We had about five inches of snow on Thursday. Naturally our 2008 goat crop began to arrive on Wednesday afternoon. After carting mothers and babies over to the maternity barn in the frightful cold, I decided that every goat that looked "imminent" was going to be moved over prior to kidding. This plan almost worked.
One of the "imminent" mothers kidded that day in the maternity barn -- happily. There were a couple others who fooled me because they didn't look that far along. We whisked one mother and baby over, warmed the baby and got them settled, attended the others, etc. after getting down through the snow on Thursday. On the way back through the big barn, something made me double check the stall where Harvey was laying. There was afterbirth on the ground. To my amazement, I found the second baby, alive and even somewhat warm, in one of the ATV tires we use in which to place water buckets! I had a towel in my hand, quickly wrapped the baby up, and went back to the maternity barn to warm it up. It's Saturday, and so far, this set of twins has been doing fine with their mother.
Note to self: always trust Harvey! He knows all about goat kids.
That's a lot of drama. Last night, as I was feeding the mothers, one started labor and had a set of twins before I left. I cleaned up her stall and towelled off the babies.
The last batch of "X" kids are doing fine in the big barn with the rest of the herd. They are little monkeys, imitating the others and getting into everything. They even followed the herd on Friday through the snow and got back in one piece.
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