Tiny Colors Farm

We dam-raise our babies when possible and have only once or twice had to bottle-supplement.  We feel it is better for mom and baby in our herd and also that the babies learn how to be goats by living right in with their mother and the rest of the herd.  We handle our goats several times a day and have not had a problem with babies that are not loving and friendly.  I also think that sometimes bottle-raising babies can make them too pushy and since a large number of our clients are first-time goat owners and almost all have small children, we want to avoid teaching our baby goats to be pushy or a hazard to their new little owners.  As an added bonus it does make it easier on us as well.

I have had an interesting week and an interesting start to our breeding season so far.  First, we had Sasparilla (an older FF) give us three adorable-but-somewhat-premature kids on Saturday the 17th; too cute for words but too small to survive even 12 hours no matter how hard they tried.  The most striking part of their appearance was the fact that their sire was obviously our Mini-Mancha buck, Ace!  Somehow he'd managed to get his business done even though this doe was in an adjacent pen to where he and his ladies were spending their Autumn.  Then on the 20th of Jan another of the Nigerians, this time Lacy, presented us with twin doelings a full two weeks before her written due date and AGAIN the babies are adorable and EARLESS.  Yep, Ace did it again!  I will definitely be lining the fences with boards the next time I set up two adjacent breeding pens!  This time, fortunately, the doelings are large and healthy and just as cute as buttons.  They chose to be born at exactly the moment our 44th President was being sworn in so we'll most likely go with names like Patriot and Liberty but secretly we've already been referring to them as Lucy and Ethel.  Lucy has gorgeous blue eyes set off nicely by her striking brown-sugar chamoisee coloring while her sister Ethel is a very light silvery-tan-and-dark-gold buckskin with rich cocoa eyes.  These pictures were taken when they were less than an hour old and I will get newer photos up in the next day or two.  I do have to say, though, that my girls did good because both freshened during daylight hours on clear, warm days just as I requested.  Both girls are fantastic mothers and Sassy even as a FF has a beautiful udder and is behaving like an old pro on the milk stand, just as I expected.  I'm very pleased with her and cannot wait to see how her lactation progresses.