Thursday, April 2, 2015

Adoption Day... Jesse, Keren, and Piper's New Home

Piper March 2015
We knew this day was coming last fall when Jessica and her family visited us at the homestead. After listening to the family, learning their goals and needs in respects to having goats, we offered to sell them Keren Happuch and Jesse. In addition, we offered to breed Keren to one of our unrelated bucks, either Ethan or Eli, with the hopes of producing at least one additional doe to start their herd. Deposits were taken and a deal was struck. Since their barn had not been built and the woods that their goats would roam were yet unfenced, we agreed to keep Keren and Jesse with us until Keren kidded in the spring.

Jesse 2014
Over the fall months, we enjoyed several visits with the family and grew more and more pleased with the arrangements. My biggest concern was hoping that 18 month old Keren would cooperate and get pregnant. My hope was for a single doe to be born. Twins are nice, but just starting out, I thought three goats testing fencing, needing hoof trimming and regular care were probably sufficient. It had been for us. The reason for my hope of Keren kidding a doe is obvious. While whethered bucks are every bit as cute and make great pets, this family wanted milk for cheese, yogurt, and soap making- a doeling would be a better result.

Keren kidded on March 16th. One large and lusty doe. Weighing in at nearly 7 pounds and feisty from the start, this little girl was all I could have asked for. Keren kidded beautifully. Her maternal instincts kicked in immediately. Text book. Jessica arrived just minutes after the kidding and took a hand in caring for her doe and new doeling. We discussed what was best for her family and decided to wait a week (for Piper to get established with nursing and past any potential immediate medical concerns) and 5 days more (so Keren could get introduced to milking).

As it turned out, Piper needed nothing from us. She took to milking immediately and is a healthy, thriving kid. Keren's first go at milking was every bit as difficult as we anticipated. She kicked up her back legs, stepped in the bucket, stepped on us, and generally made her displeasure known. We collected a good amount of milk that first day despite Keren's best efforts to thwart us- none of it usable. Day two was markedly better. Keren attempted to kick at the very beginning, but within minutes settled into eating her grain. We did not let our guard down, but I had every hope that in a few days, she would settle down.

I was relieved to learn from Jessica that she did. It took her a couple days to settle in and eat as much as she should. Grain + Hay + Demand = Milk Supply. Keren chose to not finish her grain. Jessica tried to tempt her interest with some cracked corn. A couple mouth fulls and Keren was bored with that, too. We suggested mixing in some healthy greens, like carrots, spinach, and peas with her grain. The salad worked. (Or, Keren just settled in from the shock of moving to her new home, realized she was treated like a queen and decided eating would resume.) Either way, her milk production has began to increase. It is still much less in quantity than I hoped for, but with time and patience, I am
eager to see how well she performs.

And, the family? They are over the moon...

Their chariot awaits... 

Jesse and Keren settled in for their ride to their new home

I will explore after I am convinced there is food in this new place... 

The Walk of Triumph... Goats are in the Hooooouse... *ahem* Garage... 

Jesse noticed some places that needed shoring up first thing. Very helpful of him. ;) 

Lally Broch Farm Goat Adoption Kit 
Our Adoption Kit: 

* Basic Goat Guide and Workbook with your goat's medical history and parentage, custom breeding charts, recipes, medical, worming and milking worksheets, resources and space to write your own observations.

* Collars
* Goat Sweaters
* Iodine
* Vetrap
* Pepto Bismol
* Organic Udder Balm

* Goat's Milk Soap
* Sterile 12 cc Syringes

* Sterile 18 g Needle
* Sterile Scalpel
Piper thinks her grain manger is a perfect daybed.
* Carrying Tote

We have written it before, but it bears repeating... Our goal is not to simply breed goats.  We do things differently than many larger operations (Steps on Soap Box....) For us, it is not about pedigree or show titles, but rather about breeding responsibly in order to produce the healthiest kids possible. Our desire is to build the best milk producing lines, as organically and naturally as we can. Though many of our goats could be ADGA registered, we do not pursue that. Thus, our goat kids are not tatooed. Since we have no interest in showing goats at fairs, (where it is a requirement to do so) we do not disbud our kids. We believe that goats should have their horns intact. I started writing about our philosophy of care and went off on a HUGE tangent. Erased from this post, I expect it will come up in one very soon.

Jessica says, "Life is good, drinking coffee with your goat."
Back to the point of this post, we want our kids to have the best start in their new home. To that end, we are available to help answer questions if the need arises. We provide an adoption kit with every kid. We will not sell single kids. And, we will take the time to listen to you about your needs before we talk about your purchasing kids from our herd for yours. This was our first experience with selling goats from our herd. I am thrilled it was so positive for all of us.

We will have a limited number of goat kids available for adoption this year. Stay tuned for that post in the coming months. :)

Thanks for visiting with us today, friends. We're sure glad you are here.

~Sean and Sonja 

2 comments:

  1. That is wonderful. They look happy in their new home. I think your goat adoption kit is great!

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  2. I am thrilled they went to a wonderful home!

    ReplyDelete