New Kids!

One of our goats kidded yesterday afternoon. We've been watching her for quite some time thinking it could be any time. My husband and I bundled up the kids and we all went out to do the afternoon chores as we usually do, and as I carried the bottle of milk for our bottle calf to him, I noticed all the goats came out of the barn except for the red-headed heavily-pregnant doe. Hmm!

As "Mini" the calf finished his bottle, Matt came to tell me that there were wet twins in the barn! So we all went to look, and sure enough, there was a cream colored kid and a black kid both wobbly on their feet, and the doe was still lying down, these were fresh! My daughter was just fascinated watching the momma and the fresh babies, she just quietly stood still and peered in. We left to give her a chance to clean them off herself after we penned out the rest of the goats so they'd leave her alone.

Hubby and the kids went to do the rest of the chores while I made supper, then we ate, put the kids in bed, then headed back out to check on our (goat) kids. The doe had cleaned them both off well, and they were both up and nosing around for their food source - it's amazing the instincts God has given animals - how do they know?! It was getting colder, but it was warm and still in the barn, but Matt went ahead and bedded them down with more straw, and we headed back to the house. It was getting late, and Matt had to be up early so he could be at his off-farm job at 5am.

We have one other doe who should be kidding soon. I may try to post pictures when she kids of the baby kids. Baby goats are about 5-9 pounds when they're born, about the same weight as a human baby! But much hairier! :-)