Getting Ready to Breed

It’s looking like we might have more kids than ever before in 2013.  I think we’ll actually be right around fifty kids this year, and we had fifty-one last year.

Maisie

In the next couple of days I’ll move the goats around into four groups.  I’ll have the main barnyard where my retired girls and those already bred will go.  There is a variety of ages and personalities here, so it’s good they have three separate areas to be inside.

There will be about twenty goats in this section.

Boeris already bred six girls for spring break babies.  Bambi, Coffee, Sugar, Pebbles, Pam and Litha are all due the last week of March.

Bambi

I have eight girls to put with Boeris, but that shelter is fairly small. I might have to do them in cycles as they come into heat.  That means there might be a couple more in the main section.

Sallie

I was smart enough to dig out the gate before it was totally frozen and impossible to open.  We’re ready to give Boeris his girls.  He’s certainly ready for company.

Boeris van de Yell

I still haven’t seen Maggie or Penny come into heat, so I just don’t know what to do with them.  They would both go in the crowded section with Boeris which makes it harder to know what to do with them.

Maggie

There’s also a couple of girls I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll breed them, and they would also have to be rotated in to visit Boeris.

Stormy

On the back side of the barnyard, I’ll leave the llama and put Fionn and his ladies.

Djali

They also have a nice outdoors section.

Coffee, Vixen and Coral

He already bred Blaze for spring break babies, but I’ll let her stay over there with her twin sister Bonnie and thirteen other girls.

Blaze and Bonnie

I’ve already covered the spaces on either side of the cattle tank so they can’t come through there.  I love that they can drink from either side, but being in the wide open is part of why it’s so hard to keep the tank from freezing.

I’ve also boarded up the bottom part of the dutch door where some ox might have poked his nosey head through many years ago.

The last thing to do is separate the girls to their respective sides and put a panel across this doorway.

I think Bud might be the big loser of this deal.  He’s going to go stay with Marley up north.  He’s never been separated from his sister, Flower, before.

Flower and Bud

Bud and Marley will stay up north where Marley and Fionn are now.  It’s a pretty small shelter, but two wethers should get along just fine.

Fionn, Marley, and Meg

I’m just pretty sure I don’t want a giant wether like Marley with my old and young girls.  He would still be interested in them romantically, and they don’t need a 200 pound wether jumping them.

Linking toWeekly Top Shot, SOOC Sunday and Barn Charm.

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