Foster mother

I had really hoped that Fudge would miss her doe so much that she would happily take little Pixie as a foster kid but that is not what happened.  Fudge evidently doesn't want another kid and it took both me and Jerry to hold her still for Pixie to nurse and even then she laid down and refused to get up.  So I decided to put her on the milk stand and get the milk that way and then just put it in a bottle for Pixie.  I worked for 20 minutes and got 3 ounces!  She would not let her milk down and then she would lay down while in the stand.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to milk a goat that is lying down?  Not easy believe me.  I took the 3 ounces and put it in a bottle and offered it to Pixie.  She went after it like a champ and so that was good that she is willing to take a bottle.  Now if I can just get Fudge to accept being milked better.

Kids leaving

Two of my favorite babies went to their new home in Illinois today.  I hated to see them go but I know that Jami will give them a good home since she has bought others from me last year.  It is a nice fairly warm day so I have turned Crystal and her twins out in the pasture to play and cleaned out her stall to get it ready for Fudge to stay in while I try to transition Pixie over to her to foster.

New babies

Curly Joe

I took some quick pictures last night of the new babies.  They are all in the barn under heat lamps at the moment but I hope that the weather will be nice enough this weekend that I can open the doors and let them all get some fresh air.

Triplet girl

My moonspotted doe Dot had triplets last Friday night.  She has only had singles until this year.  The two boys are growing like weeds and thriving but I have noticed the tiny little girl is always crying and seems to be hungry.  I have been having to hold Dot to let her nurse since her brute brothers are beating her to the food.  Another one of my goats kidded Tuesday and she is a gentle sweet natured girl so since she only had 1, I got the idea to let the little girl nurse off of her.  Well mothers don't accept other babies easily so I am having to hold her still but I successfully got the little girl who I think I will be calling Pixie to eat last night and again this morning.  I have another doe whose baby will be leaving to go to her new home in Illinois this weekend so I am hoping to transfer Pixie over to Fudge and hopefully she will be having "empty nest" syndrome and will accept a totally new baby to foster for the next 7 weeks.  I just hate to have to start bottle feeding Pixie so I am crossing my fingers that the baby switcheroo project will go smoothly.

Kidding season

Well this has been a busy week with new babies coming.  I have been sitting in the barn in the freezing weather until all hours for a week watching Hershey because she has evidently been having braxton hicks contractions.  Who knew that goats did that?  Anyways I have gone to the barn every 2 hours to check on her since January 17th.  Finally last night she went into real labor and produced twins.  A blue eyed boy and a brown eyed girl.  They are adorable.  Meanwhile I have 3 other does that weren't due until the end of this week and 2 of them kidded yesterday also and the other had triplets last Friday!