Magus Boer Goats
Goat Blog
Our experiences with the goats.
Zebra - Our first buck
We bought Zebra from Carrington View today. He is 1.5 years old. Mild mannered and friendly boy. We put Gaia with him. Gaia, unfortunately is not interested and runs away from him. Zebra chases Gaia and he flaps his tongue at her. Quite comical!
Scouring stopped
15 days after drenching, both Selene and Ceres have at last stopped scouring. Ceres stopped 2 days earlier. We took two faeces samples (one of Selene & Ceres, the other of the rest of the clean goats) to Shannon for worm count. The results are 0 for the rest and 340 for Selene & Ceres
First drenching
Ceres has been scouring for 6 weeks. Selene started scouring a week ago. Gaia has not scoured, the others had scoured but for a few days only. We asked Shannon and Pete to help us with the drenching and to teach us. It was not as difficult as we imagined.
Second paddock completed
After months of work, Geoff has finished fencing P2 and building the sheds. P2 is divided into 3 internal paddocks P2A, P2B, P2C. Each has a goat shelter. P2C has a lean-to shed, P2A and P2B shares the Holiday Inn. The holiday Inn has a maze of gates and barriers suitable for isolating the goats for drenching etc.
3 more does in the paddock
All seven does are working out their social hierarchy in the paddock now. Hopefully Gaia remain the head of the herd because she is easy to manage.
Buying 3 more does
Going to Yass this morning to pick up 3 more does from Murruwin. The owners are selling their goats and property. They have not any registered goats that they bred themselves. The 3 does (Anna, Bertha and Dei) were bred from another stud in Yass, Amvert
Still no registration certificates
The certificates have not arrived yet!
On the BGBAA database
Finally, Gaia, Rhea and Ceres are registered on the BGBAA database.
What does TW means?Shortage of register-able fullblood does
Alisha cancelled the registration for Selene and reimbursed us. Basically Selene has been downgraded to a commercial doe. We are still waiting for the registration papers for the other 3 does. We won't know if the registrations were done correctly until the papers arrive. It is frustratingly difficult to purchase stud quality fullblood boer does. The attractive export market for quality does and bucks means there are not enough good stock for non-members like us who want to do the right thing of maintaining breeding standards.
The good and the bad
The good news is that the does are settling into their new home. They are moving about in the paddock and spending more time in the Hilton Shed that Geoff built for them before their arrival. They no longer spend the night in the corner near the house. The bad news is that we discovered that Selene's teats resemble one of the teat diagrams marked CULL on the BGBAA breed standard booklet. This means that she should not be registered. We are currently exchanging emails with Alisha to resolve this.
Designing the goat website
Spent last night and parts of today designing and constructing a new website for our new venture. Temporarily hosted at CSE. Plan to move the website to .com.au domain. magusboergoats.com.au is our choice.
Looking for water troughs and feed storage drums
We are looking into ways of storing the hay/pellets. Geoff found a seller on gumtree that sells drums for $15. I found a free old concrete laundry tub (double) on gumtree that Geoff will pick up next Thursday. Can be used as water trough.
Feeding the does
Geoff bought oaten hay for them. And they devoured it just like they devoured the pellets. NO! They are suppose to be eating the grass, weeds and blackthorns. Selene and Ceres need to put on some weight. We have to devise a way to provide feed to the little standard does without Gaia consuming most of the feed. Geoff bought 2.4m of guttering for the purpose. Geoff installed it, but the little does jump on it and broke it in their eagerness to eat the pellets.
First day with the does
Gaia can be hand fed, but not the little ones. She followed me everywhere in the paddock. And because the little does stay close to Gaia, I have a herd of 4 goats at my heels. They follow Geoff too. When he runs, they run behind him with their ears flapping. We probably didn't need to install the electric fencing as well as the goat fencing! I was even brave enough to take them on the airstrip easement where there are no fencing. When we retire to the house at night, they stayed close to the house the whole night. They are not adventurous at all. Perhaps they haven't settled in to a new place yet.
Ceres
Selene
Rhea
Our first 4 does
The little ones always stay close to Gaia. Can't complain, it is easy to herd them.
Feeding
Munching on a blackthorn, grass and weeds at their favourite corner in the paddock. The corner nearest to the house because Gaia is a sook!
Running
Geoff running ahead and they followed with ears flapping.
Our first does
We picked up four does from Kazleesha. The oldest, Gaia is a 2 year old standard doe. The others are 4-5 months old, Gaia's red daughter Rhea, standard does Selene and Ceres. Rhea is still feeding from mum and she is bigger than Selene and Ceres. The does look feminine and the little standard does are very cute. Gaia's udder is well formed with one teat on either side. Don't know the exact ages of the does until we receive the registration papers.