Yesterday afternoon a friends doe "Cookies & Cream" who was bred to our buck "Basil" kidded here at the ranch.   I was away at the time so Bekah handled the mid-wife duties and did just fine helping get the babies cleaned up and making sure Cookies had the warm molasses water we always give our does after kidding.   The black & white doe kid has blue eyes, and the chocolate & white doe kid has brown eyes.   I'm not sure at this time which if any of them she will ultimately put up for sale.

Now comes the hard part of raising goats - not being able to keep them all!

Midnight Blues is going to be staying on as a buck - which we are very excited about, but that means his sisters will need to be sold. 

Goldrush has been traded for a proven buck that will be arriving in the next month or two.  That brings my buck total to 4 which is more than we really need, so since we have several Mojo daughters already in our herd he is now for sale. 

Pumpkin Pi (a Mojo daughter) is staying and will be my replacement doe for Mame' instead of Levana.   Pi and I just clicked  from the moment she was born and like her dam (my favorite doe) she will leave the other goats to seek attention specifically from me.   Gotta love that!

We love Confetti - her personality, color, blue eyes and the fact that shie is polled, it is just that her body type isn't matching up with where we are trying to take our herd.  Ari has reluctantly agreed to give up "his" girl.

Finally the cutie pictured here and three cute little guys  will be available as wethers.  Either as bottle babies, now or in about 4 weeks when they are weaned.

We have more goats still to kid this year and so we haven't decided yet if we are going to keep or sell Roni's doe kid "Shirli" yet.  The three pictured below, Midnight Blues, Pumpkin Pi and Roadrunner are all definately staying!

The does have only had their "maternity haircuts" but I thought I'd snap some udder shots anyway.    When the weather warms up I will be giving them full body trims and take more pictures, but I wanted to get some now when they are all about a month into this freshening.   Well except for Roni who kidded less than 48 hrs ago, but I thought I would include her anyway.

Maple's udder 12 hours in milk and 30 days into her 2nd lacation.  She is giving about 4# a day.   She tends to squat on the milk stand so it is hard to get a good picture that really does her udder justice. 

Mame's udder 12 hrs in milk and 28 days since freshening for the 5th time.  She is giving about 4# a day right now.

Choc-o-latte's udder 12 hours in milk and 24 days into her first lactation.   We are quite pleased with her capacity as she is milking a little over 4# a day right now.  Her large orifices makes her so quick to milk, and the texture is so soft!

Roni's udder just under 48 hrs since kidding for the 3rd time.  She only had a single doe kid, so there hasn't been much demand placed on it.  She milked out the equivlent of just over 4# shortly after these pictures were taken. 

Roni finally kidded on day 149 with a single doe kid.   Right now she has hazel eyes so I'm not sure what eye color she is going to end up with, but it won't be blue.

She is a cute little girl with one big spot in the center of her back and two smaller spots on either side of it. 

I think it was one of the oddest labors I have ever witnessed.   Roni's udder filled very rapidly between 6am and my next check on her at 10am.  So I was resonably certain she was going to kid that day.!   She was very restless and calling to her babies off and on most of the afternoon and having visible contractions but never laying down.   For a couple of hours she would only allow my friend Dorothy near her,  and was making the oddest noises.

Finally at 3:30 she lay down and gave some really big pushes.   At that point I thought we would be seeing babies momentairly.  Boy was I wrong!  She repeated that pattern, of 3-4 really hard pushes followed by her getting up and walking around until she finally kidded about 7:15pm.   I was really hoping for twins so I wouldn't have to worry about a lopsided udder, but I am happy that at least her single kid was a very cute doeling.

It seems that Jr thinks that he had something to do with all these bouncing babies running around.  He likes to hang out with the babies and frequently crows over them.

The 10 surviving kids are all doing well, even little Hershey who it turns out is a fearless little thing that is always up for a new adventure.

Tonight we will be seperating the kids from the moms overnight, a process that is sure to be rather loud.   In a day or two everyone will have the routine down and if the kids don't run into their overnight accomadations on their own their moms will send them.  Plus four of the buck kids are being pulled and will be bottle babies as four kids is more than Maple seems to be able to handle and it will be eaiser on Mame' and Choc-o-latte to only have two kids and of course 4 kids snuggled together at night is better than just two.

And while it will seem a bit empty to only have 6 babies in the pasture with the adutls, it won't be empty for long as Roni is due the 5th.   She isn't very large so she could have just a single, but we are hoping for at least twins - preferably doe kids of course.

Also I have added a photo gallery for this years kids under the 2013 Kidding Schedule page.