Goat grow!

The half Boer / half Nubian doelings have grown out nicely. We built a shelter for the four doelings, and we learned a couple of things.

Before:


After:


Goat hoop houses must have frames inside.

Guest Goats

Here at Quirky Goat Farm (South), we have been hosting four visiting goats. A friend needed a quick place to place their livestock because they had to move out of a rental property. Having a goat proof pasture made our place ideal for temporary guests. These four goats moved in while I was in Missouri. Due to the threat of Hurricane Ike, I hadn't had the chance to greet them until today.

First, a wether, half Pygmy/half fainting goat cross breed.


Next, a pair of fainting goats. Also called Myotonic, these goats become rigid and may fall down when startled.


Finally, a Pygmy buckling. His name is Pistol, but Lonnie and I called him Charlie when we cared for him as a bottle baby last winter. He remembered me today and wanted to cuddle! It was hard to get a picture because he wanted to be close to me all the time.

Lots of changes

The bucklings are growing and leaping and hopping and hollering, "MAAAAAAAAA! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" everytime they hear us go out of the house. They are getting between 12 and 16 ounces of milk four times a day, and they are beginning to munch on leaves, etc.

We're getting them accustomed to being with the other goats for a while several times a day, and hopefully they will make the transition out there during the days this coming week.

Elton has a really odd behavior. When he jumps into Lonnie's lap, he lies down.

When he jumps into MY lap, he stands, climbs, and sits on my shoulder.


We also have another addition to the Quirky Goat Farm. Chica is an aging dwarf/mini horse. She's about 16 years old, and her main purpose is to eat the grass in the goat yard. Goats don't eat grass, and we were having to mow it. Chica has eliminated that problem.

New bucklings

Today we picked up two bucklings from Susie and her daughter, Jessica, at Ages Ago Acres on the other side of Alton, Missouri. We had the challenge of picking two out of about half a dozen ten day old absolutely beautiful bucklings.

Elton is the darker one, and he's colored like a Doberman Pincher. Jon is the lighter buckling, and he's like a line back dun pony, except he has tri-color legs and those amazing cream colored eyebrows.

Thank you Susie!

Baby pictures

Honey Dew and Berry
Three days old

New doelings

Pumpkin was due on Monday, May 26, but she jumped the gun and delivered two Boer/Nubian doelings just after 3:00 PM on Saturday, May 24. I went out to check her, and she had the first just about dried off, and she had just pushed out the second. I got her out of the sack and rubbed her till she started breathing. Then, I ran for the house to tell Lonnie and Kathleen and to get clean towels, etc.

Kathleen brought warm water and the digital camera. Pumpkin drank all the water, and the photos above are the first pictures of Honey Dew and Berry.

Settling in

The goats are very happy to be home in Missouri. They have more natural browse in their large goat yard here, abundant shade, things to climb on, etc.

I thought that Orange's milk production would decline due to the stress of traveling, etc., but it hasn't. Still a strong 1/2 gallon per day. Amazing.

Moving the farm!

Yesterday was a travel day. Lonnie and I drove from Ganado, Texas, to south
central Missouri. We had our five goats, three dogs, and a rabbit with us.
We jokingly call it the traveling circus.

As you know, it has been 80+ degrees in Texas. This morning here in the Ozarks, it was just above 30 degrees. The goats are shivering, I had on two coats when I was out feeding the critters, and it's just darn cold!

The goats were shivering, the bunny made a nest in the hay in his box, and the dogs definately think they belong on the couch.

Milking Through

Our main milker, Orange The Alpine, is milking through. This means that she is continuing to produce substantial quantities of milk although she hasn't freshened (given birth) in more than a year. She had her last kids in February of 2007, so it has been fourteen months since this milk cycle started. Alpines are *not* known for their milking-through ability. The norm is about ten months with a decline at the end, then a two month break to allow the doe to finish out her next pregnancy before kidding again.

Due to a variety of circumstances, Orange was not successfully bred in the fall of 2007 to kid in the spring of 2008. Her milk production had declined, but after Princess had her kids, Orange's milk production came up. Sympathy hormones??

Orange's production is well over half a gallon per day again, and that's good enough for us.

New doelings

On February 7, 2008, Princess presented us with two doelings.

This is Edna.


This is Louise.


We were very relieved that Princess had doelings. Bucklings would have to be banded (castrated) and/or eaten for barbecue. Not something we were looking forward to.

Goat transitions

After the initial newness wore off, we realized that we were interested in transitioning to real dairy goats. Luckily, I knew Emily of Ozark Jewels, and she was in the process of reducing her herd. She has a really fine goat herd, and I asked if she had any that she wanted to have special homes, but that might have quirks which made them hard to place.

Thus, Quirky Goat Farm was established with the arrival of Pumpkin, a Nubian yearling who didn't 'catch' when bred, and Orange, an Alpine who was producing close to a gallon of milk per day - on only one half an udder. Most goats have two teats. Orange had an injury early in her life, but her body adapted to the change. Her production is almost at the level of a high production two-teated doe.

This is Pumpkin.


This is Orange.


Our third doe was Princess, a LaMancha, which we acquired from Emily several months later. LaMancha goats have tiny ears.


Princess was pregnant when we got her ..... VERY pregnant.

Easter - March 23, 2008

Welcome to my new blog for Quirky Goat Farm. After about a year of owning goats, it was time to get this info up where family and friends can see it.

We started with two mini goats, which we bought at a surplus lumber yard. They were Billy Bob and Betty Lou.



After several months, they presented us with Bobbi Jo.


I learned that milking a dairy doe was easy, even on one of these miniatures. So, the next step was building a milk stand where the goat stands and snacks on grain while you milk her.

This stand was built primarily from scraps and recycled materials.