February Recap

Since it appears that I somehow missed the entire month of February I'll attempt to recap:


February 2
My Nigerian doe 17 Syllables had four beautiful babies.  I brought the two does inside so I could bottle feed them exclusively.  I left the two boys with their momma.

The two boys.

The little doeling we kept.

 

This little girl went to Indigo Acres Farm.

February 3
My Alpine doe Diesel had buck/doe twins.  I brought them in the house to bottle feed so I could milk her.

The doeling Kay Kay.

The sweet little buckling Bit O Honey.

Lets see, with Snicker's three January kids already in the house and the addition of four new ones, that made 7 babies running around inside an x-pen in my sunroom.  It looked something like this:

This is apparently what happened to a lot of February.  We bottle fed babies 6 times a day, cleaned crates,  mopped floors and got into a routine of milking two goats again.  We sold one of the Nigerian bucklings to an experienced goat owner as a bottle baby and three other Nigerian bottle kids went to a new home too.  As the 4 remaining kids grew (which they do at an astonishing rate) I spent more and more time matching wits with their ability to jump and climb.  I am still winning but just barely.

Usually I try to get kids to the kid pen outside long before a month of age.  For the first couple of weeks though, the kids are bottle fed every two and three hours (except overnight) so it is handy not to have to run to the barn with bottles every few hours.  The weather this winter, however, just wouldn't allow a transition from a heated house to an unheated barn so at over a month old they are still in the sunroom.  The occasional breaks in the weather were spent doing various outside chores such as cleaning pens, moving goats around to kidding stalls, giving vaccinations, trimming feet and even going to town to replenish supplies.  We also spent a couple of lovely hours on our deck during warm afternoons watching the babies run and play OUTSIDE.

Sometime during that February blur, the two mini-alpine kids also went to their new home, we bought a breeding pair of guineas and I started making cheese and yogurt again. Don was able to restart his kefir culture too.  Our Alpine Diesel gives a lot of milk (well over a gallon a day), so we have enough to easily feed bottle babies, drink, and make cheese.  I save my Nigerian milk for yogurt since it makes THE BEST thick and creamy yogurt.

Thick and creamy yogurt with NO additives!

I think that about sums up the last few weeks.  Now we are heading into our second kidding period and will have 6 does kidding this month.  Now if I can just get these kids out of my sunroom so I can start all over again....

Triplets! (or Why We Will Never Be Invited To Another Party)

Saturday was an interesting day.  Don and I were invited to a joint birthday party in town to commence around noon.  Because my husband's and a dear friend's husband's birthday are within a day or two of each other, we decided to have a joint celebration.  Only a few friends were attending and Eve was planning a lovely simple lunch and cake.  An elaborate cake I might add in hindsight.  I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon since this past week seemed extra hectic with goat babies, gardens and yard work, among other things. 

On Friday I had observed that one of my young does, not quite due to kid, was beginning to show signs of impending birth.  Friday afternoon and evening came and went.  Was this just a false alarm?  Would Annie wait until at least her earliest due date of Sunday or Monday?  Was I going to be taking a very pregnant young goat to a birthday party in town?

By mid-morning Saturday I looked at Annie and I knew she would be kidding within hours.  I called Eve and explained (somewhat frantically and apologetically) that I feared Annie was going to kid and we debated what to do.  After several options were discussed, it was decided to move the party to our farm providing the guests were okay with the last-minute change.  This might be a good time to add that Eve is also a goat person and was very understanding.  I hoped her guests were as understanding.

Within the hour, and another phone call, it was confirmed that the party would travel to our farm and was now somewhat expanded (and slightly delayed) to include a cookout with burgers and dogs as well as Eve's vegetarian dishes and elaborate cake.  This is wonderful!  We can have our party and I can keep an eye on Annie.

Shortly before our guests were scheduled to arrive, I was out on the deck starting to clean up our large charcoal grill that had been sitting all winter.  Don came to the door and yelled "I think Annie is having her kids"!  I ran to the barn and sure enough she was pushing and the bubble containing the kid was in sight.  She delivered a small buckling but it was obvious she wasn't done.  "She's going to have twins" I yelled. "I need another puppy pad and towel!"  The next kid followed quickly and was a large buckling that was three times the size of the first one.  I was helping Annie get the kids dried off and she pushed again and out came a very tiny kid born breech.  I knew she was going to be tough because of the fluid in her lungs, her tiny size and the fact that she was early.  A quick check confirmed that she was a little girl. 

We whisked her into the house and began warming her and I ran out and milked some very thick colostrum from the mother.  It was exactly then the first vehicle of people arrived.  I was dressed in old shorts and I was splattered with iodine, birth fluid and sticky colostrum.  People that know me well might not be surprised at my appearance so I was very happy to see that Eve was among the first arrivals.  Most of the people that were coming were the family of an aquaintence of mine.  In fact it was our dentist.  I know him but not really "crawling around in a stall of birthing fluid" know him.  As the guests entered the house bearing coolers of food and drink, my husband and I had the little doeling on the kitchen counter trying to warm her with our hairdryer and get some colostrum into her with a small syringe since she couldn't suck on a nipple.

