It was a very busy weekend, once again the best laid plans were foiled. 7 does kidded from Friday through Sunday and did their very bes to ensure that we had minimal sleep, choosing to kid at midnight, 2 am, 4 am, 8 am, really any time except when we were expecting them. Thank goodness for goat tv. It makes life so much easier.
Look at that face! I think she is regretting her friend request. She looks how I feel -frazzled.
Charlotte started the parade at 2 am Friday morning, delivering cou blanc triplets, 2 bucks and 1 doe. She is raising her boys and they are absolute tubbies already. After a few early skirmishes with Luci, she has adapted to motherhood well, this is her first year raising her own kids. Emmette joined the fun and delivered 2 does without a hitch. Elina, too had an uneventful birth and gave us a doe and a buck, I was waiting on a doe from this breeding so I'm very happy about her. So far her name is Eliott, but I never commit until it's on paper.
Emilene kicked off the day at 4 am delivering giant triplets, 2 does and a buck. She is raising her buck kid, we've found that allowing her to dam raise helps keep her weight in check! Prior to delivering her belly was so big she couldn't fit through a 4 foot gate without rubbing the side rails, although she looks much more comfortable now a stranger might think she is still pregnant.
Claire , though small in stature hides her babies well. She had triplets as well, 2 solid black kids, one male, one female and one solid white female. She needed a little help, a the first kid was trying to sneak out butt first. We grafted her buck kid on to Emilene who accepted him without difficulty after giving him a rubdown with her colostrum.
Macy rounded out the day / night / wee hours by delivering triplets as well. Triplet bucks, unfortunately. We grafted the two largest boys on to Elina, who always wants babies so badly she usually steals someone else's. She accepted them readily and we are bottle raising the third, who was a bit of a runt in the house.
My little Sofia, had the roughest time of all, unfortunately. She barely looked pregnant but surprised us by having triplets, sort of. Tiny, tiny triplets. So tiny she made me second guess the accuracy of my breeding dates but there was no mistake. She gave one big push and delivered two tiny legs and I quickly discovered the kids head was turned back- ALL the way back. This is one of the tougher malpresentations to correct as the kid has to be pushed all the way back in before fetching the head, turning it and delivering it. I worked and worked and couldn't get the head to stay forward and ultimately she pushed and delivered it as is. The tiny doe had sucked in too much fluid during the process, really struggled to breathe and despite our best efforts only lived for about 15 minutes. She delivered a second tiny doe, a pale chamoisee followed by a larger stillborn kid who had been dead for a few days already.
Ugh. But to be expected. No one said raising livestock was easy! The little girl is doing better each day, she weighs in at maybe 2 lbs. she is getting a little more steady on her feet and has buddies up to Macy's runt buckling so she has a cuddle buddy. When she's not wrapped in a towel on my lap, that is. And when Luna isn't baby sitting.
So we went from 0 to 3 to 22. With a few unfortunate losses. Massey is next to kid this weekend, then we have a "bye week" before Delfina and Chicory will kid, giving us our first Bonner babies.
Here are the standings so far:
Luci- triplets, 2 b 1 d
Charlotte- triplets 2 b 1 d
Emmette- 2 d
Elina- 1 b 1 d
Emilene- 1 b 2 d
Claire- 1 b 2 d ( 2 does available, 1 black, 1 white )
Macy- 3 b
Sofia- 1 b 2 d
Also, wethers available, 2 alpines and 3 toggs. Dam raised for 4H projects.
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