Friday, August 19, 2011

Horns

I thought I would show you all the varieties of goatie horns we have here on the farm since some of my friends said they did not know that goats could have different kinds of horns. I showed you all Sweet Pea with her straight horns and Mr.Tumnus with his big, curved horns last post so here is the rest of the gang!
  
This  is Nibbles,who by the way, has established herself as herd queen. She looks like she is smiling!
 She has one long straight horn and one that curves back! She is a mixed dwarf goat we bought as a bottle baby from some nice people here in town that had a herd of mixed dwarf goats. She was to be a friend for Butter Bean back when we had no idea that goats were addictive! She was the only goat there that had these color markings. Her daddy was amazing! He had the tallest,straight up horns I have ever seen on a goat and his horn on one side curved just like Nibbles'!

Of course there is the Original Goatie,Butter Bean!
His horns are curved back and slightly turned towards the outside. He is a Pygmy goat  wether. Butter Bean does not realize he is a wether and has to stay in the buck pen with Mr. Tumnus because he has a one tracked mind when it comes to the ladies and pesters them to death! He is a good friend for Mr.Tumnus and they have a good time together playing! They run around their pen and jump and dance and chase each other over the goat houses, it is a fun sight to watch for sure! Mr.Tumnus is bigger but he is very gentle and never hurts or is too rough with Bean.

Then we have Doodah,who is a Nigerian Dwarf,she has  perfect curved back horns...
Her daughter Lola's horns are starting to turnout to the outside more like her daddy,Mr.Tumnus.  Her horns will not be huge like Mr.T's because the girl goats do not get those massive horns like the boys do!  She is also full Nigerian...
Doodah's other daughter,Zippy..well,it it too soon to tell yet but the are curved back for sure....

Of course there is Dolly Doodle,who would never let me forget her! She is a mixed small goat and she has curved back horns too...
Oh, then we have the Woolie  Girls! My Pygoras are a newish breed that are fiber goats,they are a cross of a Pygmy and  Angora goat. First off, we have Sweet Minnie, possibly the sweetest goatie ever,who sadly has no horns. She was disbudded as a baby which  means they burned around her horn buds with a hot iron to kill them so they would not grow. There are a lot of folks who swear all goats need to be dehorned, I am not one of them  for many reasons. Please, if you are an advocate for dissbudding do not leave me comments trying to change my mind.You won't change it just like I won't change yours! I do  think it is  sad  for hornless goaties because they need their horns to scratch with . Goats are genetically itchy according to The Boy! Plus they love to head butt each other and they need their horns for proper butting and protection! Getting a bloody head is no fun,even for a  goat. Minnie often stays out of the herd and I think that is why.
Then we have Purl, my other Pygora. She had long straight horns but some how managed to break part of one off! I keep asking her how she did that but she won't tell me!
Purl's other horn curves forward on the tip! The Boys says it looks like she has a can opener horn!
There are a lot more different kinds of goats with different kinds of horns.We have a wide variety just in our little herd!

Just for kicks and too give you a idea of what a heat wave in Texas can do...here is a duck egg I cracked this morning! It had been out in the yard all day and it was cooked,literally!
I tell you I think all of us down here are feeling like this egg, cooked!


26 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

amen to that!!!

nice to see all of your horn beauty!

Texan said...

Dolly is going to have horns like her Moms, Bossys, if they get as long they will be real long :O). I love Minnie's face, it so sweet looking apparently like her personality!

I can so believe that egg cooked being outside!

brokenteepee said...

I always feel sorry for Pricilla since she does not have horns. I think she misses them...

Doc said...

Melodie,
Great post, I love all the horns. I think Mr. Tumnus is my favorite and I love the name.

Tina@WhatWeKeep said...

Such sweet faces!

When is the bacon going to be ready? ; )

I don't think it would take long out on my yard!

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Wow, cooked egg, huh?

I love Nibbles smile. Makes me want to scratch her itchy back for her ;-)

LindaG said...

Thanks for all the different horns!
We don't believe in declawing cats. I don't know why people insist on changing the way God designed things.

The heat has definitely been crazy. Hope you get some cooler air, soon!

the wild magnolia said...

Goatie horns, so many kinds, news to me.

Thanks for sharing.

We are hot too, here in south central Florida.

They are all adorable, but Butter Bean and Minnie are my favs.

Happy weekend.

Nancy said...

I think Purl and Gracie would like each other -- having battered head pieces and all. :)

Sharon said...

All goats are born with horn buds?

I like your variety of goats and their horns!

Gotta love Doodah!

Melodie said...

Sharon,
Thanks!There are some goats that are born with out horns,I think it is a selective breeding thing,but it is not that common.

Kelly Cook said...

Our first goats came dehorned. The buclings both had them, but we didn't keep the bucklings. The next 2 we bought didn't have horns, but their doelings did. We thought we'd like having goats with horns, but we don't. They get stuck in fences and also make it hard to lead them by their collar. So all the baby goats born here this year were dehorned. Worked fine for the girls, boys have grown back.

Millie said...

I LOVE my horns. I think all goats should have them.

Leslie said...

Well, I really enjoyed this lesson. Who knew? Well, obviously you did as well as many others. I have not even seen many goats up close so...this is all new to me.

Anonymous said...

I have four goats that have horns and one that doesn't, I didn't disbud or dehorn her, I bought her that way, she still fights with the other goats no problem, but I can tell it hurts her head sometimes. I don't think I would ever put a baby goat through something like that. And besides, they do need to itch!

Tayet

V.L. Locey said...

You DO have all kinds of horns! We don`t have any horned goats here but they do look quite stately!

Lin said...

Oh, I had NO idea there were so many kinds of horns!! Does it hurt if one breaks off? I would think that it does.

Melodie said...

Lin,
It depends on where they break at.Purls was in a "dead" area but a break closer to the head will bleed ,sometimes profusely and I am assuming would be painful.We were very lucky Purl's break was higher up!

Leontien said...

MY GOSH! that is amazing!!! haha i never seen that you can cook an egg outside like that!

haha

And Nibbles sure looks like she is smiling!

Leontien

Chris said...

Wow, Melodie, that's HOT!

Hope the goats are coping with the heat ok...

Kids and Canning Jars said...

Hello Melodie!I am making the rounds to all my blogging gals I have not heard from in some time. I have been horrible at leaving comments or even reading blogs this summer. We traveled a bit and my parents moved into my house form Utah. So, I have been a bad blogging friend. With home school routines kicking in I sit in front of a computer a ton more and will try to be better. I love all your pictures, and the cute goats! I hope all is well and you are surviving this awful heat! Melissa

Eat To Live said...

I always thought a horn was a horn too!! Cute pictures.

Hope you get some cooler weather.... Here in Pennsylvania, it is starting to cool off. I have always heard the saying.... Hot enough to fry an egg. Now I see what they were talking about.

Chris said...

Hello Melodie.

I've listed you as a 'versatile blogger' so please feel free to accept and copy/paste this logo onto your blog.

http://growfisheat.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-nominations-are.html

If you accept the idea is (I think) to continue the link...

All the best

Chris.
x

Karen Thomason/Gordon Setter Crossing said...

I love all your goats, Melodie, horns or not. But that little Zippy is adorable!

Stephanie said...

WoW, such cute goats!! and the egg...enough said!

Danielle said...

I Googled Nigerian goat horns and your blog came up. Thank you. I am getting two baby wethers in about 3 weeks when they are weaned. The seller was going to disbud them but I asked her not to. I am more concerned about them getting caught on things, and friends are telling me to have them dehorned. But it seems cruel. You help me feel a little more comfortable with my decision :)