Marybell

Today is a very difficult day.  As we (myself and two grandsons) went out to care for the animals we discovered Marybell had died during the night.  This is the goat that took on Sadey's two doe's so she was nursing four kids.  They are a month old and did not want a bottle.  They will have to learn to take milk from a bottle with their mother gone.  Marybell was a very good mother and a sweetheart of a pet as well as a farm animal.  I love her and I will miss her.

Up date on the farm

Well, things have been pretty busy here on the farm.  We have a total of ten new kids, (I will break it down later).


The pigs were eating the siding on the laundry room so they had to be moved.  We created a temporary home for them with the cows.  At first Thelma did not like it much and chased poor Wilbur and Charlotte all over the corral, but they get along great now.

The chickens went from not laying to laying two dozen eggs a day.

The first of the fruit trees are in bloom and I am anticipating a good harvest this year.  Last year was very poor, partly due to record cold temperatures last February.  We lost a large part of the orchard, but I have decided that is OK because now I can decide how I want to use the land and there was really too many trees for me to manage.

Mike and I are enjoying our animals and will be putting in more pens, some for pigs for our son and some more for the goats.  We would like to build another barn down the road when we can afford it.

I still struggle with my health.  The headaches are better with the medicine I am on  but the dizziness is still a major challenge. 

So let's get to the fun of all these babies!  Last post was about Lilly having her kids so I'll take it from there.

On Monday, Feb 20th, I got to the goats at about 8:30 in the morning and I was feeding the first pen when I heard a new baby cry.  I ran over to the third pen and Sadey had two kids laying on the ground.  They were still wet so they had not been born very long.  I dried them off and got them both to nurse a little.  Sadey did not want to hold still.  Two little does that have since been named Ellie and Talia.

As I finished my rounds I could see that Merribell was in labor and at 10 o'clock she started pushing.  (The Internet says that the kids will be born within one hour after the pushing starts, and so far that has been my experience.)

Back to Sadey, she did not want to let her babies nurse and they were trying so hard to get to her to nurse so I got her some grain to distract her and held her still while she ate.  That was all those does needed, they both got on right away and nursed.

I was back and forth between pens, watching and waiting with Merribell and watching and helping Sadey and her two kids.  At noon Merribell got really serious and was pushing every two to five minutes, but still no babies.

Sadey had decided she did not want her kids nursing and I tried and tried to get her to hold still and she just would not do it.  I went to the house and got a bottle and tried to bottle feed the hungry babies but they did not want the bottle, they wanted their mom.  I left that pen and went back to Merribell who was trying so hard to deliver her kids.  I was getting worried now because it was 1 o'clock and still no babies.

At about 1:25 I saw the bubble and then a hoof, a single hoof.  Not good.  I felt inside to find the other hoof, but I could not find it.  I felt the face and with the next push the face was out and the baby was gasping to breath so I clean off the face and tried again to find the other hoof to no avail.  He was really stuck.  I called my daughter and she told me to try to ease out the shoulder.  I pulled down gently on that one hoof with the next push and the baby was born.  Thank goodness!  That was scary!

He was a big buckling, mostly all legs.  His name is Elvis.  I helped Merribell dry him off and he nursed right away.  Merribell knew exactly what to do, no problems there.  Sadey, on the other hand, is laying 6 feet away from her does and moves away from them when they come up to her.  It's been 10 to 15 minutes since Elvis was born and there is no more babies.

I start to think Merribell may have just one big buckling and she is doing so good with him, she could feed the poor little does of Sadey's who were hungry and wanting their mom.  It's now or never I said to myself.  I got the does and brought them over to Merribell.  I smeared them with her birth goo and put them in front of Merribell, who immediately licked them clean and nursed them both.  From that time on they were Merribells kids.

Now another bubble popped but no baby followed so I just keep waiting and watching as Merribell cares for her three kids.  35 minutes after Elvis was born Merribell gave birth to a tiny, all legs, doe.  She is black and covered with white spots and I named her Fawn.  That was an emotional day.  I am thankful that everything turned out OK.

I did my afternoon rounds and got to the house at 5 pm and I was exhausted.  I was also watching Lacey who was just about to give birth and I figured she would deliver the next day, which she did, early in the morning.  Lacey had two bucklings mostly white, one has a stripe down his back and we named him Indy (my grandson said it was a racing stripe).  The other one is tanish and my son named him Coconut. 

Since the post about Honey and Lilly we have named the kids, Honey's twin does are Sweet Pea and Butter Cup and Lilly's Buckling is Romeo and the doe is Juliet.  I think that makes ten!

Twins number two!

WOW!  I was looking out the window to check on the new babies and I saw Lily pawing at a baby.  I thought one of Honey's baby's had gone through the fence and ran out to get it back over the fence (on the gator of course).  As I got closer I could see it was a new born and called Mike for help.  A second baby had just been dropped and the membrane was still over it's face.  The momma was looking at the first one trying to figure out what to do with it.  I cleaned of the face and moved both babies to the kidding stall and momma followed.  Mike got there with the camera and we got the babies dried and helped them nurse.  This all happened at 4:35 pm.  We have one doe, born first, and one buck.  All three are doing fine.  I may need a root beer, though.

20 hours young

Here is a picture of the new babies at about 20 hours old.  They are so beautiful!

Honey has her kids

It's Valentines Day, what a perfect day to have kids!  Other than it is the coldest day of the year, of coarse.  It began to snow just as we were finishing up with the goats.  Honey had two beautiful little doe babies at 1:28 and 1:30 this after noon.  I was present at the birth and gave minimal assistance and my son made it with the camera in time for the second birth.  It was all very amazing and wonderful.

Coat of many colors

There is a story to my coat of many colors.

You see, when a buck is in rut (able to breed) it is very stressful on him.  Gabrial was not eating very much and he just paced back and forth along the fence that separated him from the does.

 We had a cold spell and his thin little body just quivered to try to keep warm.  I was very worried about him because a friend lost three bucks last winter.

My husband and my son caught Gabrial, (no small task) and moved him and his companion, Alex, to the dog run up by the house.  They would be protected from the wind better there and the pen was much smaller so Gabrial could not run of as much energy.

I looked up "goat sweaters" and "goat coats" on the Internet and there were all kinds of things you could buy to help keep your animals warm.  I decided I could make my own goat coat out of an old shirt.  So I went to work and within a few hours I had created a nice little coat for my buck.

The trick was getting him to see this was a good thing.  He has not been around people very much and he does not trust me much yet.  My husband and son were both working, but I thought I would be able to get this coat on Gabrial.  Lucky for me Gabrial ran into the dog house to hide and I was able to crawl in and drag him out.

  I held on to him with all my might.  He may be small, but he is strong.  I was on top of him holding him down, then somehow he was on top of me and I just held on tight!  With some effort, I was able to regain the advantage, and I laid across my little buck until he surrendered.  It was quite the site, I am sure, me wrestling with my little buck.  (And he almost won!)    In the end Gabrial donned a beautiful red coat to help keep him warm.

And me, well, I was covered in goat poop and weeds and my jacket was ripped in three places.  So, who really won on this deal?

Gabrial, Lilly, Molly

On September 16, 2011, we got two does and a buck.  One doe is for a daughter and her family and we kept the other doe and the buck.  Gabrial is the small black with white spots buck, Molly is the closer one in the second picture and Lilly is behind Molly.  They are sisters, two of quads born at the same time.  Gabrial  has been busy and we will be having lots of fun with kids about mid February.