PJ Jonas

Category: Goats

  • Vladimir and Rachmaninoff

    Vladimir and Rachmaninoff

    We are so excited about our herd of goats and how great they are.  When we first got goats – they were ok.  But even though we loved them, it wasn’t hard to find a ‘fault’, even if it was just a matter of preference.  As we would get new goats or retain babies that…

  • Jacinta

    Jacinta

    Sometimes there are goats who just don’t show that they’re pregnant. One day they will act like they are bred, and the next day they are running around like crazy and you’re almost positive that they aren’t. If they only have one baby, they can stay really small, and you’re not sure if they’re pregnant or…

  • Eating the Trees

    Eating the Trees

    I was looking through our picture folders when I found these pictures of the goats in the woods, taken a year or so ago. They were happily trying to eat everything in sight. Except for the babies, who would rather climb onto the feed containers. By now, they’ve eaten most of the green stuff that…

  • Zander, Zexy, and Zigar

    Zander, Zexy, and Zigar

    We put the feed out at night and encourage the goats to eat after the evening milking. That also helps encourage births during the daytime.  Well, Zeyda didn’t seem to care about that. During kidding season, we take shifts overnight to make sure if any momma does go into labor, that we are there to assist…

  • Goats and Horns

    Goats and Horns

    We post a lot of photos of our baby goats on our website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts. One of the questions we often get asked is, “What are those circles on their heads?” Those rings are where the goats have been disbudded.  The follow-up question is then, “Why do you disbud the goats?”…

  • Healthy Field, Healthy Goats!

    Healthy Field, Healthy Goats!

    I’m not a big fan of chemicals.  They have their place and are useful in certain applications.  But in general, I think that as a society we rely too heavily on them. We work hard on the farm to avoid chemicals – especially if there is a healthier, more natural method available to us. One…

  • Bart and Bert

    Bart and Bert

    When our goats give birth, there are usually 5 or 6 people around to help with things like bringing towels, getting water, watching the other goats, and other odd jobs that need to be done when a goat is going into labor. With Bathsheba, there were about 12 people around. About 6 of these people…

  • Paprika and Pepper

    Paprika and Pepper

    A few hours had passed since Pandora had given birth and we were finally catching up on everything that was delayed from the earlier birth and cleaning up the “due at any moment” stall that we have set up at this point in the season. Usually, Pemberly isn’t one of the friendliest or most outgoing…

  • Parsley and Pecan

    Parsley and Pecan

    Everyone was working around the barn when we heard Greyden yell out “BABIES!!!!” We all sprinted to gather towels and all the necessary stuff for helping Pandora. Parsley was already on the ground and being taken care of by her mom when we got there. She was small, but she was healthy and doing well. I helped get…

  • Zacchaeus and Zest

    Zacchaeus and Zest

    Over the last two days we knew that Zaphire was very close to going. Tesla just finished giving birth, we were busy feeding her babies, and getting the stalls ready when Zaphire was looking like she was ready to get her kids out. How did we know she was ready to get her kids out? Because…

  • Breeding for Cold Weather Baby Goats

    Breeding for Cold Weather Baby Goats

    People often question why we breed our goats so that they kid in the middle of the winter when it is usually very cold.  We do it mostly because we find it is better for the goats. We raise Alpine goats, which are seasonal breeders.  That means the female goats come into heat and the…

  • Tapestry, Tetris, and Tipsy

    Tapestry, Tetris, and Tipsy

    The first two weeks of kidding season are tough, but very exciting. The overnight shifts and lack of sleep start catching up once the adrenaline of delivering baby goats wears off, but we were off to a great start when Tesla was ready to go. She is one of our quieter, “under-rated” goats and wasn’t…

  • Zap and Zeus

    Zap and Zeus

    I could write about Zap and Zeus’s birth, or I could just post a link to the video that we got of the birth and let you watch it for yourself! For those of you who don’t want to see what some could call a graphic video (we don’t think it’s graphic – we think…

  • Sashay and Secretariat

    Sashay and Secretariat

    Emery came out to the barn at midnight, to relieve me, and started checking the goats as I packed up my laptop, hot chocolate mug, and various cords. “I’ll probably be calling you tonight – Secret looks like she could go,” he warned me. “How soon?” I asked. “Probably in the next couple of hours,”…

  • Naming the Herd

    Naming the Herd

    When we first decided to register our goats with the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) for the purposes of maintaining a quality herd and continuing to improve its genetics, we had to come up with a herd name. Since we had a history of moving around, we didn’t want it to be geographically tied (like…