Bad Night to Give Birth

I came down this morning and one of our goats, Zanzi, had had her babies during the night. Unfortunately, this was in the artic cold snap of the past few days. Zanzi's looked like she was going to pop for over a week, but of course it had to happen in the predawn hours of the coldest night of the year. She had two twins, this was the firstborn. She did her best, licking the little one clean, but the difference from being inside your mama at a balmy 104 F and then in a few seconds being in the cold a 100 degrees cooler sopping wet must have been too much. Zanzi had this one on some hay, and the second one she had in her shelter, but there was nothing she could have done. The weather's going to warm up soon, and so we'll have the next pregnant goat, Kola, up to bat in better circumstances.

The lesson from this the importance of timing the breeding. By the end of spring, I'll have another paddock to keep Billy in once I get the fence up around the logged land and next year will be better.