o4 BULLETIN 749, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
ing pens, so that the does and kids may be left in them for a week or 
more. The use of the mixing pens permits the does to become accus- 
tomed to finding their kids in a medium-sized bunch. Then when 
they are all placed together they seldom fail to find their kids. From 
the mixing pens the does and kids are moved into a pen large enough 
to hold the entire herd of does and kids. The kids remain in this 
pen until taken on the range. 
— Castration.—The buck kids not reserved for breeding purposes 
should be castrated when from a few days to three weeks old. This 
should be done early on a bright, cool morning and never on a rainy 
day. The lower one-third of the scrotum should be cut off with a 
sharp knife, then each testicle should be gradually worked down with 
the fingers and caught hold of, and either the testicle and spermatic 
cord should be pulled out, or when the spermatic cord is stretched 
it should be cut off at the base. All fatty matter attached to the 
cord should come out. Pulling of the testicles until the cord breaks 
is generally preferred. For several days the kids should be carefully 
watched. If flies are bad a disinfectant should be used. 
Bucks in which only one testicle descends should have this testicle 
removed, They should be marked to distinguish them from wethers 
and should be killed or sold for meat as soon as practicable, for 
when a few months old they will bother the does. They make good 
meat when less than a year old. , 
Care of kids needing individual attention—The kids which need 
individual attention are chiefly those which have been disowned by 
their mothers and those which have been given to does other than 
their mothers. Also, there are always a number of twin kids, kids 
of poor and weak does, and prematurely born and deformed kids 
that need special attention. 
Even with the use of the individual kidding pens a doe may 
disown her kid because of severe pains in labor, lack of proper 
nourishment, or the doe’s being without milk or having only a 
scanty supply. While the most critical time is right after the kid 
is born, there is danger even until the kid is several weeks old of 
the mother’s disowning it for one or more of the following reasons: 
Rubbing together of kids dropped on the range in bringing them in, 
failure of a doe to find her kid, separation of a doe and her kid 
because of the fences not being kid tight, other kids than her own 
stealing the doe’s milk, a doe’s adopting some other kid than her 
own, fighting between does, or any unusual disturbance. Young 
does with their first kids and does with an insufficient amount of 
milk are the main offenders, 
To assist in persuading the doe to own her kid small pens, gen- 
erally known as “bum pens,” 4 feet by 3 feet in size and with sides 
3 feet high, should be provided. About 25 of these are needed to 
