Buddy Bill, our very first billy goat ~

We sold our 9 adult billy goats at the beginning of February, only because there we too many males for the herd.  It made me sad, because they were so much like pets rather than livestock.  I grieved them going.  This is the part of animal husbandry that I am not sure I'll ever adjust to.  I simply get too attached to each individual.  

But none have affected me like letting go of our original, the very first billy we ever had.  He was named "Hammer" when he was a wee babe, by his original owners because he would run around his stall hitting the walls with his horns & they said it sounded like someone was hammering.  When we bought him we chose to rename him "Buddy Bill".  He's such a handsome fellow.  Big blue eyes and all.  Well, we decided after the does gave birth to 9 more babies, we needed to downgrade to only one active male.  So we chose to keep Goatsie, our baby we bottle fed.  Buddy Bill was sold to a Goat Lady named Rachel, and is out in the pasture at present.  She has plans to sell him to a man who wanted some males to start a herd to clean out his pasture land.  So far, she has not reached him with the news that she has Buddy Bill, so in turn, Buddy Bill's future is uncertain.  It just grieves my heart.  Please say a prayer that the man gets in touch in the next couple of days.... or someone who wants such a good male goat.  We both love that old billy goat!  He would eat out of our hands & he was always so happy here.  It hurt to have to downsize.  

We plan on selling some of our does & some of the babies just to get the herd down some for our particular land situation.  And we also, meantime plan on banding the male babies to make wethers, so we can keep the herd to the size we want.  Meantime, Denny is felling trees & making an area where he can keep Goatsie & a couple wethers separated from the does.  With 9 intact males it was impossible to keep them apart from the females & we went from 3 does & a male, to a herd of 33.  It took a few years for that kind of growth, but we were learning along the way.  Below is a of Buddy Bill recently.  All our goats are so pretty...but Buddy Bill is quite handsome!  I sure do miss the ol' boy!