Autumn 2019 Breeding

Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats

Autumn 2019 Breeding for Spring 2020 Kids

Bucks and does were placed together on 10/3/19 and separated on 10/30/19.
Potential kidding dates 2/25/20 thru end of March.  Pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound on 12/15/19.

Rocket (brown eyes, horned)

• BJ (brown eyes, horned) - expecting 3+ estimated due 3/9/20
• Spice (brown eyes, horned) - expecting 1+ estimated due 2/25/20
• Tres (brown eyes, horned) - expecting 2 + estimated due 2/25/20

Galaxy (polled)

• Poppy (blue eyes, moonspots) - expecting 2+ estimated due 3/12/20
• Gardenia (did not take... heat noted 11/5) - open

Lou (blue eyes, moonspots)

• Polly - open 
• Getty - (blue eyes) - expecting 3 estimated due 3/8/20
• Di - (polled) - expecting 3 estimated due 3/7/20

Silver (blue eyes, moonspots)

• Minnie - watching due to inability to confirm pregnancy via ultrasound.
• Annie - (polled, blue eyes) - expecting 3 estimated due 3/9/20

Our kidding season for Winter/Spring 2020 will begins sometime around Feb 25th, 2020 and run for about a month.  We have 7 does confirmed pregnant.  There is a possibility of some homogeneous blue eyed kids from the Getty/Lou pairing.   

Dividing Focus

Just in case you've missed it, I have divided the "farm" activities from the the "soap" stuff.  All the soap related stuff is now found at Mossy's Milk Soapery while the farm activities remain here.  And, as always, the ways and means to do both the farm and soap is dependent upon Water-Tech Ent., Inc.

The farm's focus is now Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, Karakachan Livestock Guardian Dogs and an occasional attempt at gardening.

Nigerian Dairy Goats

Karakachan LGD with goats

Karakachan Livestock Guardian Dogs

With the addition of Marko to our security detail, the potential for puppies has increased.  While there have been no witnessed ties, anything is possible.  Raina tends to have a spring/autumn cycle but we are keeping an eye on her just in case.  As of 12/12/2019, there have been no noticeable physical changes and we do not believe puppies are in our immediate future.  *EDIT* - on 12/15/19 we had Raina checked via ultrasound for pregnancy and she is not bred.

Raising LG dogs will be a new adventure for us.  We are looking forward the experience while trying to cram a whole lotta book learning in between our ears in the mean time.

Some important things for me to mention, I failed as a trainer during Raina's early years.  She did not settle in to being a guardian until this year (2019) at four years old.  I subscribed to the "put them with the livestock and don't interact much" method of raising dogs for her first two years and sincerely regret it.  Once I took the time to bond with her as a team mate, things really started changing.  Just before her fourth birthday, she started showing the signs of a maturing guardian.  Then, we added Marko and they now make a beautiful team to behold.

I plan to add short tidbits of things that I did wrong and what I learned from the process.  Immediately, I will note that having a single dog was not good.  A second dog gave Raina a buddy as well as a partner.  Poor Marko, he gets the brunt of her attention and she doesn't hold back with him.  She's kinda brutal.  He has to repeatedly tell her not to pull his tail.