It's goat breeding season around the Coyle house! To breed our three does this year, we decided to rent a buck from a local breeder. We postponed our breeding season this year by about a month so as not to run into any 'birth' conflicts...if you know what I mean. With that in mind, we should see some baby goat kids running around the ranch sometime in May or June! How many cute babies can we handle in just a few short months, you may ask yourself! Uh....we may be asking ourselves the same question?....With the possibility of three does kidding this year, it is SURE to be an adventure.
Since we cannot expose our two nine-month-old doelings born last spring to the buck, we had to build a separate area for them to live while he joins the herd. This is their first time away from their mother doe, Janet, which will mean they will finally be officially weaned this week. It should prove to be a loud week around the Coyle homestead. Nubian goats are known for their, ahem, vocal skills...
Once we had a new area fenced in, and Pfeiffer approved it, we taught the doelings how to enter the shed through the small poultry door and find their food and water.
Look how fat these two babies are! Janet obviously had no shortage of milk this fall but with their new diet of strictly hay, they should start to take on svelter figures soon enough.
Flo. What a ham she is...Just like her mother Janet.
Tomorrow we drive to Bozeman to pick out our buck of choice and bring him home for a month. Stay tuned for photos and news of buck happenings.
And brace yourself for a month of buck jokes....I've been saving up.
