Baymule’s 4th Lambing

[B&B Happy goats]

She sure is packin them in, looks about ready for belly dragging. ...is she wide ?

 

[Goat Whisperer]

 

[Baymule]

Ewenique always has twins, is a great mother and is very milky. She isn't wide like Miranda was, but she looks like a pot bellied pig I used to have.

The ram, Speckles, was a twin, he is Miranda's son. So he is the half brother and Uncle Daddy to Miranda's ewe lamb Scotti. I won't breed Scotti or any of the ewe lambs I keep back to him. I'll either sell him or send him to freezer camp. He is 3/4 Dorper and is very calm. Sometimes he comes up and sniffs my fingers and that's about it. His Daddy, Ramburger, was a jerk and would butt me any time my back was turned. I shook a plastic bag at him and chased him. Ramburger went to Freezer Camp.

If Ewenique has a ewe lamb, I will keep her. I probably won't keep any others from this lambing, they have singles.

 

[Ridgetop]

If you don't have any lamb colostrum, goat colostrum will do. You can also raise lambs on goat milk. The milk is not as rich as sheep mil, but they will survive and grow. And your goats are already accustomed to being milked. A lot of sheep people I knew kept a milk goat just in case they needed to bottle feed lambs. An acquaintance came and got goat milk from us when his mare died after foaling. It kept the foal alive until they could find a brood mare to accept it. We supplied them with milk for about a month.

There is nothing like whole, unpasteurized goat milk for raising orphaned animals - except goat kids. I always pasteurized and heat treated for the goat kids. A trick I used to identify which was pasteurized milk and which was fresh, I put blue food color in the pasteurized milk. We drank our house milk unpasteurized, so the pasteurized stuff only fed the goat kids.

 

[Mini Horses]

I always kept colostrum from my mares, as well as milk after "in case". If I lost a foal in birthing, I'd milk the mare a few days to keep the freezer suppled. The donkeys too. So you'd see tags with names/dates & type...LOL Colostrum most important as the mares were all vaccinated, etc., but, tried to keep a few days worth for the foals to work onto goat milk. Always had a few goats in milk. Rarely needed more than colostrum as I'd normally get the foal to nurse. Never had an orphaned foal but, did lose a couple during birthing issues.

 

[Baymule]

Back when I kept a lot of rabbits, I'd breed 10 does at a time, so I could foster kits on other does if I needed to. That was a long time ago and I haven't done the animal breeding thing since. I have been blessed with my sheep, they are good mothers, have their lambs and raise them. I am learning more as I go, when Ewenique has her lambs, I'm going to milk out some colostrum for the freezer, so next time I will be better prepared.

 

[Mike CHS]

We took the easy way out and bought colostrum from an Amish market.

 

[Baymule]

No Amish around here. From the descriptions of Amish vegetables and other goodies, I sure wish we had an Amish population nearby. I think there is an Amish community in the Beeville area, but that's too far away.

 

[Mike CHS]

The community of Ethridge has the largest Amish population in the south. We have gotten to know several families and have really enjoyed getting to know them.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

There can be some really nasty things in colostrum. CAE and Mycoplasma are two big things in goats.

I wont touch colostrum from any other farm with a 10ft pole.....

@Baymule fingers crossed for a ewe lamb from Ewenique!