Things are a bit on edge
I have been waiting. Waiting for a new plow to arrive. Waiting for snow to melt. Waiting seeds to sprout. And most of all, waiting for a goat to pop.
I calculated our Doe goat Ruffles' due date as March 19th. Last time she was about 24 hours early and that matched previous owner's experience. To be safe, we have been prepared since the 16th or so.
When I have a goat due, I sleep out in the goat house. I should be able to check her condition before going to bed and decide if she might go before I get up, but she fooled us last time. That time at midnight I went to bed not seeing any of the "24 hour" signs. When I came out at 6 AM, she was down on the ground with a doeling sticking out of her back end showing the neck down to the doelings shoulders. Not a reassuring sight. If I had gotten up an hour later I am sure we would have lost the doeling, and maybe Ruffles, too.
Since we have so few births a year, every one is important to us. If we had lost Ruffles two years ago, we would have lost more than half our milk production and half of our genetic diversity. We also would have lost a years worth of breeding. Both Ruffles and her doeling are very important to us.
So for a week now, I have been sleeping in the goat house. It's reasonably comfortable. Although temps get down to 20f, I have a good sleeping bag, inner and outer bivy sacks and a thermorest. I am sleeping inside a dry shelter with three sides and a roof. The floor is a yeilding bed of straw and wood chips. My goats sleep there in much colder weather without complaint. There is the occasional goat attempting to snuggle up in the middle of the night, but who doesn't like to snuggle? But a week of checking on her every 2 hours during the day, sleeping out every night and needing to be prepared to intervene is starting to get old.
I am pretty sure about her due date. I kept the bucklings separate from the does during rut and only introduced them for supervised visits during the three days of each Doe's heat. So I was pretty sure who was breeding who when. It's 150 days from breeding to kidding, plus or minus a day. At least it has been till now.
The honest answer is we don't do this enough to say things are one way or another. We can only say what they were in the past. We may never get to a point where we can say "Wellll, on our farm, this is the way we do it" with any kind of a confident swagger. We'll probably never breed more than six Does. I don't think we have enough summer pasture for more of a breeding population. And since not every Doe breeds every year, it will take us a while to get to a dozen kiddings.
So, a week of this has me a little on edge. If not tonight, maybe tomorrow
I calculated our Doe goat Ruffles' due date as March 19th. Last time she was about 24 hours early and that matched previous owner's experience. To be safe, we have been prepared since the 16th or so.
When I have a goat due, I sleep out in the goat house. I should be able to check her condition before going to bed and decide if she might go before I get up, but she fooled us last time. That time at midnight I went to bed not seeing any of the "24 hour" signs. When I came out at 6 AM, she was down on the ground with a doeling sticking out of her back end showing the neck down to the doelings shoulders. Not a reassuring sight. If I had gotten up an hour later I am sure we would have lost the doeling, and maybe Ruffles, too.
Since we have so few births a year, every one is important to us. If we had lost Ruffles two years ago, we would have lost more than half our milk production and half of our genetic diversity. We also would have lost a years worth of breeding. Both Ruffles and her doeling are very important to us.
So for a week now, I have been sleeping in the goat house. It's reasonably comfortable. Although temps get down to 20f, I have a good sleeping bag, inner and outer bivy sacks and a thermorest. I am sleeping inside a dry shelter with three sides and a roof. The floor is a yeilding bed of straw and wood chips. My goats sleep there in much colder weather without complaint. There is the occasional goat attempting to snuggle up in the middle of the night, but who doesn't like to snuggle? But a week of checking on her every 2 hours during the day, sleeping out every night and needing to be prepared to intervene is starting to get old.
I am pretty sure about her due date. I kept the bucklings separate from the does during rut and only introduced them for supervised visits during the three days of each Doe's heat. So I was pretty sure who was breeding who when. It's 150 days from breeding to kidding, plus or minus a day. At least it has been till now.
The honest answer is we don't do this enough to say things are one way or another. We can only say what they were in the past. We may never get to a point where we can say "Wellll, on our farm, this is the way we do it" with any kind of a confident swagger. We'll probably never breed more than six Does. I don't think we have enough summer pasture for more of a breeding population. And since not every Doe breeds every year, it will take us a while to get to a dozen kiddings.
So, a week of this has me a little on edge. If not tonight, maybe tomorrow
posted by MMP at
1:10 PM
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