2013 Kids on HIll Kidding Aunt B is in the kidding pen, April 7th.

[20kidsonhill]

No udder boom today, nothing much going on. Peaches, and Haley both have low low bellies. Star is looking strong and sturdy and her belly looks failry high still but she has a due date of January 6th, (152 days) so somethign should be happening soon.
Maybe I should get some more photos, a nice day out side, the barn yard is a mud hole, it is driving me crazy. We are going to try to work on some drainage over the weekend. Some of the ditch areas that we originally had in the barn yard area have filled in over the years and it is part of the problem with the mud, One side of the barn from the roof runs off and then has to go through the barn yard, behind the barn to continue down hill. With it not being ditched properly anymore it is pooling in the barn yard causing one heck of a mud hole. Worse it has ever been.

I have a couple does with runny poop(not watery, more pudding like), may be the new protein tubs that we put out a week ago. THey are eating a lot of it. Not sure what to think about it. ;

 

[jodief100]

What kind of protien tubs do you use? We had some out last year but I think the goats just liked the mollasses.

I can't wait to see your new babies!!!!!

 

[20kidsonhill]

What kind of protien tubs do you use? We had some out last year but I think the goats just liked the mollasses.

I can't wait to see your new babies!!!!!

We are trying the Sweetlix meatmaker tubs, it is 50 or 60 lbs, a yellow tub, the tubs also work great for feeding and watering in and hold up like iron. They were $26.00 each. I put out two of them and I kid you not they have eaten an equivalent of one entire tub in ibe weejm 18 does. Seems like a bit ridiculous, I got them because I have first cutting hay I am using right now and i had a couple does last year that i needed to drench with molasses and calcium near the end of their pregnancy, figured it was just as easy to put out the tubs. I swear Peaches stands there all day eating on the thing.

Last couple years we had purchased on and off the crystalyx goat tubs, N20, a grey tub. It is suppose to be a really good brand and quailty. I should compare the amount of salt in the two tubs, They did eat this brand fairly quickly at times, but I don't recall it being quite so fast. Although, maybe being so pregnant and on this first cutting orchard grass(no alfalfa), maybe they are just really needing it. They did stop eating the loose minerals, because they are eating so much from the tubs. Not sure that is in the long run a good thing, Since the loose minerals have a heck of a lot of good minerals in them.

I think the N20 were these, but we got the 60 lbs and it came in a grey plastic tub, very handy around the farm. but it was like $52.00 and too expensive. http://www.feedinadrum.com/GOAT20N.html

It is that yellow tub in the photo and also we are using the Sweetlix loose goat minerals which is the bag in the photo on the upper right hand corner. http://www.sweetlix.com/?gclid=CLW21eK7z7QCFUbf4AodohUAQQ

 

[20kidsonhill]

A few random pictures, but I did try to get the girls that I think will be kidding first.

P79 in the feeder, Not due to kid until the end of the month, but check out Tori in the background.

A random group photo, snowball is by the yellow protein tub.

Star due Jan 6th, eating at the hay rack and those are some younger does and a young wether from Feb./March kidding in the little side pasture.

Haley looking pitiful, I would think she will kid in the next 48 hours, look at how low her belly has gotten, her skin is just hanging on her. She has also developed a terrible cough the past couple of days and antiobitics are in her near future. I wish she had a little more weight on her, She does look better than this picture shows, but she is a little thinner than I would care for her to be going into nursing her kids.

Another group pictures

From left to right, Daisy due end of January, Aunt B(Biotis) due end of March, Pepper laying down, and Annie is the paint doe.

this is a rough looking picture, Peaches is on the left and is due first according to due dates, Today to be exact, but I do remember her being in standing heat for a couple days and I believe they ovulate at the end of their heat cycle so that puts her due Saturday or Sunday. Her belly has really dropped and it is hard to see how big she is from this picture. The very very dirty doe is Hot mamma, she is itchy and has gotten mollasses all over her from the protein tubs, I am treating her. Hot mamma is due in about a week. The other doe iwith her head in the tub s Macy and also due in a week

nova laying down, due in 3 or 4 days and Annie standing up due in a week or so.

