Circle M Farm

Well, all of the bottle babies are outside for the day and they’ve really come into their own little personalities now that there’s room to jump and and prance and roll. There is just nothing in the world like a baby goat, though a baby sheep comes close. Goat kids are strong, inquisitive and a bit clumsy. Like Bambi on the ice, they are all legs and look graceful even when they are falling off logs or the backs of their mothers. Last year one of my dwarf kids, Annabelle, was just weeks old and balancing on top of Daisy while the full-size doe stood up giving birth to her own buckling. Mine are now nibbling on each other’s ears, climbing in and out of buckets and talking in their high-pitched na-a-a-a-as non-stop. They will fall asleep standing up, and then suddenly twitch and leap two feet in the air before running headlong into a wall. They are so clean, so perfect, so soft and so delicious smelling.

I’ve had the two large bucklings, Conrad and Bambi, in the house for a few days while they recovered from their first night’s chill. They have bounced back well and can probably stay out for good. Little Lily Hope, the tiny runt ewe lamb, will probably come in nights for a while still, as we’re still looking at evening temps in the 20s. And 6 inches of snow are predicted for tomorrow! So much for getting more carrots planted. I’m going to have to content myself with seeding leeks in flats this week. It’ll be fun to watch them germinate so fast in front of the fire, though.

The good thing about Conrad and Bambi being weak was that I was forced into making a decision about bottle feeding the goats. Most people who keep goats for milk take the babies away at birth. There are a number of reasons, some involving disease prevention and others having to do with milk production. I haven’t been able to bring myself to take the babies away in the past, and I’d been putting the decision off this year, too. If you don’t take the babies straight away, you won’t have milk for yourself for several months of the doe’s year-long lactation. Then, you’ll have to pull babies away from mothers they’ve gotten very attached to and listen to them cry for each other for weeks. Last year, I took Geraldine’s baby away and gave him back about four times. I finally had to sell him to separate them! Little Biscuit. He went to friend and nieghbor Christine Hulet. The nice thing about bottle babies is that they attach to you and become the tamest, sweetest pets you can imagine. My previously bottled goats are all three years old and still follow me around the pastures, their noses touching my hands as I walk.

So I’ve made the decision to bottle feed all four goats, which will get me in milk instantly and provide little Lily with a play group. Otherwise she’d be a loner, having no family group of her own to run with, and she’d be the weaker for it. That’s the way it works with herd animals, and more than likely with us, too.

The bad thing about Conrad and Bambi being stronger now is that they are to leave the farm for a while. Madison day care teacher Cheryl Robinson has asked to borrow some bottle lambs for a few weeks and I will send her the big twins. They will get more attention there, as my kids are in school all day and I’m doing farm work. Having them to care for will be so delightful for her students! It’s good to share the wonderful things you’ve got, and I’ll still have little Bradford, Hulaballo and Lily to play with until the rest of the goats and sheep are born.

In the meantime, all five are living together in a sheltered pen in the calving barn. I’ve moved in a stump for me to sit on and some buckets for them to play in, and lots of sweet smelling hay for bedding. I’ve got four feedings a day to hang out with them and get to know each little one. Bradford almost looks evil, in a Puckish, mischievous sort of way, his ears standing straight up when he eats. He’s been sucking on Hulaballo’s ears and now they are a bit droopy. Maggie says I’m supposed to wrap them, according to her ag class textbook, but I can’t imagine how! He seems no worse for it, however, as he’s the most adventurous climber and magnificent tumbler. Conrad and Bambi are pretty much indistinguishable, pure white in their matching blue sweater-sleeve jackets, but Conrad is a bit taller. They both are always in a hurry to climb over each other to nowhere in particular. Lily looks like she’s maybe one of their pets, she’s so much smaller, but has the most powerful lungs by far. Whenever I peek into the barn they are all curled up together in a big pile of baby. But as soon as they spot me, they are up and jumping, clamoring to be the first to eat.

Gabby now is in the the pen next to them. She’s my Nigerian Dwarf mama, ready to pop any minute and looking like a rootbeer keg on popsicle sticks. As I feed the babies, I hear her whine and nuzzle her sides. I actually read a goat website that said the behavior was the doe talking to her kids in utero. But having born four kids myself, I’m pretty sure that’s just her complaining that she’s feeling awfully tight!