Archive for 2010
Building a Goat Bridge
Do your goats have a bridge?
If not, whatever you do, don’t show them this video.
I made the mistake of showing this to the girls, and all I can say is boy oh boy does P have some work to do….
GoatSpotting: Cabrito in NYC
My friend Frances recently spotted a goat right in the middle of New York City. For real!
Cabrito Mexican Restaurant, NYC
OK, so it’s not a real goat, but it is fuscia! How can you beat a fuscia goat?! It’s the mascot, by the way, of Cabrito Mexican Restaurant. Has anyone ever eaten there?
I wonder what the locals would say if I hung a big fuscia goat outside my house. Hmm….
Remember your photos are always welcome for GoatSpotting!
A Detour to the Chicken Coop: The Phantom Maran
If you like Goat Berries on Facebook, you already know I have a hen who doesn’t like to enter the coop at night. One extremely tense, scary time, I got unsolicited help from Giordano Kitty who chased her around the garden (gah!) until she went in, but since then, she no longer chooses the low branches of the fig tree for a hiding spot. She ain’t dumb.
Innocent-looking Maran hen
So we’ve been playing, ahem, chicken now for a while ever since we let them out of their cage, which had been in the chicken coop for several weeks, supposedly acclimating them to the space. In fact, the first two or three nights “free,” she did go into the coop at night with everyone else, no problem. Not anymore.
In the beginning, I couldn’t find her at all when I went looking in the evening, but then in the morning, she was always there waiting for me, looking around with a “Hey, why is everyone still sleeping?!” look on her face.
But then I had a talk with her beau:
Maran couple
And let him know the potential seriousness of the situation. We do have foxes around here and also plenty of stray cats. So soon thereafter, when I went to close them in for the night, even though he was already inside, he came back out and started calling to her . . . and looking up.
And there she was in the mandarin tree. Really, really high! So after coaxing her down with the help of a bamboo stick to shake the branches, I got her in the coop. This has now been the routine for about a week, unless I show up before she’s in the tree, in which case I actually don’t have much trouble getting her in.
All I can figure is that she doesn’t really like hanging out with the big hen or perhaps the other rooster, who are both big personalities, but this hen in the tree routine is getting old. She doesn’t even remotely respond to feed or my calling or even, as it turned out, her little boyfriend calling her. Just the stick.
Any suggestions?
GoatSpotting: Le Capre di Capri
Couldn’t resist the little play on words in the title. Let me explain: Today’s GoatSpotting goats were spotted on the island of Capri, off the coast of Italy. For those who don’t know, “goats” in Italian is “capre,” so there you have it.
And here we have them!
Spotted goat spotted on a rock
Crazy capre caprese!
Thanks so much to Jo McGlip, who along with her Italian husband Costanzo, operate the best Italian restaurant in Scotland, The Caprese Restaurant in Glasgow. Although it will close at the end of the year, they’ll have a new restaurant opening nearby, so until then, if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop in!
The Caprese Restaurant
217 Buchanan Street
Glasgow G1 2JZ
Telephone:- 0141 332 3070
And remember, if you’re out and about and spot a goat, snap a photo, and send it over!
Have You Hugged a Goat Today?
Forgive me for making you click, but I posted some new goat photos over at my main blog, Bleeding Espresso, yesterday, and I thought you might enjoy them. My girlies really hammed it up in the pen yesterday morning . . . here’s a taste:
Can I have some please Maaaa?
Can you see the heart shape on Pasqualina’s face? Thanks Dana!
Buon weekend!
The Legend of the Chupacabra
Read more about "El Chupacabras" at VirtualScience.com.
Even before I had goats, I was fascinated by the story of the Chupacabra, which literally means “goat sucker” and refers to a mysterious creature said to attack and suck the blood of goats mainly in Puerto Rico, Texas, and Mexico. I’d say there’s a documentary about the chupacabra on an average of once a week here in Italy — and not always the same documentary, either.
Well the chupacabra has been in the news again lately with the report of the unexplained deaths of 300 goats in Mexico’s Puebla state (warning: graphic photo in that link).
The chupacabra has been described in various, quite contradictory ways, which leads one to question whether such an animal really exists; for example, some people describe it as resembling a reptile with scaly skin, about three or four feet tall that hops around like a kangaroo. Others say it looks like a really freaky wild dog.
That said, what chupacabra believers do agree on is that dead livestock, often goats, turn up with puncture wounds often in the neck and/or chest area and are drained of their blood.
Whether the chupacabra is a special kind of predator or not, that’s some pretty gruesome stuff, so please goat caretakers in Chupacabraland, protect your goaties!
Do you believe in the legend of the chupacabra?
Sponsor the Old Goats of Apifera!
GoatSpotting!
Goats that readers have spotted out and about. Send your photos to michelle(at)goatberries(dot)com!
