Honey was bred by Pecan, our little bottle buckling who is no longer on the farm, but he sure left his mark. In seven little miniatures. The last two came on February 25 and their dam is Honey. I didn't have a due date for her. Just a vague "sometime after Jenny, I think." If I had looked in my records I would have found written on September 21, "I think Pecan might have bred Honey today" and then I would have had a possible due date. If that was her due date, she kidded a few days late.
Honey looked close to kidding all afternoon on February 25. The problem was, we were going out that night. Thankfully we had to come home early and when we got to the barn Honey was definitely in labor. She had chosen her spot and was having contractions. She wasn't very far along, we had maybe 10-15 minutes until things really got serious. We got fresh straw and fresh water for Honey and fed the rest of the goats. At that point we decided to stick around; things seemed imminent. Honey is super vocal. She yelled with single every push. No, she yelled at least twice per push. After she was pushing on a pair of hooves and a nose for fifteen minutes or so, I pulled on the hooves while she was pushing and we got the head out. Then she decided she was done pushing and started staring into space. Really helpful, Honey. We got the kid out; it was all black except for a little white here and there. It was a buck, and after Honey got out of her trance she fell in love with him.
I thought maybe she would only have one, he was fairly big, but kid number two came flying out at the speed of lightning. Despite the fact that it came with speed, Honey managed to get in a good holler. Like I said, Honey is really noisy. Thankfully Honey loved her second kid as much as the first (most of her licks landed between them) unlike Pinky who paid all her attention to the first kid and totally ignored the second (she did learn to like it later). This kid turned out to be a doe, the same coloring as her brother except less white.
We named the buck Bescarum and the doe Trisscar, Scarum and Triss for short. It took a while to decide for sure because if we named them those names Jane would have named all the kids this year. I chose the naming scheme for next year to make up for that fact.
Here are some pictures.
Scarum, the buckling:
Honey looked close to kidding all afternoon on February 25. The problem was, we were going out that night. Thankfully we had to come home early and when we got to the barn Honey was definitely in labor. She had chosen her spot and was having contractions. She wasn't very far along, we had maybe 10-15 minutes until things really got serious. We got fresh straw and fresh water for Honey and fed the rest of the goats. At that point we decided to stick around; things seemed imminent. Honey is super vocal. She yelled with single every push. No, she yelled at least twice per push. After she was pushing on a pair of hooves and a nose for fifteen minutes or so, I pulled on the hooves while she was pushing and we got the head out. Then she decided she was done pushing and started staring into space. Really helpful, Honey. We got the kid out; it was all black except for a little white here and there. It was a buck, and after Honey got out of her trance she fell in love with him.
I thought maybe she would only have one, he was fairly big, but kid number two came flying out at the speed of lightning. Despite the fact that it came with speed, Honey managed to get in a good holler. Like I said, Honey is really noisy. Thankfully Honey loved her second kid as much as the first (most of her licks landed between them) unlike Pinky who paid all her attention to the first kid and totally ignored the second (she did learn to like it later). This kid turned out to be a doe, the same coloring as her brother except less white.
We named the buck Bescarum and the doe Trisscar, Scarum and Triss for short. It took a while to decide for sure because if we named them those names Jane would have named all the kids this year. I chose the naming scheme for next year to make up for that fact.
Here are some pictures.
Scarum, the buckling:
Triss, the doeling:
Honey's udder has turned out great, especially when you compare it to Jenny's! Her teats are bigger and she has better attachments. I always thought she would be our worst milker- the way Jenny can act like the food is invisible and know exactly how to kick in such a way to neatly take your hands off her teats and land her hoof in the bucket, you'd have thought Honey would be much worse. She will do anything to escape having even her back legs touched, but when we got Honey on the stand she actually eats her hay (Pinky just doesn't eat it and Jenny pushes it out of the trough) and if she does kick she just does a little tap without getting her hoof an inch off the ground. She just squats a little and eats away. And she is extremely easy to milk because of big teats- she is a first freshener and her teats are bigger than Jenny's, who is a third freshener. Honey's giving a quart a day and I'm expecting it to go up some as she goes around the lactation curve.
When Scarum and Triss were still really wobbly, Laddie Buck, one of Jenny's triplets, noticed how wimpy the competition and how great the colostrum at Honey's udder was. Honey wasn't out of the mother-everything-in-sight stage that sets in about a week before kidding, so she hadn't learned how to kick or jump over kids yet. We had to put her and her shadows into a different pen for a few days. She was pretty unhappy, but there wasn't much of a choice. Now she is out with the herd enjoying the woods and kicking Lad occasionally.
Both kiddos are doing well, it seemed the moment they hit the ground they were jumping around and playing. They are extremely frisky kids. Their momma doesn't like the whole nursing business, she's always hated having her teats touched, at first she just squated a little and looked unhappy while letting them nurse, but she is getting better. She's a good mother and sniffs their bums while they nurse, too, just like her own mother does.
Here are a few more pictures...
When Scarum and Triss were still really wobbly, Laddie Buck, one of Jenny's triplets, noticed how wimpy the competition and how great the colostrum at Honey's udder was. Honey wasn't out of the mother-everything-in-sight stage that sets in about a week before kidding, so she hadn't learned how to kick or jump over kids yet. We had to put her and her shadows into a different pen for a few days. She was pretty unhappy, but there wasn't much of a choice. Now she is out with the herd enjoying the woods and kicking Lad occasionally.
Both kiddos are doing well, it seemed the moment they hit the ground they were jumping around and playing. They are extremely frisky kids. Their momma doesn't like the whole nursing business, she's always hated having her teats touched, at first she just squated a little and looked unhappy while letting them nurse, but she is getting better. She's a good mother and sniffs their bums while they nurse, too, just like her own mother does.
Here are a few more pictures...
By Suzanne Tyler
the Green T Goatherd
the Green T Goatherd