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.