Flyrod gives her tail a little wag and Jaylen gives her a little snuggle and gets ready for action at Chateau Briant in Saco

We were extremely proud of ourselves this year for getting right on an early breeding schedule. We had bred both girls by mid-November and would be expecting baby goats in early and mid-April–our earliest kids yet. We were pretty sure that both does had settled (been successfully bred): we didn’t see them coming back into heat, and both seemed to have the predictable drop in milk production that should follow the first missed heat cycle after breeding.

But goats are always full of surprises, and so it was that yesterday morning when I went out to do chores and milk, Flyrod was flagging away. “Flagging” is what they call it when a female goat wags her tail, which is one of the signs that a doe is in heat. The goats often wag their tails when they know their grain is coming, but settle down and stop once we put the food in front of them and start milking. Flyrod was not stopping. We sprung into action. We called Phil Cassette, to make sure he was going to be home and we could bring Flyrod down for another shot, got the kids dressed (Charlotte and Bea, not Toka and Tonni) and in the car, filled the back of the Subaru with hay, loaded up Flyrod, and headed to Saco for a second date with Jaylen, the Cassette’s Alpine Buck.

By the time we got to Saco, Flyrod was clearly in standing heat. She was still flagging, and her vulva was swollen and rosy. The last time we brought Flyrod down to Saco for breeding, she was pretty skittish and not very cooperative, which may have contributed to her not settling. Not this time. She just walked over to a half bale of hay, started eating and stuck her bottom right in Jaylen’s direction, and waited for him to do his thing.

It’s still hard to believe that she would go into such a strong heat in February, but she did. Assuming that it takes, and assuming that Chansonetta settled, too, we’re going to be kidding in April and then again in July! It looks like it might be a long summer of bottle feeding, which could become tedious, but then again, we might also have baby goats all summer long… and what could be bad about that?

Goats breeding, Goats, late heat