 

[Mamaboid]

just wanted to drop a thought about the coughing goat. Last year when my Nubi doe was in her last few weeks, she was huge and she coughed like anything. Had me about scared to death. Nothing that I felt safe giving her during her pregnancy seemed to help at all. Then presto, changeo, she had the kid and she stopped coughing the same day. It apparently was something pushing on something it shouldn't have been. Just a thought.

 

[goatsintheopen]

GREAT pictures!! Your girls look so pretty and so fat..Tori! LOL!! Looking forward to baby pictures.

I really like how you made those hay mangers off the fence like that. what a good idea!

You know, I may try to get a couple of those protein pans. I didn't realize how big they were. If my brain hadn't been preoccupied, I would of seen if the feed store I was in earlier carried them. ..I hope my girls would like them, and not protest em like they're protesting the scary, icky Alfalfa pellets.

 

[goatsintheopen]

Well, Goatsintheopen beat me with a really nice set of triplets. maybe I can talk her into posting a couple photos for us.

We are officially on "Kid watch" and have started to increase the number of times we check the does and look at rearends.
I think it is a race between Peaches and Haley, Peaches I know should be due Jan 4th, but Haley has no due date, but looks very ripe. Buck was put in on July 31st, so technically they could kid today. I have bred dates wrote down for several of them. Lots are due 9th through the 11th.

I will have to see if I can get them to stand still for me..you know how "awesome" I am when it comes picture taking..

 

[20kidsonhill]

just wanted to drop a thought about the coughing goat. Last year when my Nubi doe was in her last few weeks, she was huge and she coughed like anything. Had me about scared to death. Nothing that I felt safe giving her during her pregnancy seemed to help at all. Then presto, changeo, she had the kid and she stopped coughing the same day. It apparently was something pushing on something it shouldn't have been. Just a thought.

I was hoping she would kid soon, so I could make a decision after she kids. But that is interesting to know. I rarely have a goat that coughs, but we have been wet and warm during the day and then a storm or wind will blow in at night. hay is by no means dusty and they are getting lots of fresh air and we just cleaned the barn, no pnuemonia smell in the barn, put lime down and 6 inches of fresh bedding with clean straw. I do have another one coughing really bad. Fuzzball started couging about the same time and her nose is running. She had a 6 inch string of snot hanging out of it yesterday at one point when she was coughing, She should be due in a week, but not positive. She isn't real big and it is very possible she rebred another 3 weeks after wards, We were using a marking harnass at the time, I never actually saw her breed. fuzzball is looking awful, stunted, now she is coughing and yesterday she had some thick, balck, runny poop, which we are t hinking is from the protein tub. But I wormed her with Ivermectin and safegaurd yesterday to just make myself feel better.
Thanks for sharing. I will keep that in mind.

 

[20kidsonhill]

GREAT pictures!! Your girls look so pretty and so fat..Tori! LOL!! Looking forward to baby pictures.

I really like how you made those hay mangers off the fence like that. what a good idea!

You know, I may try to get a couple of those protein pans. I didn't realize how big they were. If my brain hadn't been preoccupied, I would of seen if the feed store I was in earlier carried them. ..I hope my girls would like them, and not protest em like they're protesting the scary, icky Alfalfa pellets.

I would call if that is the only thing you go into tow and look for, They have to be a dealer of Sweetlix to carry them, so that is the first thing you want to find out. Where is there a dealer. don't let them sell you just anything. Not all protein tubs or blocks are made the same. I am not even positive if I really like this brand, but I know a quite a few people who use it.

I see there is less salt in it that the other brand we were buying, that would for sure affect how much they eat. The more sell, the less of the product they will eat. I am thinking ones I start feeding the small square bales and alfalfa hay in the barn, they may eat less of it, but the two tubs will probably be gone by then.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I am up for my 5 am check and no kids yet. yawn, going back to be for a little while. Someone has to go pretty soon.

this is kind of how it feels waiting for the first kids.
Well you get the point.