New arrivals! This is the first year we’ve had baby goats born in the fall, I bought our doe Baklava last June when she was already bred. At first I wasn’t sure…but then she just kept getting rounder and rounder (more round then the goats usually are😊). This week we knew she was close so we had our kidding pen and barn camera all ready to go.
Yesterday morning I noticed a change in her behavior so later in the morning I went ahead and put her in the kidding pen. She’s already accustomed to it and seemed to appreciate having a meal all to herself, while her buddies were looking a little jealous peeking through the fence. I gave her some shoulder rubs and thought to myself…this must be what it feels like to be a midwife or doula, for a goat😄.
I put her in the pen just after 11am but she waited to start pushing until 3:15, exactly when I leave to get my daughter from school. Fortunately, my husband was “on call” to pick her up for me if needed. I DO NOT like having to interfere with kidding and prefer to keep an eye on things from a distance, but I’m glad I was there because the first kid was breech, all I saw was a little tail in the sack, and it was wagging! I’ve had does deliver tiny kids in this position on their own in the past but after letting Baklava give a good effort, I could tell she needed some help…so I had to push the kid back in a bit, enough to maneuver one leg and then the other, after that a big baby buckling came right out. Shortly after he was followed by a second and third, all boys.
My three daughters think three kids is the perfect number, that way they each get to pick out a name. After the initial disappointment of there not being any girls quickly wore off, they got started picking out names. We decided to go with a fall theme and the kids picked Pumpkin, Leaf, and Acorn. At first I wasn’t too sure about Leaf but then it reminded me of the Norse Viking explorer Leif Erikson (and first European to land on North America) being so close to Columbus Day it seemed a good choice.😉
So, please welcome Acorn, Leaf, and Pumpkin to the herd. More pictures to come of these adorable blue eyed boys!
FOUR CEDARS 