Unborn kids can be reserved with a $100 deposit (check made out to Sarah Hawkins), accompanied by a letter stating who you are reserving (so we have a paper trail- note that reservations do not go into the book until they arrive in the mail, no matter how often you e-mail, text, or send smoke signals), all contact information (including other names emails may arrive under and Facebook aliases; if more than one person is purchasing an animal together let me know which one of you will be the point of contact, and yes, it needs to be just one of you), which airport your animals will need to be flown into if applicable, and reservations  will be taken on a first-deposit, first-reserve basis only- NO RESERVATIONS WITH OUT A DEPOSIT- NO EXCEPTIONS- TELLING ME YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A POSSIBLE KID IS NOT A DEPOSIT. (Why am I yelling? Because too many people seem to think that this policy does not apply to them- it applies even to my bestest friends in the world, so it most certainly also applies to you). This deposit is non-refundable unless the kid of your choice is not born, at which time you can choose to roll over your deposit to another kidding, or have your deposit refunded. If you realize before the kid is born that you will not be able to purchase the animal, as a courtesy, please let me know that as soon as possible. Your deposit will not be refunded, but it will open up that reservation for someone else, and this makes it less likely that I will scream in frustration in the middle of kidding season, which Andy would appreciate since he's the one who has to live with grumpy Sarah (from what I hear, she's not much fun to be around).

Absolutely no eye color or coat color reservations will be taken for anything other than wethers- for one thing, these types of reservations make life entirely too complicated, and besides that, I like to think that our LA scores, milk test records, and show ring success should speak loudly enough for themselves without also having to come with extra "bling". I like blue eyes and moon spots as much as the next person, but the animals in our herd with those attributes would be here regardless of those factors, not because of them.

Buck kids out of first fresheners will automatically be wethered (neutered) and available as pets for $150.  Wethers make wonderful pets as they don't have the hormonal cycles of does, nor the pungent smell of bucks, and they can be shown in 4-H and at NDGA shows. All kids are disbudded between the ages of 4-8 days. If you would like a goat that will grow up to have horns, I am happy to not disbud them for you- however, since there is a limited market for horned nigerians, these kids must be paid for in full by the time they are five days old, otherwise, I will go ahead and disbud them. 

All kids born here at Castle Rock Farm are automatically put on bottles- this helps to keep kids friendly, and over many years of trying several different systems of raising kids, I have found that this works best for my size of farm and milking herd. In order to make sure your kids are friendly, you should bring them home as early as possible to spend extra time with them making them friendly. I only spend extra time with the kids I am planning on retaining- I don't have time to make everyone friendly and get all of the other work I need to do on the farm done. Reserved kids must be picked up by 21 days of age at the latest- I prefer that they be picked up within one week of birth.  Boarding charges of $2.50 per kid per day will be applied to those still at the farm after 21 days of age; reservations on bottle raised wethers may be forfeited at this time at my discretion, and the kid(s) offered for sale.  Reserved kids still at the farm at two months of age will no longer be considered reserved and will be offered for sale as well.  Non-reserved kids will be held for two weeks from the date that purchaser tells me that they want that animal to arrange for transport; after that time, boarding charges of $2.50 per day per kid will be applied.

All kids must be paid for in full before they leave the farm, and all transportation costs are the responsibility of the purchaser. We make all air transport arrangements, but if you want your kid ground shipped, you are responsible for finding ground transport, which MUST come with recommendations because I have had too many late, late nights waiting for transporters who never showed up. Due dates on does are aspirational- due dates are best guesses, but these are animals, and sometimes they settle before or after we think they do, and occassionally not at all. If you reserve more than one animal and they are born more than a few weeks apart, please know that you may have to ship them seperately due to space and time constraints. During kidding season, with all we have to do during a 16 hour work day, we may have literally only one hour per day that is "free" for things like showering, making shipping arrangements, working on paper work or getting in a much needed nap. So once we get in touch about available kids, we need to be able to get feedback about pickup/transport arrangements, names, etc fairly easily so we can use our "free" time efficiently. We try to get pictures as soon as we can- if there is a choice between kids to be made by the buyer, we need to hear back from the buyer within 48 hours of sending the pictures so we can move on to the next person in line.

A note about naming policy: ALL kids must have an approved name before they leave the farm and will be registered before they leave (you, as the buyer, must include the registration and transfer fee in addition to the price of the kid). Too many people have either changed a kid's name after they got a registration application, or have used a name I specifically told them I did not approve of, which is why I am now having to change my policy for handing over papers. Here's the thing: the animal you are purchasing has the name Castle Rock in front of it for their whole life, and that is *my* herd name, and I have to be happy to see that name out there. I used to not care as much about names, until I was around long enough to notice how often some of the goats who leave here as babies pop back up into my life. Names are a way of trying to keep track of what animals are doing what. Most of the does in our herd have some sort of theme to them- it can be broad, like types of roses or California Native plants- or it can be narrow, like electric cars, but the themes are up to me, regardless of the theme(s) you may have picked out for your farm. I honestly could not possibly care less about the theme you have for your farm or the particular year- you get to do the rules on your farm and I get to do the rules for mine. Once your kid hits the ground, it is a good idea to ask for the name theme your kid falls in to so we can get the ball rolling and have the paperwork in hand by the time your kid is ready to go to their new home. I like for customers to pick several options they like and give me a list of at least four, in order of preference. I will pick the name highest on the list that 1) sounds good, 2) I haven't already used, 3) I am not reserving for my own use at some point. If you are stuck, both Wikipedia and Google are good resources for name inspiration. I probably don't have suggestions as it takes forever to name the kids we are retaining because I'm getting paperwork done for sold kids before retained kids.

Not every combination turns out the way we plan- i.e. the combination of two fabulous animals can sometimes still result in a pet-quality animal. If this happens, the price for such an animal will be adjusted accordingly. Bucks and does will be priced the same, as we will only sell bucks from top quality mothers- if I wouldn't use a particular buck in my own breeding program, he won't stay a buck. I feel that there are already way too many bucks out there from only so-so does (or first fresheners, and you just can't tell too much about how a first freshener's udder is going to hold up over time), and part of being a breeder is working to improve the breed. A buck can be the parent of more kids in one breeding season than any given doe will be over her lifetime, which is why your bucks should always be of better quality than your does. Probably only the top 10% of does are worthy of keeping a buck kid out of, and we've made the decision to wether many of our bucklings.

 Sometimes we have to change who we are breeding a doe to- just an FYI that this can happen.