The Kids are Here!
On January 9th, the first doe gave birth to the first kids of the new kidding season, twins, male and female. Seven days later, a total of 84 baby goats had been born! This represents the most condensed kidding season I have ever experienced. 75% of my doe herd delivered in a week. I had some very long days and very little sleep.
This process all started back in September during breeding season. My one buck (George) a two-year-old male, in his first breeding season, covered 40 of the 50 does in the herd during their first heat cycle. Those “cycles” (when the doe comes into heat) occur anywhere from 18 to 24 days. The change of season to Fall when the days getting shorter start most breeds of goats heat cycles. Very much like the deer in Lake Wildwood.
This is about the best kidding season I have experienced. I credit this to preparation, good barns, and an unusually dry/warm January. Although far from perfect, I got my supplies ordered and laid in, barns up, heat lamps tested, bedding down, most goats sorted, and kidding pens ready to assemble. Kidding pens are 5’ by 5’ panels, put together in a square pen. A gate panel is on one end. The doe goes in the pen either just prior, or immediately after she gives birth. I only keep them in the pens a couple of days, but it gives the does time to “bond” with their kids and the baby goats time under heat lamps in a draft-free area until they can regulate their own body temperature.
The additional barn space I built last year allowed me to rotate pregnant and kidding does in one barn, post kidding goats into a second barn, and overflow in a third barn area at another ranch. Almost all the goats gave birth outside. Because of the nice weather, goats kidding in daylight hours were left outside in the sun with their newborns. As evening approached, the does and their kids were moved into kidding pens. Any does I suspected of going into labor during the night were locked in the barn too. This kind of January weather is extremely rare and having does start kidding during a break in the weather is rare too.
Such mild weather has allowed me to move a few does and their kids out to the Minnow Way property. If you happen to be walking up there, you might notice a few really thin does. This is not because they are underfed. Some does just put everything they have into milk production. They get to looking like a dairy cow, all skin, bones, and utter. They will start to regain their body mass after I wean the kids in another month. At the time of completing this article, almost 110 kids have been born with very few losses. If we can get a little more rain, these kids will soon be munching away on the Spring grass.