Goat midwife-life

We are SO happy for warmer weather, sunshine, and longer days!

Spring seemed like it took forever to get here, didn’t it??

Well, the baby boom of goat kids didn’t waste any time. Starting on Easter Sunday our goat Opal gave birth to triplets!

She’s a big breed of goat called a Nubian and was a pain when she kidded. She would NOT lie down to push any babies out. So I had to help with most of it.

Then after letting her clean the baby after I assisted them, she would stomp and paw at the ground to make a “nest” to have the next. But wouldn’t lay down and would stomp on her baby :(

Ugh.. I had to hold the sloppy wet baby so she wouldn’t crush it while trying to walk behind her to catch the next one! Needless to say, long night..

But all turned out well! She had 2 doelings (girls) and 1 buckling (boy). We are keeping one of the girls and calling her Lily (since she was born on Easter Sunday :)

6 days later was Poppy, she is a mini Nubian. That means her mom was a Nubian and daddy is a Nigerian Dwarf. So she’s a smaller size than Opal, but not tiny like a Nigerian.

It was Poppy’s first time kidding and she popped the babies out before our last nightly rounds. She had twin doelings, but only one was alive (the other was slightly malformed).

2 days after that, Iris, our mini Guernsey, had twins (boy & girl).

She had the first one backward, not breech but hocks first (the joint on the back legs) so I had to help with that one.

Once that guy was out of the way she was able to push the next one out on her own. They are SO pretty!

And at the same time, one stall down…(Did I mention we have goat milk??)

Snickers, a Nigerian Dwarf was kidding. It was her first time kidding and she had triplets which are not common for first-time mamas!

The sad news is, the tiniest little boy only lived for a few days. He wasn’t really breathing normally since birth and I just figured it was from being born backward. But he was very small so maybe something wasn’t developed right internally. :(

Tiniest little boy that passed away as I held him just a few days old

Then, 3 days later…
Snicker’s mama, Astrid, kidded just a few days later. She had 2 bucklings and they were big!

(Note to self: spread out the goat breeding schedule next time!)

Did I mention we have goat milk in the store LOL!

Now I just have a couple weeks of a “break” before the last goat kids and one of our cow calves.

It’s definitely the busiest time of year, but also the time we feel the most blessed!!

Are you up for watching a video of some goat births? I was by myself so the quality is not that great.