HANDLING OF KIDS.
There are various methods in use of handling the young kids, and all of them are intended to save as large a percentage of increase as possible with the least possible expense. Almost every man who has handled goats has some individual idea which experience has taught him. The locality and surroundings of the flock make a vast difference in the way they should be kidded. The method which works best with fifty or one hundred does in a fenced brush pasture in Oregon or Iowa, would be useless with a flock of a thousand or fifteen hundred in the mountains of Nevada or New Mexico, where there is often no corral to hold the goats.
With a bunch of from fifty, to two hundred and fifty, and a shed big enough to hold the entire lot, it is not difficult to raise a very large percentage of kids. If the does are kept in a ten or twenty-acre pasture, they should be allowed to run out and take care of themselves as much as possible. The doe may drop her kid wherever she may happen to be, and she will almost invariably take care of it and coax it to the shed at night. The refusal of a young doe to own her kid must be overcome, especially if the weather is unfavorable. The mother must be caught and the milk forced into the kid's mouth until he learns to suckle. After he has been sufficiently fed, place them together in a box stall and leave them for a day or two. Then, in all probability, the mother will take care of her kid.
The box stall is about three feet square and three feet high, with a little door on hinges to save lifting the animal. A row along the inside of the shed next to the wall is a great convenience. A doe with her kid should be disturbed as little as possible, because, as a rule, she knows how to care for her kid better than a herder.
When goats are handled on a larger scale, with no pasture available, entirely different methods should be adopted—for the mother must go out to feed every day and the kid cannot go.
Probably the most extensively used methods are the "corral method" and the "staking method," either used individually or combined.
THE CORRAL METHOD.
In the corral method, two or three large corrals and numerous smaller ones are necessary. First, the does should be separated from the wethers, if they have been running together, and a "wether band" made. Then every morning the "doe band" must be looked over carefully for does that will kid during the day. Such does must be put in a corral by themselves and allowed to kid in this corral. They should be fed some hay, or if that is not possible, they should be herded near by for a few hours. It has been our experience that most of the kids will come between the hours of ten in the morning and four in the afternoon. The more does which one can pick out in the morning the better it is, for the doe, after dropping her kid, is allowed to stay with it the rest of the day and all night. In this way she learns to know it. If one has hay to feed the doe, so that she may be left with her kid for one or two days, it is a great advantage.
After all the does have been selected which can be found, still some will be overlooked, and they will go out on the range with the rest. The best way to handle these is to have the herder make a straight drive to a certain point where the feed is good, and then stay around this one place, allowing the kids to come within as small a radius as possible without starving the goats. If it is necessary, quite a distance can be covered in this way, and yet the kids will not be scattered over a large section of the country.
As a kid is dropped, the doe should be allowed to remain with her kid and take care of it until evening. The herd will gradually feed from them, but it should be kept as near as possible to protect the kids from wild animals. Towards evening one must go out and gather up the kids and drive the mothers to the corral. The large herd should be driven home in advance, keeping a little apart from the does with kids so as not to coax the "wet does" away with the "dry herd."