The Poultry Keeper

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

ok could you help Very Happy

i've got the goats to take to a farming and crofting premotion day,there are 500 children coming from all over the islands just speaking to the lady who is running it she said as much information as you could give to people who haven't worked with them ,i'm going to have to get boards done giving infomation ,so could you help me come up with questions that you would ask so i could put them on boards and be able to watch that none of the goats beat up any wayward children ,
what have i done Rolling Eyes

,they also waant a milking demonsration Twisted Evil

and they have a life size cow that the children can have a go at milking Cool

so any questions you would ask at this sort of thing would be great ,my minds gone blank Embarassed

suz

Lisa · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject:

Off the top of my head, just thinking of the basics:

What are they (breed)?
Where do they live?
What do they eat?
How long do they live for?
When do they have babies?
How many babies do they have?
Are there the rules and regs for keeping them?
Are they friendly / can you tame them?
What do you keep them for: milk, meat, fleece? (can you tell I know nothing about goats? perhaps I should come along!! Laughing

)
What do you do with the milk? (well, you said milking demo)
What is the milk like?
How often do you have to millk them?
How much do you get from each goat?
What can you do with the milk apart from drink it? Cheese? Yogurt? Icecream!?!?! Razz

Can I have a goat (whoops, sorry, that was me! Just remembered the ones at Whipsnade are really rather cute Rolling Eyes

)

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

great lisa ,that's what i wanted ,i'll have to get gizzy to do me all the posters with that info on ,
they said could i take along some milk not for tasting ,(health and safety ),anything else ,lisa if you lived closer of course you could have a couple of goats Wink

anything else any of you would ask at his sort of thing ,would take a joint along but probably shouldn't do that as it's children Twisted Evil

suz

Lisa · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject:

Oh isn't that flippin typical. A local fresh product which hasn't been standardised, homogenised and pasteurised to bits and (IIRC) has some benefits over cows milk, but hey - don't let anyone near it!! Rolling Eyes

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

thought i might take some supermarket goats milk Confused

but it doesn't taste the same ,i think it might be to do with washing your hands before eatting or drinking ,they want me to show them whatt goats milk looks like Shocked

might take olive oil and garlic drench ,vet did a check on worm counts on goats that hadn't been wormed this way and goats that had from up the road same grazing so should have roughly same worm count the ones wormed using normal wormer even though rotating it had a higher worm count than the ones using the olive oil and garlic once a week and they do like it ,thought you might be interested in that bit of info lisa,have i mentioned i like my vet Very Happy

suz

Lisa · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:40 pm Post subject:

Oooo, tell me more Very Happy

What exactly do you do with the olive oil and garlic? How much, how often etc?

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

thought you'd like to know ,heactor like doing something like this once a year this year it was the organic way of worming using olive oil and garlic ,
take 1 pint of olive oil ,put 5 cloves of garlic leave to seep for at least a week in shady place ,drench once a week with a tablespoon ,in the goats drench this way they had next to 0 worm count ,in the goats drench with wormer they was a low to meddium ,could see when i go to pay the bill if he can tell me more ,but he's happy that garlic works ,together with rotating grazing
suz

Lisa · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:56 pm Post subject:

Erm

what do you mean by drench? Embarassed

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

down the throat with a syringe or they just sort of put it in their mouth and they nornally swallow once a week .
suz

Lisa · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject:

Ah, so feed it to them as medicine. Now I get it Embarassed

Thank you

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

it's nice to know that works i was sort of surprized when he told me but should of expected it Very Happy

,the whole day is about ,teaching children where there food comes from ,there is going to be chickens ,ducks ,goats ,cows and every other animal that we have here
suz

fenwoman · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject:

They are bound to ask about the toggles and ask what they are for, also the beard and ask why/why not, they have horns.

CP · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:34 pm Post subject:

Spana · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 2071 Location: North Cornwall

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6972 Location: isle of lewis

the toggles are there for who knows what reason although it is thought that they make rain run off a certain way so is less uncomforable for the goat acutually my goats be class a old english do not have them Cool

,and the togg doesn't either Cool

,
jan i could only do the roasting sort i'm afraid Wink

suz