2008 Kidding

Please reserve your 2008 wethers early. All unreserved buck kids will be going to another ranch soon after they are born and will be unavailable for purchase.

(Click on any of the goat names in the table below to open their detailed lineage pages. Click on the "Results" to go to the diary entry.)

The above listed prices are for reserved kids. Prices for kids purchased after they are born will be higher.

Kiddings will be listed below chronologically with the most recent first. Begin at the bottom of the page for the complete season's story.

5/8/08 This morning Langley’s ligaments were soft and her milk had come in so we knew that she would kid soon. She was hanging out with the herd and I went out to check on her every half an hour or so. Around noon I was surprised to see that she had a fluid filled sack hanging from her vulva! Usually that comes after all the kids are born and the afterbirth is on it’s way. So I checked around to find her kids, but didn’t see any. I looked at her again and it didn’t look like she had kidded because there was no other goo or blood and the vulva didn’t look stretched. So David moved Langley into the kidding pen while I got my equipment together.

I sat with Langley through the afternoon – worrying about why this birthing was proceeding differently. A few times I had David hold her while I gloved up and checked her birth canal – just in case there was a malpresentation requiring me to help. On the third check, I felt two hooves and a nose. That was very good. So I waited some more.

Just after 3 PM Langley started pushing hard. The hooves and nose emerged. A couple more big pushes and Langley produced a 6.5 pound red doeling! Even as David and Langley were drying her off, the lovely newborn was searching for her first meal. But first, Langley had a bit more work to do. After the first kid was born, Langley had produced another fluid filled bag. I thought this odd since I was pretty sure Langley would have twins. Well, behind that balloon of fluid, another red doeling was waiting her turn. I guided the 6.25 pound sweetheart out and she soon joined her sister. Peas in a pod. The two girls were so identical that I got out some kid collars and tagged them right away. They are both doing wonderfully well and Langley looks fabulous. What a gorgeous girl she is. She stood patiently while I milked her and she produced plenty of colostrum for her new daughters.

With this birth we end our kidding season. What a great year this has been. The girls are milking better than ever, the kids have been healthy and beautiful. We are very thankful and are enjoying our time with the goats very much. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us.

5/3/08 Luna is a cute little girl. She’s a favorite around here and quite spoiled. Because she is so small we figured that she’d only have a single kid. We really hoped she would have a doe. This afternoon Luna started fussing around and didn’t go out with the herd when they left to browse. I put her in the kidding pen and got ready for her to kid. She continued to fuss around. Since it was so close to milking time I gloved up to see if she was serious. There were feet in the birth canal and a head coming through the cervix. I helped pull the beautiful 8.1 pound, red doeling into the world. She was feisty and hungry! Luna licked her dry and talked to her for awhile. Then, when it was her turn in the milking parlor, Luna assumed her new role as a BMR milk goat. She will continue to be a big favorite with her people.

Tasha Keeps the Bucks Rolling In

5/1/08 This morning Tasha seemed ready to kid – I couldn’t feel the ligaments by her tail head, the kids had dropped, and her milk was in. But she waited until after PM milking to notice. That’s when she started bellowing and stringing birthing goo, not a lot, but enough so that we knew her time was close. At 11 PM David saw on the camera that her water had broken, so he and I trudged out to help. We got the pen ready and waited. It was a cold night, hitting 28 degrees, which just isn’t fair for May in Arizona. Finally Tasha went into hard labor. Being tired and cold, I decided to help. I grabbed the front legs and gently pulled each time Tasha pushed. A beautiful 5.6# brown buck with dramatic white splashes was born. Once he was cleaned up, I bounced Tasha and felt another kid. I checked inside the birth canal and felt the feet. I helped pull. Normally, I’d let the doe do more work, but as I said, I was tired and cold and wanted to get back inside and to bed. Out came a lovely 5.5# brown buck with white spots. Both boys are quite striking, but we’d really have preferred girls!! Out of the last 5 does to kid, we’ve only gotten one doeling. Tasha did great and made enough colostrum to feed those fellas plus put some in the freezer for later use.

Princess Pays with One Buck

5/1/08 Princess is a big yearling and she really looked like she would have twins. But, this seems to be the year for big singleton bucks. Princess worked to push her big fella out, but wasn’t getting anywhere. Any progress made while pushing was taken back once she relaxed. So I gloved and lubed up and went in to wrangle those big feet. I held the feet while Princess rested and helped gently pull when she pushed. It was a very tight fit, but finally the 9.8# spotted buck was born. He was lively and hungry right off the bat. In fact, he is still lively and hungry. This boy seems to always be on the go with something to do. First freshener Princess is still learning about “milker etiquette” but will be a wonderful addition to our milking line-up.

Harmony and Espeez Perform a Duet

4/30/08 Harm wasn’t due for 6 more days, but she was showing definite signs that kidding was imminent. Espeez had a slight discharge and was keeping her distance from the main herd. I wanted to put both of them in a kidding pen. But since two does had kidded recently one kidding pen was being used as a nursery for the newborns. So I spent the morning changing the big kid’s pen into a duplex so that the older kids would have access to part of the area as their kid creep and part of the area could house the newborns. Once the new kids were in their new area, I set up both kidding pens and put the two girls into their own private suites. They lay down, snoozed, munched on some hay and were taking it easy.

