There is always a day on a farm when the little boys have out-grown their britches. Today was that day for our little goat-man Titus. He will always be incredibly sweet, but he just isn’t up to show (or breeding) standards. He is also a first-freshener kid, which means his dairy-potential is still unknown. For these reasons, we decided he will live his best life as a wether. 

There are many options available when it comes to castrating goats. The most expensive, but least hands-on, would be to simply call the vet. Oftentimes they will remove the testicles from the scrotum sac via a small incision, and eventually the sac will shrink away. Another option would be to band them. This method is not very costly, and involves using a tool to place a very tight rubber band around the base of the scrotum. The blood flow to the scrotum is halted, and eventually it falls off. This method is very easy and very popular. 

The option we chose was the small ruminant burdizzo. A burdizzo is a castrating tool that clamps down on the spermatic cord for a few seconds, crushing the tissue. This interrupts the passage by which sperm and testosterone travel from the scrotum, but the scrotal sac remains intact. The goat is effectively castrated without surgery or loss of a body part. There are burdizzo options for larger ruminants such as cattle, but for our miniature kids, the small ruminant version is perfect. We decided to burdizzo because it seemed the least stressful (on both humans and goats) and the price was reasonable. 

Titus did very well with the procedure, and we were done in less than five minutes. There are some very good videos on how to use a burdizzo on youtube, which we utilized. You have to gently pull the scrotum away from the body, and feel for the two spermatic cords that run up into the abdomen. You only clamp one at a time. First, feel for the spermatic cord on one side and hold it in position, and place the burdizzo so that the cord rests on one side of the burdizzo (off to one side of the scrotal attachment- NOT in the middle). When you move to the opposite side, make sure there is a half-inch gap between the burdizzo and the first clamp line. The clamp lines should never touch, and the burdizzo should never be placed to crush the entire scrotal sac attachment.You do not want to crush the veins running through the center of scrotal sac attachment, as this can lead to sepsis and a very hefty vet bill. 

The process is painful, so expect your goat to kick and make a lot of noise. I made the mistake of sitting directly in front of his hind feet at first (I’m very glad my nose was out of hoof range!). Standing is the best position, while the little goat is situated about waist level, so that you are reaching down to perform the clamping. You also want to burdizzo between 4-8 weeks- using the heavy-clamp on an older kicking goat would be nearly impossible. Castrating goats younger than 4 weeks is not recommended, because the urethra will not be allowed to develop, and they will have problems with urinary stones. 

Now that Mr. Titus is wethered, we have another sweet companion to manage our weeds. Email us with any comments or questions, and good luck with your wethering!

-Kelsey and David

May 2023

  We discovered Bresse chickens when we decided to try producing our own chicken meat. We wanted a dual purpose chicken, one that would fill the fridge with large light colored eggs and juicy white meat. Oh how the grocery store has skewed our perceptions! Something we didn’t consider was accounting for the genetic quality of the Bresse. This was our first experience with ordering chicks online from a hatchery. They were incredibly dumb, very flighty, and could barely walk- some didn't even have tails. I am sure that the genetics are vastly different from hatchery to hatchery, but we definitely got the bottom of the barrel!

Regardless of poor genetics, our Bresse hens are producing amazing eggs. We’ve been getting three double yolkers a week, and overall they are a beautiful light-cream-colored large egg. They also started laying quite young, a little over four months, which my other hens have never done.

     On the meat front, we are not experienced homesteaders. I am NOT saying that what I experienced is always true- it is just my own opinion. We fed and finished a dozen Bresse roosters with high-protein meat bird finisher, goat milk, and organic corn. It was about 2-3 cups of whole fat milk, mixed with a 1:3 ratio of feed:corn. The internet recommended to coop them up in the French fashion for the best quality meat. We simply can’t keep unhappy chickens, so the boys were allowed to free range in their own pasture corner. We decided to butcher them at 22 weeks, which is a little older, but it let them develop a little more. With that being said, at the end of processing, each rooster was 2.5-5 pounds, the majority being in the 3 pound range. 

     The amount of fat on those boys was incredible. I learned that the amount of meat on the final product has very little to do with what they are fed, but the amount of fat has everything to do with it. The finished product was very flavorful, and very fatty! However… the amount and texture of the meat is not what we expected. In truth, the grocery store has completely ruined us for what home-prepped food should taste like. 

  Bresse meat has a texture and flavor all its own. The different parts of the bird had different textures and colors- the whole bird was not one color of white chicken meat, as you get with a store bought broiler. I know from my very little experience with Thanksgiving cooking that turkey meat has both white and red meat. I did NOT know that chickens could have the same! The red meat on a Bresse is extensive. You can tell that those long legs did a lot of work. So, if you want a meat that tastes similar to a turkey, and is incredibly fatty, we recommend the Bresse. 

Personally, we were hoping for a bigger final product, with a little more white meat. We are now growing out Brahma and Jersey Giant chicks, which we plan to cross with Bresse. Come 2024, we will have some good sized Brahma-Giant-Bresse cross table birds, wish us luck!

-May 2023