Pygora baby in the tall grass

Hi Everyone,

Every Wednesday is dedicated as our "Herd health day". This is where we round up the goats and have a list of various items that need to be taken care of.
This Wednesday, we will be rounding up all the kids. We plan on taking updated photos and descriptions of about 30 kids. We will be checking heads for scurs and redisbudding if needed. It's best to catch scurs now as they are still small and easy to remove. Once this is done, we will be rounding our few sheep friends as it's time for them to be sheared. After that, the time will be spent doing a list of chores around the farm. Everything from washing buckets, to moving plywood to the hay barn. It will be a very busy day.

If you are on facebook or thinking about joining, don’t forget to check out our goat photos at: www.facebook.com/HawksMountainRanch

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

 Take care,

 Lisa

Our Pygora kids at Play!

Photo taken 5/1/11

Hi Everyone,

I’m happy to announce that our 2011 Hawks Mtn Ranch Pygora kid list is now complete and I have e-mailed it to the first 3 people on our deposit list this evening. Once the first person has picked their kids, then I will send the list to the 4th person to view and so on. Once everyone on our pre-deposit list has picked their kids, then our list will go public. It's not too late to still get on our deposit list.

We are excited about our crop of kids this year! A hint of little fuzzy fleeces are just starting to show up on many of the kids already. We have everything from white to all shades of caramel, light grey to dark greys, browns to blacks. We even have a few very striking black and white kids. If you are on facebook or thinking about joining, don’t forget to check out our goat photos at: www.facebook.com/HawksMountainRanch

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Take care,

Lisa

Momma goat with kid on board!

Today as I was turning the momma and baby goats out to the lower pasture for the first time, I decided to take my camera with me. I couldn't believe what I saw. This mom was actually walking around with her baby "on board". What a good momma!

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Hello everyone! 

It’s been a super busy time at the ranch! It’s amazing how quickly time is flying by! Kidding started exactly 1 month ago on 3/14. Since then, 134 Pygora kids have been born here! We only have 3 more Does left to kid. We have a very colorful herd of bouncing baby goats and all fleece types too! 

This week, I spent writing descriptions for all of the kids for our kids list.   As each kid was handled and critiqued,  I was really impressed with the quality of kids we have this year! 

I have photos of all the kids now and I've been busy cropping them down to a size for easy and quick viewing on the internet. I will be spending a lot of time at the computer over the next several days.
 
My plan is to spend most of my time putting all the pieces together for our kid list.  I can't give an exact date when my list will be available as I have a lot to do out in the barn still but I will give an update when I have it ready for our pre-depositors. 

Thanks everyone for your patience and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I can be reached via e-mail, facebook, text or phone at: 503-539-0295. Please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
  
Take care, Lisa

Sarah's favorite Pygora doelings

120 kids on the ground so far with 19 more Does still left to kid. 

Busy, busy, busy taking photos for our Pygora kids list.

Kids arriving is just the beginning.  The real busy work continues as we care for the kids and mommas.  I thought I'd give an insight of what we are doing on the farm right now:

Once kids are born, they are brought into the barn with their mom and put in their own private kidding pens.  They are in these pens for 2-3 days so they can bond together and to make sure babies are doing well and mom has enough milk for them.  Also during this time, the kids navels will be dipped in iodine to help prevent infection, moms teats will be stripped to make sure the waxy plug is removed and milk is coming out.  We also give each kid a selenium and vitamin E shot.  We take a photo of each kid at this time and they are given a temporary farm eartag for identification.  All moms are given a wormer and are hoof trimmed.  Once everything is checked off, then the moms and kids are turned out into our nursery area with other moms and kids. 

While in the nursery area, all kids will be tattooed with their own unique identification number, disbudded and band (neuter) boys.  We will also do our "3T's" check.  The "3T's" are; "Teeth", Teats, and Testicles".   We do the "3T's" check to ensure our kids qualify for our breeding stock standards.  We want to make sure the mouth is aligned properly, they have 2 teats, and that the boys have 2 testicles.  The "3T's" is an ongoing process as the kids get older too.

Once everything is checked off, the kids and moms then leave the nursery area and are turned out to pasture and it's play, play, play time for the babies as they investigate their new surroundings.  It's my favorite time of year watching the kids take off leaping, hopping and skipping down our hilly green pastures.

Inbetween everything that is going on, I will be working on putting together my Pygora kids list.  I have been taking photos of each kid before they are turned out to the nursery area.  I still need to take photos and get descriptions for them.   I'm hoping to catch some sleep in there somewhere! 

Feel free to contact me.   I can be reached via e-mail, text (503-539-0295 or facebook or phone.  Please leave a message if you can and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
  
Take care, Lisa

Our 1st 2011 Pygora kids have arrived!

During my night time barn check last night, I was surprised by tiny little squeeky noises coming from the back of the barn. It was our Pygora goat, Fudgesicle,with 2 very curly twin boys! Fudgesicle is the first Doe to kid on our farm this year. She has been the first on to kid 3 times in the last 5 years.That’s all for now. Check out our website or facebook page as I will be giving updates along the way.
 