At 2 PM we brought lunch in for the new kids. We spent some time with them teaching them how to drink from a Caprine nipple bucket as opposed to the bottles they had been getting. Most of the kids caught on quickly. As we were working with the one recalcitrant kid, I heard the unmistakable sounds of hard labor. I left David to deal with the youngsters and went to help birth some babies. It was Harmony. So I moved my kidding kit into her pen and got a feed sack laid out to put her babies on. I saw a nose peaking out so I gloved up in order to investigate where the feet were. Two front legs were up over the kids head and somewhat folded together. I straightened them out and the 6.2# light brown buckling with white splashes was quickly born. By then David had finished up with the other kids and took over kid clean-up duty. He is so much better at that than I am. He had the little fella slicked off and in a towel before Harm even knew what happened.

Then Espeez started moaning and pushing. As I was about to go check on her, Harmony pushed out a 4.4# premature-looking brown buckling. We didn’t think he was even alive. But with some stimulation he started breathing. Then Espeez pushed hard. I went over to her pen and got ready for her kids. Espy was pushing hard and a bubble emerged. Since it seemed like such hard work getting the bubble through, I went ahead and broke it. That made the process easier and out came a black buckling with red trim. David had warmed up Harmony’s tiny tike, wrapped him in towels and put some hot water bottles around him to help him hold his body temp since he was so small, then David moved over to Espy’s pen to help out. He cleaned off the buckling and put him with Harmony’s first born, and we waited for more. Harmony and Espy decided that they needed to lick something, so even though they were in different pens, they were both able to lick their babies. But love is color blind and black Espy adopted Harmony’s brown boy to lick, and brown Harmony just loved nuzzling with Espy’s black kid.

I knew Espy was WAY too big to only have a singleton, but she did not seem to want to get on with the kidding. Finally I did a two-finger check to see if anyone was coming out soon. I felt another bubble. I broke it and a black doeling with red trim was quickly born. Once she was cleaned off I checked again. Another bubble was stalled at the cervix. I broke that bubble and out came a black buckling with tan trim and black ears. All three weighed in at 7.7#. They are a nice sturdy bunch of very elegant looking kids. Sadly, by the time we could get back to Harmony’s little fella, he had lost too much body temperature despite our attempts to keep him warm and he died. We aren’t sure why this guy seemed so premature since his brother is quite active and feisty. Harmony and Espy are both doing great and loving their turn to come into the milking parlor.

Tiny Terry has Triplets

4/29/08 Terry is a small doe and even though she looked to be carrying a large load, we never suspected triplets. But triplets she had – 3 big bucks. When Terry started into hard labor we expected a kid to emerge fairly quickly, but it didn’t. I gloved up and did a two-finger check to see if there was a kid in the birth canal. I didn’t feel one. I lubed up real well and inserted my hand in further. There was a kid just behind the cervix. I had a hard time trying to figure exactly what part of the kid I was feeling. I felt what I thought was a shoulder blade but then felt what I thought was a back leg. I manipulated the leg into the birth canal and actually found it to be a front leg. Oh no – that meant that the head must be folded back along the torso since I couldn’t find it. Head Back positions are the absolute worst to correct because the neck is so rigid and the head is usually twisted upside down. This fella was no exception. It took a fair amount of work but I finally rotated the nose into the birth canal and was able to straighten the neck out. The 8 pound black boy with white ears slid out quite easily after that. Surprisingly he was in great spirits and not at all stressed by the manipulations, though as soon as he was fed he did take a long nap. The second boy, a 8.4# black and tan fella, was in perfect birthing position, but since I’d already been inside of Terry and moved things around in there, I decided to go ahead and pull all the kids. So I burst his bubble (so to speak) and he practically raced me for the exit. The third boy, a 7.8 # carbon copy of the first one, had both front legs back. I pushed his head back in slightly and fished out a front leg. He, then, also came quickly into the world. All three boys are big and boisterous and doing great. Terry is very tired but already milking well. She gave us enough colostrum to feed all those boys plus put some in the freezer.

Ripley’s Long, Long, Long Awaited Twins

4/11/08 For the last 5 days Ripley has been positioning her kids. She’d fuss around and stretch, writhe on the ground a bit…lots of activities that clue me in that kids are on the way. But Ripley didn’t kid. I was actually thinking about charging her rent for the kidding pen space! As her due date came and went without any significant progress I began to worry. But the kids hadn’t dropped, I could still feel that her ligaments weren’t totally soft, she had no mucus discharge, and she was eating very well and looking great. I’d see her have some contractions and worry that the kids were not positioned correctly and therefore not triggering her into hard labor. Then I’d see her out playing with her friends and looking great. I was getting mixed signals! I was also being driven crazy. Yesterday Ripley had a creamy discharge, probably her cervical plug dissolving. That was a good sign. At the midnight feeding of the new kids I saw that Ripley had a string of mucus. Usually any doe with a discharge like that would have her kids on the ground within an hour, but I just didn’t want to wait around to see if Ripley would follow suit. I gloved up, lubed up, and went in to check it out. There was a bubble at the cervix and I could feel body parts inside. Usually the pressure of a hand in the birth canal will trigger contractions, but Ripley had no contractions and just stood still while I rummaged. She didn’t make a sound. This is one cool cucumber! I broke the bubble, found a leg and gently pulled. I could feel a head coming along for the ride. With not too much difficulty the 7.1# buckling slid out. Ripley still was quiet and continued to stand in the same place even while we cleaned the splashy red and white guy off. Once he was dry and tucked into a towel, I went in to check for any other kids. There was another bubble starting through the cervix. I broke it, found the two front legs and pulled out a cute 6# doeling. Ripley still hadn’t moved. We cleaned the doeling up and got her into a dry towel. I checked inside Ripley for anyone else, but twins were enough. Ripley still was silent and hadn’t moved. This was getting creepy. We weighed, clipped, and dipped the kids. Ripley continued to be docile as I milked her for the first time in her life. She had a good amount of colostrum for her twins. While David fed the kids, I got some molasses water and bran mash for Ripley. She sniffed it and drank a few sips, nothing more. Then a baby fussed and she moved over to where David was feeding them and started licking…David. In true first freshener fashion her new babies just didn’t register in her brain as something associated with her. David, however, was someone she was used to and she had a need to lick. We tucked the youngsters into a well strawed dog crate for the night. Later I saw Ripley nickering through the crate door to her kids. A light had come on.

