Well it just started

Awwww you so should mail me a few babies.

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Why so many? Do you live in an area that has that big of a market? Or are you hooked up with a processor that has a big market? Just curious.

OOOH, thanks for the baby picture fix!! We have two due any time in the next 2 weeks, your pictures should hold me over until then LOL.

Im about 3 hours from sacramento/sf/stockton area I sale out of the field or Ill haul them down to the http://escalonlivestockmarket.com/ plus I do my own hay cutting so I usually have any where between 3k to 4k bales of hay on hand for winter more in the summer.

All the goats are grass fed only they do get some grain now and then and right now they get a goat mix when they have babies on them.

Takes me about 1 year to get a goat to 100lbs and if I hit the market at the right time I can get up to 300 dollars a kid.

plus these are kind of my retirment instead of investing into the stock market I just put money into a goat market.

Just talked to my wife, two more does and anthor momma had just given birth two one but anthor on the way out.

New moon tonight could be along night anthor 6 hrs till I can get home and help the wife.

We started weighing today biggest was 10lbs 8 oz smallest was 7lbs 2 oz probaly an avrage of 8lbs 5 oz not for sure of the buck to doe ratio is and i'm avraging 2 kids per doe.

Oh, the insanity!! But it sounds soooo fun!

28 babies 14 momma, when I got home at midnight two giving birth in pens one in the road had to pull it inside need to get a count on B to F ratio working on that when I get a chance.

I noticed you have heat lamps up in your kidding pens. Should I do that? Do the rest of you guys run the heat lamps. I would have to run a line to the kidding pen. Would just lots and lots of good straw in the kidding shed do?

My doe is due on Feb. 12.

Tom

depends on your pen to be honest im using a barn right now i'm still pretty new but the barn is kind of drafty and im getting kind of close to capacity for does, Im going to move around some items and add more pens to help out this kidding. though this is my second kidding this year the first one was only 13 does and right now I have 14 that have kidded and alot more comming.

I have been researching climated controlled barns maybe its a pipe dream but im starting to think of changing my current ole barn into one and extending it out enough to be able to hand 50 to 100 does at time.

If its really cold it wouldn't hurt to have. For a couple days at least. Ifn you have a baby that is a little mopey to start with, maybe not developed a strong appetite yet a heat lamp could be a benefit. At the same time, its a heat generating electrical device and safety precautions should always be considered.

as of right now we are 14F to 14M (would be 15 if the other made it) and an avrage wt of 7.8lbs per baby and avrage 2 babies per momma.

I heard that the "Ramanadon" (spelling?) is in August this year

Beautiful little spotted Boers! No babies here yet either. A couple of my does are wide as houses, but no bags yet.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

Ramadan begins in the evening of Friday, July 20, 2012, and ends in the evening of Monday, August 20, 2012.

Ethnic holidays listed on the left in the green box. Targeted goat size, gender, etc., listed, too.
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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

We are a bit south of you (Ohio, just south of I-70) but we don't use heat lamps except in very rare occasions.
A kid that is dry, fed, and in a draft free area with a diligent mom should do just fine.
The past few years we've kidded out dozens of does from December- June...this year, our first doe isn't due until mid-February (bummer).
We did lose a couple here and there to the cold. Mostly first timers kidding in the snow, or a draft sneaking in.
We make it a point to be there when they kid in the winter and on really frigid days/nights we would turn on the propane blower heater and point it at a plastic tub covered so it heated up inside for the kids to be shuffled into after they were dried off vigorously. These were the kids being pulled for Prevention. The dam raised kids we got up and nursing as soon as possible.
The barn we use is an old bank barn. Full of holes and has drafts despite all the work done to winterize it. At head height we try to keep it around 40 degrees, so the floor is generally freezing.
The biggest concern with heat lamps is the very real risk of fires. Each year there are multiple stories of barns burning down due to heat lamps. We've used them in years past in very rare cases...and usually only when we were in the barn (dad used to spend as many as 20 hours a day in the winter in the barn).
Another option is little kid coats.

These two were born on a frigid morning around 2Am if I recall correctly. They were born on 1/12/11. I remember the timing because most of our does were more cooperative with kidding times than that. Those are just felted sweater sleeves with slits in them. Their dam, Sheila, wasn't real keen on the sweaters but she adjusted. Both of those kids survived just fine.

In the end, the choice is yours, but there are ways to ensure the health of the kid without the risk of heat lamps.
If you do decide to go the heat lamp route, make sure you secure all the wiring away from nimble and nosey goat noses.
Both of my local goat friends have metal barns that are just freezing in the wintertime. They both use heat lamps with success and in their cases, I probably would as well.
Some have created little heated areas for kids to crawl into, by tacking a heat lamp inside an upside down, very sturdy, plastic tub/dogloo. The kids can crawl into to keep warm. I tried looking for the articles and websites I had seen these in but can't find them with a quick search. Maybe someone else knows what I am talking about?
Here is a link for quick and easy goat coats.

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Roseanna
Morning Mist Herd
Journey's End Jerseys
Jerseys, Jersey/Norwegian Reds, Beef, Boers, Nubians & crossbreeds

Slugmar,
These goat pictures are making me crazy for our babies to get here! Thanks so much for sharing and giving those of us who have awhile to wait something to look forward to.

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Roseanna
Morning Mist Herd
Journey's End Jerseys
Jerseys, Jersey/Norwegian Reds, Beef, Boers, Nubians & crossbreeds

No heat lamps here in my goat home in South Texas. My goat barn is a wonderful OLD oilfield building that also went through an incarnation as a chicken house, and if that wood caught fire, it would be ashes in a minute.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

More baby pictures










I think i got them all so far not for sure

Love all the baby pictures Slugmar!

nzw tom, I'm also in michigan & I don't use heat lamps either. Like Roseanna said if they are good & dry, plenty of bedding & a good momma they will be fine, also out of the wind & elements.
I do give babies a Hot Water bottle under old towels to snuggle on & they learn to snuggle there really early & momma snuggles right next to them.
Too scared of barn fires & with goats if there's a will there's a way I figure & hate to take a chance with a heat lamp.

I hope you are getting some rest in between those kids!

Slugmar do you also supply the Easter market or just the older market?

HF