So today was a very long goat day. The fiber goats (Angora, Nygora, and Cashmere) were hand sheared or combed. Above is Mr. D before shearing, and below is after.
I was disappointed that our Nigora, Brown Sugar, had a felted fleece, and Angie, our grey Angora, has a lot of VM. But Mr. D. and Coug had nice fleeces. Above is Coug, our Angora wether, before shearing, and below is afterward.
Shama, out black Cashmere, had started to shed his fleece so I combed his out. I think the early spring wreaked havoc on my goat fiber.
In addition to shearing goats, I trimmed 16 goat’s hooves (64 feet’s worth). I immunized with CDT, wormed with ivermectin, and gave copper boluses 2.5 grams each. Everyone’s condition seemed good except the chronically thin older Alpine and Angora does. The wethers were removed from the herd so I can start graining the does more. Kidding is less than one month away!
The other issue of the day is catching a rabbit. Foo, our mini Rex rabbit, escaped from the rabbit pen a couple of days ago. Here she is:
She seemed to be enjoying herself ,but she is quick visible to the many raptors we have here. So today we finally caught her. It took both of us to chase her down and net her. She is pretty fast and actually pretty smart too. She faked me out a few times and has some good moves too. Anyway, now she is safe and sound back with the other rabbits in her pen. No more freedom for a white rabbit.
Donna,
This is probably a really dumb question, but, why didn’t you have the goats sheared by the sheep shearer? The reason I’m asking is, some friends want to bring their angora goat to our place when our sheep shearer comes and have it shorn. Is it better to do it by hand instead of the sheep shearer doing it?
Jackie
I probably should have, especially given how sore I am right now. Last year I had the shearer do it. I thought since it was only 5 goats I could handle it myself, but then I did not feel like getting the electric shears out and used hand shears instead. It as a slippery slope that all led to me worker harder rather than smarter.
I know what you mean about catching the rabbit. I fear any of the bantams getting out. They are awful hard to catch, and when they roost, they get as high as they can. My neighbor’s bantams were out and roosted high in the top of a maple tree. What a nightmare! I do have two little lady bantams that have been hand feed since chicks and love attention. They’d probably be fairly easy to catch.
~Randy
At least with the rabbit we are just dealing with two dimensions. With bantams they have a vertical advantage on you.
I just had my first experience trimming our goat PeeWee’s feet, I have done our sheep that we show but was a little afraid I might cut his too close. Do you do sheep and goats the same? Maybe the white rabbit was late for a date with the queen.lol
I do them the same except I have a bad tendency to cut the sheep too close because I am used to the growth rate on goats (which are a lot faster).
What’s VM?
Vegetable Matter (bits of hay)