This year has been different then the rest, to say the least. We had Aja bred in October and new with in a three day window when her baby would be born, Nanny I new when he (the guy I got her from) put her in with the buck and when I picked her up so that gave us a month to watch her for babies. Scooter is the same way only it will be about 6 weeks of waiting.
Aja was right on time having a baby girl on March 5, at 8:40 am on a Wednesday morning. Rachel came in to tell me that Aja was acting weird, so I went out to check and sure enough in Rachel’s words she was acting weird. So I told everyone get to the birth supply ready we were going to have a baby. It was so exciting yet scary at the same time to see that little nose come out, would everything be okay, would I do the right thing if anything went wrong. I could see that the baby was already breathing so I decided to pull on the feet to get the baby out; I pulled just a little and out it came. I would like to say cute at that moment, but it is a baby who has just been born so after getting all the for lack of a better word stuff of her, she was the cutes baby in the world. We have had many babies in the last two years but this little Doe we first named Nellie then change to Abbye a few hours later was the first every born here on the farm…
We brought her in and kept her warm and watched her try to stand and learn to be steady on her feet.. Rachel went out and milked Aja so we could feed the Abbye – surprisingly she was a wonderful milker from the get go. She just stood there like she had been doing this forever. Milk wise we had a long way to go we were not getting much those first few days, but be worry we might have to put Abbye on milk replacer (which I do not like to use) or cows milk but we always got just enough, an as time has gone by she milks a little more. Now we get about 30 oz twice a day.
Unlike most people who raise so called live stock or farm animals we keep our babies in the house for about 2 mo. We use a dog crate, with Abbye because it was so cold in March and a lot of April she was inside a lot, but as soon as she figured out how to jump on the table she was out side with the market goats, who are a few month older then her. Now she is 2 ½ months old and out side full time, Brian built what we call the baby pen and they are in there at night and in with the big goats after breakfast.
Our next one Nanny a Pygmy was due sometime between the middle of April and Middle of May. So we started putting her in the pole barn in the maternity stall at night and really nasty days.
Of course she wait till we are really busy and little stressed to have them.. My mom had surgery on Thursday which is two hrs from were we live in the city.. I came home Thursday night and went back Saturday to spend the weekend with her. Monday morning the girls call Mom I think Nanny is going to have her babies soon. So I change a few plans and head home. It is a 1 ½ - 2 hr drive home. I think it was the longest trip I have ever made.. Every few minute I was getting up dates. When I get off the express way I have 10 miles to go, the last phone call I got was about 2 miles from home she asked where are you, when I pulled in the drive way I saw one of the girls running between Grandma’s house and my brother in laws house. So I rushed back to the pole barn to see that Brianna had helped deliver a little boy (buck). Every thing was going well they had it under control. The next baby came about 5 minutes later a little girl (Doe) everyone was healthy and that is good… Most people would leave pygmy babies with mom but this mom is sweet but a little shy with people and we want these babies to be people lovers so we had planned to bottle feed them from the get go. We were able to milk mom to get the colostrum that the babies need for the first few days.. Then after that they got Aja’s milk.
We named them Adam (because he was born first) and Ava. As you can see all the babies born this year have names that start with A, and next year they will start with B and so on.
Adam and Ava are so cute and little Abbye when she was born being a milking goat weighted 8 lbs or so, these little guys weighted 3 lbs 4 or and 3 lbs 6 oz..
They are in house most of the time but on nice warm day can go out and play in the baby pen when the market goats and Abbye are in with the big goats.
Abbye is down to one bottle a day now at night before bed. Adam and Ava are feed about 4 oz every 3 hrs.. it is a lot of work but very fun.
Next is Scooter- sometime in June!
Donna is a homeschooling, goat raising, mom of three cool kids and fun gal who never suspected she'd be a farm gal after being raised in the city!