Worldwide Beekeeping

Sustainable Living => Farm Livestock => Topic started by: The15thMember on April 14, 2021, 02:31:07 pm

Title: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on April 14, 2021, 02:31:07 pm
My sister's goats kidded for the first time this spring.  Here are some pictures of our first ever babies! 
(https://i.ibb.co/NVXr5jV/Adaline.jpg) (https://ibb.co/NVXr5jV)

(https://i.ibb.co/rMnXD2T/Benjamin.jpg) (https://ibb.co/rMnXD2T)

(https://i.ibb.co/yRwVHjM/Murphy.jpg) (https://ibb.co/yRwVHjM)

(https://i.ibb.co/XbQbs5Q/Yuma-2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/XbQbs5Q)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Jen on April 14, 2021, 02:52:01 pm
Nothing Cuter Than A Baby Goat  :D
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on July 14, 2021, 01:17:03 am
Nothing Cuter Than A Baby Goat  :D

X2  :)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on September 04, 2021, 03:29:26 pm
Recently in the local news, a nearby city has hired someone with goats to clear invasive plants from a stream.  https://fox4kc.com/news/lenexa-enlists-goats-to-clear-weeds-brush-from-sar-ko-par-trails-park/ (https://fox4kc.com/news/lenexa-enlists-goats-to-clear-weeds-brush-from-sar-ko-par-trails-park/)  I think that's what I need here!  I might be pressing my luck with bees and goats.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on September 04, 2021, 04:51:58 pm
They are great for brush clearing!  Here are pictures of our pasture before and after we got goats. 

(https://i.ibb.co/3v1jLHC/IMG-3207.jpg) (https://ibb.co/3v1jLHC)
(https://i.ibb.co/hC1Dm2p/Abscond-027.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hC1Dm2p)


Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on September 05, 2021, 09:27:58 am
Yes!  I need some goats.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on September 05, 2021, 11:35:44 am
Both does were rebred recently.  Maybe we can set you up with a couple.  ;)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 18, 2022, 03:17:51 pm
Here's this year's first batch of baby goats!  Our black doe Bella had four kids last evening, 3 boys and 1 girl!  My sister went out to check on her around suppertime last night, and she was showing signs of pre-labor, so my sister came back into the house to get her kidding supplies, which only took a couple of minutes, and by the time she got back, two kids were already out!  Two more followed within a half hour.

(https://i.ibb.co/Snt5G0s/IMG-2644.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Snt5G0s)

(https://i.ibb.co/J5ghd3C/IMG-2652.jpg) (https://ibb.co/J5ghd3C)

(https://i.ibb.co/1rS3vrV/IMG-2651.jpg) (https://ibb.co/1rS3vrV)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on April 19, 2022, 11:26:34 pm
Nice looking babies!
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on April 20, 2022, 12:34:54 pm
Nice looking babies!
Thanks!  Two of them just went to their forever home on Monday.  Their new owners named them Priscilla and Gideon.  (https://i.ibb.co/7jFLbtn/IMG-3212.jpg) (https://ibb.co/7jFLbtn)

(https://i.ibb.co/v4487vj/IMG-3218.jpg) (https://ibb.co/v4487vj)

The other two boys, Zeb and Joseph, will stay and get big and then go to freezer camp in the fall. 

Our other doe, Prim, had 3 girls, who are waiting to go to their new home in Ohio. 
(https://i.ibb.co/m5V4gK6/IMG-3182.jpg) (https://ibb.co/m5V4gK6)

(https://i.ibb.co/hy2XRyd/IMG-3181.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hy2XRyd)
The doelings' future owners told us an amazing story when they came to see the babies about a month ago.  Their 14 year old daughter had a doe named Daisy who was her favorite.  Daisy was a show winner and had a great personality, and they sent Daisy to another farm to be bred to a particular buck.  The people at this farm didn't transition her onto their food slowly enough, and she died while she was there.  Apparently, the doeling in the last picture, who we call Mikaela, looks exactly like Daisy, so they bought her and the black doeling, Carol, for their daughter, and the brown doeling, Luthien, was purchased by the daughter's grandmother.  They'll be picking them up some time around Memorial Day.         


Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: iddee on April 20, 2022, 05:53:25 pm
When sending males to freezer camp, keep in mind.

