Waiting For Goat Kids Can Be Funny

Today marks day one of waiting for the goats to kid.  Cupcake is due first, and today is day 143.  We have the baby monitor hooked up now, and it's pretty interesting having the barn sounds inside.  When you're half asleep, you can come to some strange conclusions about what's going on.  :)  Early this morning I thought the chickens had gotten out and made their way to the house.  Dan got up around that time to look for "the crazy toy we had that sounds like a rooster".  I'm going to have to get a human kid to go to the barn and bleat like a doe in labor so I can tell where to set the volume. ;)
I think Cupcake will go a little while yet.  I can still feel tail ligaments and her udder isn't very full yet.  She's looking hollow though, so it shouldn't be too long.

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Once again, we're having some real camera problems at North Forest Farm, but if one of them decides to work today, I'd like to get some new photos of the prego gals put up.

Preparing and Waiting for kids...

Waiting is the hardest part about kidding season.  The does are getting so big now, and having more trouble breathing around those bellies full of kids.  It's fun to speculate on how many each doe will have, and what they may look like.  Cupcake seems pretty uncomfortable.  She's often reluctant to move from her favorite spot now, and it's easy to see why.  As she should have about two weeks to go now, I've begun a bit of grain for her.  Just 1/2 c. per day for now, 1/4c in the morning and 1/4c in the evening.  I'll also be offering her a little alfalfa in about a week, when I can start all the pregnant girls on it without the risk of having huge kids.  I like to stay away from the chemical wormers as much as possible, especially when milking, so I try to get that over with before I start milking for the family.  I will be administering a wormer to each doe the day after she kids, and hope that combined with the earlier start to our kidding season will give us a better spring in terms of parasites.

I plan to clean kidding pens this week, and have one more kid safe hay rack to build.  We used these little wire hay racks
 
our first kidding season, and won't do that again.  Way too many close calls with the kids.  They want to jump into the racks and curl up on the hay, and can so easily get a leg, or worse, their head, caught in them.  I had one kid nearly hang himself that year, and the same month a friend of mine had a kid break her leg in one.  I made the racks in the following photo with old crib rails.

Much better, and no danger to those always curious and busy kids! :)

I'll also be getting my kidding supplies ready this week, and getting the baby monitor set up so I can at least hear what's going on in the barn.  I'd love to be able to see as well, but that will have to wait for now.
For anyone curious, I'll try to post about what I keep in my kidding kit soon.