It does indeed pour. After much anticipation we had our first Kinder kids born. Kinders are a fantastic dual purpose goat breed that are gaining in popularity because they are great milkers (higher quantity but still retain the quality of the Nigerian Dwarf milk) and have a much better dress out ratio than a strictly diary goat. This is the breed we wanted when we got started in goats but the nearest breeders are a 14 hour drive, round trip (although I have a promising lead to one closer). When we started we were less crazy than we are now, so we went with closer breeders. But back in September we brought home two sweet registered Kinder girls who had been bred to registered bucks, which meant if all went accordingly to plan we would have purebred kinder babies. At first we thought the breedings didn’t take, because we tried pregnancy tests which came out negative. Happily (never so glad to be wrong) the breeding did take and our girls did great.
Before I show you pictures that are melt-you-to-a-puddle-cute, a word on gender. Baby girl goats (doelings) are considered more valuable because they can do more (milk, make more goaties, not so stinky/aggressive/large). Baby boy goats (bucklings/wethers) are good for making more goats (bucklings), an important job they do once or twice a year, or companions/pets (wethers). We have had 12 kids born since we started this adventure an 10 have been boys, including all four Kinder kids. This probably doesn’t mean much to any non-goat folk reading this, but it’s enough to make me change our water because seriously there must be something in it. So now we are in a conundrum about which of the boys to keep (if any) and which to sell.
ChaCha kidded first and is a first time mama. She did so well I didn’t even realize she had had her boys until, once again, I look out the window and there are babies goaties.
Their names are Dori (silver and white one) and Nori (brown). Our naming convention is the dwarves from the Hobbit and Yes, we are anxiously awaiting an extra fat boy that we can name Bombur. Nori has wattles, which I think are adorable and he seems to have the best conformation. We will know better in a few weeks, but Dori’s coloring is beautiful. They are both doing well and are out with the rest of the big goats.
When Josie kidded, it was a whole different story. We were all out in the yard working on stuff (Well, I was in the house planting seeds) and suddenly Garyn starts yelling that she was having her babies! So I rush out and sure enough there was a baby goat head sticking right on out. Ideally, a kid comes out front hooves first, like they are diving. Head first is ok, but has a greater chance of complication. I got cleaned up in case I had to go looking for some hooves. Honestly I wasn’t sure what to do, because the baby wasn’t going anywhere. I figured I should start by pulling and if that didn’t work I’d go looking for a hoof. Luckily he came out easily and his brother did the same thing…head first but smooth sailing with a little bit of traction.
My human kids got to watch the whole thing and now Naomi’s game of choice is having her My Little Pony figures “born babies.” Weird and totally awesome all at the same time.
Josie is a great mother and Fili and Kili are growing nicely. They get to go out with everyone on Saturday. All the kids have been disbudded (I’d love to know what our neighbors thought of that noise) and we are excited to start milking the does. Cheese and yogurt here I come!
P.S. http://comfyposy.com/2014/03/08/new-favorite/ a post on how spring is treating us here on the farm!
The Angry Dwarf Dairy 