Boer Goats Kids

March 18, 2006

The kids are really growing! Here are pictures taken today.

Our Performance Test prospect. So far, he is the fullest, best gaining full blood Boer buck out of this batch of kids. As long as he makes weight by the deadline, he'll go to the PA Dept. of Ag's Livestock Evaluation Center near Penn State for their annual Buck Performance Test.

The Wall of Kids

In addition to traditional and solid-colored kids, there are also some flashy paints.

Two percentage does.

A percentage buck and doe.

This is Godzilla--the Saanen/Boer buck that weighed nearly 26 pounds at birth. He's HUGE and at 30 days old is nearly 40 pounds. For all you goat dairies milking Saanens, freshening your herd with a meaty Boer buck would produce an extremely nice cash crop considering this size milk-fed kid commands a premium price in the gourmet circles.

March 13, 2006

Well, it finally happened--Carlisle, our last hold-out dropped a healthy set of triplets completely unassisted tonight while we were at a school board meeting watching our daughter, Jessica receive an award for her essay in the Scholastic Writing Contest. "Something has been going on in the barn while we were gone," Ralph said. Sure enough, there was one of our best nannies with two does and a buck (which Jessica has already claimed for her 4-H project). So now kidding season is over for the most part. The does that didn't conceive with the herd were left in with the buck so there will probably be a few summer kids, but nothing like the wild ride that put 32 kids in the barnyard these past few weeks. Final count: 18 does & 13 bucks.

February 20, 2006

Another long night. Someone started screaming around two AM and by the time I got out to the barn, there was Elly, her first time kidding, with a baby on the ground that hadn't been touched. It was still in the sac not moving. I cleaned it up and tried hard to revive the little doe, but she never took a breath. Elly continued to labor and scream with her second kid, who was breech. The head was stuck in her passage while the kid flailed. I had to assist. Immediately following the second kid was a third--two front legs presented with no head (it was twisted backwards). I had to reposition the kid (thank heavens I have small hands) for delivery. The two remaining kids were extremely small (possibly premature) and sadly, only lived for about an hour. Poor mother & bad birth--an unfortunate combination.

Later in the morning, Ralph came in from the barn and announced a new arrival--Mischievous had a doe and was mothering well. That's nineteen down and two to left to go--the two matriarchs of the herd, Peaches & Carlisle. I know those ol' gals will do me good.

Later in the afternoon, Peaches--one of our very first goats, had two good-sized does.

February 19, 2006

Liberty says, "It's midnight. It's ten degrees outside. Tomorrow is Jessica's birthday party and there will be a dozen teenagers at the farm all afternoon. I think I'll go into labor." Around two AM, our "power udder" delivered "Godzilla"--a whopping twenty-five pound buck. He's the size of a baby pony! Despite the bitter cold, the doe cleaned him up immediately, corralling him with her body directly under the heat lamp. What a great momma.

Lucky at least had the decency to wait until morning to grace us with this flashy single doe. Then about an hour before kids (the two-legged kind) started arriving, Kay went into labor. "I wish they'd all kid today and we could get this wrapped up," said Ralph. Thanks! Because less than fifteen minutes after he said that, April gave birth to a doe, Breeze had twins (buck & doe) and Peaches started pawing in the corner. Just as the first party guest arrived, Kay kidded a big solid red doe.

February 17, 2006

Today's first two kids arrived almost at the same time around lunch. Mary Kate had a single doe (left) and Sissy's (right) is a whopping 13 pound buck! Sissy is the only goat we have who eats dog food. She is always fighting the Pyrenees for their kibble. We often joked that she was going to have a puppy instead of a kid. Later in the evening, Pigeon had a single doe.

As it now stands, we are half way through kidding with a total of twenty-one kids out of eleven does with a loss of two and one bottle baby. I'm expected a higher ratio out of the next batch of does who include the "wide-bodies". We'll see.

February 16, 2006

I remember having six kids total in a single season and thinking that was cool, but now we're having six kids a day! Marilyn and Annabelle each had two bucks and a doe today (2/15/06).

Ralph, the Master Recycler, made instant kidding pens out of some old doors our next door neighbors gave to us (thank you, Gary & Ginny!).

Moving the portable sheds to the paddock by the barn. Our barn runneth over with kids! Ralph built two three-sided huts on skids that can be moved anywhere. Plus, if we set them facing each other there is a piece that can be put on top forming a single large shelter that will house a dozen goats.

In less than 24 hours, we had THREE sets of triplets. All lived, but I do have one bottle baby out of the nine.

In addition to Marilyn (in the door pen picture), Cocoa and Annabelle also had triplets. The total for one day was four does and five bucks.

Kids napping in the nursery. The blue barrel is a kid warmer. Many people do not want to use heat lamps in their barns fearing fire, but these handy-dandy contraptions alleviate those problems. They cost less than $10 to make and do not draw as much power as a heat lamp because a 100-watt bulb provides plenty of warmth.

February 14, 2006