Goodbye Yankee, Pearl and Jade.

We made the difficult decision to rehome some of our goats.  We've been contemplating it a while with Yankee because Rebel was bullying him and it was impossible to tame Yankee, when Rebel wouldn't let him close to us.  We banded Yankee in February and then today gave him to a friend who wanted a pet and who has more time to work with him than we do.  

 Pearl and Jade also went to a new home.  We originally got these goats from a commercial Boer herd as brush goats to help clean off our property, but after being introduced to the Myotonics and Crockett in particular we have fallen in love with the breed and we want to change direction toward breeding purebreds.  That being said we had too many commercial does and these two never really grew big enough that I would be comfortable breeding them to a big buck, so they have also gone to pet homes.  I know they will be well cared for and I know for a fact that Yankee is going to be much happier away from Rebel. 

Now for an update on everyone else.  Oh and sorry for using old pictures.  I've been way too busy today to get new ones.

Garnet and Topaz

Rebel and Jasper are happily coexisting in the buck herd out with the horses and donkey.  Hubby measured Rebel's horn spread the other day when he was putting tick repellent on him and his horns are 27 inches wide!!  I'm pretty sure that's taller than he is lol!!  We weighed Jasper again and he's up to a whopping 115 pounds.  He doesn't even turn a year old until sometime in April.

Coral and Amethyst are doing great.  Coral is wild as a march hare again.... she slammed my husband's hand into a post the other day when he was catching her to put tick repellent on her.... it's a good thing she produces awesome babies like Amethyst or I'd be tempted to sell her.  He will be okay though.  His hand is swollen, but nothing is broken.  I guess her "sweet" phase was due to pregnancy/birthing hormones lol.  Amethyst is as loving and brave as ever.  She is seven weeks old today and weighs 28.1 pounds!  She's such a big baby!  I absolutely adore her.  Oh and we did annual vaccines on all of the goats when Amethyst was four weeks old, so in another week she will get her booster.

Apatite is settling in well.  Coral no longer tries to kill him and he isn't crying for his mom.  He's eating great, gaining weight and taming down.  He will eat out of our hands and once he's caught he will quietly sit in our laps for a cuddle.  I don't think it will be a problem taming him down with Amethyst as a role model.  He has fainted several times, but I still haven't gotten it on video.  It's so sad and funny at the same time.  Strong myotonia is actually a desired trait in the breed though, so even though I feel sorry for him, since it doesn't hurt him, I don't get sad about it or anything.  He will eventually learn how to brace himself and not fall over when it happens.  I need to get new pictures of him tomorrow.  He is so adorable!

Tomorrow we are drawing blood on all of the goats to send off for annual testing of CAE, CL and Johne's.  Fingers crossed for negative results on everyone!

I'm having so much fun with these guys.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy goats.  I know they aren't for everyone, but I sure do love them!  I'm also enjoying the long daylight for sure!  We work outside until 8pm a lot of nights after work.  We put up electric fence all around the horse pasture because Rebel was getting out into the neighbor's yard.  I always forget how much work electric fence is, but it sure does work.  Chrome was so funny because he wouldn't go anywhere near it.  He remembers after only getting popped once a couple of years ago!  Hubby shocked himself too and said it is definitely strong.... I definitely will be avoiding it!

That's all for today's goat update.  I'll let you know how the blood drawing goes tomorrow and hopefully get some more pictures of Apatite.  Later!

Amethyst's First Hoof Trim

Amethyst got her first hoof trim on Saturday and she fell asleep in my arms!! I was holding her while hubby trimmed her hooves.  She had just got done meeting and playing with Apatite and was worn out, so she drifted off to sleep in my arms.  So adorable!!

Here's a video of her sleeping.

Direct Link

Here is a picture of her hoof about halfway done.  One side is mostly trimmed and the other side is untouched.

She's a good girl.

Welcome Home Apatite!

We finally got to bring Apatite home today!!  In case you missed my earlier post, Apatite is the pure Myotonic buckling we bought as our future herd sire, since we lost Crockett.  He is nine weeks old and just weaned last Wednesday.  His breeder drove several hours to deliver him because she was taking her kids to a gymnastics meet in the area.  We brought him home and put him in the creep feeding pen inside Coral and Amethyst's pen so that they could all get used to each other.

Apatite is skittish of people because he was raised in a herd and fairly hands off.  She has too many kids born each year to spend a ton of time taming them.  He actually fainted twice so he has a high rate of myotonia.  I didn't manage to get it on video, but I bet I'll be able to sometime.  You can YouTube fainting goats if you've never seen one.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  It's sad and funny at the same time. It doesn't hurt them though.

Anyway Amethyst introduced herself.  Coral wouldn't come in the barn while we were in there.

She had the ridge of hair up on her back and was doing a lot of posturing.  She's never met another kid before today. so she was a little unsure.

 Apatite was really laid back about it because he's used to being in a big herd of all ages.

 He just wanted a friend, because he's never been alone before.

 Sorry the inside cell phone pictures aren't that great.

 He is so stinking adorable!

 He finally got curious about my phone and came over to explore.

