Weekly update

 

Matilda is doing great! A few days of tube feeding and she perked right up and started taking a bottle. She's growing fast and holding her own at the hay feeder with all the bigger 'kids'. 

Coco is still the cutest goat on earth. She's tiny but smart enough to secure a warm spot under the hay rack after every feeding. Coco will join our herd as our friend Megan's first official goat. Meg will be selecting her breeding next year and will be in charge of naming and selling her kids when the time comes. She will be showing Coco this summer in addition to raising her first market wether for the Huron County Fair, Oreo.

 
This is Mr. Kitty / aka Tom / aka Tuck / aka my favorite barn cat. Best cat ever, sweet, affectionate, doesn't know he has claws, loves our dog. He gets in so much trouble, always comes home beaten and scratched, wanders off during the ice storm and doesn't seem to realize he's safer in the barn. He does enjoy a cup of warm milk every evening before he goes hunting.

Massey being a goof and begging for treats, as usual.

A perfect photo of Elina, bored by her superiority.  

Catalpa is our last goat to deliver, she claimed her resting spot under the hayrack. She is due on March 25th, we're enjoying a break from kidding until then.

This is Lola, the smallest of Lunetta's triplets. She will be staying with us as I planned to retain one of Lunetta's does. Tiny Lola was the first to escape the temporary basement holding pen at 3 days old (it was 20" high) and was the first to start wolfing down grain, pushing the older kids out of the way on the bucket feeder as well.  Lunetta, her dam is extremely gentle and cooperative, we hope Lola inherits this trait as well.

Lunetta quadrupled her milk production over last year and is already giving well over a gallon per day at 3 weeks fresh.

We are excited about the improvement in our Alpines this year and will be adding a new junior herdsire to our farm in the coming weeks. More info coming soon. . . 

So far we're retaining 2 Saanen doe kids, Luci and Hilary, 2 Togg doe kids, Mallory and Echo, and 2 Alpines, Lola and Matilda. Coco is staying as well, and I'm undecided about one of Camille's doe kids.

Availability for sale:

Sundgau French Alpine doeling (Luna x Shamus) $200

Sundgau American Alpine doeling (Camille x Shamus) $200

Cou Blanc American Alpine doeling (Camille x Shamus) $200

Saanen-type Experimental doelings (Saanen x Togg) $150 each

Saanen buckling (Serafina x Enzo) $200

Saanen buckling (Marigold x Enzo) $200

French Alpine Buckling (Lunetta x Kapston - pied) $200

All available milkers sold out for 2011.

Learning about 'birthin babies'

Thanks to our friends Sue and Megan for helping us out this weekend with the goats and helping to feed us humans too! Meg is a great Lamaze coach.

This will be Meg's first year showing a goat for 4H, so she is trying to learn as much as she can to be prepared. She will be keeping a doe at our farm as well, to breed and show at some of the regional shows we usually attend.

I think everyone here agreed that this weekend, 'birthin babies' is hard work!

I need a vacation!

We almost brought kidding season to a close this weekend, 4 does kidded Saturday and Sunday, leaving just one straggler in late March, Catalpa.

It was a mix of good and bad this weekend, unfortunately. First Marigold, who is just huge, surprised us with just a large single buck kid. I would've put money on twins, at least. Time for Jenny Craig for Marigold! She is doing great, appears to have bounced back well, I had some concerns due to the episode of hypocalcemia she experienced last year after kidding, but so far so good.

Late night / early morning, Magpie wasn't making much progress and I was already concerned about her size, so I did an exam to see if there was a malpositioned kid impeding her progress. I felt a head and one foot, the kid didn't feel overly large, but she was pushing hard with no progress. On furthur exam, I was able to sort out that the head and foot didn't belong to the same kid. The kid presenting head only had both front legs back and both back legs forward, in addition to one leg from the second kid. As I pushed the second kid back in, she gave a huge push and delivered the head and one rear leg up to the hip joint from the second kid. The first kid was breathing at this point but was obviously in distress, it also became clear that the second kid was already dead, with some hair loss and swelling. After a lot of maneuvering I finally got the kid out, she was very weak with a lot of lung congestion. Gave it a valiant effort, goat CPR was a first for me (no pictures, sorry friends looking for blackmail :-)), but she expired about 10 minutes later. We gave Mag a little rest and slowly worked out the dead kid who was breech with one rear leg out, one forward and spine to the lower left. Immediately behind it was a healthy looking sac (yay!) and out came Matilda, a black and white pied doe. Great markings, a white nose freckle and small goatee. After a 10 minute rest I didn't see placenta so I went in again and felt another breech kid trying to present spine first. He was easier to tip given things were considerably less crowded in there and he was delivered without difficulty. It was a very small cou blanc buck kid who was also extremely weak and having labored respirations. He was warmed up, tube fed twice and would intermittently perk up but unfortunately he died this morning after about 8 hours of working with him. Matilda is hanging in there, active and walking, needed tube fed once but took a bottle late this afternoon. Her respirations are still a little shallow and rapid but she appears to be doing ok at this point. We'll be watching her closely. Magpie is doing very well so far, given this ordeal.

