Wow. What a day. We keep telling our oldest that he is triplets today because today is his tenth birthday…and today Reece gave birth to twins. This was quite an education for all of us, that is for sure!
I won’t go into all the gory details, but if you ever look up videos of goats giving birth {which I did yesterday so as to prepare myself} all I can say is that they are very accurate. At least, the ones I watched were!
We noticed that Reece was showing signs of labor at about 9 or 9:30 this morning, and by noon she gave birth to beautiful twin babies!
Reece and her babies are currently separated from the other two goats. {Yes, Wesley is still with us. We found a guy who said he’d build us a milking table in trade for the goat and I’m really hoping that happens.} I am a little afraid that Charlotte will try and hurt them, so we’ll probably keep them separate until tomorrow. Reece and Charlotte didn’t have time to finish working out their issues before the babies were born.
The brown baby was born first. I’m pretty sure this one is a buck, though I haven’t investigated that thoroughly. My mom named him Rusty right after birth, and I have a feeling the name will stick.
At first, I was afraid Reece was going to reject this little white one, but she came around. I had to assist a little with the birth of this second one. She came out head-first {they usually come out front feet first, from my understanding} and then her head popped out and Mama quit trying to deliver. At first, everything was fine, but then I noticed she {see? I must think this one is a doe} was trying to breath. I had scissors handy just in case, and clipped the bag and slipped it off her nose and she coughed a cute little cough!
And then she had to just hang out there for five minutes or so until Mama decided to continue pushing! Poor baby!
They are both doing great and will be a big hit at the birthday party on Monday. {Who needs party games?}
I was going to add a video, but I’m having technical difficulties and I’m short on time to try and figure it out, so photos are all. Aren’t these babies darling?
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They’re adorable!
I’m surprised that one is white and one isn’t — I wonder if Kinder genetics works differently than in full-sized goats. Normally, white is the dominant color (meaning, if one parent is white all the kids will be regardless of the other parent’s color). Or is it possible that she was bred by two different bucks? I know that’s common in cats but I’ve never heard of it in goats.
Anyway, congratulations! And happy birthday to your oldest. What a fine gift.
That is interesting Kelly because something about the coloring struck me as odd, but I really didn’t know much about the genetics. I don’t know much about their breeding, but I *do* know that they are not full-blood Kinders like their mother. And she is a first generation Kinder, which means *her* parents were a Nubian doe and a Pygmy buck. These babies were sired by a Boer buck because the owner was culling and selling his Kinders and that was all he had on hand. I don’t know how well they will sell because of that, but there are no Kinder bucks right now in the area, so we’re keeping the buck baby and that’ll make the offspring of Charlotte 3/4 Kinder, which is pretty good, I think.
A friend told me that Boers usually throw brown/white or all brown offspring, so where the solid white came from beats me. I only saw one solid white out on the ranch and she was some sort of weird cross and not related at all to what we bought.
I have a relative that does AI and we might have him take care of things next time around, especially if we want full-blooded babies. Reece has a couple genetic issues that make her undesirable as breeding stock {I just keep praying she will be a good milker because that is what we bought her for}, but Charlotte is an excellent specimen {I went over the breed standards again recently} so she might be worth that kind of investment in time and care and money.
Mike just told me this afternoon that a white doe of our we sold a couple of years ago just kidded — she had a white and a dark. Her mother is Psyche, who is half Saanen and half Alpine. Her father was half-Nubian, half-Alpine, and so was the buck she was mated to. So now I have to study more about goat genes. We’ve had several whites mated to colors and they’ve all thrown white babies. I hadn’t realized anything else was possible!
These babies were fathered by a Boer meat goat. When we went to pick up a rabbit yesterday, I checked out the Boer herd they had–lots of babies about a month or two old. Anyhow, they were about 50% solid brown, and 50% brown/white blotchy. I didn’t see a *single* solid white, and yet this breeder was positive they were fathered by a single Boer goat. I don’t know much about genetics, but I thought that was fascinating.
The mother is mostly black, which makes it all the more interesting to me.
So now you’re a goat midwife! Very exciting, but I have to confess that when I saw your post title I was hoping you had your own news to share. lol!
Goat midwife. I like that! 🙂
I *wish* I had my own news, but unfortunately my last pregnancy compromised my ability to have any more children. But at least Number Four and I survived to tell the tale! 🙁
Oh, so sorry to hear that, and yes, we are glad you survived too!
Well, I suppose you did just have two more ‘kids’. Isn’t it funny how when we get goats, we must really clarify that word! I was telling someone at church about some problem we were having with our kids, and he thought all along I was referring to our goats, when I meant ‘children’.
Take care.
I know exactly what you mean! The more involved we get with our goats, the more I’ve been training myself to call *my* kids “children” and my goat’s kids “kids!”
Memorable all around!
Too cute! Congratulations! And also congratulations and happy birthday to E.!