Rosie had her babies!

What a good goatie she is! We came out to feed and do chores this morning and voila! Two little angels were waiting for us. We think Rosie must've had them around 4am. We knew she was awful close and we kept checking her last night. She evidently didn't have any trouble and we didn't hear any screaming so she was quiet about it. Rosie's mother, Chocolate, on the other hand? Hooo boy. She is a screamer... an alarmist goat if there ever was one.

Rosie wanted NOTHING to do with her kids. I can imagine her thinking, "OW - that hurt!! Hmph! Those things are nuthin' but trouble and I want nuthin' to do with 'em!" Her attitude is good for me because I don't have to feel like the big, bad, carnivore ripping babies away from their mama's. (Many dairy goat farms bottle raise their babies for different reasons, other farms keep the does and kids together. Neither is wrong - just different ways o' doin' it.)

Rosie was curled up her in her little dogloo house while the babies were left in the bigger quonset hut where she must've had them, damp and squallerin' for food. We weighed them, dipped their navels in iodine, put them in the straw filled stock tank in our heated bunk house.

Furry Husband brought Rosie her warm water mixed with molasses and I milked her. Sorta tricky with fresh teats smaller than my pinkie fingers! She milked out 4lbs of colostrum which we heat treated and bottle fed to the babies.

She had a doe and a buck - cute little buggers. They are strong and healthy and don't seem to be very offended their mama didn't want anything to do with them. Rosie seems happy to be done with the whole event and was happily eating her alfalfa hay along with her yummy molasses water.

I'll take pictures tonight for you! I didn't have time this morning. They are Adorable with a capital A.

A big spring storm is rolling in and we are expecting a deluge of rain and/or snow today through Saturday. It is gonna be a muddy, muddy mess at our place... the new babies will have to wait for better weather before we let them out to play. Right now, their job is to eat, sleep and grow stronger to play when the nice weather rolls around.