Naturally, as I was working on kid #3 with Magpie, Camille decided to plop down and start pushing in the neighboring stall. Thank goodness for good friends! Sue was able to run in and catch 2 lovely girls, one sundgau, one cou blanc, who were up looking for food within about 3 minutes. They are both beautiful and large! Surprising as Camille hardly looked pregnant.

By this time, it was nearing morning milking time and Stella was starting to nest in her stall, so I took a 30 minute nap in front of the goat cam on our TV. Morning chores done, more friends dropped by to see the babies and as if perfectly timed, Stella started pushing and delivered a super cute doe and buck. The doe is petite and is a solid rich chocolatey cocoa brown with white hooves and dew claws.

She is terribly cute, sooooo tempted to keep an experimental now.... her brother is Togg type with a white belly slash on one side and something resembling a white puzzle piece on the other side. Both are doing well and eating like champs, Stella did great for her first freshening and first milking experience. 

So it was another loooong night, keeping up hope Matilda will pull through. Unfortunately had some losses, our first experience with quads is not one I want to repeat anytime soon!

Expecting a full house this weekend

Magpie officially wins the "wide load award" this week. She is huge! She wasn't even close to being this big last year when she had triplets, maybe quads this year? We're keeping a close eye on her, she's not happy about the forced exercise. Her ligaments are gone and her udder is just starting to fill, so it may be a late night for us.

Marigold is always a bit of a chunk, but I'm thinking triplets this year and twins from both Camille and Stella. I'll be retaining a doe kid from Mag, all others will be for sale ASAP.

Growing fast!

The kids are growing fast. . . life is easier now that they are bucket-trained and all the first fresheners are no longer afraid of the milkstand. Just in time for another batch of new arrivals this weekend! Magpie, Marigold, Camille and Stella will all freshen this weekend.

Availability as of  2.18.11:

All (6) milkers sold out for 2011, one sale still pending.

Saanen buckling (Serafina x Enzo) $200
Togg buckling (Elina x Mighty Joe) $300
Alpine buckling (Lunetta x Kapston) $200
Alpine doeling (Luna x Shamus) $200
Experimental doelings (2) (Saanen x Togg) $150 each
Wethers for 4H (1 Togg, more after this weekend) $75

A new farmer in training

This weekend also brought a visit from my dear cousin, Colleen. A city girl, through and through, this marked her first visit during kidding season to see the new babies in person. I convinced her to borrow one of my extra winter barn coats, needless to say she was covered in milk! I think she really enjoyed meeting all the new kids, and if housetraining were a viable option, I'm pretty sure she would've taken home one that matched her new 'barn boots'!

Look out for killer hawks!

I'm not shy about my bird phobia, not embarassed by it either. I wasn't prepared to go out to the barn and check on my laboring does to find a red tailed hawk inside! Given that barn swallows really freak me out, I think I'm lucky to be alive. . .

Still haven't figured out how it came in, the main door was only open about 8 inches. Long story short, I worked for over an hour to get it out, my barn cats weren't helping a bit. I had to chip away a few inches of ice to open the door wider, pounded on the doors, walls, threw pebbles, turned the lights on and off, nothing worked. Every time I tried to go inside it would swoop towards me, and I ran away shrieking like a child. My mom tried to help, but she's the one who gave me the bird phobia, so we got nowhere. So I called my neighbors, who quickly made their way over with nets, poles, etc and were just walking towards the barn and the damn thing flew out. At least they saw how unnaturally huge and terrifying it was as it flew away. . .

Of course, the less rational part of me was worried about my 10 lb baby goats being carried away, but they're all fine ;-)

Hectic Weekend!

I've officially reached kid overload! This, combined with the fact that several of my does have gone 8-12 hours past their induction times has made for a long, sleepless weekend. Five does kidded this weekend, bringing our total so far to 19 kids, 10 does, 9 bucks. First, Minney delivered twin bucks, and though I'm disappointed to have not gotten another doe kid from Capone, we do have a few 4H orders to fill.

Lunetta, bred to Munchin Hill Kapston, gave me triplets, 2 bucks and 1 doe. 2 sundgau and one pied. As the pied kid was delivered, I saw the flashy markings and pink freckled nose and really, really hoped it was a doe, but of course it was a buck. He's very tall, still a bit gangly, but appears to be very correct. He will be offered for sale, Lunetta has greatly increased her mammary capacity as a second freshener.

Queen Elina kept me waiting until the wee hours of the night, but finally delivered 1 doe and 1 buck, both of whom are gorgeous! The doe kid will stay with me, the buck will be offered for sale. Emilene, daughter to Elina, delivered twins as well, 1 buck and 1 doe. The buck kid will be offered for sale, still deciding on the doe kid. Emilene greatly resembles her dam, even more so after freshening, and we can't wait for her to increase production over the next few weeks. Last, Francesca, who was bred to Mr. Big, a Togg for experimentals, kidded with twin does, both Saanen type. I was a little surprised that neither had any significant Togg features, but one does have lavender Togg-colored skin, most notably on her face and ears, and I think she is quite cute!

I already swore I wouldn't be tempted to keep any of the experimentals, but I think I know someone who may want this one!

Thanks to my mom, Sue, Joe and Meg for help 'birthin babes' this weekend and also to my neighbors for saving me from the killer bird and providing us with a great dinner and even better wine Saturday night.