The Goats and the Bees

You can add two more kids to our number - goat kids, that is. Bien gave birth to two bucks today. Her delivery was more eventful than Kiki's, however.

When B.J. and I did chores this morning, we both commented that Bien's udder was looking larger, but we've said that every morning for about a week now. We were running a little later than usual, so B.J. headed in first to get ready for school, while I was in the barn until about 7:30.

I put Marie down for a nap right after lunch and headed out to check Bien around 12:30, just in case. Bien was pawing around and bleating - she had birthed only the limp head of a goat baby!

That's when our busy afternoon began. Once I started trying to help Bien with baby #1, I realized the problem - baby #2's nose was edging its way out as well. So I tried pushing baby #2 back, but my first attempts were futile, and Bien was panicky. That's when I ran to the house to tell Leah and Will what was going on and to call my dad for some moral support - he's assisted a lot of ewes with birthing. Back to the barn, with Leah and Will in tow, of course. Leah was my ready and cheerful assistant - she ran to the house for the Vaseline (to lubricate my arm), went back later for a bucket of soapy water, fetched more drinking water for Bien, brought me an empty feed sack for the trash and paper towels for the mess, and made a whole bunch of observant comments ("I never understood what you meant before when you said that the babies came out a hole in the mom's backside, Mom, but now I see just what you meant," and "Are people babies all bloody like that when they come out of their mom's tummies?") She also marched to the garage several times to give Willem an update. She was in her element

And you thought Willem was in the barn? Well, he was...for a short while. Willem was not in his element. He did not like to see the goat baby head "hanging out of Bien's muffins" and he did not like how loudly Bien was "maa-ing" with my arm inside of her, nor did he like my arm inside of her, period. So after plugging his ears and covering his eyes for a bit, he headed outside the barn, sniffling and teary-eyed. The wind was blowing at 30+ mph today, however, so he soon tired of sitting outside the barn, facing into the wind, and told Leah he was going to wait in the garage, which is a good 50 yards away. And he did. So I sent Leah to check on him periodically to make sure he was OK and to let him know when it was all over.

And it all ended well. I managed to get baby #2 back far enough to work up one leg of baby #1 and pull him out. He was not dead, as we had feared the entire time. Nor was baby #2 dead, though he also came out head first (goats should come hooves first) so I needed to go back in to work up a leg to pull him out as well. We then spent some time cleaning up and helping both kids start nursing. When we checked on them after supper, they were still doing well - they're up and walking around and nursing on their own.

It was Will's turn to name a goat baby, if you recall, and since Daisy was born he's had his heart set on a doe named "Spring." Well, no does, and I told him "Spring" sounded a little "girlish," so he decided that "Springer" would be a better name for his goat. And Marie got to name goat-baby #3 (with Mom's help, of course) and I said it should either be Trooper (b/c I couldn't believe how well they were doing after the whole birthing ordeal) or Yahoo (b/c that's how glad I was that the whole birthing ordeal was over and that it had ended positively). Leah and Willem decided that Marie likes the name "Trooper" better than "Yahoo," so goat-baby #3 is Trooper.

And Marie? That little peach, she picked today to take an incredible 4-hour nap - I even got a quick shower in before she woke up at 4:30.

That's all for the goats.

As for the bees, B.J. signed himself and me up for a "Beginner Beekeeping" conference that lasted most of the day this past Saturday. One of his projects this winter was putting together two top-bar bee hives from miscellaneous materials from around the acreage, and he's been interested in getting honeybees for a long time. We learned a lot and really enjoyed our day together. We met some interesting people, and the homemade food that was provided for snacks and lunch (a lot of it made with honey) was delicious!