Blazing Acres 1st Kidding Thread:samssimonsays olive surprise!

samssimonsays · Apr 17, 2017

Hahaha that's right.! His name is ralphie

frustratedearthmother · Apr 17, 2017

Great name! (but why did I think you were going to say his name was Popeye, lol?)

samssimonsays · Apr 17, 2017

frustratedearthmother said:
Great name! (but why did I think you were going to say his name was Popeye, lol?)

THAT would have been a hoot! I don't think he is wild enough to own such a name, at least not yet lol!

Goatgirl47 · Apr 17, 2017

He is so cute.

When is your next doe due?

samssimonsays · Apr 17, 2017

Goatgirl47 said:
He is so cute. When is your next doe due?

We aren't sure she took the first time. Shed be day 150 in 10 days I think? But she's got nothing happening. We will be ready and I'm watching carefully but I think she's due August 10th...

samssimonsays · May 2, 2017

UPDATE:

Tilda has a bit of an udder trying to start, bigger than a precocious udder and one side is bigger than the other. There is "milk" in it but she is showing no signs of having a belly or anything. I am 90% sure I felt movement and saw it one day so that is hopeful. Her Ligs are softening in the slightest as a month ago they were so hard they felt like bone. We will see what happens and if she is bred or not!

Olive and baby Ralphie are doing wonderful! He is 2 weeks old now and has started being separated at night from her so I can have all the milk in the mornings lol. She is 17 days fresh and on a 9 hour fill gave me just a hair under 6 cups this morning and would have given more but Ralphie's crying made her get antsy and I have learned not to press my luck! Especially since she is giving me just enough milk to feed Ellie, our new bottle baby, in her bottles. All are doing well and I am super antsy for warmer weather again! This weekend I got sunburned and monday we got 3 inches of snow.... ugh. The goats would like to be able to eat their grass....

Goatgirl47 · May 2, 2017

That is a good bit of milk! Last year my Alpine doe (as a first freshener) gave six cups of milk if we were lucky.

She usually gave about a quart.

You got a new bottle baby? What breed?

samssimonsays · May 2, 2017

Goatgirl47 said:
six cups of milk if we were lucky. She usually gave about a quart.

That was normal for Olives sister last year! 6-7 cups max fully milked out! Olive is little but she is Mighty! She is the one we got with a hernia and had some hiccups along the way. Culling wasn't an option as she was our heart and soul at that point and with 2 years to grow she ALMOST hit full height. She will never reach what she should have been but she is only an inch or so smaller at the shoulder and barely shorter length wise. I am beyond happy with her production and I feel like it is a great reward of sorts for sticking it out and loving her anyways.

Goatgirl47 said:
You got a new bottle baby? What breed?

We brought home a Nubian doeling. We have moved our herd to Registered Nubians solely with only keeping our Saanan/Nubian doe and Alpine doe (first does on our farm so they are special goats). We hope to be on milk test in the next couple years. Next year we will hold back a doe from our new doe Cece and then the following year will have kids from little Ellie. We had added in one registered doe and one registered buck last year (our first registered nubians) along with an unregistered buck with the doe. Then this year we got Cece, a registered doe, and turned out she has her SG 1*M (we had no clue other than she was registered and in milk) and brought home little Ellie the week after Ralphie was born

She is 10 days older and I have been on a wait list for 2 years from the farm so she was planned loooong in advance just hadn't had a doe born under my picks until her.

samssimonsays · May 2, 2017

Olives udder after 9 hours away from baby. It really is as soft as it looks and milks like a dream. Teats will grow with time so I am not holding that against her! They are already bigger than May's were last year at the end of her lactation.

Not sure if you can see the udder "trying" to develop on Tilda (FF). but it really is that uneven right now.... time will tell for when she kids I guess. I am not too concerned about it as she still has a long way to go and Olive started off lopsided too.