An Update on the Kids

Annie’s kids – the buckling, Buckwheat and the two doelings, Darla and Jane, are four weeks old now and continue to grow.  Tricia likes to just sit outside and watch them play.  They are rambunctious and funny!  They also get into trouble.  In the mornings when Tricia and I are milking the cows, they’ll squeeze through the holes in the cattle panel and come jump up on the milking stool beside me.  It would be fine if they’d just stay there, but they inevitably hop down and play between the legs of the cows.  That’s just an invitation for the cows to kick them or stomp on them.  So Tricia will generally stop milking, scoop them up in her hands, and put them in the feed room. 

The feed room is enclosed with no way for them to escape, but that doesn’t mean they behave themselves.  They bleat constantly, crying for their freedom.  When we’re finished milking and open the feed room, they rush out, leaving behind them a feed room in disarray.  We pick up everything that the bad kids have knocked down.  It is hard to be angry with them, though.

We have been keeping a close eye on them to ensure that they are getting proper nutrition.  Goats have two teats.  Three kids on two teats mean that someone is going to get left out.

Hungry Kids!

As we watch Annie letting them nurse, we noticed that they will all run to her and she will let them nurse for 10 – 15 seconds and then she lifts her legs and walks away from them.  We inspect her bag from time to time after they nurse and find that one side is empty while the other is full.  She’s not letting them nurse very long at all on her right side.  We checked for mastitis and found that the bag is not hard and there are no lumps in the milk, so that's a good sign.  No mastitis, but she does have some cuts from the kids’ sharp little teeth.  I guess they are being rough when the three fight for position near her two “milk spigots” and she’s not allowing them to empty the sensitive side.

That can present problems if she’s not emptied, so Tricia went to the store and purchased 3 baby bottles.  While we feed Annie, Tricia carefully milks out the sensitive side into a quart sized mason jar and then pours equal amounts into the three bottles.  Then, like babies, the kids get their bottle of milk!

Sometimes they sit in her lap.

Hittin' the Bottle

 Sometimes they’ll stand up on their hind legs to drink!

Getting Every Last Drop

Russ even got involved with giving bottles to the babies when he was in from college on Spring Break.

Some drink - some beg...

When we pick them up, Jane seems to be the heaviest.  She must be getting most of the milk and Buckwheat and Darla “pick up the scraps.”  Supplemental bottle feedings, even some we’ve given with cows’ milk, will keep the kids growing and healthy until we wean them at 3 months old.  At that point, we’ll finally have goat milk for making kefir and soap-making.  Right now, the kids have a monopoly on all of Annie’s milk production.