Parker Does It the Hard Way

4/8/08 David and I fed the kids just before 7 PM and I put Ripley in the kidding pen for the night. Ripley has been working to position her kids, but isn’t really showing any other signs of imminent kidding. As I was leaving the barn I decided to check on Parker even though she wasn’t due for four more days. She was laying with her buddies looking quite content, but on closer examination I could see that her water had broken. I moved Ripley back out of the kidding pen and moved Parker in. I told David that kids were on the way. Parker laid down and had a contraction, and I saw a tongue. Odd, usually a hoof will show first. Well, I guess I need to be more specific when I have discussions with the goats. This morning, after Sydney presented both her kids with one leg back, I had told the rest of the pregnant girls not to have their kids born like that. Parker seemed to misunderstand my meaning. She decided to have her kid born with BOTH legs back. This is such a bad idea. Luckily Parker is a big girl, even though she is just a yearling. However, when I gloved up and tried to move the kid’s head back into the uterus so I could retrieve a leg or two, I found that she just wasn’t quite big enough. I could have slowly worked my hand in, taking lots of time and listening to Parker scream. That is just not something that I was looking forward to. Before doing that, I decided to give her half an hour to see if she could push that kid out. While we waited, I fretted. Wondering if this was a good decision or not. Every time Parker had contractions a tongue and nose would peek out from Parker’s vulva. When Parker relaxed, the nose disappeared back inside. It didn’t seem that any progress was being made. I felt that if the whole head would pass the vulva then I could grip the kid’s neck and help hold it so that it wouldn’t keep sliding back, but the head wasn’t being pushed hard enough probably because the shoulders were hung up at the cervix. Finally on one really big push I was able to get the skin of the vulva over the kid’s head and was able to grasp it’s neck. This was actually very effective – I held the head steady when Parker relaxed, and gently helped pull when she contracted. Thankfully, very, very thankfully, this was a small kid. It just wouldn’t have worked had it been a bruiser of a buck in there. But finally, after much fussing, fretting, pushing, and pulling, the petite 5.5# red doeling with flashy white belly band was born. Parker is doing well and the little girl is healthy and lively. She is our very first Marco baby and she is lovely.

Sydney Kicks Off the "Yearling Kidding Season" with Twins

4/8/08 I’ve been telling Ripley that she would be the first yearling to kid this year. I really thought she would be. But Sydney, who was our first doeling of 2007, beat her to the honor. After milking this morning, David and I went out to feed the kids. The older kids are fast and easy to feed. Put two Caprine nipple buckets in their holders and let the kids drink the buckets dry. While they were savoring their fresh goat milk breakfast, I checked on Sydney since she was in a different spot in the barn than is her favorite hang out. She already had a thick string of mucus hanging from her vulva. I moved her into the kidding pen where she fretted for a few minutes before laying down. She continued to have mild contractions. I went over and started cleaning out the kidding pen that Nougat had used the night before. Before I could finish, Sydney started hard labor and pushed out a bubble. It burst but no kid. Five minutes or so later she pushed out another bubble – this one had a kid in it. I checked it out to be sure it was in a good birthing position and knew right away that one leg was bend back. Not a great ergonomic birthing position, but easier than fooling around to fish the leg forward. Sydney did a good job of pushing this 8.2# fella out. He is frosted black with silver trim, sort of like a tiny Siberian Husky. Then another bubble appeared and burst. I checked the kid’s position – yup, a repeat performance with one leg back. The kid slid out fairly easily. It was a light brown 6.8# doeling with big white splashes of white on both sides. Sydney had 16 oz of sticky yellow colostrum for the pair – not a bad contribution for a first timer.

Nougat’s No Passing Zone

4/7/08 I put Nougat in the kidding pen this morning, and she worked hard all day to get her kids into position. I did my evening chores a bit early then debated with myself about milking early also. It seems that anytime I try to out-guess the goats, I lose. But I finally decided to milk half an hour early. Between each shift of milkers I checked on Nougat. She seemed to be taking a break and snoozing a little. We got through milking and I was almost finished cleaning up the parlor for the day when I silently congratulated myself on outsmarting Nougat’s timing. With just a few more milk pails to wash and the floor to sweep, David came in to report that Nougat had a bubble. By the time we got to the kidding pen the bubble had broken. The fluid, usually a light yellow color, was crystal clear. I took this as a good sign – much better than red or brown fluid! Then a leg emerged. Not just a hoof followed by a second hoof and a nose behind it – just a long leg. Strange. I gloved up and felt inside. I felt nothing but the leg. I fretted awhile while Nougat pushed some more. I checked inside again. This time I felt a second hoof and a head. I also felt another bubble and inside it I could feel another head! Oh no – two kids trying to come at the same time. I worked to push the bubble back. I was glad the second kid was still encased in the sac because that way I was sure which parts belonged to which kid. I was surprised at how easily the second kid was able to be pushed back – though I was practically standing on my head to get a good angle since Nougat refused to move from her very inconvenient location of laying down crammed against the pen fence. Once there was only one kid in the birth canal I expected the delivery to proceed quickly, but it didn’t. The kids didn’t seem to be moving. I helped out a bit to move it along since I’m always a bit nervous once I go in to readjust things. Nougat gave a big bellow as the 8.6# brown buck’s head passed the vulva, but was very content to lick on him and nicker to him once he was placed in front of her. She took some time loving on him, then gave a couple big pushes which revealed a dark red afterbirth bubble – a very normal thing to see after all the kids are born. That was odd since I knew I felt a head and foot in the bubble that I had pushed back. I was perplexed until, with one more big push, out came another crystal clear bubble with that impatient second kid inside. A brown 6.9# doeling. Both kids are doing great and already eating us out of house and home. Nougat did really well and made almost enough colostrum to feed these hungry kids even though she lost half her udder last year after it was injured.

