Suckling the life out of her

Florence, one of our Saanen nanny goats, had 3 babies in July. Goats normally produced 1 or 2 kids so 3 in one go is unusual, though not rare (she had 3 last year as well!) She has very strong mothering instincts so she adopted another 2 kids as well. So with 5 mouths to feed, we intervened right from the strat and bottle fed the babies. One didn’t take to the bottle and remained reliant on Florence for milk. The others took strongly to the bottle but continued to suckle from mum.

It was obvious that despite our intervention the kids were suckling the life out of her so we decided to separate Florence. She is now on our Nearside allotment with the kid that never took to the bottle. We felt that taking away all her kids would cause her too much stress. The aim is to keep her on the Nearside until she has fully recovered and put the weight back on. So she will be there probably until the start of the winter.

In the 2 weeks she has been there, her condition has improved. He coat is starting to grow again and she is starting to put on weight. Next year we will give her a year off from breeding and milking.

Until 2009 I was working in London, UK, but I gave it up to pursue a life of self-sufficiency. My aim is to grow or forage for all my food, produce my own power and live a healthier and greener lifestyle. I left London to return to my home village of Sunniside, near Newcastle, in the North East of England. I have a couple of plots of land there as well as the garden of my house. Our village is a commuter area for Newcastle but we are surrounded by countryside which we use for picking wild foods. My mission in life is to show that it is possible to live well without destroying the planet in the process. I am also keen to ensure knowledge of historic recipes and cooking is kept alive. I regularly try out recipes from old cookbooks using the food we have grown. I make videos about our progress and about how to cook home-grown foods. These can be viewed on www.youtube.com/jonathanwallace.
www.self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com