KIDDING CHAOS

The 2023 Kidding season was Chaos. It started out well, but quickly turned to Mayhem. I haven’t had a chance to blog until now.

Juniper went first

TGP Juniper was the first to release her captives. She was not very large, so I had assumed she only had one baby, and I was prepared for kidding to start in early April. When I went to the barn to start my chores on March 28 she was very vocal. She was yelling constantly and I could tell she was in Labour.

I called my neighbour, Debbie, to come over and give me a hand as I was alone on the farm. By the time Debbie arrived, Juniper had already delivered one baby. I put a halter on Juniper, and Debbie Carried the baby, into the birthing stalls in the Barn.

None of my goats are actually halter trained, so moving them is a bit of a workout.

Shortly after getting mom and baby into the birthing stall, she pushed out two more babies! She is definitely underweight now, so she will be getting lots of extra food and Treats!

The Chaotic Morning

On April 2, 2023, I did my morning chores and checked all the goats. No one looked like they were in labour. I thought about moving the three remaining mommas into the birthing stalls, but then thought that if I did that, they would not have their babies for another week…

Two hours later, I came back to check on them and found Kidding Chaos. Jolene was in the goat house with 6 babies. Luna and Lily were standing outside the shelter, with two other babies. Luna and Lily are first time mommas, and it was obvious they were overwhelmed.

I called my neighbour again for help!

We moved the mommas into the birthing stalls and then tried to match babies to their mommas. If it is not her baby, the momma will usually push it away.

After some trial and error, we had one baby with Luna, Two with Lily, and 4 with Jolene. Little Oreo (the black and white baby) was not accepted by any of the does. We finally left her with Jolene, because she was not violent with Oreo – Jolene wouldn’t let her nurse, but she let her cuddle with her 4 babies.

So Oreo is now our first Bottle Baby! She is growing well on Cow’s milk. We will have everyone DNA tested to find out who is really her mom.

After the Kidding Chaos

I have to take bottles to Oreo 4 times per day now. I love feeding her, she took to it really well. Because Jolene has so many babies with her, I might have to supplement some of the others. We have been trying to bottle feed the brown one with Jolene because he is not gaining weight as well as we would like. However, so far he won’t suck the bottle. We will keep trying.

At this point, the goats are still in the kidding stalls in the barn, for a bonding period. In a few days they will all go back to their pasture and be all together.

Once the babies are weaned, we will sell all the boys and a couple of the girls. We ended up with 6 boys and 5 girls.

Wwoofer

Our first Wwoofer of the year, Ina, arrived this week from Germany. Unfortunately she was not here for the kidding, but she is enjoying the cuddle time and is a huge help with chores.