One In A Mel'lion: Goaties!

I'm a Goat "Mama"!! We have 2 female goats. They are loveable and sweet! They are Nigerian Dwarf/Mini Alpine mixes and are bred that way to be a little smaller/easier to handle. My husband originally wanted to get goats to clean up our property. Our house sits in the woods and is very thick with brush in some areas. His little plan worked and the goats ate their entire fenced area clean last summer!

It has been a learning experience with having the goats. After all, they are farm animals. This involves cleaning out their pen (which isn't the most awesome thing I've ever done), hoof trimming, giving them medicated feed when they had a stomach bug, etc. It was kind of a crazy start with the Goaties, but eventually we got things figured out. We ended up getting 2 male Pygmies with hopes that the females would kid sometime in the spring. They did! It was quite obvious that they were expecting as their due dates neared. Because we have a large shed for the goats (not a big barn), we ended up finding a good home for the Males. Things were about to get crowded in there! Especially since many goats often have twins!

Labor day came for our Goat Girl "Neapolitan". After an extremely LONG and FRIGID winter in the North East, hubby decided to do the dreaded job of cleaning out the goat pen. We had a brief warm up and Neapolitan was showing signs of labor. She was losing mucus and her udders looked very full! He built a make shift "birthing pen" out of scrap wood and laid down some fresh hay. She went in there and laid down immediately. We gave her privacy to birth. It was tempting to want to step in and watch, but there was no need to assist. I gave a quick check every half hour or so and eventually saw her new baby! I dried the kid off with some towels and the 'lil one seemed to be doing fine! It was a girl! I encouraged her to latch on and nurse throughout the next 2-3 days as often as I could until she got the hang of things. Just like human babies, they need that first milk or colostrum.

About 24 hrs after the birth, I checked Mama Goat's udders and they were VERY full! "Uh oh", I thought. "I need to milk her"! Ummm, I've never milked an animal... EVER! After doing some research, I found several helpful milking videos on good 'ole YouTube and gave it a try. Not too bad for the first time, and Mama had to be so relieved! She was very tight and full! I ended up freezing the milk for soap. We drink the milk, as well... but it sure does make a lovely batch of soap!

Mama and Baby were doing fine, and about 3 weeks later, Goat Mama "Biscotti" started showing signs of labor. She ended up kidding within a few hours of being in the birthing pen and we watched the whole process basically repeat itself! She also ended up having a girl and gave birth easily.

Here are a few pics of the "Kids"!

Neapolitan's Kid just after birth....