Our Kids Raising Goat Kids!!

When my husband became poultry manager of a farm, we knew we had truly changed our life.
Then upon moving to a cottage on that farm, it became an ideal location to pursue that change and observe pasture base farming!

One of the great things about living on the farm is being connected to a community of people with similar ideals to collaborate with!

As a result we were offered the opportunity to care for two baby goats.
They were born in the middle of March to a doe whose milk provides fresh raw chèvre cheese for the community.
The care giving was presented as a business opportunity for our two children.
It became a great chance to learn animal husbandry for them and for us!

It was proposed that we buy two baby goats (male baby goats(kids)-called bucklings) to become wethers (castrated adult males) for grazing purposes in their adult goat life.
Responsibilities including bottle feedings, moving their fence around the pasture and tending to their needs for four months.

When they were a month old, the process to have them become wethers called banding was done by us.
That was quite the learning experience for us because we progressively saw their anatomy change and fall after about a month from the bands.
A few days after the initial banding it was a relief to see the goats get back their personality of jumping around and butting horns.

To some animal husbandry is controversial. If you’re a vegan, vegetarian or just disconnected from your food source you might feel like some of the practices are cruel or unnecessary.
I’ll leave you to your own personal research to make your own decisions about what you feel is right for you and what type of food to feed your family.

Through this process we’ve grown to love these playful animals, they get lots of love and attention.
We have experienced how lovable goat kids are, they thoroughly enjoy human interaction. They climb all over the kids and the kids love to hug them.
We do of course, have to watch out for their horns as they grow!

It is amazing to see the goats do fancy jumps high in the air and be playful with each other. We were recommended to always have at least two and we clearly see why. They sleep cozy with each other all night long.
We gaze out our window and see this facet of nature and all the inspiration it brings to our family!

By becoming homesteaders with even more animals, growing fruits/veggies and medicinal herbs we get closer to our goal of becoming more connected to our food source and sovereign from a centralized food system.

We are grateful to contribute to the Earths bounty and sustainability by creating our custom jar totes and sharing our learning adventures with you!