New Life on the Farm

We had just finished discussing the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in our Sunday School lesson.  It's a familiar teaching of Jesus in Matthew that explains the final judgment in which the sheep will be separated from the goats.  For those not familiar, the sheep are the righteous who will be blessed and the goats are the wicked who will be damned.  If you have kept goats, you might understand why the goats are the "bad guys" in the parable.  They are always getting into trouble.  In fact, we have one goat that we nicknamed 'Devil Goat' because she is so mischievous - wicked, you might say.

But goats have a loveable side, too.  We've been really watching Callie closely these past days.  We don't have to look hard to find her.  You see, Callie has a loud voice.  She's always bleating, letting us know that she has a grievance of some sort.  She's been pregnant and her bags have gotten so huge.  We were expecting her to kid every day now for about two weeks.  We'd leave her in the barn and then  hurriedly go check on her each morning at 6AM... but no baby!  We even began to wonder if there could be such thing as a false pregnancy?

But then one morning, we saw a large mucous discharge, followed by little feet poking out!  Callie's finally in labor.

Suddenly, plop!  And a baby is on the ground.  Tricia cleared away mucous from the kid's face so as not to inhibit breathing.  Callie went to work licking her baby to get it all cleaned up.  I got in the middle of things, lifted a leg to determine the sex of the baby.  It's a little buckling.

Callie has these strange markings on her face.  She's mostly black, but her face is a wild, unscripted, hodge podge of black, brown and white markings - almost like a puzzle.

Like they say, "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree."  Callie passed her "busy" face on to her little boy.  Take a look at this:

It's so confusing, you can't even tell where his eyes are!  One thing that's not confusing is the fact that we need to ensure that the little dude gets some colostrum in his belly.  Tricia positioned the little fellow beneath Callie's huge teat, squeezed some colostrum into his mouth, and the sucking reflex by the little guy instinctually began.

The next morning, he had colostrum poop all over his backside, giving us evidence that he got the good stuff inside him, giving him the best shot at a healthy beginning of life on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

The Kidding Season Comes to a Close

We had five momma goats pregnant.  Popcorn, the billy, has proven to be quite the fertile fellow.  One by one, they kidded.  Bunny had a stillborn buckling.  But with three healthy baby goats running around the pasture, we were ready for the last one to be born.  It was time for Callie.  Her bags ballooned, letting us know that any minute, there would be a baby.  So far this year we have 1 doeling and 2 bucklings.

Tricia came around the corner of the barn and said, "We have a new baby.  It's a little buck."  Callie already had him all cleaned up.  They say the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.  That means the offspring are often like the parents.  So is the case with Callie and her little boy.  This is Callie's face:

And this is her little buckling's face...  White, black and brown.  She marked him well.

The little fellow got right down to business, drinking his colostrum to ensure he gets a good start.  Since Bunny lost her baby, we're milking her twice a day and keeping the milk to make kefir and cheese.

We still have a little leftover goat milk that we feed to the laying hens.  They really enjoy it.

But they must drink fast.  Belle, our Great Pyrenees, has developed an affinity for goat milk.  She comes around the corner, chases off the hens, and makes quick work with her tongue of lapping up the goat milk!

A Quick Update on the Baby Spotted Goat

Callie gave birth to a beautiful spotted doeling.  A new kid on the block just a few days old.  Unfortunately, the baby that we haven't named yet has a condition we've seen on Our Maker's Acres Farm previously - selenium deficiency.  Selenium deficiency presents itself, at least in our limited experience with it, with a couple of symptoms: weak tendons in the legs making it difficult to walk or stand.  Between the hoof and the "knee" on the front legs, there is no strength.  No rigidity.  In the past, we made braces, but that's just treating the symptom.  

The other issue is a failure to thrive.  The little goat just doesn't have a strong sucking reflex, making it difficult to nurse and get nourishment from Callie.  As a result, Tricia is having to milk Callie and collect the milk in a bottle.  Then she works to bottle-feed the little baby goat.  She'll drink with encouragement and as a result, she's had meconium poops and has energy.  We gave an injection of BoSe the day she was born and another smaller shot the next day.

We will keep working with her.  Ahem... I better correct that.  Tricia will continue working with her.  You can see she's got the little girl with her in some grass outside the pasture and she has her morning bottle.

The other baby goat that Mocha had the day before is strong and jumping around and growing.  It's sad to see the difference in the two.  Things often don't go as planned.  We'll see what happens in the upcoming days for the little spotted girl of Callie.