Ah, spring is in the air! And all the things that go with it. It's a busy time around here. A couple of weeks ago it all started on March 3rd with the arrival of 50 baby chicks. Believe it or not, they come via USPS and we always get the call around 6:30 AM letting us know that a "NOISY" package is here and how soon could we come and pick them up?? They consume the contents of inside the egg before pecking their way out and it can sustain them for 2-3 days without food or water. So they overnight them and they come out hungry and thirsty and peeping! I have us set up pretty well now that we should be able to process 150-180 free range chickens this year. In 8 short weeks they will be huge (6-7 lbs.) and ready for their "haircuts"... shhh they don't seem to mind going for their "haircuts". They are delicious!
Then on the evening of the 6th as I was checking on the does before bed, the first 3 kids were here in the stall and mom was busy cleaning them up. All 3 were healthy looking and I got them nursing that all important 1st drink of colostrum before going back in. 2 blllys and a doe. The girl at a spot of "paint" on her back that looked like a japanese beetle so I named her first, Beetle. Then the names Abram and Jacob came to mind for the 2 boys.
On the 9th came the next kids, while I was in the chicken brooder tending to them in the morning, I heard a doe bleeting pretty loud and when I went out, the doe that lost her kid last year just gave birth to triplets. 2 were stillborn and the 3rd looked ok. I helped get them cleaned off and commensed to praying for life to come back into the ones not breathing. I had to give it up after about 10 minutes so I could help tend the one that was alive. I hate losing any kids but apparently this mother just doesn't get how to be a good mom. There are just some animals who don't take to it. I had a lot of difficulty getting the doe to let the kid nurse. I had to put her in the milk stand and she still was giving me a hard time. I ended up having to milk the goat into a bottle and inject some down the kid's throat. He seemed to perk up and I had to get to work so I assumed this goat would find the teat on his own and I'd check on him after lunch. He still hadn't stood on his own by lunch and it appeared that the mom wasn't very interested in him. She cleaned him up but wouldn't nurse him. That's how we think she lost her kid last year. Like I said some goats just don't get it. I was going to let this goat live it's coarse but I couldn't stand the cries for help and between my daughter and I we kept milking him. He was still lame after a few days and it was apparent, he had a major problem. We prayed for life to come into his limbs and then I noticed his eyes were getting milky too. He was blind and I started him on major vitamins and electrolytes as well as praying constantly. With another doe in the stall about to kid, it's good to have 2 does with kids otherwise the one without may get agressive and hurt the other one's kids. I named this kid Boomerang because I was declaring he was coming back! Boomer for short. Boomer finally succumbed one night this past week. Sad.
The next excitement came on the 11th. Another doe was in labor in the morning and she was starting to push. I still had to finish our magazine and kept checking on her periodically. Afternoon came and she was still pushing but nothing was happening. Something seemed wrong. I gave her until evening and then called a friend who is more experienced. Chris Fisher told me, "You have to go in and pull them out. They are most likely dead in there." I quietly rebuked those words and he told me that my hands would probably be too big and hard on the doe and that the vet normally sends out a girl with smaller hands to deliver goats and sheep. I asked my oldest daughter who was home and had a rough day at the office to help. She was gung ho and got scrubbed up to her elbow and out we went. It was pretty chilly but it didn't take long to work up a sweat. She slowly put her lubed hand into the goat and started feeling around while I held the goat still. We were both praying the entire time and she said "I feel a leg I think". "Start pulling and feel for the head if you can." I told her. She couldn't feel the head but pulled two legs out but couldn't seem to work it out anymore. I felt so bad for the mom, she must have been in a lot of pain and discomfort. So I switched with her and pulled real hard and finally after quite a time, I pulled out the largest goat kid I've ever seen! I later weighed it and it was over 8 lbs., normal goat kids are 5-6 pounds. This kid's legs were 2 inches longer than the other ones! Whew, no wonder she had troubles. The kid's head was not facing forward and most likely was dead already from being in there too long. But with this one out of the way, Gretchen went back in and felt another one and pulled out a live kid, back legs first... or breech. With the legs coming first she came out real easy... and was alive. We let the mom rest for a few minutes and then I "bounced" her. Wrapping my arms around her belly and lifting her and bouncing her I could feel another kid in her. Gretchen went in again and found the back legs, again breech and pulled her out too. She too was still alive. We then tended the kids and helped mom who was really pooped after all that. She couldn't stand right away so we helped and dryed her kids and prayed over the dead one trying to revive her... I think her neck was broken from pulling her out.
I asked my "mid-wife" if she wanted to name these kids since she delivered them... as she held the first one to come out, she said Leena! She looks like a Leena and the other she named Rachel. That was the 2nd place name we had for her when she was born. These girls had some trouble nursing because their mom was really exhausted. I had some leftover colostrum saved from the other goat and we got some injected down their thoats for the night.
The next morning it took some work and the milk stand again but I finally got the doe to nurse her kids a little. She was really focused on recovering herself I think and not thinking about these kids. I gave them all the good stuff to help them along. Leena looked kind of weak by the end of the next day and all she could do was stand next to mom with her back arched. She was bound up. Not enough colostrum or couldn't handle the other doe's milk. I heard the Lord speak to me, give her mineral oil. So I sent my daughter to the pharmacy and started her on some mineral oil and tended to the mom more with some Pennicilin injections along with some red cell booster and nutri-drench vitamins. The next days both these girls looked much better (Wed. was Leena POOPED day!) as did the mom and she was nursing them regularly now.
There is still one more doe to go. She is looking like she's ready today maybe. As I reported last year, we raise these critters as Word fed goats and chickens. I have an old iPod and speakers in the barn playing the Bible on a loop 24/7. We like the book of Acts the most for them. We believe this Word is so powerful and is alive that the animal's bodies will absorb the Word and be filled with it. The goats are raised for the specific purpose of feeding Muslims and we believe and declare that they are eating the true Word of God and will be transformed by it. The girls are kept to increase the herd at this time. The chickens are for anybody to consume, however; we prefer selling them to unsaved people so they too can consume His Word and be transformed.
With 5 surviving out of 9 total, this year has been a real dichotomy of emotions. We cheer the new life and we mourn the ones who don't make it. We praise God for it all anyway. It may seem to some that our prayers were not heard this year because of the lost ones we didn't revive. Last year we had a different result as I discovered a dead one just born. When I laid my hands on her and prayed, she sprung to life. So we just never know the full story. We pray, He decides which way it will go. In the end, it's His will be done, not ours.
Here's this year's crop of kids so far... they certainly are entertaining to watch them grow!!
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