Hives and Coffee

We had quite the eventful weekend. We attending our beekeeping school - something that we've both been looking so forward to, for a few reasons. We learned that we know more than we think we know, we learned more of what we didn't know and we feel more comfortable than we ever have about adding bees to the farm...and we picked up our hives! That's right - we picked up two full kits (with tops, inner covers, bases etc.), along with two additional brooder boxes and four honey supers - we should be all set in getting these bees settled in and producing honey. We've heard mixed opinions on a honey harvest - some people have said we can expect a small honey harvest this fall and others say we should leave the honey with the bees...I say, we let the bees guide us. No sense in stripping them of their food, just to spend the winter wondering if they have enough food - but if they go crazy gangbusters and have enough yummy goodness to share with us...then we will gladly take a bit of honey off the top. This past weekend, we were able to build the two main brooder boxes with all the necessary pieces to get our hives up and running - we'll build the additional pieces as we have time.

Drake, Master Carpenter

Hammering in the frame foundation.

Ratta tap tap...

More frame building.

Look at that beautiful completed frame - can't wait until these are covered with bee brood.

Fancy beewear!

Cora modeling my bee jacket lol.

Oh, wow - the living room was quite the mess.

Stuff was all over the place.

Cora is helping hammer a brooder box together.

Building our hives, lid and brooder boxes.

Mark and Drake putting together the boxes.

Proud father and son moment.

Look at that awesome completed hive! We have two just like this and will be adding additional brooder boxes and honey supers.

We are officially ready for our honey bees. We'll be getting two nucs in the middle of April.

In addition to becoming bee hive owners this past weekend, we also were surprised by (yet another) new baby!!! This one is a buck Oberhasli/Angora cross. His name is Coffee and he is Itty Bitty's baby. He is absolutely adorable. He and his Mama have figure out the whole nursing thing, all by theirselves. He is just as sweet as can be.

Mama Itty and Baby Coffee...I love his smirk in this photo.

Time to eat!

Coffee

Coffee!!!

Coffee!!!!!

Coffee!!!!!!!

Coffeeeeeeee!!!!!

Itty and apparently something I'm going to need more of around here...COFFEE!!! LOL

I'm going to knock on wood while I write this, but we've had four mamas give birth to six babies and everyone has done amazing. I'm so proud of all of my girls and their beautiful babies. Soon we'll be milking Mabel and Flora (once we wean the babies) and we'll be able to have milk and cheese (and soap?!) from our backyard. We'll also be shearing the fiber animals in about a month or so - before the hot weather rolls in.
Milk, soap, cheese, honey, fiber...soon chickens will be here for meat and eggs...this place...it grows on ya'

Flora :: A Birth Story

What an amazing experience...I've been present for the birth of my own children (obviously) and watched my best friend deliver her daughter, but I've never been present for the birth of an animal. All the goats have delivered at night or behind my back lol sneaky little ladies. But I had the most fortunate experience of being there for Flora's entire delivery.
Kait and I were in the barn doing a check on Flora - as we've been doing for the past week and a half or so...when Flora squatted down to pee, it appeared that her whoha opened pretty wide. Kait and I looked at eachother and questioned whether it was time. Kait ran to get Cora outside and by the time that they came running out, Flora had coughed out a bubble and a hoof! As soon as Kait got out with my cell phone, I started recording this video (warning :: graphic goat delivery video with a bit of a cliff hanger because my FREAKING CAMERA DIED JUST AS HER WATER BROKE!)!!!

At the end of the video, you see that her water had broken and there were two, quite large hooves sticking out of her. From that point, she was trying to deliver the baby goat and in so much pain. She kept throwing her head back and yelling in pain, pushing as hard as she could to get this baby out.

See the hooves and the little tongue sticking out - it kept wiggling during delivery.

It was obvious that she was getting tired out and was having a really hard time getting the baby out. I am usually hands off when it comes to stuff like this...but it was looking like she needed some intervention. I took a towel and wrapped it around the hooves that were sticking out. As she pushed (and ONLY when she pushed) I would give a GENTLE tug to the legs - helping pull, while she pushed...being cautious not to cause her any harm. Finally (after about 20 minutes of pushing) she pushed that little baby goat out of her. Kait, Cora and I watched the whole thing and David was able to join at about the point that the video ended - so he got to see the actual birth.

