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What temp is too cold for kidding

Posted by Annie Alecock on February 10, 2011 at 1:46pm in Kidding

Okay, so I am a native of AZ and now live in Illinois. This winter is brutal. It was -27 here this morning and I have does due to kid. I built kidding pens inside a 20' foot shipping container and have a 1500 volt/amp (not sure what its called) heater hanging on one side and heat lights in each pen. There is still frost and ice on the sides of the shipping container. I brought the two does that are closest to kidding into the house last night. I was too worried they would kid. Personally I couldn't stand the cold much over 30 minutes, so staying with them was out.

At what temp is it safe to have them back in the shipping container kidding pens and out of my house?

 

 

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Replies

  • Annie Alecock February 12, 2011 at 12:56pm

    Temperatures that bounce around like that can be almost as bad as super cold. The poor little ones can't regulate that fast.

    It's hard to get them dry when everything is wet. Good luck with more kiddings.

    Adrienne said:

    I hope yours kid in good weather too! I know I live in the south, so my temps are warm compared to you all, but it was really cold like 20's getting up to 40 and then we had a warm spell for a few days in the upper 50's and low 60's. When the weather got cold again and the pressure dropped and we got rain she went into labor and kidded late the next morning. That night the other doe bagged up and delivered her first kid 23 hours on the dot after the first kid came out the previous day. We had 2 more solid days of horrible weather after that, so no one went outside Until Sunday, and then it was only the Moms until things got a bit dryer.
  • Annie Alecock February 12, 2011 at 12:53pm

    Congrats on the quads. I think we have one doe that will have quads. She has in the past and she is huge. My 16 daughter is taking the night shift tonight and plans on sleeping out in the container. It will be in the 30's today so I turned the heater off for now.

    It is amazing how "warm 16 degrees feels after the negative temps. My face didn't hurt while choring this morning. I guess the animals are tougher than we are. I'll keep everyone posted on the deliveries.

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    And we had another set of quads at 2:30 this morning! Amazing how warm 16 degrees felt compared to the night prior! I have another one that is now at day 149. I'm so glad it's warming up! I was worried about my own toes that first night. Last night as I was blow drying them, I thought of a new way to describe how dry they need to be -- you know how the hair dresser always gets your hair super dry? That's how dry you need to get the kids when it's cold out. Totally dry and fluffy.

     

    Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

  • Adrienne February 12, 2011 at 8:43am
    I hope yours kid in good weather too! I know I live in the south, so my temps are warm compared to you all, but it was really cold like 20's getting up to 40 and then we had a warm spell for a few days in the upper 50's and low 60's. When the weather got cold again and the pressure dropped and we got rain she went into labor and kidded late the next morning. That night the other doe bagged up and delivered her first kid 23 hours on the dot after the first kid came out the previous day. We had 2 more solid days of horrible weather after that, so no one went outside Until Sunday, and then it was only the Moms until things got a bit dryer.
  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle February 11, 2011 at 9:05pm

    And we had another set of quads at 2:30 this morning! Amazing how warm 16 degrees felt compared to the night prior! I have another one that is now at day 149. I'm so glad it's warming up! I was worried about my own toes that first night. Last night as I was blow drying them, I thought of a new way to describe how dry they need to be -- you know how the hair dresser always gets your hair super dry? That's how dry you need to get the kids when it's cold out. Totally dry and fluffy.

     

    Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

  • Annie Alecock February 11, 2011 at 12:33pm

    I moved them back to the shipping container kidding pen this morning. They still haven't kidded. It actually is better today and just getting out of the wind helps. The long term temps look better for the next two weeks. Hopefully everyone due to kid will do so in that weather window. Thanks for the tip about getting them really dry. Last winter we had 13 meat goats kid in one night and it was 3 below. It was impossible to get everyone dry etc. We have a lot of doelings this year with 1/2 ear. We only bred 4 does for February kidding. Everyone else is due late March or early April.

    I am learning!!!! Glad to hear that the quads made it without any issues.

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle February 10, 2011 at 9:31pm
    Funny you should post this today! I'm in Illinois too, and I was out there last night with a doe giving birth to quads from midnight to 2 a.m. It took that long to get them dry and nursing. We have a baby monitor in the house, and she managed to shoot out three before I got there. We had two heat lamps, a blow dryer, and a heating pad. But it looks like we did it without any frost bitten ears. Woo hoo! I have two more due any minute/day now. Once it gets into the 20s ABOVE zero, it's not too bad, but you still need to get the kids really dry. Once they're really, really dry and their body temp is stabilized, they can handle the temperature. I emphasize really dry because the colder it is, the dryer they need to be. When it's below zero, the tiniest bit of moisture freezes on their hair. We do still have the two heat lamps on the kids, but they're staying warm.
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