'You've Got to Be Kidding!' One More Down and One to Go- Honey Dreame Farms

HoneyDreameMomma

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I know, I know...'tis the season for kidding threads, but for those goat addicts like yours truly, what does one more hurt? ;)

We bred our 8 girls last year between Oct. 25 and the end of Nov. We pasture breed, and we didn't get a chalk harness this year, so we have exact breeding dates for some of the girls, but only guesses on the others. Based on behavior and belly size, we're pretty sure all the girls have at least one bun in the oven. We have CDT boosters, hoof trimmings, etc. for everyone in the next week or so in preparation for the 1-2 months of waiting for kids, and I am cleaning up the birthing stalls in the barn and beefing up my kidding first aid kit.

Our breeding bucks were both blue-eyed - Chewy is the black and white one and Jax is the tri-color:
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Pictures of our girls in their cute pregnant, winter fluffiness are below:

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Stats are as follows:

3rd Year Freshener
Holly - (black and white) bred Oct. 25 to Chewy and Jax
FF 2013 - twin doelings
2F 2014 - twins 1 boy/1girl

2nd Year Freshners
Queenie (light brown tri-color; our herd queen) - bred Oct. 25 to Jax
FF 2014 - twins 1 boy/1girl
Nibley - (dark brown tri-color) bred to Jax in late Nov
FF 2014 - twin doelings (one stillborn)
Sophie - (tri-colored; daughter to Holly) - bred to Jax Nov. 5
FF 2014 - one doeling

First Freshners
Jayna - (light brown with white; daughter to Holly) - bred mid Nov to ???
Ami - (tan/light brown with dark brown 'racing stripe'; daughter to Sophie) - bred Oct. 25 to Chewy
Lucy- (reddish brown with white band and frosting; daughter to Queenie) - bred late Nov to ???
Snigglefritz - (dark brown with white spots; daughter to Nibley) - bred late Nov to ???

None of our girls are registered, although they are full Nigerians. We love Nigies for their size, temperament and coloring. One of the things I love most about kidding is seeing what color combos we get with each birth. As for whether we want boys or girls this year, I'm actually ok either way. Does are always a wonderful thing (and we were abundantly blessed with them last year), but since we have 8 great girls and we don't want a much bigger herd that that, I won't cry if we get a lot of bucklings this year. Everyone here is just getting very excited and looking forward to all the fun of cute, bouncy goat kids!
 

Southern by choice

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Awwww I love the pics! Such fun... guessing though is so tiring
lol
You are going to have sooooo many babies!:D

Do you dam raise or bottle feed?
I love all the different colors too!
Breeding the mini's is a lot of fun too, such variety!
 

HoneyDreameMomma

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We dam raise when possible, but bottle feed when necessary. Ami was a short-term bottle baby last year. She was born a bit premature and Mom couldn't figure out the nursing thing for several days - keep pushing her away when she'd try to suck, because she wanted to clean her face. :rolleyes: After 3-4 days they both figured it out, and Ami went back out with the goats. Even with just a few days of being bottle fed, she was easily the most friendly of our kids last year. She still loves to try and sit/cuddle in your lap.

My husband and I both work 40 hours a week and we have 3 very busy teenagers, so as much as I love how sweet and social bottle babies are, it is exhausting work, and I'm happy to leave as much of it as possible to the mamas. ;) Plus, I'm a sucker, and I hate hearing everyone cry when they get separated. :hide
 

HoneyDreameMomma

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I was out checking on my girls this morning and the ligaments for Queenie, Holly and Sophie were very soft and their backsides are puffy and loose. All three are getting the beginnings of good looking udders. I think I know which 3 girls will be the first in the birthing stalls this year! :celebrate

According to their breeding dates, their 145 day is March 18. I saw Queenie and Holly bred on Oct. 25th (the first day we had the bucks) and I saw Sophie bred on Nov. 5, although given how she's looking, there is a good chance one of the boys got her earlier and I missed it.

Queenie is the only one of the girls I look at and think, "she could be having triplets." The pictures I posted don't clearly show how she's looking now - she's quite a bit bigger than she was when she had twins last year, and although she usually leads as the herd queen, the last few weeks she is waddling 10-15 feet behind the rest of the herd when they move. :D I think Holly has twins again, although knowing her, she might sneak a 3rd in just to surprise us. ;)

Sophie is looking like she might be carrying twins, but possibly a singleton. We're watching her closely, because she went at 136 days last year. We know the math was accurate, because we calculated Sophie's breeding date as the very first day we had the buck in with the girls. A kid usually struggles to survive that early (Ami did have a few preemie issues, but she pulled through). We're hoping we got the breeding date wrong this year, and not that she's going to go early on us again...:fl
Ami was bred the same day as Queenie and Holly, and although she's progressing well, unlike her mom, her ligaments are still tight.

We're getting geared up and excited for babies!
 

HoneyDreameMomma

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My kids and I are making a fun bet this year: that I can guess the sex of the kids by holding them - before I look at their undersides. :D =D

I'm convinced that bucklings are usually weighted a bit differently than doelings. This is only our third year of kidding, and our first year was just a single doe that had twin doelings, so it didn't count. Last year we had 12 kids, and only 3 were boys (the odds were definitely in our favor), but I guessed them all correctly before I looked. Might have just been coincidence since we had so few boys, but they really did just feel different to me. Anyone else have this experience? It's almost like there's more weight in the chest area or something - kind of hard to explain. :hu

I'm guessing we'll have more bucklings this year (lol -3 out of 12 is not likely to happen again), so we'll see if my theory holds any water...:p
 

HoneyDreameMomma

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I've got girls in the birthing stalls, and I'm hoping for kids in the next 24-48 hours! Queenie and Holly seem to have lost their ligaments and have both been doing that soft bahhing and nibbling at their sides. Queenie has had a few big contractions, but nothing consistent yet. Time to bust out the popcorn...:pop

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I think this girl is ready to rid herself of all the excess weight! :D =D
 
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