Daisy Mae Kids!

Daisy Mae was bred early this past January to a Boer buck at the Stonebrier Farm in Oak Harbor.  Daisy is 50% Nubian/Boer, her mother being our best milker Surely.  She was almost a year old when we bred her but very large.  The rule is 9 months or 90 lbs. and you can breed her.  Daisy was over nine months and probably 110 lbs.

Daisy Mae on her 152 day of Gestation with the Goat Herd

The average time for a goat’ gestation is 150 days, so we really start paying attention about 148 days.  Daisy’s mother is always 152 days and yesterday was 152 days for Daisy.  We usually have births in the evening keeping us up way past our normal bedtime of 9 pm, but Daisy kidded about 3:30 pm yesterday.  I checked on her at 2:30 pm and she was normal, and then went in the house to get a nap thinking I might be up most of the night with her and her kids.  When I approached the barn at 4 pm I heard a different cry and Daisy had twin boy and girl on the ground.  What an easy birth for me.  By the time I got Daisy and her kids in the birthing room (which they will occupy for the next three weeks) the little boy was already nursing on his own.  This is very odd as I usually bottle feed them for the first hour and then work to get them on the mother’s teat.  The little girl worried me as she wouldn’t drink the bottle or nurse on her mother.

It was a warm day with the barn temperature about 72 degrees but I still turned on the heat lamp and used the blow dryer to get the kids warm.  I gave the kids their two shots and a dose of pro-biotics then went on to my other chores (gathering eggs, feeding the chickens, milking goats).  I tried to get the little girl to eat again but she would not.

The little boy the next morning

About 7 pm I went back to the barn with a bottle and the little girl was hungry, so I put her on the teat once again and this time she latched on and ate.  Again at 9 pm and then I got up at 1 am to be sure she fed once more.  She latches on well but I need to show her where the teat is.  She’ll probably figure this all out by this evening.

The little girl finally latching on to her mother's teat

Tomorrow morning we’ll be getting another shipment of baby chicks so I just scrubbed out the chick brooder house with hydrogen peroxide and water, along with the feeder and waterier.  Once the floor dries I’ll put down fresh straw and hang everything, check the heat lamp and lock it up.  Tomorrow about 8 am I’ll get a call from the Greenbank post office that my chicks are in.  Fun!