Our New Buck, Welker!!!

Everybody who knows me well, knows that I am obsessive compulsive.  This is no different when it comes to goats.  Since I have gotten my goats I have done tons of research.  I love to look at other goat breeders websites.  Well in my surfing I have found spotted goats.  I have fallen in love!!!

I want to put spots into my herd and I thought the best way to do this was to get a spotted buck.  Three of my does (girl goats) have large spots of colors on their coat that is different in color than their base coat.  I'm hoping breeding them to Welker will give me spotted babies.  So Welker will stay as a buck and will be for future breeding.

So as I was saying about surfing the web, I had found a site who has lots of spotted goats.  Of course I marked it as a favorite and checked back often for when their babies would arrive.  I checked back one day and their he was.  Welker is a beautiful spotted boy with gorgeous markings that was born on December 4, 2011.  Of course we wanted to name him after a Patriot just like our other boys, so we decided on Welker.

Welker at 2 months old

Once I saw him, I knew I had to have him.  I started sending the link to Welker's picture to Jamie with sayings like, "Isn't the boy so cute? I know he would love to live here."  Jamie, the awesome husband he is let me get him.  I of course sent off an email to the breeders asking what I needed to do to retain him.  So I sent off the deposit check the next day.  I was so excited to know that he was mine.

Welker has been here of over a week now and is doing super.  The first few days were hard with him crying for his mama.  We have him with the girls because he was crying so much and we were afraid he would call in the coyotes at night and wanted to make sure Matilda could protect him.  She is doing really well with him.  Matilda has shown him that she will protect him and that she is in charge and he must listen to her.  The does on the other hand have taken longer to get used to him.  Most of the girls are butting him around to show him that they are higher in the pecking order than he is.  They are now accepting him more though and will let him stay close to them when they go out into the pasture. 

We have a pen in the barn that the wall is made out of a large pallet and Welker likes to stay in there to get away from the girls.  He is so little he can fit right through the slats.  So we always put hay in there so he has some that the girls can't eat.  He is eating his grain great too from the creep feeder.

Welker is super sweet and loves to have pats and rubs.  He will follow me around if I let him out of the barn while I do chores.  Even though Welker is a buck and is capable of breeding he will be staying in with the girls for a couple more months.  He is way to little to even breed with the girls plus they won't even let him near them.

He is a few more pictures of Welker

Welker wearing Lou's Patriots coat to keep warm

 

Welker saying hello to Hailey

Hailey snuggling Welker

Welker, don't you just love that face?

I am looking forward to seeing Welker grow up and what his babies will look like.