Our playful family of resident goats. Photo courtesy of Jim Weeden.

Above, are the cute little goats that were the first to grace Culver farm and to be sure, they have given us great enjoyment with their antics out in their yard. The babies are so small and fragile looking and all legs. The mothers are very attentive and get quite alarmed if they do not see their offspring. Of course the little ones are out romping around like a gang of teenagers out partying all over the place giving their mothers panic attacks, especially when they are very little. When they are first born the mothers put all their babies in a kind of group huddle where they all sleep together which is most of the day. They come out from the huddle only to play once in awhile and to suckle their mother. They sometimes try to steal some milk from another mother when she isn't looking. When they are first born one has a difficult time trying to attach which babies belong to which mothers. We currently have 6 breeding nannies, 2 junior nannies and two breeding bucks. This spring we are expecting upwards to 12+ babies to be born. The mothers generally all have twins with the odd one a single or triplets. In the above picture here you will see some of these goats, both the mothers and some of the babies. The babies as you see love to climb over the rocks and anything that will support them. They are very agile and can jump up 2 feet or more not long after birth. Their mothers even allow them to jump up on top of their backs, which is comical to watch. We name all the goats we plan to keep and some of these names are Judy and her daughters Jennifer and Jasmine. Cleo and her twin daughters Clowie and Candy; Amy and her daughter Angel; Our senior buck is called Patch and our junior buck is called Little Billy. Real original aren't we!

Pictured here are some of our mothers with their babies when the young ones were approximately a week or two old. The black nanny in the front is Jasamine with her little triplets (2 bucks and 1 nannie); along with Amy, the grey belted nanny behind Jasamine, with her twin little nannies; and on the top is Amy's daughter Angel and her single little buck. The Boys Pictured here are our breeding billies we use. They are Patch in front; then Little Billy; and in the background is Cloud.

We also have an assortment of peacocks, pheasants, ducks, chickens, guineas, rabbits, turkeys, barn cats and two dogs. The peacocks in the picture are a rare coloured mutation called Cameos. We have 4 hens and a cockbird. The cockbird really shows off his beautiful tail during breeding season. We also have a few muscovy ducks wandering around the farm. The yellow chickens in the picture are an old breed called Buff Orpingtons. This breed was used in early farm days as a dual purpose chicken for both egg laying and meat. We currently have 30 or more of this breed at the farm.

Peacock above with full iridescent blue-green tail. A spectacle to impress the Peacock hen at right.

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