The farm is full of baby goats! So we are going to continue with our baby goats facts!
Baby goats, kids, are standing and walking within minutes of their birth! They have long, lean legs and knobby knees. It so much fun watching as they fumble around trying to figure out how to get stable. It doesn’t take long though! Within an hour or two they are running and leaping like pros.
Warner is our new herd sire! We purchased him early spring 2014. Before 2014 we bred our does with driveway breedings, which is where you wait until your doe goes into heat, pack her into the truck, drive her to the farm where the buck lives, let them breed, then bring the doe home. It can be difficult to tell when your doe is in heat when you don’t have a buck around, and they never go into heat when it is convenient (of course!). We felt with 4 does to breed this year that it was time to get our first herd sire!
We reserved a buck at a local farm that has very strict standards for the bucks that they sell for breeding. The others, the ones who don’t reach the standards, are sent for meat. The day we went to pick out Warner they had sent all of the other bucks off to the butcher that morning. There was only 4 bucks there for us to pick from. She walked us over to the buck pin and the boys rushed up to greet us. The moment I saw Warner I knew he was ours. I don’t even recall what the other bucks looked like. I’m not sure I even looked at them. Warner was just so handsome and sweet! He caught my eye immediately!
Warner has been a great herd sire so far. He is so sweet to the girls. I can’t wait to see what the kids he sired look like! With as beautiful as our girls are, and as handsome as Warner is, we are in for some gorgeous babies!
Today’s fun farm fact is about goat kids! Goats can have 1-6 kids per litter. Twins are the most common kidding, followed by singles and triples. Anything above three is considered to be very rare. Two of our does (Tina and Hilary) came from a kidding of six. This was considered one of the largest kiddings in Virginia. Because of this we ultrasound the girls with each pregnancy to make sure they are not carrying more than three… if they are we will need to be prepared!
Oh what a week it has been! In the last week we have had 2 kiddings, resulting in 5 kids. 2 kiddings down – 2 to go!
On Thursday morning Sonia kidded. Her kidding went beautifully. She had 2 perfect kids, a buck and a doe! They both look exactly like their mom. She milked great right after and has been producing the same amount of milk that our does last year were producing in the height of production. She’s a rock star.
On Monday, 4 days before her due date, Ruth kidded. Why so early?… Because she had triplets! Generally kiddings with more than 2 come a little early. The kids were a great size though. Only one of them, the doe, looks like a premie. Ruth had 2 bucks and 1 doe. When Sonia gave us as much milk as she did I was shocked, when I saw what Ruth was producing I was BLOWN AWAY! At her first milking she gave us a half of gallon of milk. This wouldn’t be unusual for a second freshener (a doe who has had a previous kidding) but for a first freshener (this was her first pregnancy) this is outstanding. A half a quart to a quart is more normal for a very first milking (right after they kid) in my experience. The production increases over the next 2 months then levels off. Our first fresheners last year were giving us a little over a half a gallon A DAY in the height of production. Ruth gave us half a gallon in one milking. I can’t imagine what she is going to be giving us in 2 months when she reaches the peak of production. Even now that we have her on a schedule she is giving us 3/4 of a gallon a day. Her utter is huge and beautiful.
Now on to Hillary… She’s giving us a bit of a scare. She is a second freshener and isn’t due until the 28th. Hillary came from a kidding of 6, which is extremely, extremely rare. Tina was in the same kidding. Since there is a possibility that she, like her dam, could carry a large number of kids we ultrasound her at 45 days pregnant. At her ultrasound the vet saw one kid with a heartbeat and the potential for two other water bags, which means we could have 1-3 kids. Goat ultrasounds are not as clear as human ones, and rarely tell you the exact number of kids… so far every ultrasound has underestimated by one kid. We were expecting Sonia to have 1 (she had 2) and Ruth to have 2 (she had 3). Hillary always looks huge when pregnant, even last year when she was carrying 2, but this year she is enormous. You have heard me talk about ligaments a lot. These are the best way to tell if a goat is about to kid. When they disappear the kids will soon make their appearance. On Monday while Ruth was kidding we put the other goats and llamas in the back pasture so Ruth could have a quiet, peaceful environment to kid. Hours later when Ruth was done, cleaned up, and milked we let everyone back into the front pasture. Hillary was following far behind everyone else, walking slowly with her back legs spread. I checked her ligament and I couldn’t find them. She didn’t have any other symptoms but this was very concerning. I called the vet and she said there isn’t much we could do, to just keep her calm and comfortable. If kids are born before 10 days from the due date they will likely not survive. In an effort not to upset her and stress her out I have not been checking her ligaments a lot. I’ll go and peak in on her here and there and listen to the monitor very closely. We need to get her to next Wednesday to have the kids be viable. All of this leads me to believe that she has more than 3 kids or the kids are huge. She is already larger than Ruth was when she kidded her three… but like humans, goats all carry differently and comparing one goat to another will get you nowhere. Please send good vibes our way that Hillary will last until at least next Wednesday but preferably until next Saturday or later!
Kidding is full of excitement and worries. I love the anticipation and watching new life come into this world. I am always so proud of my girls.
Hopefully there will be no new kiddings to report with next week’s What’s up Wednesday.
More details, pictures, and even video for each kidding coming soon!
Eleanor is Elsie’s full sister, the goat we introduced two weeks ago who had the traumatic birth. She is the opposite of her sister in nearly every way. They may be twins, but their personality couldn’t be more different. Eleanor was born without us even knowing. Her mom didn’t make enough noise during her labor for us to hear her over the monitor, so she was already born when we went out to check on Tina. Her sister had an extremely dramatic labor. Eleanor has a sweet, calm, loving personality. She follows rules and is very easily lead. She very rarely gives us a hard time. While her sister is hard headed and will never do what you want her to. And even with all of these differences these sisters love each other and are always at each other’s side.