Kidding – Part Two

4/2/08 We sure have been enjoying our little break from kidding. We have been playing with the kids and sending a lot of them off to their new homes. The does are milking great and liking getting back into the milking routine. We are making cheese once a day already. Today we cleaned the doe barn and reset up the kidding pens. We did have a bit of a scare on April Fool’s Day when one of our cows lost her calf and decided to look for him in the doe barn. She broke through the fence and rampaged through the area. The goats panicked and ran to escape the mad cow. Finally the cow bashed through the gate and out into the valley where she finally located her baby. The goats were traumatized. Jasmine, in her attempt to flee had gotten her head stuck between a door and the jamb and we had to bend the metal framework to get her out. The next day she had a very swollen neck. Sassy had a big fat lip from running into something, but thankfully her teeth are still in solid. Now we wait to see if the stress will cause any of the does to abort. Hopefully, all will be well. Today I saw the outline of a hoof pushing out from Nougat’s side – somebody is anxious to get out! We are getting excited to meet them.

Kathryn with her kids Nougat

3/24/08 Jasmine was restless today, often moving off, away from the herd. She didn’t physically look ready to kid – her udder hadn’t filled and the kids hadn’t dropped, but she acted like she wanted to get on with the job anyway. I noticed that she had a brownish discharge and that worried me. A clear or white discharge is normal before kidding but the brown indicated that there could be a problem. Around 4:30 PM I set up the kidding pen for her and she gladly went in. She immediately laid down and within minutes was in hard labor. I was very relieved when she pushed out a lively, 7.4# brown spotted doeling. The doeling was a bit fussy, but hungry and active. The second kid, however, was the problem. The brown doeling was stillborn. We are sad that the little girl didn’t make it, but happy that Jasmine and her other doeling are doing so well.

3/20/08 Why, oh why do some kids grow so big before being born? Well, I should have remembered that Edie does like to grow ‘em big. Three years ago she kidded with the largest BMR buckling we’d had to date – 9.7#, a record that held until Rosie kidded this year. Two years ago Edie kidded with the largest doeling – 9.5#, a doeling record that still holds. This year she had to outdo even Rosie’s efforts. Edie kidded around 4:30 PM with an 11+ pound buckling, just a few ounces bigger than Rosie’s big boy. But is that really a record worth trying for? What was that girl thinking?? Edie’s Baby Huey is doing great. He was walking and talking within minutes of birth and chugging as much colostrum and milk as the much older (though not larger) kids do. One interesting note: while most kids are born in a puddle of slime which helps them slide out easier, this kid was born dry. Not more than a cup of goo came out, which Edie eagerly licked up. His birthing sac did not hold any birthing fluids, it was tightly adhered to him. Once Edie and I got that off him, he was already relatively dry. Edie is still a bit woggly in her hindquarters, but I doubt that this will teach her a lesson.

3/13/08 Cory gave us quads last year, so on the off chance that she would repeat that performance we were giving her a bit of extra grain during the last part of her pregnancy to help her stay in condition. But she really didn’t look terribly big or move like a heavily pregnant girl. On Friday she started acting like it was time to kid so we put her in a kidding pen. She was obviously working to get those kids lined up and ready to come out. On Saturday she continued her work, laying comfortably but with that far-away look that the does get as their time to kid gets close. Finally around 4 PM on Sunday she started stringing thick ropes of heavy mucus.

I got my birthing kit ready, then went over to the kid's pen to work on putting ID collars on the kids that had either lost theirs or were just recently born and didn’t have them yet. David went to his greenhouse for a few minutes. When I heard Cory go into hard labor I called David on the Walkie Talkie and headed to her pen. By the time I got from the kid pen to the kidding pen (a distance of about 20 feet), she already had a 4.5# black and tan girl pushed out. While this girl is probably the smallest kid we’ve had born here at BMR, she is very active and feisty.

Then Cory quickly pushed out two upside down hooves – the kid was coming backwards. Cory easily pushed this 6# doeling out to join her sister. This girl is red with white splashes.

Cory now seemed to have a bit of a problem. She was pushing but not making any progress. I scrubbed up and went in to check it out. There was a tail trying to come first. Usually not a possible way to have the kid delivered but, with hindsight, I do now believe she could have done it. I, however, decided to help. So I found one back leg and pulled it out. As I was going back in to retrieve the other back leg so that the kid would be delivered back legs first, Cory gave a mighty push. In what was an extraordinarily ugly entrance into the world, this 4.9# red doeling came out doing the splits – one back leg out, then the butt, with the other back leg pressed against her torso. Luckily she was small enough and Cory was open enough that she wasn’t bothered by her unceremonious debut and happily joined her other sisters.

As soon as the Crotch Rocket was born, a fourth kid presented. This black 6.7# doe came normally, head first and without any theatrics.

