Winn-Dixie

We were very excited when we woke up and saw our expecting goat, Wendy, all bagged up Thursday morning.  I kept my eye on her all morning and sure enough Wendy was in labor.  My daughter, Kyla, went outside to observe the birth with my camera.  She was able to take some pretty cool pictures of the delivery.

We were also excited when the delivery of the first was almost immediately followed by the birth of another kid.  As we were watching Wendy commence her mothering duties, we were shocked when she gave birth to another kid.  Wendy had three healthy triplets!  She gave birth to a buck and two does.

Wendy cleaned them up well.  We were hoping that she would just raise them herself and we would take her excess milk until we weaned the kids.  As we watched that day, we were disappointed when we noticed that she would not allow her kids to nurse.  If they latched on, she would only tolerate it for a little while.  The last kid born is the littlest.  It was not able to nurse at all because it is shorter than the others.

My husband milked Wendy, and we began bottle-feeding the young babies.  It only took a few minutes before all the goats were given names by my children.  The does are Ashley and Winn-Dixie.  The buck is Little Bear.  They are really cute and very tiny.  I say that but I am used to calves, which weigh 70-75 pounds.  These goats weigh about 5 pounds a piece.

Playing follow the leader with Isaac.

I was really proud of Kyla who volunteered to take the four o’clock shift on the first night.  Lane and I got up at two o’clock to feed all three goats when we saw she had already beaten us to the job.  She was a little confused as to why we were up.  Kyla had set her alarm clock, but did not check to see if the time was correct.  Consequently, she was awakened two hours early.  We were more than happy to switch with her.

Everything was well.  We were bottle-feeding.  Wendy was keeping the kids clean.  Unfortunately, Wendy stepped on the buck while it was lying down.  She hurt his left ear.  It began to swell.  He stopped eating.  We began tubing him with warm milk instead.  Unfortunately as I am writing this, he died.  We don’t know why, but we suspect she could have stepped on his body and hurt him internally.  It is the only explanation that makes any sense.  My husband, Lane, did everything he could do to keep him comfortable.  He brought Little Bear into the house last night and swaddled him in a beach towel.  He held him and rocked him.

I knew then that if Little Bear did live then we were going to have to train him to pull a wagon or something.  Lane was getting attached.  Now we do not have to make any decision concerning the buck.  We are saddened by this loss, but we are busy taking care of very healthy does.

Homesteading requires focusing on the positive, flexibility, and learning from your mistakes.  Our herd of Nubian does just doubled.  That fact is exciting!  We had to change our plans with Wendy.  We cannot depend on her to mother and raise the remaining two does.  We will have to step in and take care of them.  Since Little Bear was injured by his own mother, we will be separating the kids from their mother as an act of prevention.  The next time Wendy delivers any kids we will do the same.  Our family just does not want to risk another baby’s health and welfare.  The life of our animals is very important to us.

I was hoping to announce the birth of healthy triplets.  Unfortunately, I have to add the sad update.  Fortunately, we have two new kids on our farm.  In that fact, we rejoice!