I finally went to bed last night just after midnight. I set the alarm for 2:00 am. At 2:00 I wobbled my way out to the barn. Nothing.
Set the alarm for 4:00 am. At 4:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the barn. Nothing.
Jim set the alarm for 5:00 am (he didn’t realize I was going for every other hour and thought it was every hour). At 5:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the barn again (isn’t he a good husband?) Nothing.
Set the alarm for 6:00 am. At 6:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the bar again (isn’t he a REALLY good husband?) Nothing.
Jim, Brett, Cole, and Emery left to go sell soap at 10:00 (ok, it was more like 10:15).
I went out to the barn faithfully every hour. At about 1:30 I was exhausted and laid down on the couch. Jade was taking a nap and the other four children were quietly playing upstairs. I thought to myself, “Aaahh, just a short rest.”
And then I thought, “Time to make the donuts.” (Remember that commercial?)
I knew I couldn’t rest if I didn’t go and check. So I trudged out to the barn and thought to myself, “Hmmm… why is she doing that?” So I watched for a while and thought, “Hmmmm… I think this might be it.” So I went back inside and took an excedrin, got myself a chair and sat in the goat stall. It took me about half an hour to become convinced this was labor (it is sometimes very difficult to tell with a goat).
Half an hour after that I helped to deliver this:
It’s a girl!!! Yeah! I was very surprised that there was only one, so I “went in” and checked – but she was all alone. Molly delivered her placenta about an hour later and is doing well.
As I type this, Malone is sleeping peacefully in the bathtub. I’ll get one more bottle into her before I go to sleep, then wake up and feed her again around 6 am. She’s a real sweetie. She was jumping around the kitchen and playing with everybody. We’re planning to keep her, so we’re just so excited.
A great start to our kidding season!
Congratulations !
She is a real cutie!!!!
Hope you catch up on your sleep now 🙂
Donna from NE Indiana
You wrote: Set the alarm for 6:00 am. At 6:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the bar again (isn’t he a REALLY good husband?) Nothing.
HM and I just had a good laugh with the image of Jim wobbling out to a bar every hour.
Kim H
I don’t want you to think I know anything about goat raising, I was just wondering why you didn’t leave baby Malone with her mother? Why is she in the bathtub and you hand feeding her?
I hope these aren’t stupid questions but Id like to know.
No – they aren’t stupid questions. 🙂
When we first started raising goats we dam raised. There are actually several reasons why we switched to bottle raising.
First – there is a goat disease called CAE. Goats get it from drinking infected colostrum and milk. The prevention is to bottle raise babies on heat treated colostrum and pasteurized milk. Since we do not run a closed herd – we have to take our goats out to be bred by a buck – we practice CAE prevention.
Second – there is a type of mastitis that goats can have that gives no obvious outward symptoms. This can also pass to the kids if they drink their dam’s infected milk. Since we drink our goat milk raw, it is important to me that I do everything to prevent this.
Third – bottle raised kids grow better than dam raised kids. This is important because we breed our kids for the first time when they are 7 months old. They need to be big enough (at least 70 pounds) by then. This doesn’t always happen with dam raising b/c there can be many reasons why the kid doesn’t get enough milk (sometimes one kid will hog all the milk). With bottle raising, they get fed as much milk as they want.
Fourth, when you keep a kid in your herd, and it is going to run with it’s momma, there can be difficulties getting it to wean. There are actually adult grown goats out there (with kids of their own) that are still “caught” nursing from their own dam. At this point, often you have to just get rid of one of the goats.
Fifth, bottle raised kids can be sold at any point if needed, and don’t need to be weaned.
Sixth, bottle raised kids can be fed cows’ milk if we run short on goat milk. Our family business is making goat milk soap. I need to always have enough milk for the soap first. If I have too many kids (and not enough milk), I can supplement bottle babies with cows’ milk and use the goat milk for the soap.
Seventh, as a general rule, bottle babies are much friendlier than dam raised babies. I will point out that there are many dam raised goats that are plenty friendly. But I’ve never known a bottle baby that wasn’t friendly, and there are lots of wild dam raised goats out there. Since we have so many children (and young ones) and visitors all the time, I need to have friendly goats.
So, those are all the reasons I could think of. It’s more work to bottle raise, but for our family, the benefits outweigh the extra work.
Hope that makes more sense!
PJ
congrats she’s super cute!
and I think it’s really interesting about the differences btwn bottle feeding and dam feeding. and it makes sense that the bottle fed kids would be friendlier b/c they’re around people more and get handled more.
i just think it’s awesome that you have all your children involved in the soap making and goat raising/farming!
Use a baby monitor and put it near the kidding pen. You'll be able to hear when the girls get close as they get restless and sometimes talk more. Will save you all those many trips to the bar in the wee hours of the morning. 🙂
(From a former Alpine Breeder & ADGA Judge)
Congrats. She is adorable! Thank-you for the answers on why they bottle feed. We’re bottle feeding our two does, learning the ropes right now. We’re hoping to breed them when they’re about 7 months so I’ve enjoyed reading through your blog! ~Becca