Winter kidding benefits?

Well, it's too late for me to even consider winter kidding for this year but just for future reference........do you try to keep your kidding barn heated to a certain temperature, I mean not go below X degrees? I don't think my goat shed would be appropriate and the only other place would be to convert a barn box stall to a goat birthing area. I am still concerned about how cold that would be though. Maybe I could just put her up in the basement? Now THAT would go over well, I'm sure!

Seriously though, do newborn kids require extra warm temps or just above freezing, or ????

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

o8 will be our third season. We have always kidded in Feb. As many have said, no cocci no flies etc.
I do no use heat lamps. Some fresh warm towels from the dryer and everyone is good to go. If a kid is shivering & hunched I will bring it into the house for a couple of hrs with dams colostrum. The longest anyone has been in the house is two nights in the unheated bathrm...
The most important thing is that they are dry and out of drafts. I also have kidding pens, no one kids outside in the muck. They are usually brought in a few days before due date...if one looks like she's ready I bring someone else for a buddy also preggo in the next pen. They stay there 3 days after kidding.

Goat Servant, but what are February temps for you, where are you located? I'm in eastern Ontario in Canada. February temps here are in the range of -25 C on a really cold day, maybe -15 on a regular "warm" one. The barn would be barely warmer as there are generally no animals stabled in there unless the weather is really bad. So there wouldn't be any warmth from that.

Do kids make out ok in below freezing weather? I mean, on a nicer day, do they go out in the snow? I would really worry about that, but maybe I'm being too cautious?

I could put my soon-to-deliver goats in a horse stall and heat lamp it, but how long should you use extra heat sources? Is there generally a temp you prefer not to go below?

And what about if your doe delivers when you aren't there to towel the kids off?

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

I make sure my stall is heated to about 45 degrees when they kid and once the kids are dry, jumping around and generally okay, that gets dropped just so it stays above freezing and by the time they go out (a week or so) it's off.

I kidded out a boer doe a few years ago, before we had the heater and only a heat lamp and the doe didn't want the kids near the lamp - she stayed in the corner of the stall, and it was very cold, maybe only 10-15 degrees inside, late March, and both of those boer kids had frost bit ears, AND I was there to even dry them.

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ADGA Nigerian Dwarf and MDGA Mini Mancha goats for show, home use and pets www.dbarjacres.webs.com Located in North central Wisconsin

We breed for Jan-Mar kids. Our market is for 4h market wethers, so they need to be both within those 3 months. This year I bred my fainters for the same time just our of convience. I have all my does in one barn, and my bucks in another. They are seperated into breed pastures in late summer/early fall. Yearlings are seperated out and sometimes bred in summer if i feel like reaaranging everything again. Usually not though.
Laura

dbarjminis, how do you heat your stall?

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Teach only Love...for that is what You are

DixyDoodle we are in NW Washington. It does not get terribly cold. It can get down to 15 for short periods of time but generally our winters are mild compared to most other places.
The cooler the temps, the more active they are. I don't worry about the snow so long as most of them have sense enough to stay dry! Right now there are a couple of 10 mo olds who are on the bottom of the food chain and are often wet. We are in the process of putting in more shelter & another hay feeder.

For you people who use heat lamps: I have heard that mice can chew the wires. Have any of you had problems with this?

I have heard more problems with them getting knocked over and starting a fire...I'm too scared to use one... that's why I'm wondering how dbarjminis heats the stall for kidding.

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Teach only Love...for that is what You are

We have an electric wall mount heater (you can find them in Northern Tool catalog or our local Fleet Farm stores have them, Menards probably does - it is a kind of heater guys use in their precious heated garages, haha - Think they are about $200 new, but DH got this one from a buddy for $75) It's wired direct to a breaker box and requires 220 (I think - I know we ran a special wire out there from the garage and it's got it's own breaker box). That thing can pour out the heat, but the electric bill would show it too I imagine. I turned it on this past Sunday when I brought all the girls in to trim hooves and it probably warmed up 20 degrees in a half an hour. Don't use a milk house heater! Those things just suck electricity and I don't think they are safe cause they can tip over easily, but they are made to shut off when they do, but there is always a possibility they won't.

All our heat lamps are less than 5 years old and we hang them by a chain from the ceiling and no less than 2 feet from the floor. Heat lamps aren't dangerous, it's the people that hang them poorly or put them in bad places.

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ADGA Nigerian Dwarf and MDGA Mini Mancha goats for show, home use and pets www.dbarjacres.webs.com Located in North central Wisconsin

I have to many cat around to have any mice, so I have never had that problem. As for the lamp causing a fire, yes that is ALWAYS a scare. I have mine high enough that it really just cakes the real chill off the air, and that is ONLY for those that are born in the real cold, or they seem to be a little weaker then I like. I also tie the lamp on so it will not go anywhere. Also I have three light fixtures on the roof, and I have the one that is closes to the stall that they are in with a heat lamp bulb in it so that also will hep take the real chill off the air. I really do not know it that even works, but I feel better doing it.

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Lori

We have a local boer farm that has their largest kidding season right around Christmas. It works well for them since they are both teachers. They tell us that it can be blowing snow and ice with sub-zero temperatures, but as long as they are there with a hair-dryer to get them dried off as soon as they are born, those kids will be just fine.

Jerry Fletcher (poster #2) sounds like he has the same kind of setup for buildings that they do.

We did a pasture walk at their farm in September to tour the farm and learn about their fencing improvements, feeding, winter management, and marketing strategies. The Bordens of Hill Place Farm currently run about 130 boer does, the majority being purebred with a few alpine and sanaan crosses, on about 30 acres of browse and pasture. Breeding begins in late July to have kids in December and January, thus meeting the market for 40 lb Easter kids. In order to balance the busyness of kidding season, they currently breed a number of does for September kiddings. The other top market is for 100 lb. kids is at Christmas time. The Bordens have found that the value per pound is only half of what it is at Easter time. So it is a better financial decision to sell at Easter instead of having to feed and maintain the market kids from spring through to December. The annual Northeast Premier Breeders Annual Boer Goat Production Sale at the NY State Fairgrounds is where they sell their top line production stock.

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Well, technically the mice can chew the wiring of your barn that's in the walls, too. I would be more concerned about leaving the heat lamp wires down where the goats could chew them.

The heat lamps we use are similar to what you use for poultry. They aren't on a stand or sit on the floor, they hang from a chain, like dbarjminis does. I have a solid hook (goes in a complete loop through the ceiling so no pulling out) that the chain attaches to. I would not recommend a "c" hook, use something that is "o" shaped to keep from slipping. Attach really well. The ones I use are not overly energy draining, not even close to the outdoor water heater's energy drain (1500 watt).

The lamp has to be up enough that your goats cannot reach it on their hind legs or where hay will have any chance of falling on it. They do work quite well to raise the temp in a barn---just not sure if it would be raised enough for winter births here in Canada, at least not for my wimpy tastes. I hate the cold.

Me, I think I will stick to late-spring (May) kids for now. I would worry too much about the cold. Perhaps when I have a newer shed built that I can heat specifically for does/kids.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."