What's the Best, Most Foolproof Way to Tell if Your Goat is Pregnant??

This has been a topic much on my mind since bringing Tulip and Star home from Jen's.  I've seldom been without a buck during my goat raising tenure.  This was the last time I was buckless, and you may or may not remember how that turned out.  

Anywho, I've been trying to figure out if Tulip is bred or not.  I'm 99% certain Star is.  Star was in raging heat the day we put her in with Jen's buck Silo, and he bred her about 5 times or so.  Tulip on the other hand, has always been much more coy about her heats.  She's much more difficult to tell when she's in, and she never stays in very long. Usually about 12 hours.  She looked to be in that day, and she stood for Silo once, but then she came in super strong a couple days after that here at our place.  So.........I've been guessing about Tulip ever since.  

That led to a discussion with The Man about breeding and guessing and not knowing, which prompted him to suggest finding a buck of our own, to which I replied..... REALLY?!?!

Now I've got several requirements for bucks around our place.  

1st, they need to be small.  Tulip and Star are Kinders, which are not large goats.  I love my girls and don't want to risk them having babies with too large a buck.  They've been bred to Nubian bucks since they've been with Jennifer and that's what Star (and possibly Tulip) is bred to now. They haven't had any trouble, but it scares me because Nubians are such large goats.

2nd, they need to be friendly.  Bucks can be a challenge, and it helps a lot if they are nice and sweet to begin with.

3rd, they need to be healthy.  Again, I love my girls and don't want to risk them getting any goat cooties from a buck.

I never really worry if they are dairy bucks, unless I want to keep replacement does, but a dairy breed buck is a plus.  

So Saturday morning we loaded up this......

And drove about 20 minutes to pick up this.....

His name is Olaf but we call him Ollie, and he's just precious!  He's a 6 month old Nigerian Dwarf buck.  

He's a handsome devil and such a lover.  He's got beautiful blue eyes.

He was quite interested in Star, but she wasn't so sure about him.....

Tulip didn't want anything to do with him whatsoever, and I don't think she even let him get close to her!  

Tulip was more interested in Dad with the honeysuckle in his hand......

And rubbing her head on Dad for a nice scratch!

So is Tulip bred??  I don't know yet, but with Ollie here, if she hasn't come in 30 days from now, I'll be 99% sure that she is.  If she does come in, I'll let him breed her so I can have one more crop of babies out of her.  As I've mentioned, she'll be 9 in June and I don't want to breed her anymore after this year.  

And to all of you who know these things, yes there is a real, true, fool-proof way to tell if your does are bred.  You just draw a vial of blood and send it to the lab and they blood test them for pregnancy.  I think it costs about 6 bucks...............but this is more fun!  LOL

Also Saturday was our Christmas party for work.  Our company is a small family owned company, and they really go all out.  The party is at a fancy country club and they have linen table cloths, and lots of fancy silverware and feed us prime rib!  We're pretty out of our element, but it's nice nonetheless.  

So on Saturday I went from this at 9 AM......

To this, at 6 PM......

Stay tuned for updates on Tulip and the continued quest of is she? or isn't she?  

Till next time.............I remain yours in Christ!