She was pacing about in the pen and bawling a bit. She was due to kid in a week and a half, so I checked out her "rear view" . No discharge, just a bit swollen, although that's pretty normal at this point in goat pregnancy.
I came inside and got a few things done and then around lunchtime went out to check on her.
Surprise!
Tottering beside her was a wee kid. Really tiny! I checked and it was a little buck. I looked in the goat house and found the still body of a wee doe kid. The doe kid was easily twice the size of her twin.I checked over the little body, looking for obvious defects and found none. I have no idea why the doe kid died.Perhaps she was just too big and strangled during birth, I don't know.
But,the little buck was fine and frisky. On an adorable scale of one to ten,he is a solid eleven!
We have named him Cornelius.
And cuddly...oh how cuddly!
Champagne is a good mama...and one of my most cooperative milkers.
I am sad we lost the wee doe, but am happy that this wee kid is doing well.
We have decided to NOT breed our does this year as we are planning on moving.
So, I placed an ad on Craigslist to sell Wang,our big buck. I got a few responses and had to weed through them...a couple of people thought he would be good to butcher (uhmmmm....NO.Older goat bucks are NOT a good choice to put in your freezer!), so I weeded them out immediately. Finally talked to one guy that wants him for breeding. He'll be here this afternoon to load up Wang and take him to his new home.
We have also decided to re-home Andy, our untrainable German Shepherd. He is a danger to the livestock...and occasionally US! He has broken windows trying to get at the goats and chickens when they were in the yard. He has knocked most of us down the back steps on numerous occasions trying to rush out the door. Andy has also gone after the peafowl and the geese.What Andy needs is a family that will love his goofy self and not have him around livestock. So, placed an ad for him as well. Have gotten a few responses, but not what we are looking for yet.
So, Cornelius is new...and Wang and Andy are soon to be gone. We should have had two new kids,but, alas, it didn't go as well as we hoped.