Take care, Lisa

Pygora Does get their annual CDT vaccination

Hi Everyone!
Kidding time is almost here! The momma goats are getting bigger by the day. Soon baby goats will be bouncing around the farm!
Our first kids should arrive around March 19th and continue through the middle of April. I have a very good feeling that this will be our be our best year ever.  I’m feeling very prepared for the first arrivals. All pen cards are printed out and ready to be filled out as the kids arrive. Kidding bags are all put together stuffed with supplies.  Some local school kids have volunteered to come up and spend some nights with us during Spring break. This will be a heavy kidding time for us. It is always really exciting for the kids and I to share this experience.
Wednesday 2/23, we gave our Does their annual CDT booster so the babies will be protected at birth.   At 4-6 weeks of age the babies will receive their 1st CDT vaccine with a booster 2 weeks later, and the last booster 4 weeks after that.  
We are now on facebook. If you would like to see photos of the baby kids as they are born, we will be posting photos on facebook. You can find our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/HawksMountainRanch  
That’s all for now. I will be giving updates along the way.  
Take care, Lisa

Plump bellies on our Pygora mom-to-be's!

One recent misty morning I noticed some plump bellies starting to show on our girls.  A good sign that babies are soon on their way!

The ultimate goat playhouse!

Thank you, Eileen Gates of Falls Brook Farm, Blandford, MA for the use of your wonderful photo!

The slow winter days are now here. Breeding season is over and we are now waiting patiently for kidding season to arrive. Right now we are getting ready for delivery of 18+ tons of hay in the next week.

Recently George has gotten into the holiday spirit and decided to put Christmas lights around the house. A lesson was learned to not plug in 10 strings of lights together. Without going into detail, it is now day 2 and the lights still aren't working. George came home this evening with a bag of new lights, bulbs and fuses and assures me he will have have them working tomorrow. If all goes as George expects tomorrow, our mountain top should be glowing brightly for miles away. Oh what a wonderful time of the year!

Now is a great time to get on our pre-deposit list for the best selection of Pygora babies. We are expecting between 125-150 kids to be born on the farm this 2011 spring kidding season. Last year we sold out of doelings before our list when public in June. Get on our pre-deposit list now to pick your kids starting in April!

Lisa

Black Bo is our top fiber producing Pygora herd sire

Our 2010 breeding season is finally over. All the breeding bucks have been returned back to the "boys pasture" while the girls have been returned to the "girls pasture". Life on the farm is quiet once again.

Next week we will be busy preparing for kidding season. Yes, it's that time already as it's only 4 months away! I'm currently in the process of putting together our Pygora kids list with info on each dam and sire leaving room for their babies photo and description to be inserted once the kids arrive. My goal is to get our kids list out to our pre-depositors as soon as possible once the majority of the kids are born.

Now is a great time to get on our pre-deposit list for the best selection of Pygora babies. We are expecting between 125-150 kids to be born on the farm this 2011 spring kidding season. Last year we sold out of doelings before our list when public in June. Get on our pre-deposit list now to pick your kids starting in April!

Lisa

Our herd sire, "Boo Boo" is looking good!

Our breeding groups have now been together for just over 3 weeks. We will be keeping them together for another 10 days.

We are using 11 herd sires this year. 2 of the breeding bucks are bucklings that were born last spring. One is named, "Copper Spats" and is a beautiful brown buckling with frosted ears and nose. He is out of our late herd sire, "Spats" . He definitely knew what to do when he was first put with his group of girls.

Our other buckling, "Hot Dog", was a little slow to figure things out so he missed the first cycle of his group of girls. Fortunately he is now showing interest in his girls as they are starting to come into their 2 cycle. It looks like his girls will be the last to kid. This is not uncommon for bucklings to be slow as I found that they mature at different rates. Sometimes bucklings won't come into maturity until late winter.

It looks like the rest of our 9 herd sires have settled most of their girls. I am ready for breeding season to be over so I can take down the breeding pens and send the boys back out to their pasture away from the girls. I'm looking forward to peace and quiet until the babies start arriving in March!

Lisa

Week 2 of breeding season

Our breeding groups have now been together for over 2 weeks. Things are starting to quiet down. I think most of the Does have been bred as I'm not seeing any signs of them showing any interest in their bucks. Of course the Bucks still check to see if there is any interest but with no luck. Hopefully this means that most of our Pygora babies will be arriving within a 2 week time frame. That would mean during Spring Break! Yeah! It should be a very busy time on the ranch!

This week we had a few sunshiny days between rain storms so we took the opportunity to take some updated photos of our bucks. Check back as we post new photos of our handsome boys!

Lisa

Preparing for breeding season

Setting up our breeding pens


All our does were hoof trimmed and de-wormed this week as we prepare them for breeding season. We will be putting our does with their carefully selected buck next week. We are now busy putting up panels around each of our 12 breeding pens as added security. We find that if the bucks can't see each other, they are aggressive on our pens and their interest and energy is spent on their girls.

Once our breeding pens are ready, we will be bringing in our does and sorting them into their individual breeding areas. We will then bring the bucks in and they will get de-wormed (they were hoof trimmed earlier before they went into "rut"). Once this is done, the boys with be put in with their girls. They will be together for 4-6 weeks. Spring kids are just around the corner!