I am not advocating winter 'kidding'. I like to try and match my animals up to a more natural time for kidding, such as Spring when the deer are having babies. But the bucks had their own idea. Excitement got the better of them on August 31/11 and they broke out of their pen. One afternoon of frolicking and I have 7 healthy babies from 4 does. When the bucks went out at the appointed time at the end of November, they sported breeding harnesses with color markers, so that I would be able to record which does were covered when. And of course there were a few that, at the end of the 45 day breeding cycle, didn't have any crayon marking on them at all. So towards the middle of January, 2 weeks before these girls were due, I sorted them off and penned them where I could keep an eye on them. Thankfully the weather stayed remarkably mild, and January 25th we welcomed our first 'Pilgrims'. After a week in the pen with their moms, I turned them into a bigger pen
Little girl explores snow
La Mancha with her 2 babies. LaBoer :-)
A very nice little buckling
This is one of Mancha's daughters with her first kids
A nice little doeling explores the ground
These are the first kids from my registered bucks, Balmaur Vincente and Balmaur Sidney, or Bob and Joe as they are known around here. :-)
If this is a sampling of what's to come in the Spring, I am very excited to meet the rest of their progeny.
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