April 2016

 

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Almost-Final Kidding Update

By Amy Rae on April 22, 2016
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Well, our streak of near-constant goats kidding is maintaining pretty well.  No one had babies on the 16th, 17th, or 18th, (and prior to that the 7th, 10th, and 11th) but otherwise there's been at least 1, usually 2-3 a day since the 4th, 27 mamas done with 2 left.  I emailed a local playgroup about the babies last Sunday, inviting anyone who was interested to come out - and we had 27 people show up throughout the day, another 3 on Monday, and 8 more on Wednesday (2 of those were repeats)!

Latest Kidding News

By Amy Rae on April 14, 2016
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Goat kidding has been rolling right along in the last week - we have only had 3 days since the 4th without babies.  We are currently at 31 born, 12 lost :(, so 19 remaining with 12 of those girls.  It's a girl-heavy year, which will work out well for us since I'm going to cull fairly heavily this fall.  Several of these first-time kidders aren't going to get a second chance, particularly #1416.  

Busy Weekend

By Amy Rae on April 9, 2016
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This was a long, crazy weekend!  It started Thursday, with alpaca shearing. Caleb took the day off to get ready - we have to set up a holding pen close to the barn, and another shearing pen in the barn, and then cover that with plastic for a windbreak since shearing is always on an extremely windy day.  We have to clear a large workspace in the barn pen, bring the generator up to the barn to run the shearing equipment, and get plastic bags and markers ready to label all the fleeces. 

Bottle Baby Update

By Amy Rae on April 8, 2016
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I am so glad to report some great news - our little house goat baby is doing fantastically well!  She had a hard time eating for the first several days, she's still working on how to use her tongue.  When she tries to suck, it just falls out the side of her mouth and she doesn't actually put suction on the nipple, she just pumps the milk back into the bottle.

Here Come the Kids

By Amy Rae on April 5, 2016
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Kidding season has started - although we're off to a rough start. I'm hoping it improves from here - logically the problems are much more likely early - early babies are often early for a reason (mother's poor health, a deficiency or disease) and after that, things usually improve.  

It's Spring!

By Amy Rae on April 3, 2016
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Well, we did get a frost last night, another one expected tonight, and there's still the usual cold snap in May to get through - but my personal spring signal has popped up.  The asparagus is here!  We'e only had 3 edible spears emerge so far, but that means there's more on the way, and if you get down close to the ground, you can see dozens of baby stalks furring the bed, where they snuck through the mulch last fall and waited until now to pop up.

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