After all four girls were de-slimed and cuddled into their towels, David suggested that I check inside Cory again, just to be sure she was done. I thought this to be a bit excessive (of course she had to be finished, I thought), but did it anyway. Way down low, almost disguised by all the placentas and other slime still inside, I felt a tiny hard thing. It was a front leg. I gave it a slight tug and the 6.9# red buckling started to work his way through the goo and was quickly born.

All five kids are active and healthy. Cory looks quite perky and pleased with herself. This certainly sets a BMR kidding record for overachieving.


Doeling #1	Doeling #2		Doeling #3

Doeling #4		The Buckling

3/16/08 It was a busy morning. We fed the ever growing hoard of kids, did our regular chores, vaccinated some does, met with some people that were here to pick up an animal, tracked down and retrieved two of our Anatolians that snuck through the gate when the people arrived, and milked the does. Through all this Mallow was getting ready to kid. She lay in the kidding pen stringing goo and periodically pushing hard. As we were straining the milk and starting to clean up the milking parlor, I checked on Mal. There was a leg already out of the birth canal with another one following. I called David on the walkie-talkie and got my birthing items ready – feed sacks for laying the kids on, paper towels for cleaning out noses and mouths, newspapers for slicking slime off the newborns. Soon a 8.3# buckling was on the ground. I bounced Mallow and felt another kid inside her. While we waited, we weighed, clipped, dipped, and fed the boy. Finally two back hooves emerged. I double checked the position to be sure they weren’t upside down front hooves. I felt the hocks and tail, so I was sure about the kid coming backwards. Backwards is a fine presentation, but I do worry that the umbilical can get clamped off when the shoulders pass through the cervix. If that happens the kid will start to breath too early and drown. So I assisted this birth by pulling gently on the legs to speed up the process. The beautiful 7.2# doeling was fine and feisty. Both kids look just like their mom – light brown roan with huge white belly bands. Mallow is glad the ordeal is over and hasn’t stopped eating since.

3/15/08 Earlier today Starburst’s mom, Sage, kidded with twin doelings, and earlier this kidding season her Aunt Sassy (Sage’s twin sister) also kidded with twin doelings. At 4:30 this afternoon, Starburst continued what we really hope will be a family tradition. She kidded with two absolutely "spot-tacular" doelings. Both weighed 7.3#. They are both brown, covered with white polka dots. The first born has frosted ears, the second born has solid colored brown ears. They are feisty and active and already playing with the other kids in the newborn pen. Starburst is quite a prima donna however and is still bellowing her protest that birthing babies HURTS. We hope that she will calm down soon, if she doesn’t we may end up with a barn full of deaf Nubians (and a couple of deaf people, too)!

3/15/08 Even though Sage (AKA Bug) wasn’t due until the 19th, she didn’t seem to want to hang out with the herd much yesterday. At one point I found her under the dairy deck quietly nickering to her unborn kids. I moved her into a kidding pen, but she was unhappy with being there, so I soon let her out. Later I found her out east heading up the mesa so I brought her back to the barn and again put her in the kidding pen. At PM feeding time last night I let her out again so that she could join her friends for dinner.

After doing the evening milking I went to check on Bug and found her all alone out back behind the barn. I put her in the pen again so that I could keep an eye on her during the night. At 12:30 this morning David came back from feeding the newest kids their midnight meal and told me that Bug was getting close.

She looked very uncomfortable and was shifting around a lot and I remembered that Bug likes to kid standing up with her front feet higher than the back feet. I went out and put a concrete block in the pen which she immediately stood on. Within just a few minutes her water broke and she started having contractions. Around 1:30 I used the barn intercom to call David and let him know that it was almost “show time”. He came out and soon Bug pushed out a black and tan kid. We were a bit confused when we peeked between it’s legs and didn’t find any testicles. My first thought was, “ What’s wrong with this kid!”. Then I remembered – kids come in more than one “flavor”. This was a doeling! The 8.3# girl quickly decided that she needed a nap so once she was dry David tucked her into a big beach towel to sleep while we waited for Bug to deliver another kid.

Bug danced a bit, always with her front feet up on the concrete block, then started pushing out another kid. She also was pushing out a tremendous amount of birthing goo. The kid was coming with one leg bent back which isn’t as streamlined as it could be if both legs are forward. It takes a bit more time to move the kid along. Once it’s head emerged from the birth canal, it started to breath, but with all the slime that kept pouring out of Bug it was a battle to keep her mouth and nose cleared out. I helped pull the 7.9# kid out so that we could get it breathing well. This time, when we held our breath and peeked between it’s legs we knew right away that it was another doeling! This broke the streak of 8 straight bucks (12 of the last 14 kids were bucks)!

Bug usually has quads, so we waited for another kid, but it didn’t seem to be happening. We weighed, clipped, dipped and fed the twin does, then I gloved up and checked inside of Bug to pull the rest of the kids. But there weren’t any! That was a total surprise to us. It just never crossed our minds that Bug would “only” have twins. We are so pleased though that she gave us doelings and while we weren’t planning on keeping any does from Bug, they are so cute that we just may have to do that. Bug is still sore, but moving around OK. She gave us a quart and a half of rich yellow colostrum.