Eunuchs taste great. Studs taste like hades gone bad.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Zweefer on April 20, 2022, 06:46:15 pm
Our neighbor raises pygmy goats. Agreed, they are super cute when new.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on April 20, 2022, 07:58:12 pm
When sending males to freezer camp, keep in mind.

Eunuchs taste great. Studs taste like hades gone bad.
They have already been banded. 
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 18, 2023, 11:40:17 am
Here are our new babies!  We had Prim go first this year.  She had 1 boy and 2 girls.  The doelings are black and the buckling is the brown one.  My sister is going to be keeping the doe with white side patches.  She named her Halo, since she was born on 1/17 (video game people will get the joke).  The other doeling will be for sale, and the buckling will be wethered for the freezer. 

(https://i.ibb.co/SdyVb5w/IMG-5066.jpg) (https://ibb.co/SdyVb5w)

(https://i.ibb.co/ck2DCdC/IMG-5067.jpg) (https://ibb.co/ck2DCdC)

(https://i.ibb.co/Pxkf0qY/IMG-5079.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Pxkf0qY)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 19, 2023, 02:24:12 pm
We have Halo and the buckling, who we are calling Issachar, in the house this afternoon.  My sister wants to supplementally bottle feed them, since Prim is shy and tends to teach her kids to be afraid of us, and feeding can really help to tame a kid.  They are too little to really know anything yet, so they are just chilling in the play pen.  We left the other doeling, who we named Nicola, with Prim so she wouldn't be upset that all her babies are gone.  She can't count very well, so if one is in the warming barrel, she just thinks they are all in there.  :D

(https://i.ibb.co/B6b5YCN/IMG-5101.jpg) (https://ibb.co/B6b5YCN)

(https://i.ibb.co/ygJ2pYb/IMG-5104.jpg) (https://ibb.co/ygJ2pYb)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on February 08, 2023, 10:00:58 am
There is a woman in the area that has started a business renting out goats for cleaning up property.  About 2 years ago a local municipality used her and her goats to clean up property that was impossible to do using equipment or manpower.  A beekeeping couple that live close by contacted her for an estimate.  They have rural property and I don't know how many acres they needed cleaned up.  The cost for renting goats was so high that my friends decided to go with a controlled burn for a lot less.  In the goat owner's defense, she would set up fencing and come out daily to give the goats water and check on them.  Another negative was the presence of certain weeds that the goats won't eat.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 01, 2023, 02:24:22 pm
Here's our next round of goat babies!  Bella had a girl and two boys last night.  It was a rough birth, since the first two kids were positioned strangely, and my sister had to help, but everyone is doing great.  We have a waiting list of people looking for kids, so the spotted girl is already sold to a lady who purchased a doe and a wether from us last year.  She has an Elvis theme with all her goats, so she named the baby Ann-Margaret after one of Elvis's mistresses.  My sister named the spotted boy Mr. Moon after the Asheville Tourists mascot and because colored spots in goats are called "moonspots", and he couldn't possibly have any more!  We have someone looking for a buck, so he will probably go to them.  She named the black baby Blu, mostly just because she felt it fit him, but she took the spelling from the movie Rio.

(https://i.ibb.co/sQ2stk3/IMG-5378.jpg) (https://ibb.co/sQ2stk3)

(https://i.ibb.co/Jt366sz/IMG-5390.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Jt366sz)

