Kidding Season is officially over for us! I am so glad, so relieved, and so happy to get back to regular sleep!
Last Friday night we had both Bella and Elena in the kidding parlor for the night. They were both showing signs of imminent delivery. Jan and I were checking on them throughout the night. I checked on them at about a quarter to midnight and nothing seemed to be happening.
I came back to check on them at about 1:15, and there was a porch full of babies!
I didn’t stop to see whose babies they were, I just ran next door and told Jan, “We have babies! They’re alive!” and ran back to see what needed to be done.
They were Bella’s babies - all three of them girls. Bella had birthed them, cleaned them up, and gotten them on their feet all by herself and making hardly any sound at all. We just finished drying them off (the only way we could tell their birth order was by who was still the dampest).
We dipped their cords, weighed them, made sure they knew where milk came from, and that was that. Jan said, “We’re definitely breeding Bella again next year!” A do-it-yourself goat! Nice! (Here they are - all falling asleep together at the end of the night):
In the morning, we had Bella and her family plus Elena on the porch. We noticed that Bella's babies were trying to drink from any udders they could find. They were attempting to drink from Elena. This was a problem because Elena's colostrum needed to be saved for Elena's babies. Goats need that precious elixir, and when it's gone, it's gone for good. Often, when a goat has stillbirths, people milk out the colostrum and save it in case other babies need it. It's that essential for them. Jan used to have some in the freezer. But, she doesn't have any right now. So, we took Bella and her babies out to the close shelter in the milkers’ pen as soon as it was warm the next day.
That evening, Elena went into labor and delivered at 1:30 or so. Her process was not as smooth and easy as Bella’s, and was certainly noisier, but she had three beautiful bucks.
The next night, we brought Rosa into the kidding parlor. She was showing early signs that she might be getting ready to deliver.
But that meant that we needed to get Elena and her babies out of the milking parlor.
So, we took them to the same shelter that Bella and her babies were in. Bella and Elena are friends, we figured that would probably work.
What ended up happening was that all six of those babies are more bonded to each other than they are to either of their mothers. Many of the babies drink randomly from whichever mother seems to be closest. Here’s a photo of Elena’s babies heading for Bella’s milk. That's Elena looking on.
While that drama went on outdoors, Rosa’s delivery drama went on in the kidding parlor. We brought her to the parlor three nights in a row, and on the third night she went into labor. It was really early in the evening, and we had hope that we’d actually get to sleep before midnight.
But, Rosa’s labor didn’t seem to progress. She had contractions, she pushed, nothing happened. Jan had an instinct that something was wrong. Finally, at 3:30 in the morning, she decided that things were getting dangerous for Rosa’s babies - she was going to have to take some sort of action.
It turned out Rosa’s first baby was in the breech position. That’s a hard delivery for a lot of reasons, and Jan had never delivered a breech baby by herself. It’s scary to try to turn the baby - things are complicated in there, and if the mama’s uterus gets torn, she will probably bleed to death. But Jan found the two back hooves! She pulled that first baby out by his back hooves!
When she got him out, we both thought he’d already died - trying to be born and not being able to get out. But Jan found a heart beat, and we got to work rubbing him and slurping the goo out of his lungs. A couple minutes later, his sister joined him. We got her up and running, and Jan went to make a cup of coffee. Of course, that’s when the third baby was born, who came out with her head bent in such a weird direction, I thought surely she couldn’t be alive.
But, I worked on her anyway, and soon she was bleating with a strong voice. By the time they were on their feet and drinking milk, it was already time to start the morning chores.
Here's Rosa with her three kids. Notice how the one on the far right is sleeping with his head in a crazy position. It always freaks me out when I see the babies sleep like that. I think they were so crammed together before they were born that they find these crazy positions comfortable - they don't sleep like this for long. But it looks scary to me every time I see it.
So, kidding season is over. We have fifteen baby goats: nine does and six bucks. And we are catching up on our sleep.
Meanwhile, we have big chicken news. A friend of Jan's is bringing us some French Copper Marans in May! They lay copper colored eggs! I know, I know, we need more chickens like we need holes in our heads. But copper colored eggs! In honor of them, here's a video of what happens when the chickens hear me coming: