Well kidding season has arrived and although does were bred earlier than we wanted to, we were much more prepared this year. Roger built me some very nice and warm kidding pens for the three pregnant does. We also had a goat cam installed which has Wifi and can be viewed from our phones or Ipad at any time. This helped tremendously with my stress level, but also created a bit of a neurotic habit of constantly watching the cam. It can be a curse on some level, less sleep, more distracted. But of course, even with a goat cam, the does usually will wait until you are not looking to go and drop their babies. All three of our does decided to kid at dinner time, which was wonderful in my opinion, much better than the middle of the night! The first time, we were all sitting at the dinner table and we decided to just casually peek at the goat cam, and I saw what looked like a tiny goat standing next to it's mother. When I took a closer look, there it was, our first baby! I jumped from the table so fast and hysterically ran out with my birthing kit while my kids were filming me and laughing at my complete "crazed goat lady" excitement! When I got out there I saw two beautiful perfect little babies, one almost completely dry and the other still wet. Lacey was being a good mom and tending to them just fine. So all I had to do was finish drying off the second one and dip their hooves in iodine, tie off the umbilical cords, and dip them, and dip moms teets in idodine. Then Lacey took over and they both started nursing right away. Kidding number one was a huge success in my book!
The second to kid was Cookie. Same time of day, right around dinner, we went out to put the goats in for the night after their feeding, and there was a tiny wet baby standing in the isle of the stalls. I ran back to the house in lightning speed and grabbed the kit again. I yelled to my son Evan and he followed after me to help. When we got out there, there were two babies, both needed to be dried completely, and idodine applied, etc....It was really nice to have Evan help me, since he is the least interested in the farm animals of all of my kids. But he tied off the umbilical cords with the dental floss and I cut them. He also helped dry them and put their sweaters on. It's nice to have a second set of hands when you have new babies to tend to. I doubt he will ever forget that experience!
And last but not least, Fiona, my pretty black and white doe, finally kidded around 9 P.M. just as we were putting everyone in for the night. Roger and I were just hanging in the barn and we noticed that she looked like she was in labor, pawing at the ground, standing up, laying down, etc..So we watched her and within about 20 minutes she started to push. It was amazing. We watched silently and tried to stand out of sight. She was grunting and pushing and Noah, the llama, suddenly started humming. He could tell that she was in pain. He sensed something was going on, it was so cool to watch him reacting. The whole scene was incredible. It didn't take long, maybe 20 more minutes and the baby was out. Feet and face first, she fell to the ground and started bleeting. Fiona began to clean her off and we grabbed the towels so I could help her out. Once she was all dry and put back in the birthing stall, Fiona took over again and started to clean her and nurse. So all three does kidded healthy babies without issues. I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. This was our first successful, multiple kidding season and I feel very blessed. And no matter how prepared you are, or think you are, something can always go wrong. So, for it all to go right, well that is just the icing on the cake.
Baby goats~springtime~baby chicks=happiness~
The second to kid was Cookie. Same time of day, right around dinner, we went out to put the goats in for the night after their feeding, and there was a tiny wet baby standing in the isle of the stalls. I ran back to the house in lightning speed and grabbed the kit again. I yelled to my son Evan and he followed after me to help. When we got out there, there were two babies, both needed to be dried completely, and idodine applied, etc....It was really nice to have Evan help me, since he is the least interested in the farm animals of all of my kids. But he tied off the umbilical cords with the dental floss and I cut them. He also helped dry them and put their sweaters on. It's nice to have a second set of hands when you have new babies to tend to. I doubt he will ever forget that experience!
And last but not least, Fiona, my pretty black and white doe, finally kidded around 9 P.M. just as we were putting everyone in for the night. Roger and I were just hanging in the barn and we noticed that she looked like she was in labor, pawing at the ground, standing up, laying down, etc..So we watched her and within about 20 minutes she started to push. It was amazing. We watched silently and tried to stand out of sight. She was grunting and pushing and Noah, the llama, suddenly started humming. He could tell that she was in pain. He sensed something was going on, it was so cool to watch him reacting. The whole scene was incredible. It didn't take long, maybe 20 more minutes and the baby was out. Feet and face first, she fell to the ground and started bleeting. Fiona began to clean her off and we grabbed the towels so I could help her out. Once she was all dry and put back in the birthing stall, Fiona took over again and started to clean her and nurse. So all three does kidded healthy babies without issues. I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. This was our first successful, multiple kidding season and I feel very blessed. And no matter how prepared you are, or think you are, something can always go wrong. So, for it all to go right, well that is just the icing on the cake.
Baby goats~springtime~baby chicks=happiness~
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