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

Flying Pygora's!

Pygora kids having a blast at their new home with Dawn and Paul Brown of Tailfeathers Farms in Newport, Arkansas.

Photo by Dawn Brown

Our breeding groups are now together as of October 20th. In about 150 days our baby Pygoras should start arriving. We check our groups twice daily and write down any girls that are showing an interest in their buck. We use this information so we can plan when our busy time will be during kidding season. We aim for spring break when the 2 legged children are out of school and would like to come to the farm to help out.

We just finished shearing and hoof trimming our baby doelings. What cute little bodies they have under all that fleece.

Lisa