February Update

The ten pasture babies began to ALL show up at feeding time so no changes were made. I still have no idea as to the sex of them as there is no way to catch them all. There are six white ones and four red ones and they are cute. Three were trying out the goat feed today. That's good. I need to drop back the bottle babies to two feedings soon so they will start to experiment with other food possibilities.

The Goldfinches I mentioned in previous post are all gone. I guess they were active preparing for their trip back north. They were turning yellow. The other birds won't go through the seed as fast now.

It was very warm today. The computer said 93° and it's 90° now at 6:00 pm. It's supposed to cool off though. Hope so. Still a county wide burn ban and still very dry. We need rain. I noticed that all the holly bushes around the house were eaten by deer while we were both recently gone. They will come back though although probably no blooms.

Bottle Babies & Helpers

The four bottle babies are getting bigger. They are also getting harder to handle. Kenzie & Tessie help when they can. At least they can keep them rounded up for me. Right now I have these four on a 9:00 am-2:00pm-10:00pm feeding schedule. They are fun to watch. They are in the hopping and jumping stage now.

The pasture herd seems to be doing fine so far. I couldn't find a baby yesterday and that had me worried, but there were ten today when I went to feed the adults. I don't like the fact that the nannies are leaving the babies on the mountain when they come down to feed so I'm going to start feeding up there tomorrow. Grass is coming in so they are starting to stay up in the mountain pasture for most of the day.

I've really spooked some hidden deer in the last few days trying to find the kids. I'm recharging the stealth cam.

There was a Blue Jay in the fountain this morning so looks like they are here to stay. The gold finches have also been very active. I did get 150 lbs of bird seed today. They go through it fast.

Bottle Babies

I have been away from the ranch for twelve days. The DW (dear wife) was going to be here, but due to her mothers failing health was also away. A big thank you to the neighbors who pitched in and helped. It was not an easy task considering the birthing of kids, bottle babies, sick nanny, and everything else happening.

Final count seems to be ten kids with nannies and four bottle babies. Feeding the bottle babies will keep me on a regular schedule for a while. I've set up a small pen by the house for the four little darlings and make it easier to feed them.

Here is a photo just following this mornings feeding. They all seem to be good kids. These are 3 females and 1 little billy. I'm not sure of the sex of the ten in the pasture as yet. I have to get to town to get feed, but wanted to post this as per request.

The lowdown: We lost 4 kids to predators and 2 naturally. We lost one Nanny after birthing resulting in two bottle babies. One bottle baby was a triplet, and one abandoned. Four bottle babies total. Ten kids healthy and with Nannies. Wenny, the nanny who lost her kids, is recovering and is doing well. Total goat herd as of today should be 25: 10 does, 1 billy, 14 kids.

Groundhog Day

The sun is shining and it's a very clear bright day. We'll see what that means although I think we'll have an early spring.

Very sad news I'm afraid. I think all four babies may be gone. I could not find them yesterday at feeding time, but sometimes the mothers hide them. I searched this morning with no results. Also Winnie is acting very odd. She did not go up the mountain with the other goats, but stayed in a pen which is very odd for her. Not sure if it's something about birthing, she was possibly injured, or she knows she lost the babies. I gave her a drench of vitamins. I'm not sure what would have got the babies. Mountain lion perhaps but could be a neighbors dogs. I did see a dog in the goat area during the last birth season, but I scared it away without any loss. The fact there are no remains could mean a big cat. They carry off what they capture. It could also be a pack of coyotes. Very unusual that four baby goats would disappear in one night though.

There are more babies coming and I will be on the look out.