Chat
Nice photo, Saph!
Taffy, I'm not sure a blood draw would make much sense at this point since I don't want to breed this late. Lilly was supposed to get bred in December like everyone else but had an unusually short cycle and was out of heat by the time I got her to the buck. The January 4th breeding was her second go-round. It doesn't help that she has a 22-23 day cycle, so if she misses a breeding, the next chance is a long wait.
I was watching Delilah for a heat cycle earlier this month, but I never saw her come in so I thought she'd settled. But today she's really flagging and letting Lilly mount her. I wouldn't have been able to blood test her until last week--already too late. I guess this is the danger of doing late season breedings--you don't have so many cycles to work with. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but this summer is shaping up to be a busy one. I knew that and was hoping to get started in November, but that didn't work out. I'm definitely seeing the benefit of keeping bucks here--it can be really hard scheduling these driveway breedings, and then you have to keep your fingers crossed that the doe doesn't go out of heat on the way up there. I wonder if Lilly "went out of heat" because she didn't like the buck. She LOVED the big fellow we used last year (Finn's daddy), but the buck this year was immature and smaller than Lilly, so she really didn't like him and I wonder if that contributed to her not taking. She had to be held so he could breed her (and he did do the job), but apparently it didn't work out. GRRRR!!
Well, the kids I was most excited about are Finn's, and so far it looks like he did his job. If Delilah didn't take, I'm concerned that she may have reproductive issues because there's no reason she shouldn't be bred. Even if she didn't take with the Nubian buck, she should definitely be bred by Finn. She jumped the fence and spent plenty of time with Finn before I noticed the "security breech". I even watched them breed twice real good before I could intervene.
Taffy, I'm not sure a blood draw would make much sense at this point since I don't want to breed this late. Lilly was supposed to get bred in December like everyone else but had an unusually short cycle and was out of heat by the time I got her to the buck. The January 4th breeding was her second go-round. It doesn't help that she has a 22-23 day cycle, so if she misses a breeding, the next chance is a long wait.
I was watching Delilah for a heat cycle earlier this month, but I never saw her come in so I thought she'd settled. But today she's really flagging and letting Lilly mount her. I wouldn't have been able to blood test her until last week--already too late. I guess this is the danger of doing late season breedings--you don't have so many cycles to work with. Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but this summer is shaping up to be a busy one. I knew that and was hoping to get started in November, but that didn't work out. I'm definitely seeing the benefit of keeping bucks here--it can be really hard scheduling these driveway breedings, and then you have to keep your fingers crossed that the doe doesn't go out of heat on the way up there. I wonder if Lilly "went out of heat" because she didn't like the buck. She LOVED the big fellow we used last year (Finn's daddy), but the buck this year was immature and smaller than Lilly, so she really didn't like him and I wonder if that contributed to her not taking. She had to be held so he could breed her (and he did do the job), but apparently it didn't work out. GRRRR!!
Well, the kids I was most excited about are Finn's, and so far it looks like he did his job. If Delilah didn't take, I'm concerned that she may have reproductive issues because there's no reason she shouldn't be bred. Even if she didn't take with the Nubian buck, she should definitely be bred by Finn. She jumped the fence and spent plenty of time with Finn before I noticed the "security breech". I even watched them breed twice real good before I could intervene.