Kidding Season

We had Lambing Season. Should I count this month as Kidding Season when there are only two goats to kid? Amelia was first. Her udder has been firming up so I wasn’t surprised when I found her last night standing by herself near the barn wall and kind of grunting. I got a lambing (kidding) pen ready for her.

I put her in one pen and put her best friend, Ellie, in the pen next door.

Nubians have these long ears and I find them very expressive. I recorded a video of her ears, but I don’t know how to include it here. I guess I have to go to YouTube with it.

I went in for dinner and planned to keep an eye on Amelia with the barn camera that shows up on my iPad. It wasn’t long before it looked as though something might be happening. By the time I got back to the barn she had had those two kids that are right at her rear end. In almost no time she started to push out a third. It had one leg back but was coming out right on top of those other two. So I just pulled it out and brought it up front for Amelia to start cleaning.

Amelia didn’t want to get up so we brought the kids to her.

It wasn’t long before they were up and ready to nurse. This seemed so different than lambing. I could sit in the straw and watch and move kids around and Amelia didn’t care at all. I didn’t have to bend down as far to see if the babies were nursing. Even with the tamer sheep they are not happy when I try to reposition their lambs.

This morning I moved them to a bigger area—they will still be locked in for a few days, but there is much more room in this pen. By the way Amelia is a Nubian doe. She was bred to a Bohr buck—that’s where the white body/brown head markings come from.

The one that looks like Mom is a doe and the two that look like Dad are bucks.

Look at the curl to those ears. Do you suppose that there wasn’t much space when he was crowded in with his siblings?

Being alive for a day is a lot of work and requires rest.