Goat Catch Up Post IV - Another new face!

So we got the pregnancy tests back on Georgia and Zephyr.  Zephyr (above) was pregnant!!  She was bred to a buck named Daniel.

Georgia, who was bred to Apatite's dad Diego, sadly was not pregnant.  I was disappointed because I wanted a half sibling to App.  So we sort of went into panic mode because at her age (with a limited number of breedings left before she would be too old to safely breed) we couldn't afford to miss a year.  We started looking everywhere for bucks for sale, but there wasn't much available.  We contacted the breeder we bought these two from about a buck she had listed for sale.  We were hesitant about him because he was on the small side (more of a mini Myotonic than the standard size) and very young and untested, but we really needed a buck. 

To our surprise she offered one of her veteran bucks.... Daniel!! Yes the same buck that was bred to Zephyr.  I was touched that she offered him to us, because she trusts us.  In the goat breeding business you have to rotate out your bucks every few years because if you keep his daughters eventually half your herd can be related to him.  So it worked out for everyone.  So we brought home Daniel!

He was shy at first, but once he got to know us he turned into a total love bug.

I didn't realize I don't have very many pictures of him because I am normally too busy petting him to take any, but here are some old pictures.  The pictures below do not belong to me, but I watermarked them totally without thinking!  I'm sorry!

These were several years ago (he's five years old now) when he was in his show haircut. He looks almost black, but he's actually a dark chocolate brown.  He's won several shows and was even a reserve champion at one.

 He has gorgeous blue eyes.  He is not polled (born without horns), but was disbudded because show bucks are not allowed to have horns.  I do not agree with disbudding (and neither does the breeder we bought him from, she bought him already grown) because it basically involves burning the horn buds when they are kids to keep them from growing.  It's like cropping ears on dogs to me.  Horns are also great radiators for goats and dispel heat.  In the hot environment we live it horns are important.  Not having his horns actually doesn't make him difficult to handle at all because he's such a gentleman.

 Isn't he gorgeous?

This is what he looks like in his natural summer coat (unshaved).  You can see the chocolate brown.

This is his sire.

 This is his dam.

 Aren't they gorgeous??  We initially turned Daniel out with Georgia and Zephyr.  We are keeping the Myotonics separate from the rest of the herd because I don't trust Zep (the donkey).  He has tried to kill goats before and Myotonics can't escape because they stiffen up and fall when surprised or scared (that's what myotonia is and also why the breed is sometimes called fainting goats even though they don't really faint).  The other goats can get away.  We are working on resolving Zep's issues with the goats but that is a story for another day and my other blog. The pictures below are mine again.

 You can kind of see Daniel behind the girls in the above pictures.

About a week ago I got to thinking about it and decided I wanted to go ahead and breed Amethyst to Daniel as well.  I don't want to breed her to a Boer since she and her offspring can be registered with the Myotonic registry as long as their sires are registered.  If bred to a Boer her offspring would not be eligible for registration.  I also think Jasper is too big for her.  Daniel on the other hand is registered and the perfect size for her.  I was going to wait for next year, but she's almost a year old and plenty big enough.  It's not a good idea to wait to breed goats until they are too old.  It can cause infertility problems due to cystic ovaries.  So we put her in with him a week ago.

She is a bit of a brat with other goats.  She almost bullied Andesine and Tanzanite when they were together.  So when I put her out with the Myotonics and Georgia and Zephyr immediately put her in her place I couldn't help but laugh.  She was terrified of them.  I felt bad for her so I put one of the wethers out with her to keep her company while she integrated.  He eventually slipped under the hot wire and she was fine so I left him with the big herd. By that time Amethyst had decided she was fond of Daniel and followed him everywhere.

 They are going to make CUTE babies!!!!!!

Notice Daniel has his own marking harness?  Well we were pleased when we noticed blue crayon on Amethyst.  I was worried that because she's inexperienced that she would run from him and he wouldn't be able to keep up because of his myotonia.  I had nothing to worry about. She is an absolute flirt just like her mom Coral!!!  She rubs on him, follows him around......

Mounts him!!!  LOL!

Daniel says why did you put me with the inexperienced one???  She mounts my head!!  It is absolutely hilarious.  It's actually not uncommon for does to mount each other when in heat (she did it to her mom when she came into heat for the first time months ago), but it was so funny to see a doe mounting a buck!  Always entertaining Amethyst is!  You can see the blue crayon on her in the picture where she is mounting him so you know he's getting his turn.  *wink wink*

Now a few pictures of Georgia and Zephyr.

 Georgia can be a little stand offish, but not too bad.  She lets us approach her.

 Zephyr is a pet and wants attention all the time.

What are you looking at Georgia?  It's you're turn to get busy with Daniel missy!

Well you are basically caught up on the goings on at the farm.  I have pictures from today (11/4 I'm making all of theses posts in one day and post dating them) and that should be the last catch up post for now.