(https://i.ibb.co/HzWGHN0/IMG-5400.jpg) (https://ibb.co/HzWGHN0)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on March 03, 2023, 02:35:48 am
We've got 5 kids this year. 3 bucks and twin does. We raise our does on the bottle. Find it makes them much easier to handle when training for milking, etc....
We have one buck we are hand raising and he will get neutered soon. Sweetie has it in mind to train him as a pack goat when we go hiking and foraging.  :)
 Other two bucks get sold right before Easter for meat market. Helps defray feed costs. :sad:
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 03, 2023, 10:58:08 am
We've got 5 kids this year. 3 bucks and twin does. We raise our does on the bottle. Find it makes them much easier to handle when training for milking, etc....
We have one buck we are hand raising and he will get neutered soon. Sweetie has it in mind to train him as a pack goat when we go hiking and foraging.  :)
 Other two bucks get sold right before Easter for meat market. Helps defray feed costs. :sad:
Nice!  Some of the people on my sister's goat forum, The Goat Spot, have pack wethers, and they love them.  My sister did the bottle feeding thing for a little while with Prim's babies, but she found it easier to just give them treats every time she goes in the pasture, which is working very well.  Bella's babies never need taming, as Bella is extremely outgoing and friendly, and she never teaches her babies to be afraid of us.  We always have to teach them manners instead of taming them!  What breed of goats do you have, @neillsayers (https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=555) ?
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on March 03, 2023, 03:19:37 pm
!5th,
 We have a purebred Nubian buck and 5 does of different lineage. Three of my milkers are out of an old Sanaan doe who passed of old age at 14yo a year ago. The sire of all of my does is a Purebred Nubian buck who passed a few years ago. I have one pure Nubian left that is such a pet that we refuse to give her up even though she hasn't kidded in 2 seasons. She is 14 or 15.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 03, 2023, 04:11:24 pm
!5th,
 We have a purebred Nubian buck and 5 does of different lineage. Three of my milkers are out of an old Sanaan doe who passed of old age at 14yo a year ago. The sire of all of my does is a Purebred Nubian buck who passed a few years ago. I have one pure Nubian left that is such a pet that we refuse to give her up even though she hasn't kidded in 2 seasons. She is 14 or 15.
That's awesome!  My sister breeds registered Kinders (rhymes with cinders), a stable cross of Nubians and Pygmies.  They are a miniature dual purpose breed for meat and milk.  We absolutely love them.  My sister would someday like to get a Nubian doe and a Pygmy buck to breed first generation Kinders.  Right now we have 3 does, all of whom either have kids or are pregnant, 3 bucks, and 1 wether.     
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 08, 2023, 08:57:03 pm
My sister made a disappointing discovery today.  Mr. Moon has a third teat.  Extra teats (the technical term is supernumerary teats) occasionally occur in goats, and it is a heritable trait, which means Mr. Moon is ineligible to be a breeding buck.  It's also concerning that the trait showed up at all.  My sister contacted the breeders of the dam, Bella, and the sire, Phantom, and unfortunately, Bella's breeder has seen the trait twice this year, with both babies coming from the line of Bella's father.  My sister isn't sure what she's going to do yet, since this throws a wrench in her breeding plans.  Although she was glad to find out which parent was the culprit, she's still very disappointed.  :sad:
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 17, 2023, 06:32:12 pm
My sister has decided to just keep Mr. Moon for now.  He is freakishly friendly, he follows us around like a little puppy, and it can be handy to have a wether around in case a goat needs to be separated from the herd for some reason, since goats can't be alone.  She is contemplating getting rid of Bella, since she doesn't want this to happen again, and Bella has been having some trouble getting along with the other goats lately, being extra bossy and butting them aggressively and not letting them in the barn when it's raining, so my sister is kind of feeling like this might be the last straw. 
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 21, 2023, 10:56:21 am
Sweetie has it in mind to train him as a pack goat when we go hiking and foraging.  :)
Since my sister doesn't want to keep any animals just as pets, she's decided to train Mr. Moon as a pack goat, so he has a job that will contribute to the homestead.  He seems like he'd really enjoy packing, since he loves following people, and she's already got him on a leash.  She's been doing a lot of research and we're going to start taking him in the car with us when we go somewhere close by so he gets used to it.  We aren't serious hikers by any means, but we do hike a good bit when the weather is nice, since there are so many trails around us. 

Our last doe, Murphy, is due this week.  It's her first pregnancy and she's my sister's favorite, so my sister is a little nervous.  Murphy is the first doe we had born on our homestead.  If you go back to my first post on this thread, she's the spotted baby eating the stick.  Now she's all grown up and having babies of her own!
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 23, 2023, 01:01:18 pm
Murphy had her babies overnight last night and we missed it!  Thankfully my sister put her in the kidding stall last night, just because the other goats were beating up on her a little bit, and when Mom went into the barn this morning, the babies were out and dry!  She came running in the house shouting, "Murphy had her babies!!"  :D  They hadn't nursed yet, since Murphy didn't really know they needed to, being a first time mom, and babies often need help getting latched the first time, but my sister and I got them drinking quickly, and they are no worse for the wear.  The brown baby is a boy, and the grey one is a girl, and they are our first babies with wattles!  We were hoping they'd have them, since their father, Arthur, has wattles.  My sister named them Duncan and Tessa after the characters from the Highlander TV show, which we are watching right now.  My sister has been thinking about replacing one of her original bucks, so she is going to keep Duncan, and Tessa will be for sale. 