While Don, Eve and I tended to the little one, guests set about to chopping, heating food, serving beverages, finding freezer and fridge space, finishing the grill cleaning, setting up outdoor tables, cooking burgers, and generally making themselves at home for which I was very thankful.  At some point I stuck out a sticky hand to introduce myself to the three people I had never met (and likely will never see again!).

After an hour or so we got the babies dry, fed and settled into a cardboard box .  I was able to join the party and had a wonderful time with some very accomodating people and all I had to do was sit and eat. 

Here is a peek at the new kids.

The first-born buckling P-nut.

Annie and her second-born kid that is her clone.  He is staying with his mother.

The last tiny triplet, Gracie, with a milk mustache.

Eve, who is wonderfully understanding, brought her bottle-fed goat-puppy Moonbeam.  It was so cute!   Moonbeam stationed herself next to the box of goat kids and happily entertained herself chewing on their box.  She is a very good goat-puppy and goes out in the grass to potty, well except for that one incident on the chair LOL.

Eve and her 10-day-old doeling Moonbeam.

After it was al over I concluded that this was my kind of party! It will be interesting to see if anyone else feels the same.

Snowy blowy days

Now that February has arrived, winter has decided to pay us a visit.  Howling winds over the weekend and frigid temperatures have me scurrying about to cover up even my south-facing goat barn with tarps and mats.  Also it is generally heathier for goats not to be shut inside a barn all day as long as they have a bit of protection from fierce winds.

Not pretty but effective.

The goats also prefer to have the south side of their barn open so that they can peer out to see what is going on, but during swirling, blowing storms, snow tends to blow inside so I temporarily cover everything up.  Even so,I often see a  head or two sticking out from behind the tarps, with this "where ARE you, is time to EAT" look.  Also tucked inside is a quite pregnant Nigerian Dwarf that is due any day now. 


Jamboree: "I'm waiting for the coldest, snowiest night to have my babies."
Me:  "PLEASE wait until we have a nice sunny afternoon.  April woud be good."  




















Even Heidi who usually spends her time like this:

sometimes tucks inside the alley way to snooze in the hay out of the worst of the weather.

Anyway, we are officially on baby (and weather) watch!

Goat Milking - Facilities

When we thought about getting milk goats one of the prime considerations was providing comfortable and convenient milking facilities.  Two great things about goats is that they fit in small spaces and are relatively clean.  I have yet to have a goat poop or pee on the milk stand.  I won't mention the very occasional pellet trail coming in or going out.  Anyway, because our goat barns are very close to the house, we decided to set up our milking room along one wall of our utility room, sort of sandwiched between our water heater and back door.  It met all the requirements of being only about 30 feet from one of our doe barns, it has hot and cold water, it is dry, it has a floor drain and most importantly for winter milking, it has HEAT.  Because it meets all my requirements, milking is more a pleasant experience than a chore (unless you've been building fences or weed eating all day) which is important for something that you do twice a day, everyday, for most of the year.

Because goats are such creatures of habit and they love food, it is fairly simple to train them to come to the milk stand.  After a week or two they learn their milking order and happily leave the barn and run up and jump up on the stand for their grain ration.

I built a simple wooden stand located over a floor drain that would accommodate my milking machine milk hoses. Because we have short goats, the pail needs to be under the stand with only the lines sticking up through the floor of the stand.  I made a keyhole-style head piece which I will probably modify this winter to accommodate the taller goats that I have acquired.

Because I do milk several goats, I decided to invest in a milking machine which makes milking 5 or 6 goats twice a  day go much faster, at least for me with hands that are getting older by the day. It also makes it much easier on Leslie who graciously farms sits for us when we go out of town. The machine is a simple vacuum pump with an air tank and a pulsating valve.

Air lines connect from the air tank to a milk bucket.  There are many styles of buckets but I use a small 6 quart stainless "belly pail" for my little goats.  It is light weight, stainless steel  and because it has short milk hoses it is easy to clean.

When hand milking, the upper part of the teat is closed off using the thumb and forefinger and the milk inside the teat is squeezed out.  A milking machine uses an on-off vacuum to draw milk from the teat.  The part that attached to the goat is referred to as the inflations or teat cup.  They consist of an outer shell made of hard plastic or stainless steel and an inner silicone liner. A constant vacuum is applied to the silicone liner and about once per second air at atmospheric pressure is introduced into the space between the hard outer shell and the soft liner. During the vacuum or milking phase, milk flows from the teat because the pressure in the udder is greater than the partial vacuum applied to the teat. During the rest, or atmospheric phase, air at atmospheric pressure enters the space between the outer shell and the inner liner causing the inner liner to collapse around the teat.  The pressure of the collapsed inflation helps massage the teat and prevents swelling and congestion.  The entire sequence is designed to mimic the action of a nursing kid.

The following video shows the action of the milking machine.