Baby Goats

Yesterday I went out to check on our goats and one pregnant goats had a huge udder.  I guessed that she would deliver them sometime this weekend.  I kept an eye on her throughout the day.  She wasn't out to eat as much as the others, so a little after 10:00 I checked on her and she was just chilling in the shed.  After I went back inside she came out to eat, and I saw her out around noon.

So we didn't check on her for a little bit, we had a few things to do, and then when we finally got the kiddos all dressed and ready to go out to the snow I went to check on her and I found this.

Little wet baby goats.  We missed the birth, but not by much judging by the wetness of the goats, and the fact that Josie was still working on delivering the placenta.  It would have been awesome to see the birth, but I was just happy that everything went well. 

We brought out some towels to dry off the kids.  And some warm molasses water for Josie.  I guess that is a good recuperating drink for a doe with new babies.  We are pretty sure the black one is the older one because he was drier and more stable when we went out there.  They are both boys so we named them Black Joe, and Tinkerbell Joe (we have another goat named Tinkerbell who has the same markings as the kid with more white).

The human kids were interested yesterday but got bored quickly because we made them stay back and be quiet.  Today we let them get closer and talk at normal voices and they quite liked the new goats. 

This morning we went to check on the goats and Josie's poor udder was huge on one side.  They seem to only be eating off the other.  So we milked out that side this morning and later this afternoon and it seemed to loosen it up.  Hopefully they start eating off of both sides.  Her teats are really big compared to their mouths, so we will see how it goes.

Today we had to saunter off their horn buds, because horns are a safety hazard to us, the horse, the goat, and the babies if the horns get stuck in something.  It was quite traumatic for Brian who did it.  But fortunately it was quick, and the babies bounced back quick.  They screamed, but afterwards they didn't seem too concerned.

Here I am holding Black Joe.  Brian shaved off the hair around the nubs, so he knew where to apply the iron thing.

And here is a cute dry fuzzy goat.