Hector : First kid in the Year of The Goat

All goats have distinctive characters. Hebe has always had attitude, ever since she was a kid. She head buts strangers, dogs and Dormouse, but in a friendly way.She is a quite  tough girl until it comes to kidding then she builds up a crescendo of screaming, even with a quite normal birth of a medium size kid.

Last year was her first and she more or less ignored her kid the whole time, it had to stand on its own feet. This year she is all over it, licking, talking and nosing him. A  good thing really it makes life so much easier.

He will be suckling his Mum for ten to twelve week but after five weeks we will start to milk her in the morning after he has spent the night without milk but with access to concentrates. this natural rearing means we don't so much milk for the house, cheese making etc but its so much easier than bottle feeding six times a day.