 girls, I now have a total of 5 fainting goat does. I already have 2 fainting goat bucks, one of which is being sold. I do have Blu in with Rebecca (pygmy), Charlotte, and Patty (fainters) and hopefully they will all be bred before he goes to his new home this Sunday. I also have a buckling on hold from Walkabout Farm in Newnan. This new little guy is black and white, is from mostly unrelated lines to my current goats, and should complement my current herd sire, Captain Jack.
I also have the 2 Nigerian bucks, and the 4 pygmy does to breed the crosses.
That should complete my herd for now, and I'm going to go ahead and start annual testing for CAE, CL, and Johne's. Two of the fainters, Charlotte and Patty, have already tested negative for those diseases at their originating farm.
As far as my rabbits, I have several more than I did at the time of my previous post.
Lily has 6 new kits, born 4/20/13. The sire is Spikey, so genetically they should all be Vienna marks. Interestingly, none has any white markings. It appears there are 3 blues and 3 blacks, all of the otter/silver marten variety. I can't wait to see how they turn out and if any are show quality.
Noelle has become quite the little grumbler. She makes all kinds of noises when you mess with her. Between that and the fact that she has passed the 2 1/2 pound mark at 4 1/2 months of age, she is relegated to BUD status and will be used to cross on the Lilly/Glue lines to improve type and hopefully, smaller size. We'll see. Not much longer and I can breed her to Elmer Fudd, the BEW buck from Lilly/Glue's litter.
Dutchess has had another litter, again bred to Jack Daniels. They were born 4/14/13. She has a BEW buck (I think), two Chestnut VM's, which I think are bucks, and.....wait for it....an Orange VM, which looks like a doe. Yeah!!! Even though JD is over-sized, he and Dutchess are giving me some interesting colors and luckily, their sizes aren't too bad. I still have Zander and Noelle from their first litter, and Zander is still within the weight and ear length limit. Noelle looks like she is, but she is a chunker when you put her on the scale.
Vienna had a litter of 3 kits by Spike. A blue otter buck, a black silver marten doe, and a black otter buck. They all show no vienna markings, so they could be either VC or normal. Will have to test breed each of them to find out.
We also picked up a mixed breed rabbit at the local Sunoco station just before Easter. She is a sweetheart that we named Penny. She is so full of personality and has such LONG ears. We'll probably breed her to Pickles, the Holland Lop, to produce some pet rabbits to sell.
And, our mare, Dixie, had a bay tobiano filly on March 26. Belle is such a doll, and learning her halter-breaking lessons so well.
So, it has definitely been busy around here, and as spring progresses on into summer, it will likely get even busier.
So talk to you later!
While I was there Roger had me look at one of his donkeys. She had a cantelope-sized fleshy pedunculated mass hanging from her chest. Luckily, he already had an appointment scheduled with his local veterinarian to come out and look at it, since it definitely needed to be surgically removed.
Roger has a really nice herd of fainting goats, but he doesn't dehorn, so I made the road trip back in January to dehorn these two after picking out which ones I wanted. I'm so excited because Crystal is my first blue-eyed fainter.
Roger has good bloodlines in his herd, and both of these girls are at least a degree of 5 as far as their fainting ability, but Roger doesn't register his goats, so that part of their registration/pedigree is unknown.
With the purchase of these 2 girls, I now have a total of 5 fainting goat does. I already have 2 fainting goat bucks, one of which is being sold. I do have Blu in with Rebecca (pygmy), Charlotte, and Patty (fainters) and hopefully they will all be bred before he goes to his new home this Sunday. I also have a buckling on hold from Walkabout Farm in Newnan. This new little guy is black and white, is from mostly unrelated lines to my current goats, and should complement my current herd sire, Captain Jack.
I also have the 2 Nigerian bucks, and the 4 pygmy does to breed the crosses.
That should complete my herd for now, and I'm going to go ahead and start annual testing for CAE, CL, and Johne's. Two of the fainters, Charlotte and Patty, have already tested negative for those diseases at their originating farm.
As far as my rabbits, I have several more than I did at the time of my previous post.
Lily has 6 new kits, born 4/20/13. The sire is Spikey, so genetically they should all be Vienna marks. Interestingly, none has any white markings. It appears there are 3 blues and 3 blacks, all of the otter/silver marten variety. I can't wait to see how they turn out and if any are show quality.
Noelle has become quite the little grumbler. She makes all kinds of noises when you mess with her. Between that and the fact that she has passed the 2 1/2 pound mark at 4 1/2 months of age, she is relegated to BUD status and will be used to cross on the Lilly/Glue lines to improve type and hopefully, smaller size. We'll see. Not much longer and I can breed her to Elmer Fudd, the BEW buck from Lilly/Glue's litter.
Dutchess has had another litter, again bred to Jack Daniels. They were born 4/14/13. She has a BEW buck (I think), two Chestnut VM's, which I think are bucks, and.....wait for it....an Orange VM, which looks like a doe. Yeah!!! Even though JD is over-sized, he and Dutchess are giving me some interesting colors and luckily, their sizes aren't too bad. I still have Zander and Noelle from their first litter, and Zander is still within the weight and ear length limit. Noelle looks like she is, but she is a chunker when you put her on the scale.
Vienna had a litter of 3 kits by Spike. A blue otter buck, a black silver marten doe, and a black otter buck. They all show no vienna markings, so they could be either VC or normal. Will have to test breed each of them to find out.
We also picked up a mixed breed rabbit at the local Sunoco station just before Easter. She is a sweetheart that we named Penny. She is so full of personality and has such LONG ears. We'll probably breed her to Pickles, the Holland Lop, to produce some pet rabbits to sell.
And, our mare, Dixie, had a bay tobiano filly on March 26. Belle is such a doll, and learning her halter-breaking lessons so well.
So, it has definitely been busy around here, and as spring progresses on into summer, it will likely get even busier.
So talk to you later!