3/14/08 Penny spent the night in the kidding pen just so I could keep a close eye on her. In the morning I let her out to join the rest of the goats. But a couple hours later I saw her standing at the gate to the kidding pen and pushing on it. So I let her back inside where she promptly laid down and made herself comfortable. Around 1 PM and just before feeding the other kids and having a buyer come by for some wethers, Penny decided it was time. She fussed around a bit and really didn’t want to push much, but she finally did push out a lovely 8.1# buckling. He is brown with a big belt of white around his middle. Then she decided to just love on him instead of getting on with business. So we fed the other kids and got the wethers sent off to their new home. Once done with all that, I decided to check inside Penny and see what the hold up was. Once inside her I tried to identify the parts I was feeling but nothing made sense. Penny started to push hard and whatever I was feeling was propulsed outward. I got out of it’s way and out came a tiny mummified kid. It looked fully formed but very tiny. It probably had died in the womb many months earlier possibly due to lack of good uterine attachments or nature had decided it wasn’t viable. Once that was out, I could feel another kid starting into the birth canal. It slid out pretty nicely. It was an 8.7 pound (can anyone guess this without looking???) buckling. He is brown with white spots and a splash. Penny looks fabulous and her milk has come in very nicely. Just a note: 12 of the last 14 kids born here have been bucks!

3/13/08 Rosie had quads last year and it looked like she would have a repeat performance this year. She was big. Rosie usually kids a week early, so we’ve been keeping a sharp eye on her. However, it seems to be The Goat Way to try and drive their people crazy. So instead of kidding a week early, Rosie kidded one day late. Oh, do we wish she had kidded earlier. Rosie worked most of the afternoon on positioning the kid. As the front hooves started to emerged we knew it was going to be a big one. Those were the biggest feet I’ve ever seen on a kid. Rosie worked hard and finally got that 11 pound whopper of a buckling on the ground. He is almost twice as big as Zatar’s 3rd buckling (pictured together below)! We then waited for the next kid, and waited, and waited. Rosie was still huge. I finally gloved up and went in to investigate. But, no, there was no one else at home. Wow, we sure didn’t expect a singleton from Rosie, and I sure hope that she has learned her lesson and will grow them a bit smaller next time! Rosie and her son are doing great.

3/13/08 Last night I put Zatar in the kidding pen since her kids had dropped and her milk was in. She wasn’t particularly happy with my decision, she wanted to hang out with her buddies instead. She fussed around all evening and finally settled in to sleep. I checked the video monitor throughout the night, but she was snoozing. At 5 AM I checked the monitor and saw that she had twins already on the ground! I jumped into my barn clothes and ran to the barn. Z had the situation well under control. One kid was wet but the birthing sac was mostly cleaned off, the other kid was still in the sac but it’s head was exposed and it was breathing well. I grabbed some towels and started helping Z to dry off her kids. This is Zatar’s third kidding and both other times she has given us twin bucklings. I was hoping that she’d break that record, but, no, both kids were bucks. We got them dry, weighed (7# and 7.8#), clipped, dipped, and fed. We were back in bed by 5:30. At 6:30 as I was getting up, I checked the monitor and saw another kid! Z HAD broken her record – triplets. I once again dressed and ran out to the barn. The kid was doing fine. This one weighed in at 5.8# and was another buckling. Oh well. Mom and kids are doing extremely well and Z’s milk has come in nicely.


Buckling #1	Buckling #2	Buckling #3

3/11/08 Word must have gotten out to the goat herd that the kiddings were going too easily. The day started out easy enough. I put Cinnamon in the kidding pen in the early afternoon. I even brought in a comfy chair and hung out with her for awhile. It was a good excuse to sit down and play a few games of Sudoku all while calling it “work”. But Cinnamon didn’t kid. I did my chores, milking, and kid feeding and she still wasn’t ready. I even tempted her by going home and getting into my sweatpants and slippers and having dinner. Hmmm, nothing was working.

Finally at 8:15 I saw on the monitor that her water had broken. I got back into my barn clothes and went out to catch some babies. I waited and waited. About an hour and a half after her water broke I decided to investigate. David came out and helped hold Cinnamon, I gloved up and went in to rummage. I lubed up good and slowly inserted my hand. Cinnamon was not pleased and bellowed her indignation. There wasn’t a kid in the birth canal but I could feel one just on the other side of the cervix. I expected to feel a head or a couple hooves working through, but what I felt was different. After a moment I figured out that it was a backbone pressed hard against the cervix. I was able to follow the line of the back down until I felt a tail and hocks. I slowly moved down to find one back hoof and rotate it into the birth canal. Then I followed the leg back to the tail and down to find the other back hoof. I moved it into position and the 7.4# buckling was able to be pulled out quite easily at the point.

Once he was dried off and breathing well, I went back in to fish out the next kid. There was a hoof in the birth canal already, then two hooves. But they didn’t match – one was a front hoof, the other was a back hoof. Quite a bit of exploring was needed before I figured out that there was a backwards kid down low in the uterus and a frontwards kid on top of that one. It was a hard decision as to which to pull and which to push back. The low kid seemed impossibly low, but I couldn’t find the other leg of the kid on top. Since I had both rear legs of the low kid, I went ahead and pulled that one, hoping it would slide easily into position. Whew! It did. And soon a very feminine 7.2# doeling was on the ground.

Once she was dry and doing well I went back for that other kid. By this time, with the other kids out of the way, this one was in good birthing position for coming out easily. He got a bit hung up as his hips moved thought the cervix, but a little maneuvering and he, too, joined his siblings on the ground. He weighed in at 8.5#. A quick check back inside Cinnamon confirmed that where were no more kids needing to be born. All three kids are healthy and not showing any stress from this delivery. Cinnamon seems to have forgiven me and looks great.

3/9/08 While Sesame (AKA Sam) is still the Official Black Mesa Ranch Troublemaker, we were blessed with her taking it easy on us this year. She did manage to lose her collar this afternoon, but compared to being run over by our half-ton pick-up truck like she was as a baby, that’s very small potatoes. This evening after finishing milking, feeding hungry kids, and doing chores I moved Sam into the kidding pen. Since quite a few girls have taken that as a hint and produced kids right away I double checked that she wasn’t about to kid.

