Wehner Homestead Kidding Thread 2018

[Wehner Homestead]

Weighed babies today. All 6 are now 8 days old. They sure are growing fast! Birthweights in parenthesis.

Snowflake’s Kids:
Alvin:5.5# (2.4)
Theo:5.0# (2.4)
Ariel:4.6# (1.9)

Nellie’s Kids:
Ella:4.1# (2.4)
Beauty:5.0# (2.8)
Perdy:4.1# (2.2)

I also attempted to weigh the chunky butt, Jasmine, to see how much she’s grown but she’s too big for my scales and the scale that I can stand on with her hasn’t come in.

Attempts were also made at pics tonight. Ugh! For one, black goats are horrible to get pics of! (Sorry CeCe and Ella!) Two, baby goats don’t hold very still! Lol

My goal is to get really good pics of each kid in natural lighting. Snowflake’s kids are all very neat colored and I haven’t firmly identified the coloring of Ariel and Theo yet.

Here’s the pics that I have for now.
Ella-L, Beauty-center, Perdy-R

Perdy

Theo eating with Snowflake.

 

[goats&moregoats]

You have a whole lot of beautiful babies. I just read this whole thread..what an experience. enjoy & Congrats!

 

[Wehner Homestead]

The 6 babies and their dams got released into the main group today. I left one of the heated barrels plugged in but they loved all of the extra space! Fortunately, not too much unrest between all of the adult females. Jasmine (Jan kid) play butted at a few of the babies but decided it was more fun to jump and run with them!

Nellie with Snowflake peeking in from the edge. Kids are from back: Theo, Beauty, Ella

Nellie and Diamond have their rears in the bottom. Kids are back: L: Theo, R: Ariel. Front: L: Ella, R: Beauty.

Snowflake’s kidding pen. I’ll have DH take down the barrier tonight. L: Alvin, R: Perdy

Front to back: Beauty, Perdy (peeking under Beauty), Alvin, Ella

Caramel’s fat side on the right with Diamond behind her. Jasmine looks huge next to the new babies! Front: Ella, Back: Beauty

The rotten Jasmine jumping on me for attention. She was pawing at me so none of the pics came out clear. Nellie is walking by.

Theo moving out of the frame on the left with Ariel beside him. Beauty on the right in back with Jasmine watching. Diamond is on the front edge trying to get out to the milk stand so she can eat more feed! Lol

 

[Southern by choice]

Baby goats are the cutest!

 

[Baymule]

You are blessed with so many adorable kids! They are so cute.

 

[promiseacres]

definitely some cuties

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Thank you! I’m a little partial. We got a few more pics tonight. The two bucklings will get disbudded tomorrow night. The girls haven’t come through yet.

Alvin

Beauty

Ariel (showing her unique coloring - there are no chamoise in her line)

Theo

Jasmine stole my chair!

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Perdy has given us an eventful two days. (Full story under the farm journal.) She seems to be doing quite well. Whew! Now I just have to get her growing good. I was concerned about Nellie standing for her kids to nurse in the main pen and with Purdy’s
Issue yesterday, we moved that crew back to the kidding pen. I was right. Nell wasn’t standing like she should. I think we are now making progress though as I’ve seen kids nurse and weights will be monitored closely. Perdy is the smallest of the 6 and will get an extra chance to nurse each morning while Nell is on the stand to get an extra dose of feed to make sure she has what she needs to produce plenty of milk.

Birthweights are in parenthesis. Kids will all be 2 weeks tomorrow.

Snowflake’s Kids:
Alvin:6.1# (2.4)
Theo:5.9# (2.4)
Ariel:5.2# (1.9)

Nellie’s Kids:
Ella:5.0# (2.4)
Beauty:5.9# (2.8)
Perdy:4.6# (2.2)

Ariel was the smallest at birth and has two bigger brothers and a FF mama and has gained better than Perdy. Definitely need to make sure Nellie has what she needs and Perdy is getting to nurse.

Nellie and Beauty

Jasmine eating with the big girls. (Snowflake far L, Diamond front, DD2 in right front corner, Caramel sharing a pan with Jasmine- Caramel isn’t all bad)

The boys. Knight front, Jericho butt to camera, Jackson to Jericho’s right, King in back.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I also asked some genetic/color specialists about what color Ariel and Theo happen to be. They are a dark red gold. We love it!

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Disbudding finally occurred tonight. DH held and I used the iron. The first one was nerve wracking and we did the one that is to be wethered (Alvin.) Copper rings weren’t perfect or as defined as I’d hoped but I was afraid to get him too hot so I stopped. I really think he will be fine though.

We also did Theo, Ariel, and Beauty. All three were uneventful and went well. Copper rings were much better and I gained confidence.

Decided to hold off a few days on Perdy and Ella. Their heads are shaved so other than hearing the iron, it shouldn’t take too long.

We separated Snowflake’s kids and Beauty into one of the kidding pens and Jasmine into her dog crate last night. Ella and Perdy were left with Nellie since they were still catching up and I’m not really ready to stress Perdy quite yet since she was stuck not too long ago. Either way, I had three Does to milk this morning.

Diamond gave her usual 2 cups though a bit over that.

Snowflake milked just over two cups also. Her orifices are awesome! I’d like her teats to be a bit bigger for hand milking but I’m hoping that dam raising helps that some, especially since she’s a FF. We’d gotten her on the stand the last five or so days each morning to get her used to the routine and her udder being handled. The extra feed didn’t hurt any either. We were just milking out a little without forcing a letdown. She only ever squatted and shuffled her feet but it paid off! She leaned against the wall but never did anything otherwise to complicate milking her. Knowing that I was putting her back with young trips to nurse, I didn’t do an additional letdown as I wanted to leave them plenty. Her udder also wasn’t right when I got done. 8 hr fill. (Remember that I mentioned that she was against the wall.)

Nellie got on the stand too. She milked just over a half cup with a second letdown too. I wasn’t going to buy her udder was still tight. I did see her nurse Ella and Perdy while I was going back and forth with Diamond and Snowflake.

Milk supply for DD2 is looking much better for the next several months!

I also weighed all 6 of the youngest babies today. They are two weeks and two days. Weights were when I milked this morning.

Snowflake’s Kids:
Alvin:6.6# (2.4)
Theo:6.1# 2.4)
Ariel:5.5# (1.9)

Nellie’s Kids:
Ella:5.7# (2.4)
Beauty:6.1# (2.8)
Perdy:5.7# (2.2) She was also weighed on 4/21 to make sure she was growing despite getting stuck in the hay feeder and she weighed 5.2 then. (Prior was 4.6 on 4/20.)

We are still watching them all closely. Ariel was the smallest at birth. Overall, Snowflake is growing her trips better than Nellie is at this point. We may go back to feeding Nellie’s girls on the stand if they aren’t gaining but I think she’s doing better in her separate pen.

Made some decisions on boys too. Jericho (just now 12 weeks today) and Alvin (when he’s old enough) will be wethered. A friend is coming tomorrow to pick one to be a companion for her pet doe as her old horse died and the doe is lonely. Whichever one she doesn’t take will become the “heat detector” in our doe herd once he’s sterile.

I’ll try to get some pics of the goat kids soon. They are growing and pretty cute!