Newborn baby goat!!

Closeup on the newborn...

Flora, although exhausted, started cleaning off her baby and using her "Mommy voice" - a lower, very different Baa than her usual voice - SO cute. She kept looking at us like "look what I just did". I was so proud of her - my eyes were tearing up. I was just in amazement of what this goat accomplished. As she was trying to deliver her placenta, she squatted down again - we looked inside her whoha and SURPRISE!! Another baby was on her way out! There was ANOTHER BUBBLE with ANOTHER HOOF! I couldn't believe that little goat had TWO babies inside her. Thinking that it would take another 20 minutes or so to get the baby delivered, we hunkered down and watched. Within two minutes, baby number two was delivered!!! She was smaller than the first baby and I think the first baby made the path, she was just following along. So there was an exhausted Flora (yawning, yawning, yawning) trying to clean of these little (ok, they were actually pretty big) babies - we helped her along, toweling them down a bit. They got onto their very uneasy feet and tried to figure out the whole nursing thing. Flora, even though she's a first time mom, was standing there letting the babies try to figure it out...unlike Frankie who was doing everything in her power to get away from the baby. Maybe she was too tired to put up a fight - maybe she just knew what she was supposed to do from watching Mabel. Either way - Great job Flora!

Flora and her babies - a boy and a girl.

Flora and her babies.

Flora makes really beautiful babies - I'm incredibly proud of my girl. She finally did it - we have more photos and videos on other cameras and cell phones - I'll upload those when I can...but I thought I'd share our amazing experience.

Baby Watch 2013

Things I've learned, in all my massive experience in goat birthin'...
...and by "massive experience" I mean, two of my goats had a total of three babies (so far)

• I will really, really, really want to be this awesome mid-wife, helping my mamas bring new life into the world - we'll cry together, hold each other, maybe hum kumbayah, I don't know, we'd just play it by ear.
• In all actuality, I will miss the entire thing - I will walk to the barn and find two babies or wake the next morning and find another baby and I won't even be sure who the hell this one belongs to. 
• I will want to photo document the entire process - both as a learning experience for myself/my family and other newbies...however, see the bullets above.

In all seriousness though - we were faced with a really tough situation with Sweet Pea. Obviously we were hoping that her and her mama, Frankie, would figure things out naturally, but we were fighting against the forces of nature too. It was extremely cold the day that she was born (of course) - she was having an extremely hard time maintaining her temperature, she just didn't understand how to nurse, Frankie was likely sore, tired and nervous about giving birth - she just couldn't understand why this crying baby kept bucking at her stomach, face, neck, legs, fiber anyplace it could get close enough to. We had to make some quick decisions, both for the short and long term (keeping the well being of the mama, baby and our family in mind).
**Note that much of what I'm going to discuss was talked about was on the last post - but I'll have more detail and more suggestions

Decision 1 - Maintaining Temperature
Since a cold baby won't focus on anything other than being cold, we had to prioritize this. Plus, with an internal body temperature of 93 degrees (more than 10 degrees below normal) - I believe we were in a critical state and needed to act quickly.

• Leaving her outside would have given her more bonding time with her mother, but I feel in my gut that if we would have left her there, she would have died. We decided to take her in (two separate times...still trying to work with her and mama).
• Wrapping her in a plastic bag, up to her neck (keeps her dry and able to breathe) - we used a cheese making floating thermometer to fill the sink with water that was about 105 degrees. We soaked her little body in the water (which she seemed to love). 
• After her spa soak, we took her into the bathroom and gave her a blow dry and got her nice and toasty. 
• Finally, Mark set up a sandwich of electric blanket/heating pad/beach towel/baby goat/beach towel/electric blanket/regular blanket to enclose that heat. 
• There, she rested for most of the day. Except for when we were trying to get nourishment in her.
• We successfully raised her temperature to above 100, and I was happy.
• Not feeling secure that she was out of the woods with her temperature, we decided to keep her in the house for the night, risking Frankie refusing her in the morning - but a risk we felt was necessary. Into Blue's cage she went (I wonder how offended Blue is that we make her share her cage with weak/premature goats, baby squirrels, kittens, and lambs with bad legs). She slept through the night, kept a good temp, ate out of a baby bottle in the morning and peed in my carpet...perfect (it goes with the occasional cat/dog/lamb pee). 
• The next question is how do we keep her temps up while she is in the barn (especially if mama was being standoffish)?
• I rigged a heat lamp in the barn - remember, we don't have power out there yet. I ran an extension cord from the garage...through the loft and dangled over the angora pen. I used rope/twine and hay bale wraps to hang the lamp from the loft rafters and tadaaa - a sturdy, suspended heat lamp that was well above where Frankie and Itty could get caught up in it, but low enough to keep the baby warm. I added some extra hay in the corner, under the lamp and created the perfect nesting area for Sweet Pea.

