Kids have arrived!

I have 3 nubian/boer cross goats that are pregnant, Sister, Desi and Chelsea. Sister is a big goat with a red roan coat. Desi is much smaller, more delicate (shows the dairy goat more) and is predominately black. Chelsea is mid-size and is brown. All have been bred to a black full-blood Boer buck and are due any time.

Sister was listed as being due last. Ha, she fooled us all. My hubby called me about 4:50pm last evening (I was in the parking garage getting ready to drive home from work) saying he was quite sure Sister's water had broken. When I got home about 6:05pm I watched the news for a few minutes (Vancouver, WA had a tornado!), changed clothes and headed to the barn.

My barn is in two sections. One section has hay storage, pens and a strawed floor. The other is a new addition and is a loafing shed type with 1 wall open. It has a dirt floor. The goats have been making nests in the straw and dirt the last few days so there were piles of dirt in the open part of the barn. Why I didn't have hubby bring the goats in and shut the doors is beyond me. When I got to the barn Sister has already delivered 2 kids - in piles of loose dirt. Birthing goo is bad enough but now it was all covered in dirt.

Cleaned up the kids and we had 1 boy and 1 girl. Nice size, healthy kids. I was hoping for dark colors on the kids and got it. The boy is a nice red and the doeling (I'm calling her Keeper as when I saw her I told my husband that she was a keeper) is a dark black and brown. Very pretty. I already have the black buck picked out for Keeper when she gets that age. Made sure the kids were nursing and that mom had plenty of water and feed.

I went back to the barn a few hours later prior to going to bed. Sister was in obvious labor. Looked closer and there was 1 foot hanging out. Uh oh. I finally had to go in. I found the one leg and the bum but couldn't find the other leg. Hubby had to come out and help. I held and he searched and finally a third kid was born. Three hours and 20 minutes after the first 2 kids! I think that's pretty unusual. We didn't think the kid was alive at first but hubby cleaned off some goo and yes, she's moving. She was small, very weak, couldn't stand at all and pretty much just sprawled there. We put her in front of Sister who cleaned her up and then I held her to the teats. She knew just what the teats were for and nursed sooner than her older siblings. I'm calling her Squirt.

This morning all three kids were up and bouncing even Squirt. Squirt nurses a lot, probably because she's smaller. I'm betting she'll catch up in size quickly. If not, her personality will be huge anyway. Sister doesn't thing Squirt is hers; she gently pushes Squirt away when she tries to nurse. I hold Sister's head and once Squirt is nursing, mom doesn't seem to mind. We'll force her to let Squirt nurse for the next couple of days and hopefully Sister will completely accept her.

I was very concerned that Sister might have one more kid yet to be delivered. I didn't feel anything in there though but to be safe I took her to the vet's this morning. The vet didn't feel anything either but noticed signs of internal infection. 'Going in' can do that. So Sister had a huge anti-biotic shot, a shot for pain, a shot to help clean out anything left inside and a huge shot of CMPK to prevent ketosis. The canopy was off the pickup and it was raining so I put a tarp down in the back of my small station wagon and off we went. And people wonder why I bought a station wagon.

Hubby made sure that Squirt got to nurse at 1pm and will do so again at 3ish. I'll make sure when I get to the barn after work, and then once more before bedtime. Kids are so darn cute. I may have to see if I can post pictures here. I'm betting we'll have more kids this weekend as I'm pretty sure Desi is that close. Desi, being black, should have really black kids. Color is nice but body conformation is more important, which is why I think Sister's kids should grow up nicely. I'm going to start working with Keeper for the first show in April. She would show in the percentage class. If the boy grows up nicely he'll go into the wether sale at the April show. Otherwise he'll go into my freezer. Goat meat is very delicious. Boys usually get names like Chops, burger etc.

I can hardly wait until my 3yo granddaughter gets to see the kids. She loves the goats and will just flip over the cute kids.