Originally Posted by
Chicken lady
It is a problem. It is stressful every year. Ugly truth - bucklings are far more fragile than doelings and more prone to genetic illness. The first sign of a parasite problem is often a sick buckling (and on the list of initial presentation symptoms of parasites in young kids yesterday, one was “death” as in, the first sign that you have a problem can be a six week old kid who drops dead for no apparent reason) so, some of them just die. 4 this year. 3 of them within 24 hours of birth.
but I do sell the ones that live. So far, I have been lucky and never had to sell one for meat. I have promised dh that I will take the extras to the livestock auction if the herd gets too big. But so far I am supplying 4h human kids with goat kids for pack and cart classes. I did keep one last year as a companion for my buck, but my herd was under 16 - which is a good winter limit. I am going to try to sell him after fair this year since I will have a second buck to keep the first company, and my count is currently 21, with two fiber goats waiting to move in whenever I am ready.