This picture reminds me of something you would see from the 50's of a gang or a group of cowboys or something like that.  These five bottle babies were getting some playtime in the sun.  All of  the ones pictured above have sales pending with the exception of Patriot Blues who is being offered as a buck kid.   (He is the mostly white goat on the right side.) 

Of the eleven kids born in the past 10 days I am keeping Levana and Angie, and already have sales on most of the rest.  As previously noted, Patriot Blues is available as is his sister Cobalt Confetti and then Maple's doe kid Miriam.  Patriot & Confetti are bottle babies so could go at any time, but Miriam will be staying until she is at least 10 weeks old.

I have started milking Mame' and Rita although each still has one doe kid with her around the clock.  Both of them are doing very well, and Rita is giving me nearly 3lbs a milking.  And yes that is a lot - and she hasn't peaked yet!    I desperately need to find a one day milk test to get her in soon so she can get that much deserved milking star!  Rita's dam Millie, who has been in milk for 293 days as of today, is still giving us 2lbs (quart) of milk a day so drying off this persistent milker in the next couple of weeks isn't going to be easy.    She is due the 15th of June, and is once again bred to Sunny - the combo that resulted in Rita.  Really looking forward to seeing those kids!

Maple surprised us with TRIPLETS last night!   We weren't expecting her to have more than twins and we certainly weren't expecting to have her kid on only day 140!   

It was a good thing I was running late doing chores or Maple's labor would have gone undetected and there might have been a less than positive outcome as she did need some assistance giving birth and temps were in the low 30's over night.

Thankfully all three babies are healthy and doing fine this morning.  All three of them have blue eyes and the in this picture the lone doe kid is standing in the back. 

Seems like it was just a week ago that I was announcing quads being born here on the ranch - oh wait, I was!  And yesterday evening Rita also presented us with quads in the same ratio as Mame's quads - two does and two bucks - although this time three of the four have blue eyes.

Rita is being a good mom and all four babies are doing well this morning.   We will be evaluating the buck kids to see if they have the confirmation to stay bucks, as they certainly have a dam that is worthy of passing along her udder. 

At the end of April we will once again be having Penny Tyler and Joan Hicks come here to present a seminar on Nigerian Dwarf goats and the topic this time will be on kid evaluation.   Given that they have nearly 50 years of breed experience between them and that Penny was a judge for 10 years, I will defer to their opinions on whether or not to wether these two boys.

Rita along with the rest of us here at Wags Ranch are certainly enjoying the sunshine today after so many rainy and stormy days.

As of noon it doesn't look she will kid today.  Although if she keeps trotting up and down the hill she might just jump start things a bit.

Tomorrow is day 142 for Rita so today we let Mame' and her kids out into "general population" and got the kidding stall ready for the next round.   And when my camera died after just taking a few pictures this morning, recharging the battery is right up there at the top of the to-do list along with making sure there are plenty of towels ready for drying off newborn kids.

We will be separating Mame's boys this afternoon and moving them into the house for at least a week so that neither she nor they can hear each other while they are transitioned to the bottle.   After about a week they will go out to the extra kidding stall for a week or two before going on to their new home in mid April.   Their dark haired sister will be joining them there when she is weaned at 10-12 weeks.   I'm still not sure if I am going to retain the white doe kid whom we have named "Lavana" which means white in Hebrew.

Rita still has her ligaments, and while her udder looks HUGE she still isn't shiny tight yet so unless things change drastically over the next 8-9 hours I won't have to sleep in the barn tonight.

Mame' and her quads are all doing fine.  The first born and last born are the most lively of the bunch, and are already bouncing around on their siblings and dam.  

Try as I might I just can't get a picture of all four of them facing the same way.

Although the  kids are all about the same size the two boys will be removed from Mame' in another day or two and become bottle babies so that they won't keep their sisters from getting a full share of the milk.  The two boys and the darker of the two doe kids have a pending sale, and I am still deciding if I will retain or sell the white doe kid.