Kiding season has started!

We went out to the barn this mourning to find 4 little baby goats. Kiding season has begun! An exciting time yet alot of work. We worry this time of year when babies are born in the middle of the night because goat moms can sometimes not be the best of moms. Sometimes you will go out to the barn to find a couple of dead babies because mom didnt care about them or didnt clean them up after birth and they drown in there own sacs (sad). We usually try to replace these "bad moms" each year with new "good moms". Ones with a better maternal instincts.

Things that have to be done everyday, New pens made for the new mothers.

Fresh straw layed down.

Putting up heat lamps to keep the babies warm in this cold weather.

Water dishes and hay mangers put inside the pens.

We check the babies over in mourning and at night to make sure that they are up and eating well and to make sure there arent any weak babies that might need to be hand fed.The average for a Goat is 2 babies. Sometimes up to 4. In that case we take 2 of the 4 away to hand feed them while mom cares for the other two. Nursing 4 babies puts alot of strain on mom and sometimes these little pygmies cant produce enough milk for them all.

 These pictures arent the best. The barn was dark. I had to lighten them up in photoshop so you could see these little guys :0) They are sooo tiny! You cant tell from these pics but they are about the size of a toy breed puppy lol

I hope to get more pictures soon (cuter ones lol). Oh and we just had a litter of Pot belly pigs born as well!!   busy, busy, busy lol

And here is Sam wondering what the heck was going on? LOL. He actually climbed the fence a few minutes after I toko this. He wanted in. I had no idea he was in the goat pen untill I heard a yelp! One of the bigger female goats had ramed him LOL. He was fine but hopefully he learned that the goats arent to be chased.