Eleanor’s calm personality makes you gravitate to her. She is so sweet and loves to give kisses.
Every month we take and post pictures to our Instagram that are outside of the 365 Project “A Picture a Day from The Freckled Farm” but like with the 365 Project we don’t want those who don’t have Instagram to miss out on all of the fun pictures from the farm. So here are the “other” pictures from February… There aren’t as many as there was in January, but I know there will be a huge number for March because of all of the baby goat pictures! Follow us on Instagram to keep up with the pictures each day.
We are now officially in Kidding Season! So it seemed fitting to have the facts over the next few weeks be kid and pregnancy related. Today’s fact is about goat gestation:
Goats have a gestation period (length of pregnancy) of 5 months. For standard breeds (like ours) it totals about 150 days and for the miniature breeds it’s slightly shorter at 145 days. While goats might “show” a little in the later months of pregnancy they don’t really start looking pregnant until their last month of pregnancy.
It’s the start of kidding season!!! Sonia is due any day now! Her due date is actually Friday but she has been showing signs of labor for days now. Her ligaments are almost completely gone and she has had some discharge. By Tuesday afternoon it became obvious that she had “dropped,” she’s been leaning against me and her sister quite a bit as well… all are signs that kidding is near. On Sunday I thought for sure she was going to go into labor. She was pacing around, she had all the signs of labor, and you could see in her face that something was going on. We spend a lot of time with our goats, so the littlest change is noticed and this was a blaring change to her personality! This wasn’t her time however. She settled down before bedtime and just moaned through the night. Given her current state I would say it is highly unlikely that she will make it to her due date. I have a very hard time believing that she she will go beyond Thursday. Considering I write these “What’s up Wednesday” blog posts throughout the day on Tuesday it’s possible that by the time this posts Wednesday morning that she has already kidded… Although I am still guessing Thursday. Check out our Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter to see more timely updates.
During Sonia’s ultrasound we were told that she likely has one kid. As you can see in the picture she isn’t very large. The picture was taken Saturday, but there hasn’t been a significant change to her size since then. Sonia is the goat in the front with the green collar.
The first kidding of the season is always the one that makes me the most anxious. There is all this build up for baby goats and the excitement of watching new life come into the world. There is also the fear that you have forgotten something or something might go wrong. While this fear doesn’t come close to trumping the excitement it’s still in the back of my mind. Maybe it will go away when I have years upon years of experience under my belt… however I have had friends who have been working with goats for decades and still feel the anxiousness of the start of kidding season. It’s the unknown! What are the babies going to look like? How many does and bucks will we get? What will their personalities be like? How well will our girls do? Will we miss it? What if we miss it and something goes wrong? I am feeling especially anxious this year because last year we ended the season with Tina’s awful kidding! If we had not come in while Tina was experiencing her problems it could have had a terrible outcome. I know though that as soon as Sonia kids that I will be in the grove and the anxiousness will go away (for the most part)… at least until Tina’s kidding in June.
Once Sonia kids her sister Ruth will not be far behind! Stay tuned for lots of precious baby goat pictures!
*** Before you scroll down I must warn you that some of the pictures below are a little graphic. They depict an actual goat birth ***
We are days away from starting our 2015 kidding season, so I thought it would be the perfect time to look back at last year’s kidding season! This year we have 4 pregnant goats, 3 of whom are due in March and another that is due in June. Last year we had two kiddings, Tina and Hillary. Hillary’s kidding, the one pictured below, was completely by the book. It went smoothly without any hiccups. Which is why we were lucky enough to document it. Tina’s kidding, however, came without any warning and required me to “go in” to help. Her kidding was not documented… for obvious reasons.
Weeks before Hillary’s kidding she was showing us signs that she was ready. Her udder was forming and her ligaments were slowly disappearing. The ligaments are about the width of a pencil and run on either side of the goat’s spine near the base of the tail. Softening ligaments is a sign that labor is near. When the ligaments completely disappear you are likely within 24 hours of labor. Hillary kept us on our toes as her ligaments were softening for almost 2 weeks before she kidded!
Saturday night I could not find Hillary’s ligaments at all. This was 3 days before her due date. We had the monitor on all night listening for signs that Hillary was in labor. The next morning when we went out to do farm chores Hillary had a thick string of mucus hanging out of her… A sign that the kidding would be starting very soon! We went inside to eat breakfast and impatiently listened to the monitor. Thirty minutes later I heard low moaning noises, so I went to check on her. I found her with the tips of hooves (a perfect birthing position) coming out. I called to Kevin over the monitor asking him to bring towels, and the rest of the kidding kit. We had created a calm, quiet environment for her to kid and everything went smoothly. For the next hour we (our children included) watched her quietly as she gave birth to two perfect kids… One buck and one doe.
According to Hillary’s ultrasound this year she is carrying at least two, potentially three kids! She is due March 28th, but will likely go at least a few days early. Sonia is the first due. Her date is March 6th. Ruth is due March 13th. Tina isn’t due until June 26th.
I can’t believe another month has already gone by! Here is a round up of the 365 pictures, A Picture a Day From The Freckled Farm, for the month of February. Enjoy!
Follow us on Instagram (@TheFreckledFarm) to see the pictures each day. Baby goats are days away and things will be blooming on the farm before too long!