At 7:30 I headed back inside, slipped into a comfortable pair of sweatpants and put on my nice warm slippers. David served a marvelous meal of spaghetti with home made sauce and meatballs made from our own homegrown pork. The first bite was divine. Ok, ok…I know this isn’t the Food Channel or even Clothes Are Us – but with the ease and lack of drama with which the girls have been kidding this year, there just isn’t much else to write about! However, after taking that first bite of dinner, I glanced at the Goat Cam monitor. I saw Sam pushing. I jumped back into my jeans and barn shoes and ran out to the barn.

By the time I got there, Sam already had a squiggly little 6.4# doeling on the ground. She is frosted black, with white splashes, white spots, and brown trim. I moved her onto a feed sack and wiped her dry. David showed up and took over babysitting while Sam pushed out her second kid. A black 7.7# buckling covered with white polka dots. He too was feisty and lively. Sam fairly quickly delivered her third and last kid – another buckling. This one is brown with white splashes and weighed 7.4#. There was no trouble with any of the the deliveries, but those kids were so active that David and I couldn’t keep them contained while we went about our normal routine of weighing, clipping, dipping, milking, and feeding. We had to temporarily put the little monsters in a dog crate to keep them out of trouble. I guess Sam has passed her Troublemaking gene on to this terrific bunch of kids. This was our first non-twin delivery of the season.

3/8/08 Poppy fussed around all day, just not sure what was going on. After doing evening chores and milking I looked for her so that I could put her in the kidding pen for the night. I found her outside, off by herself. I put her in the pen and was about to head in for dinner. Poppy had other ideas. She promptly laid down and started pushing hard. I called for David and Amanda. Poppy made very quick work of it. Within half an hour she had her twin bucklings on the ground. The first one is a black and tan 7.1# fella with black ears and the second one is a 8.4# black and red guy with frosted ears, white splash, and white poll. Both bucklings were walking around and begging for more food in very short order. Poppy looks great and while we are very sad not to have gotten a doe from her we are excited to have her back at work. Poppy is the first girl to kid on her due date this year.

3/7/08 Today was a gorgeous mild late winter day and David and I took some time in the morning to hang out with the goats and soak up some sunshine. At 1PM we fed the 4 kids and I puttered around in the barn putting down new straw, cleaning feeders, and playing with the kids. Lavender (AKA Snip) was acting as if she might kid early and then Sassy came into the barn looking a bit fretful, so I kept an eye on them. I even put Snip in the kidding pen. Just before 2PM David came out to tell me that Pepper seemed to “have something ugly on her butt”. So I went out to where the herd was hanging out and found Pepper dragging a long string of mucus through the dirt, and just about ready to kid. I brought her to the kidding pen, evicted Snip, and got ready for babies. In the mean time Snip found David and wanted to hang out with him, laying at his feet. Sassy continued to fret, paw, and look for a good place to kid. Just as Pepper pushed out a big bubble, our friend Amanda and her family showed up to help with the kiddings! I yelled to her that she had about 2 minutes before the first kid would come. She came quickly and helped Pepper dry off an absolutely gorgeous tri-color 8.1# buckling. Soon after that a second boy was born, this one 7.9# and also quite splashy.

Snip, in the mean time, was starting to have contractions, so we moved Pepper over to a smaller pen while she passed her afterbirth and we cleaned up the kidding pen. At around 4:30 we had the pen ready for Snip. She made short work of “her hardest work day of the year” and quickly presented us with a 9.4# dark red buckling and a 6.6# dark red doeling. At first look, David thought that the buckling might have his intestines falling out! On closer examination we found that the umbilical cord had just broken off too close to his body, leaving two little white tubes hanging out instead of the normal looking umbilical. I checked him over to make sure there wasn’t a hernia then dipped the cords in iodine and he was fine. By 5 PM we moved Pepper out of the “cleaning pen” and moved Snip in. We cleaned the pen again and brought in Sassy, who had been digging and fussing around outside.

Sassy was a good sport about having to wait. Once in the pen she checked out the food dish and munched a bit while I continued to clean up , re-stock, and get organized. Amanda kept an eye on Sassy while I got my chores done and David left to get a start on making dinner. When I got back, Amanda left to spend some time with her (human) baby. Once I was satisfied that the kids were fine and all was in good shape in the barn it was around 6:30. I was about to leave since Sassy didn’t look like she would kid soon. But before I left I offered her some water which she refused. I hung the water bucket back up, turned to leave, and saw that Sassy had very quietly laid down and her water had broken. I called on my walkie-talkie to whoever was on the other end (it had been a long day and I was having trouble keeping up with the changing “acts” of this circus). Amanda answered that she would go get David and then come to the barn. Well, we were all pretty tired by then and it was getting late and it was getting quite cold. But Sassy just wasn’t ready to push her first kid out. She’d push until the two hooves were showing, then give up. Last year Sassy had taken her time while kidding and the kid was born with brain damage from lack of oxygen. So this time I went in early to check things out. The kid was in good birthing position, so I went ahead and pulled slightly. But this kid just didn’t want to come out yet. It pulled back. After a bit of Tug-O-War, a light brown 8.4# doeling finally slid into the world. A feisty girl. David, Amanda, and Sassy worked to dry her off. Then we got Sassy up and I milked her for some colostrum to feed to the doeling. While she was up I bounced her belly and felt a hard round lump down low – another kid! Sassy hadn’t looked very large and we only expected a single kid – as opposed to Snip who was HUGE and we expected large triplets or small quads but she only had twins. So we played with the new baby for a little bit. Finally Sassy pushed out the second kid, another light brown doeling! This one 7.6#. They both chugged their colostrum and went to hang out with all the other “new kids on the block”. Sassy was very hungry and chomped away at her food. Both she and Snip gave us over half a gallon of colostrum – each! More than enough to feed the new kids and still put some in the freezer for emergencies. It was 8:30 before we could trudge back to the house for dinner, socializing, and warming up in preparation for the midnight feeding of the 6 new kids and 4 “old” kids.

