hello again

well we are currently waiting for a doe to kid who is on day 148. We have a baby monitor with a camera watching her 24 hrs a day.

as you all know we know very little about this, as this will be only our second goat to have babies for us.

We have heard that if you can feel babies moving then it will be atleast 12 hrs before she kids.

hoping this is true, since her ligaments are not all that easy to find and sometimes you just aren't sure if they are there or not, then next time they are plain as day.

she doesn't have much of an udder, previous owner said she didn't bag up till after the babies were born so cant go by that.

when you feel her sides it feels like a pillow case full of puppies, barely any udder, ligaments barely noticeable but, noticeable, her ummm secrets don't seem any puffier or more"open" than normal, no talking, no pawing, no restlessness.

I am guessing we have awhile yet.

she had three babies as a first freshener, and thanks to Deborah and her Antiquity Oaks website I now believe she is going to have 5 this time.

this doe was so noticeably pregnant back in November that I was sure the buck had got to her a lot sooner than the owner had thought.  of course as usual the wife does not agree so there is another bet going.

Since we rent a barn from my friend and he unfortunately cant stand the smell of a buck in rut, we not only need to get rid of the buck we have but also any that are born in this litter. which sucks a lil extra since we bought this doe bred with the hopes of getting a second unrelated buck.

But what can you do if the owner of the property says no bucks? no bucks it is.

even though the parents are both high quality animals we intend to wether all bucks she has anyway since we wouldn't be able to tell the difference ourselves between a $70 or a $700 buck.

last thing we want is to accidentally sell a pet quality buck to someone looking for a herdsire.

(See Deb? we pay attention in class.)

that's pretty much where we're at these days. oh! and we are also researching to see if the whole "goats for hire " thing would be profitable in our area.

other than that nothing new with us.

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  • thanx guys. I took donkey back out to the farm and we are leaving the babies out with mom. how soon the babies and mom go back to the farm depends on when "grandma" (Amy) is done cuddling and babying them.

  • I agree with Julia. You don't need to be bringing the kids into the house. Plus, you could wind up with a bunch of bottle babies if mom suddenly doesn't recognize them, which could happen. Close to birth their hormones are raging, and they adopt anything, but as the hormones come down, they start to get very picky about what kids they will let nurse, and if they don't smell just right, they butt them away. All of our dam-raised kids stay in the barn 24/7 regardless of the weather. Last year it got down -20 one night, and we did have one case of frostbite in a one-day-old kid, but otherwise everyone was fine. Even at -15, we've never had any problems with kids that are dry (in other words, beyond a few hours old).

  • Dave, if it were me, I wouldn't be bringing babies inside anymore. They will be able to regulate their temperatures now and will snuggle with mom to keep warm. A heat lamp is nice to have if it going to be in the single digits or below outside. I use a "hut" for kids to get into also and that way they keep each other warm and mom lays right outside the door. I would send your wether back out to the farm and let mama have her "company" with the kids. My kids go out with the herd at 3 days and it was a high of 15 that day. When they get cold or scared they run back in the barn to their own "hut". These kids are a month old now and stout and happy. 

  • ok so our baby monitor has a temp gauge on it and it is usually 25 degrees warmer in the shed than it is outside, so if the temp in the pen is above freezing we have been leaving the babies with mom. At 33 degrees in there, mom has them pinned against the wall this morning and they feel pretty toasty with mom's body heat.

    if anyone knows any reason why this isn't a good plan let us know. other than that all three are eating really good, the doe is by far bigger (and hungrier) than the bucks. Her ear is still floppy but everyday it looks better so maybe it will be ok.

    So when is it ok to put them out with the rest of the herd? I worry about temps and aggression. the rest of the herd is out at a farm we rent a couple of small towns over.  they have about 16 x 80 indoor area with one hatch to the 1/4 acre run and two windows that never close, so prolly not as warm as our shed (but better ventilated).

    the wether that is keeping mom company in the shed has horns and has already shown he will use them on the babies so hes in a crate in the pen. one other sweet lil tiny doe out at the farm has horns but she usually doesn't have a mean bone in her body.

    I don't like having "donkey" in a crate so would like to take him  back to the farm, but worry how mom will deal once the temp drops and babies come inside and shes out there alone?

    im kind of rambling here but what do you folks think?

  • Sandra the baby monitor we bought at Walmart works amazing. the shed is only about 50 ft from the house but both the picture and the sound are amazing. it is a Vtech something or other.

  • Congratulations!

  • congratulations!! 

  • ok sorry for the late update......at 9:30 pm sunday she kidded two bucks and one doe (who is the best colored and the biggest and strongest kid. yay us!) unfortunately we didn't get them dried off as well as we thought and early morning we realized they had frozen ears.  both the bucks ears appear to be fine now. the does right ear took the worst damage, it is thicker than the other ear and limp. it looks a lot like my dogs ear when he gets hematomas from playing too rough, so not sure if she will end up losing part of it or not. we immediately moved them into the house and have been taking them out to mom every couple of hours to nurse. seems to be working well.

    I will get more pics and info up later.

  • Adding to my late kidding doe, I should say: After her second kidding ON MY FARM, I realized she was kidding later than day 150 as a pattern. This is also the reason I write down on what day a doe kids, because I can pick up on patterns that way, and it's been nice to see them. You might have a late kidder, which isn't so stressful, if you KNOW that's a pattern for that goat. 

    Rachel Whetzel at MigMog Acres said:

    I have a doe that regularly kidded late for me. I didn't know this before I bought her, but after her second kidding, I realized that she seemed to kid on the 152 or 153 mark. The third time she kidded, I didn't start looking for kids until later, and she delivered at her usual "late" mark. Maybe this doe is the same? She would be on Day 153 today going by your original post date. Has she bagged up yet? 

    I have heard of the kid movement thing... and it being related to the kids moving into place for delivery, but I have also never been able to feel kids. EVER. I thought I did once. Turns out my doe wasn't even pregnant. lol 

  • I have a doe that regularly kidded late for me. I didn't know this before I bought her, but after her second kidding, I realized that she seemed to kid on the 152 or 153 mark. The third time she kidded, I didn't start looking for kids until later, and she delivered at her usual "late" mark. Maybe this doe is the same? She would be on Day 153 today going by your original post date. Has she bagged up yet? 

    I have heard of the kid movement thing... and it being related to the kids moving into place for delivery, but I have also never been able to feel kids. EVER. I thought I did once. Turns out my doe wasn't even pregnant. lol 

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