Decision 2 - Feeding/Nourishment
The hope is that Frankie would just nurse her baby, as Mother Nature had built women and intended...but that just wasn't happening. We assumed that Sweet Pea hadn't eaten anything since birth - YIKES. So here is what we did...

• We made a mixture of black coffee (5cc) and a tablespoon of Karo Syrup. In theory, this is like a jump start for the Sweet Pea - hopefully, giving her a spike of energy, especially once her temps came up, encouraging her to eat.
• Since angoras are tough to milk (their teats are extremely small) - we decided to milk a bit from Mabel, the dairy goat - I understand that Frankie could have refused to take Sweet Pea back if she smelled another goat mama on her, but again, a chance that we were willing to take. We went to TSC (and by "we", I mean "Mark") and got the calf bottle with a smaller nipple - but she still was a little small for that - Mark went on trip #2 to get baby bottles and the heat bulb (which we'll also be able to use with our chicks coming next month). The baby bottle worked better - did I mention that she's a little dumb when it comes to nursing (it isn't just a Frankie issue). 
• When Josh came over - he mentioned the benefits of giving her a boost of Vitamins would help her out. 
• Vitamin E - we had soft gelcaps here at the house. He took a syringe and pierced the vitamin caps and drew the Vitamin E out of the cap. He pulled the vitamin out of approx 6 caps.
• Vitamin B Complex - we had B complex pills. I took a spoon and crushed several pills in a bowl (note to self, buy a mortar and pestle).
• Josh took the crushed Vitamin B (approx 2-3 tablets worth), mixed it with some of Mabel's milk and used a syringe (with the needle removed) to feed it to Sweet Pea. 
• All of these things helped her pull through the night, but there was still the issue of long term. Did we want to have a bottle baby - not necessarily. Our lives are busy enough to not have to worry about feeding a goat every couple of hours for the next few weeks. 
• In the morning we took her back to Frankie. I pressed Frankie against the wall and sorted through all that fiber to find her teats and got the baby to latch on...and then she dropped it...latched on again and dropped it and well...you get the point, this went on for several minutes. But she was indeed nursing. Whew. Frankie, however, still wasn't loving it - if I wasn't pressing her against the wall, she would have just scurried away from the baby. 
• All of Frankie's fiber was confusing the baby too - so we used scissors to cut away some of her fiber. We didn't want the fiber to go to waste so we scattered in on the baby's bed, to add softness and smell like mama. 
• By cutting away the hair around her back legs, belly, butt, teat area - Sweet Pea was able to find the teat much easier. 
• We spent the day Monday, going out and holding Frankie while the baby would eat...and then, all of the sudden...they figure it out. We went out to assist and Sweet Pea was already nursing - Frankie was talking to her and cleaning her baby's butt while she kept butting the udder and latching on...They did it! Great job to mama and baby.

My assumptions

• I think that Frankie's engorged udder made it difficult to latch on for the baby and painful for mama...but once we got some of the milk out, it made it easier and more comfortable for both of them. 
• By that next morning Frankie and the baby were rested enough and regained strength to deal with the process of learning to nurse.
• It's damn cold outside and who wouldn't want to stay under a heat lamp!? The sleeping baby didn't look so bad to snuggle up to if Frankie could share some of that warmth LOL. Maybe nursing isn't so bad after all.

I'm happy with all of the choices we made...it worked out for the best, for everyone involved. Maybe I would be second guessing everything if the outcome was different, but I feel like we did the best things we could, with the resources, experience and knowledge that we have.

