The 2024 kids are growing fast. They are three months old now so we have weighed them all and completed their Tasvax vaccines. The bucklings have all been weaned. They are ready now to find new homes. These boys will be ready to service their own does by the fall breeding season.
The Weights
Here is a look at their weights:
P08 is our biggest buck, he is 57 lbs now. Patch (P02) is the smallest, but considering he was only 3 lbs at birth, he is doing pretty good! Read this if you want to see the baby pictures.
The Boys
Here are photos of our bucklings at 3 months old.
Today they all had their hoofs trimmed for the first time. They were so well behaved while we trimmed their hoofs, I was very impressed. Their hooves were all in good shape.
Most of our 2024 kids are Pure New Zealand Kiko. The exceptions are P06, P07 and P08; they are Purebred. Their grandsire was not a pure NZ kiko, but their sire is.
The Girls
Here are some photos of the doelings that are for sale:
All of these Kids (except for Poppy P01) are now available for sale as breeding stock. I’m very attached to Poppy so am going to keep her. Here are some pics of Poppy.
The Dads
The brown kids were sired by LWC Jekyll, pictured here, and TRG Mocha was their dam. Since we are trying to keep the herd small, Mocha has been sold.
The White kids were sired by EZK Pay to Play. He was our main herdsire for the last few years and we sold him this past winter to let Jekyll take over. We are hoping that Jekyll will produce some “meatier kids” for us in the years to come. It didn’t work this year as his kids were born a bit early and were quite small. I am hoping they will continue to grow and fill out.
We have been really lucky with our bucks. Both of them are very gentle and easy to handle. Player was a bit timid, but Jekyll wants all the love and scratches he can get.
I am still waiting for another shoulder surgery, so keeping the herd small is important. We can ramp up again if/when my shoulder recovers. The size of the herd can be increased quickly by retaining doelings for a couple of years, and/or purchasing new does. The advantage of purchasing new does, is to introduce new bloodlines. But that has to be weighed against the possibility of introducing diseases to the herd.
We hope you enjoyed following as our 2024 kids keep growing.
