Kidding Season

Wow. I'm such a slacker on this blog. We're about 2 months into kidding season. The does are really spread out this year(not planned!) and we'll only have a total of 14 fresh(also not planned!) 

Much to my disappointment, Special & Poppy did not settle. Special was bred 3 times, but blood test came back open. Not really sure why she didn't settle, but it was a bad breeding season all around, most FFs took at least 2 breedings to settle. Poppy gets a pass since she's 10 years old, but I'm still really bummed that breeding didn't take. It was a repeat breeding, that produced Gypsy in 2016. 

We lost Adonis back in January. We believe he had a respiratory virus, and as cold as it was he was unable to continue fighting it. Adonis will be greatly missed here, he had a huge impact on my herd and has produced some absolutely gorgeous kids. I'll be looking into bringing back a son of his in a few years. Della and Gypsy got the same virus, and we came close to losing both. Thankfully they did recover, but Della was apparently too sick to carry a healthy pregnancy and miscarried. 

Current kidding count is 9--6 does; 3 bucks

Tansy kicked off kidding season in January with twin doelings Deja Vu & Black Sabbath. They are Adonis's, so Sabbath is retained. Deja has been reserved. Iris had triplets, 2d, 1b, all are sold. Oreo had a very handsome single buckling, Merry Oaks Last Rebel. He was an Adonis son, and was just as stunning as last year's bucks from this breeding. Sadly, we lost him to tetanus. Lily had buck/doe twins. I am very pleased with Lily's udder as well as her production. Her kids are Adonis's(50% Alpine/Nubian--Experimental) so the doe is retained. Twist had tiny a single doeling, who weighed in at only 4.5 lbs. Twist is a second freshener and her udder looks even better this year! Her doeling, Merry Oaks Heart of Gold, is retained. Next up is CallMeTheBreeze. She's not technically due until March 17, but looks as though she'll go in the next day or so. She is bred to Taxman, all kids are reserved or retained.

Merry Oaks Last Rebel

Merry Oaks Black Sabbath

Merry Oaks Deja Vu

Merry Oaks Heart of Gold