**I appreciate anyone that reads this blog; however, we know that there are a million opinions about how others shoulda, coulda, woulda handled the situation - we'd love opinions and suggestions and won't tolerate criticism :-)

We just hope that someone else might learn from what we did and help save the life of their own baby goat.
Lessons learned everyone!

Surprise - It's a baby!

Yesterday morning, we were surprised with another baby girl. Surprised because we weren't even sure Miss Frankie Blue was pregnant...so let me step back a minute and explain...When we got Chip (the goat man-whore) - his job was to get Mabel and Flora pregnant; however, since we are such small potatoes here, we weren't sure how to keep the dairy goats separated from the angoras - so we just...let it happen. They co-existed and we thought, hey, if we get babies, great, if not, fine.
Last weekend when Josh was here, he couldn't tell if the angoras were pregnant or not, they are full of hair and it's tough to figure them out. So when Mark and I woke up yesterday, we asked if anyone had checked on the Mabel's babies or to see if Flora had any - Drake offered to check and then came running back in yelling that Itty had had a baby! We threw on our coats and hats and went running out to the barn. All of us we a ball of confusion out there...I mean...there was this tiny, cream colored baby, in the pen with two goats that we didn't know were pregnant and there were zero signs of delivery - where was the placenta? where was the blood and goo that comes along with something like this? With a little sleuthing - and a little hay moving around, we located the buried placenta and saw a bit of blood that was on a low part of the side wall. Ok, so we had the correct pen - but who is the Mama? Neither one of their whohas looked like it just gave birth - Mabel was (and still kinda is) a mess and these girls were acting and looking like nothing had even happened. Finally, I saw some gunk matted in Frankie's fiber (so it wasn't Itty's after all). So we had a baby, some gunk and a Mama WHEW (Sherlock Holmes, watch out!) - then, Frankie came over and started "talking" to her baby, ah ha! We were right.
Even though Frankie was being attentive with her baby, keeping her clean etc. she wasn't getting the whole nursing thing. I want to make sure that the baby is nursing and doing well before we just assume that everything is ok. Frankie, unfortunately, was just not getting it. Every time the baby would go toward her hind end, Frankie would get nervous and try to run away from the baby, sometimes stepping on her in the process. UGH. We held Frankie against the wall and got the baby to latch on for just a moment. Apparently the baby didn't know what she was doing either. So, we let them be for just an hour or so and figured that we'd check on them later (giving them time to try to figure things out on their own). An hour later, we went back to check and the baby was really cold - shivering over in the corner, by herself...Grr. So again, we pinned Frankie down, this time, on her side - hoping that would help things along...the baby nursed for just a bit and again - lost the latch and let go. She was seeming lethargic a bit and I decided that something just wasn't right. We brought her in the house and took her temp - it was only 93 degrees...a goat is typically around 102-105...Critical time. So we gave the baby a dose of black coffee mixed with karo syrup. We wrapped her in a plastic bag, up to her neck, and dunked her in 105 degree water, used a blow dryer on her for a bit, set her on a heating pad, tucked in with an electric blanket and finally were able to bring her temp up to 100 and some change. We saw some energy come back into her little body. After a bit, we decided to try and get her back with Frankie and try her back outside - We got her to latch a bit, Frankie seemed excited to see her and cleaned her off - but yet, when we weren't assisting, Frankie just didn't want to do the whole nursing thing. Frustrating. We left the baby in there anyway - hoping that they would just figure it out.
Josh came out to help us out and give the babies a once over. When we went back into the barn, it was obvious that the baby wasn't doing well again. I scooped her up and brought her back inside - we got her a dose of Vitamins B and E, milked Mabel and got some of her milk into the baby and put her back in her warmer area (with heating pads and electric blanket). By bedtime, she seemed to get some of her spunk back. We put her in Blue's cage for the night, we towels fresh from the dryer, the heating pad and a blanket. She ended up sleeping really well...until 6 or so in the morning. We had leftover milk from Mabel from the night before, so I was able to get between 3-4 ounces of milk in her. Her temps seemed to have maintained and now she is a spunky little thing, wandering around my living room...baaaaaing. I'm hoping to get her back out to Mama Frankie in the barn in just a few more sips of coffee (for me, not her). I'll let you know how it goes.
For now though...here are pictures and videos of our "Sweet Pea"...