 We were going to leave him in there a couple of days to let him acclimate, but he was extremely upset when they went out in the yard without him.  He's not used to being alone.  He was so stressed out that we decided to turn him loose and see what happened.

 Happy to be outside.

 Coral did not like him!

He immediately ran for Coral, looking for comfort from and adult goat, but she headbutted him, multiple times.  Amethyst was running from him because she couldn't figure out what he was.  This led to a bunch of frantic running around.  We decided to put the two kids in the barn safely away from Coral to let them get used to each other.  After about twenty minutes together, they were doing much better and we turned them back out.  Apatite learned quickly to give Coral her distance and she was totally fine with him after that.  She just doesn't want him trying to nurse.

Amethyst was so cute!  She was being all dramatic.  Rearing up, head butting, posturing, trying to be little miss herd queen.  Apatite was very nonchalant about it and met each of her headbutts with perfect precision.  You can tell he's three weeks older and better socialized.

 Miss dramatic!

I love her ears!  So cute!

They are so cute playing together!  I knew Amethyst would love having a playmate.  Sadly he can only stay with her for a month because at three months little bucklings are already fertile. 

 Isn't he adorable??

I love his expression.  Amethyst came to say hi to me and he watched like "why are you going to the human??"

  This is as close as Coral will let him without trying to trample him.

 He gives Amethyst dirty looks as she goes to nurse.

Weanlings are so sad, he misses his mom.

 This kind of shows the size difference....

Apatite is three weeks older, but weighs five pounds less.  Myotonics are a smaller breed compared to Boers, but they are heavily muscled for their compact size.  He will eventually outweigh her even though she will be taller.

 This shows the difference in their faces.  Amethyst has a more Boer profile even though she's half Myotonic/half Boer and Apatite has the traditional Myotonic profile.  His face looks more dished than it is because of his brown mark that crosses to this side right where his face dishes.  They both have half mustaches on this side!!!!!!!

 He's already getting fairly close to us, so I don't think it will take long to tame him down.

I'll leave you with these last two adorable photos.

 On your mark! Get set!

 Headbutt!

I have a ton of videos to post, but I hate editing them... so it will have to wait for another day lol.

P.S.  We weighed Amethyst again and she is 25.3 pounds at six weeks.  Apatite is 19.8 pounds at nine weeks.

Amethyst's First Solo Trip Out

First off, sorry all the pictures are blurry.  Not sure why... cell phones meh.

Today was Amethyst's first trip outside of the barn (to our fenced front yard) without her mom, well at all actually.  I love how curious and brave she is.  A lot of almost six week old goat kids would be crying up a storm if they were separated from their dam.  Amethyst is very confident with us as her "herd" though and loves going exploring.  Coral can't go with us because she's still to wild and would be impossible to catch.  Enjoy the pictures.

 She only stayed out for about five or ten minutes.  We want to keep the trips short and sweet for now.  Eventually I'll finish her leash training and we will go for walks, but that will probably be after she is weaned.  For now she gets to enjoy being a baby.

Amethyst Five Weeks

Amethyst is five weeks old and weighs twenty two pounds. She is such a chunk!  I wanted to get some nice conformation shots so we can see how she changes, but she does not stand still so hubby started playing the head butting game. It was so cute!!  Keep in mind I do NOT recommend playing this game with baby goats because once they are grown they can seriously hurt you if they think head butting is a game.  I'm full aware of the risks and willing to pay the price for my stupidity should it come to that.  We don't do this very often though, so I don't think she will be a problem.  The jumping up needs to be stopped though.  That's getting annoying.  Anyway, enough rambling, here's the video.

Direct Link

Isn't she adorable?  He super ninja kicks off the table crack me up.  I love it.  Here are the rest of the photos.

I normally don't like pictures of them looking away from the camera, but this one shows her "racing stripes" on the back of her ears so I had to share it.

 Stretch!!

 I kind of liked how she was half hidden in the shadows here.

 I did manage to get a good conformation shot!

 She's like, "Oh you wanted me to pose?  Okay here, how's this?" Hehe.

 Scratching an itch.

She loves rearing up on her table.  She has amazing balance already.

 Below are some still shots of the head butting game that we should not be playing with her.

 She's such a cutie!

The jumping up on us is something we are trying to dissuade.  She is slowly getting it, but she has her moments when she gets excited.

I was zoomed in too close for this one, but I'm glad I caught part of it!  I wish I'd gotten it on video.  She was facing the left when she jumped off the table and did a 180 in midair.  I was super impressive!  She's such an acrobat.

 Super Goat!

She has so much fun. When she gets tired she goes looking for a lap to crawl into....

 Chewing on buttons.

Checking out the camera while hubby holds her.

 She has such a sweet, sleepy face.

 Watching her and hubby cuddle is so sweet!

 So precious!

 She's already an armful at only five weeks.  She is going to be huge!

I finally got a decent shot of her marbled eyes!  She got that from Crockett.  Aren't they beautiful?

I'm so in love with this doeling.  I know it's because she's the first baby of the year and the first one we've had in years, but it's also because she's a part of Crockett that lives on.  I'm so happy to have her.