The first baby goats were born today by our excellent milker, Joy! We are back in the milking business! Actually, as I'm writing this, another doe, Faith, is in labor. Joy did a great job, delivering three healthy girls! For us, this was a miracle and such a blessing, as we try to increase and improve our herd! Also, this was only the second time that we have had multiple girls from the same doe in all of our years of breeding. Last time, it was Joy's mother, Dora, who had twin girls. But that was back when we left the babies to nurse on the mothers. It turned out that when the babies were born, we were just preparing to go on a trip, so thinking everything was okay, we left, only to receive a call a few days later that the mother had not been feeding the babies and the twin girls that we had so looked forward to were now dead. So, these three girls are very special to us indeed!
For right now, we have 3 doelings born from Joy, and one little buck born from Faith. We are waiting to see if Faith will have any more. She looks like she could, but she delivered the buck at about 7:00 tonight, and she hasn't been doing anything else yet. We are a little concerned about her right now. That is, actually, the reason I am typing this so late! I have the midnight shift to check on her, Mom has the 1:00 am shift, and then I go back out at 5:00 am to check. We always bring the babies inside for the first night and put them in a tupperware, so Jordan and Savannah will be waking up through the night to feed them when they cry! Yup, we're back into the swing of things alright! But it's always worth it. I wouldn't trade this part for anything. Around here, it's everyone's favorite time of year!
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Yippee!!
ReplyDeleteWe're all up late too. We were sitting in the living room chit-chatting about the sovereign hand of God throughout history and had just gotten up to go to bed, but checked our blog, saw you had an update, and peeked in! So exciting!! And so teeny tiny! We'll be sure to show our wee girls in the morning.
Praying all goes well with Faith, that if there's another doeling or two in there, she'll birth it (them) with no trouble.
Do you ever have to check manually? We'd think you'd have to have someone with a very small hand and forearm to check. Lots of experience here with calving, none at all with kidding.
Anyway, praying for good success for this years kidding season!
Paul, Debbie, Caleb, and Bethany, who are all oohing and ahhing over your "babies".
Hello Yuck Family,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the prayers! It seems Faith only had one. We were a little concerned that there might be a still born baby still in her, so none of us slept too well, but all seems well this morning! Thank you for all the prayers! "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." -James 5:16b
We have had to check manually once. Dad actually was the one to do it. It was when Joy was born. She was in the mama's belly with one leg twisted back, so Dad had to reach in and straighten it out. Other than that, we have always had pretty healthy births, by the good grace of God!
Thanks again!
-Kelsey