My little doeling is so cold!

[cmjust0]

A buddy of mine has a good setup for cold kids.. He takes old 55gal steel drums, stood on end, cuts a 'door' in the side at the bottom and a hole in the top just smaller than the diameter of the shield on a heat lamp. He puts either a 250w or a 100w (depending on the ambient temp, of course) bulb in the heat lamp, screws the shield to the drum, and voila...a quick, cheap, heated hutch..

You gotta take care to secure the drum to something solid to prevent it from falling over, of course, but it seems like it would be very safe and a super nice place for a chilly kid to hang out..

 

[freemotion]

I love that idea, Chad!

Last winter my rescued doe gave birth when we still had subzero nights, to a single buckling. I mounted a scrap of plywood diagonally across one corner of the stall and ran a heat lamp, the one I used for my chicks, behind it....the kind with a reflector and a wire guard over the bulb, that takes 250 watt bulbs in white or red. I used red so as not to mess up anyone's rhythm and start them shedding too early, as extending daylight can do.

I hung the lamp behind the plywood from a rafter, so the cord and lamp were protected from mama's teeth and horns, and no one could get too close to it. I mounted the plywood high enough from the ground that the kid could get underneath it when needed. I made a nice cushy bed with hay, and used plastic blocks (horse jumps/cavelletti) to create a cozy nest and block potential drafts. I would check the temp and raise or lower the lamp according to the temp. Don't make it too warm, just take the chill off, or she won't develop a winter coat. In the house would be too warm, likely, at least here in New England, and she would not be prepared to go back outside.

This arrangement worked so well that I left the plywood in place so that the heatlamp can go back up quickly if needed.

 

[lilhill]

A buddy of mine has a good setup for cold kids.. He takes old 55gal steel drums, stood on end, cuts a 'door' in the side at the bottom and a hole in the top just smaller than the diameter of the shield on a heat lamp. He puts either a 250w or a 100w (depending on the ambient temp, of course) bulb in the heat lamp, screws the shield to the drum, and voila...a quick, cheap, heated hutch..

You gotta take care to secure the drum to something solid to prevent it from falling over, of course, but it seems like it would be very safe and a super nice place for a chilly kid to hang out..

These work great. I have one in each of my kidding stalls and the babies love to crawl inside on cold days. Mine aren't quite as big as the 55 gal. drums and are made of hard plastic. Don't know what was in them before they were recycled to use as kid warmers.

 

[freemotion]

What do you think about mounting the lightbulb inside a cookie tin, and mounting that inside a wooden box? I know some people make warmers for their chicken waterers by mounting a bulb in a tin and setting the waterer on top.

For a kid warmer, this would make it very safe and eliminate the problem (to me, anyways) of extending the hours of light in the winter. When I managed a breeding and show horse farm, we would put lights on a timer in the mare's stalls to bring them into heat in the winter. They would also often shed, but it was no problem in a heated barn with plenty of warm blankets for turn-out.

Opinions on this idea?

 

[kimmyh]

I like to use double ended snaps to secure the heat lamp, or wire, because like you the chance of fire scares me. I figure it like this, if one of the goats, who shouldn't be able to reach the lamp, figure you how to undo a double ended snap or wire, then a fire was meant too be. So far, I have not had an issue, but like someone else said, I wire up the cords out of reach, which would keep the light from falling very far.

 

[Griffin's Ark]

You also might try giving her warm water with a little molasses mixed in it. It helps to warm them quick and give them some calories to make their own heat. Don't give to much molasses though as it can make them scour a bit. Her size could indicate that her dam did not make a lot of milk, you can also try to add Sav-a-Kid (dry) to her food.

Chris

 

[dianneS]

I gave everyone some hot oatmeal with some molasses this evening mixed with their usual grain.

We're having a lot of really crappy cold rainy weather right now, so the horses got a hot supper and so did the goats. Well, the goats didn't like it one bit and just picked out their regular grain and wouldn't touch the oatmeal or molasses. The younger ones picked at it a bit, but the older ones wanted nothing to do with it! Even my tiny little girl didn't care for it! Well, so much for that plan!

The little girl seemed cozy in her sweater tonight, just as long as she doesn't get herself wet, she'll be fine. I hope this rain lets up a little tomorrow. We're supposed to have four days of this weather!

Will be working on the heat lamp scenario tomorrow!

 

[kimmyh]

You might try plain warm water, the goats really seem to enjoy it on cold days.

 

[dianneS]

That's a good idea, I'll try warm water. I'm also going to be working on a heated hutch today too.

I just heard the weather report for the next few days and its been and going to continue to be 26 degrees below normal for this time of year in our area!!

No wonder we're all so cold!! I'm miserable too!

 

[cmjust0]

to warm water.

We used to bring warm water down to the barn when it was really cold out, just to keep it liquid longer...no power in the barn means no de-icers in the barn..

Well, at some point we started bringing just straight-up HOT water down to the barn because the cold plastic waterers were still cooling off the warm water too quickly.. We keep our water heater cranked up pretty good in the house, so it's pretty daggone hot right out of the tap.

We figured the goats would determine it to be too hot to drink and let the cold waterers cool it off a bit, but no....they dove right in, knocking one another out of the way to get at that hot water.. I was concerned at first that somebody was gonna get scalded, but apparently not... We actually bring full-on HOT water pretty routinely now and they fricken LOVE it..