3/6/08 Around noon today Juniper separated herself from the herd and found a nice sandy place to paw around in. But later that afternoon when the herd left for a short browse, Juniper grudgingly waddled along, laying down whenever the herd paused to eat. At evening feeding time Juniper just wanted to be left alone and really seemed to appreciate having her private suite in the birthing pen. She laid down and looked like she was working to get her kids into proper birthing positions. At 7 PM David went out to feed the other kids and I set up the birthing pen with feed sacks to lay the newborns on plus my birthing kit – which is a collection of towels, newspapers, latex gloves, OB lubricant, iodine, scissors, weigh scale, kid sling, notepad, and much more. Once David finished feeding Mace’s girls, he came to stay with Juniper while I went in to get a bucket of sanitizer water for hand washing. June was starting to get pretty serious. By the time I got back (and I was only gone about two minutes!) David had a 8.5# buckling on a feed sack and was cleaning his nose and mouth out. The fella was a bit limp and needed extra care and stimulation, but finally got the hang of life outside the womb and is doing fine now. About half an hour later a second buckling (7.8#) easily slide into the world. He was active and ready to rock-n-roll. We weighed them and clipped and dipped their navels. I milked out Juniper but unfortunately her milk hadn’t come in very well, so we ended up thawing some of last year's reserved colostrum for them. Juniper has a tendency to come into milk a tad on the late side, so we still expect her to do well on the milk stand this year. She looks great.

3/1/08 This morning Mace didn’t eat her grain and only nibbled at her alfalfa pellets and grass hay. She seemed distracted and a bit fretful. I moved her into a kidding pen, making sure she had food and fresh water (hung up high enough to prevent a newborn kid from falling into it). I went to my office to catch up on some work, but kept the video monitor on. One of our big changes in the goat barn this year was the installation of a pan/tilt/zoom camera. The four stationary, wireless cameras that we had in the barn never seemed to be pointing the right direction and anytime the wind blew (which is pretty consistently in the spring around here) there was no reception on my video monitor. The new camera is amazing. It will run a preset program that scans over the whole barn or I can control it manually and even zoom in on a particularly interesting area. So as I worked I kept one eye on the monitor, watching Mace.

About 1PM I saw her start having closely spaced and rhythmatic contractions, very steady but not looking very intense. I moseyed out to the barn for a closer look and was soon joined by David who happened to be stopping in for a look. David and I chatted about Mace. I still didn’t think she would be kidding soon since she had no discharge. As I was about to head back to the office, Mace’s water broke. So David stayed with her while I got my kidding kit moved into the pen. Within minutes Mace presented us with the first kid of the season. A very robust, energetic, light brown, 7.2# doeling. While waiting for a sibling to be born, we dried her off, weighed her, clipped and dipped her umbilical cord, and cuddled her. After half an hour, with no signs that Mace was going to produce a second kid, we got her to stand up and I milked her. The doeling was very grateful for a warm meal and soon after chugging it she started frolicking around, jumping, and looking UP for something to climb on. This girl is going to be a handful.

After waiting another hour I bounced Mace and felt another kid still inside her. I gloved up and went inside to see what was happening. The kid was in a good birthing position, but Mace just wasn’t pushing. I went ahead and pulled the kid out. It was another little doeling! This one was 6.6# and a darker brown than her sister. After getting her dried off, she took a short nap. Then she charged into action, drinking a big first meal, and jumping around with her sister. What a wonderful beginning to our kidding season. Mace is doing great and is loving hanging out with her new daughters.

Mace's girls

3/1/08 It’s March now and kidding season is upon us. As I type, Mace is already in a kidding pen having some mild contractions. I know this diary is supposed to be about goats kidding, but I thought I’d introduce myself first and tell you a bit about the ranch. I’m Kathryn, the Black Mesa Ranch Herd Manager. Which is a grand title that at this time of year really means “the person that gets up at all hours of the night to check goat butts”. I also watch over the health of the goats, their nutrition, health testing, and production testing. I take the girls out on long browsing walks, trim their hooves, milk them twice a day, and I can often be found hanging out with the herd enjoying their company.

BMR is a two person operation so my husband, David, and I both actually wear many hats. In general, I take care of the goats and David pretty much does everything else – a real renaissance man. David is the BMR cheese-maker, the ranch maintenance man, sales manager, pig-slopper, product packaging expert, gardener, webmaster, and all ‘round good guy. He is also a trained gourmet chef and does all the cooking!! In what little extra time he has he does pen and ink sketches of the goats, landscape, and buildings of Black Mesa Ranch.

The goats are a great bunch of registered purebred Nubians. They have over 200 acres to roam, munching on native vegetation. However they never fail to check their feed manger first before heading out to browse. You just never know when a free, easily accessible meal might suddenly appear! Anyway, the girls look great this year. No major problems or concerns. We are looking forward to a very easy, fun, and exciting kidding season. I hope you enjoy reading about it. Thanks for stopping by.

The Next Generation of Kids on the Ranch - Spring 2008