What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been! It started with Nettle giving birth to two boys along with all of the problems of holding her feet down so the little ones could eat, latter her killing one of her kids, Zoe having two boys and a girl, Surely giving birth to three kids (two girls and one boy) and Alure having two girls.
Surely’s delivery was very difficult. She was in labor for five hours, less than one is normal. We called a friend and neighbor who has raised goats for years and she came over to help. Reaching inside, Stacy tried to arrange the kids who were all tangled up but couldn’t do it. At 2 am we called in the vet, expecting the kids to be dead but hoping to save the mother. Surely is our prized goat, the leader of our herd, a wonderful mother and a great milker (five quarts a day when four is considered excellent for a Nubian). When the vet pulled the first one out and she was alive we were stunned and thrilled.
Last fall we rented a buck and not having a separate buck area let him run with the herd. What a mistake! We now have a separate area and will keep our bucks separate from the herd. This fall we would like to breed one goat per month, spacing them out will give us a longer milk flow and make it so much easier on me as to kidding.
Our future goat herd will consist on Surely, Alure and one each of their new girl kids. We named Alure’s girl Chocolate – or Choc-ie for short. Surely’s little girl is not named yet. We will also keep Surely’s little boy as one of our future bucks – Snow Shoe (he has white feet), aka Snowy. We are trading Surely and Alure’s other two doelings for a Boer buckling. With our future goat herd established we will be breeding for meat.
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