Babies! Babies! Babies!

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Babies, we’ve got babies! The past two weeks have been so busy here! Sleeping is no longer a priority, as baby goats have taken up all our spare time. Browmyn gave birth to baby Coco on March 1st around midnight. We knew Bromwyn was in labor - she had begun nesting (scratching at the ground and establishing a space in a corner), her tail ligaments had gone soft (a sign of their bodies getting ready for delivery) and she was showing signs of dilation (use your imagination - I’ll leave at that so I don’t scare you with too much information). I was awakened around 12:30am to Julia knocking on the trailer door to say “We’ve got a baby!” Of course Bromwyn picked one of the rainiest, coldest nights to give birth, and we were all out in the goat stall bundled up in coats and hats freezing our butts off. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the actual birth, but I was there for the immediate aftermath when mama goat licks the baby clean and the baby starts to stand and walk. Coco was on her feet within half an hour of delivery, groping around for some milk from her mama. A problem with dairy goats these days is that they are no longer raised to nurse their babies, so a lot of them will not do it on their own immediately after they give birth, which is the most important time for them to nurse in order to guarantee the survival of the baby. A lot of goat-dairy farmers will take the babies away from the mothers right after birth and bottle feed and/or give away the babies in order to maximize the amount of milk the farmer can get from the goat. Because of this practice, more generations of dairy goats are unsure how to nurse, so it takes some encouragement on our part to get nature to kick in. Bromwyn was one of those goats. In order to get her to nurse, it took three people - one to hold her against the stall wall while she writhed around, another to hold her back legs from kicking and a third to guide the baby to the teat. What a project, especially at 1am. It took three days of forcing Bromwyn to nurse Coco every 3-6 hours before she started doing it on her own. We took shifts waking up in the middle of the night to make sure she fed, and sure enough, after three days, Bromwyn was nursing Coco without a fight. The other goats have been a bit easier than Bromwyn, thankfully. Of the other four goats that gave birth in the past two weeks, it took Aflac one day to nurse on her own and Phoebe, Piper and Paige all nursed immediately after giving birth.
We had a bit of a scare with Aflac’s babies the night they were born. Little William and Willow were born on an extremely cold night (upper 20s) and were unable to keep their body temperatures up on their own. Less than an hour after they were born they started to fade and Mama Aflac gave up licking them or trying to nurse, leaving them helpless. We had to step in with heating lamps, heating pads, hair dryers and towels to warm them up, then bottle fed them until they showed signs of revival. Pete and I sat in the goat-nursery from 10pm-2am keeping them warm, while Eric and Julia took the 2-6am shift. Mama Aflac accepted them again once they showed signs of life and with a little supplement of vitamin E and B and lots of cuddling, both babies are now thriving.
Overall, we have nine babies from five mamas. Goats usually have 1 to 4 babies per pregnancy, so I was a bit disappointed when the highest birth was just twins, but I’m more happy they are all healthy than anything else. Coco was first, then we have boy/girl twins William & Willow, Leo & Lila, Charlie & Chloe and Henry & Hazel. I spend at least an hour with them every day, cuddling with them and watching them run around like maniacs. They LOVE to be held and will climb right into your lap, regardless if there are other babies already in it. Baby goats have quickly become my favorite baby animals, even surpassing puppies (no!). How gushy does that sound?
Aside from all things baby-related, I have been making bread on a regular basis and learning more about the cheese making. Now that we have more goats to milk, we’re going to step up our production of soap, which will be another fun skill to learn. Between Pete, Wayne, Tommy and I, two more goat shelters have gone up, with two more to build. The dry-does (non-milking females) have been permanently moved to the closest pasture, with the two boys in the next one over. The mamas and their babies, Valentine (currently being milked) and Rosie (pregnant and due in a couple of weeks) are kept in the goat pens close to the house so that we can keep an eye on them.
The baby geese and ducks have graduated out of the nursery and now have open grazing access to the enclosed area in and around the goat pens. The geese are losing all their yellow feathers for white ones and the ducks are starting to develop blue and white wing tips. I can’t believe they used to fit in the palm of my hand, now they are half way to full grown! Ah kids, they grow up so fast.
I have absolutely enjoyed myself here and have learned more than I could have imagined, but I’m recognizing that it is time for me to get moving. I am leaving Serenity Acres the first week of April and heading to New Orleans. From there, I’ll be driving to Houston, Waco and Austin Texas, through Las Cruces, NM and into Tempe and Sedona, AZ. The first week of May I’ll be in the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, then spend the month of May moving up the coast of California with an ultimate destination of a farm outside of Eugene, OR for the summer. I am looking for lodging/ideas/fun in New Orleans and between Austin and Las Cruces if anyone has any suggestions to send my way, thanks! xoxo

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