(https://i.ibb.co/GxVBHyz/IMG-5467.jpg) (https://ibb.co/GxVBHyz)

(https://i.ibb.co/phQJ9xR/IMG-5502.jpg) (https://ibb.co/phQJ9xR)

(https://i.ibb.co/yRw20Br/IMG-5475.jpg) (https://ibb.co/yRw20Br)

(https://i.ibb.co/6NkHrS3/IMG-5477.jpg) (https://ibb.co/6NkHrS3)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on March 31, 2023, 06:57:24 pm
Moonie went on his first car ride today.  We had to run to the post office and one of the local farm stores, so we brought him along.  He did so well, he wasn't stressed at all in the car.  My sister had him on her lap, since he's still little and he feels comfortable on laps.  At the post office, our postwoman came outside to see him, and she said he was the most handsome thing she'd seen all day, and she'd seen her husband that morning!  :D  Mr. Moon let her pet him and acted just like he would have if we were at the barn.  He did very well at the farm store too, although the dog who lives there did scare him a little bit, even though Cash is very friendly and polite.
(https://i.ibb.co/NpqH9Xg/Moonie-s-First-Ride-014.jpg) (https://ibb.co/NpqH9Xg)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on March 31, 2023, 08:13:00 pm
Cute! Cute! Cute!
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 04, 2023, 10:11:05 am
Last Saturday I helped at a honey bee informational booth at the Mother Earth News Fair.  A few feet away from us was the goat lady and two kids.  They got all the visitor's attention!  All the kids wanted to pet the goats.  She rents out her goats to property owners that would like the goats to clean up brush and weeds.  A beekeeping friend of mine inquired about her services.  She will put up fencing, check on them daily, provide water and additional feed. She also gets a healthy fee for the use of her goats. 

15th this may be a good money maker for you!
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on May 04, 2023, 08:31:01 pm
Last Saturday I helped at a honey bee informational booth at the Mother Earth News Fair.  A few feet away from us was the goat lady and two kids.  They got all the visitor's attention!  All the kids wanted to pet the goats.  She rents out her goats to property owners that would like the goats to clean up brush and weeds.  A beekeeping friend of mine inquired about her services.  She will put up fencing, check on them daily, provide water and additional feed. She also gets a healthy fee for the use of her goats. 

15th this may be a good money maker for you!
That's really cool.  I'm not sure if my sister would be interested in doing something like that though, just because it's a lot of work to move the goats.  The other concern I know she would have would be having a movable fence that is secure enough that she would trust the goats wouldn't get out.  But boy, if you need brush cleared, there is nothing like goats to do it.  I'm sure it's a service that people use.     
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 28, 2023, 10:43:18 am
I just read a post on a social media app that they were using goats for fire suppression in a canyon in Aliso Viejo, California.  There is a picture of about 3 dozen goats clearing brush on a steep canyon wall. 
https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo (https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo)  Let's see if this link gets you there.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on May 28, 2023, 08:47:56 pm
Just getting caught up on this thread....15th, many years ago I got into raising Boer Goats for the goat meat market. The literature from the purebred folks says they were intentionally bred for more than 2 functional teats to raise bigger litters. Of all the does I had I only had one with this trait and she had four, all with milk in them.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on May 28, 2023, 11:13:18 pm
I just read a post on a social media app that they were using goats for fire suppression in a canyon in Aliso Viejo, California.  There is a picture of about 3 dozen goats clearing brush on a steep canyon wall. 
https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo (https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo)  Let's see if this link gets you there.
Nope, pay-walled.  Well, subscription-walled, I guess.   :-\

Just getting caught up on this thread....15th, many years ago I got into raising Boer Goats for the goat meat market. The literature from the purebred folks says they were intentionally bred for more than 2 functional teats to raise bigger litters. Of all the does I had I only had one with this trait and she had four, all with milk in them.
I've heard that about boers.  Did your doe ever have 4 babies to make use of her double udder?
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: neillsayers on May 29, 2023, 02:58:28 am
 She never did better than twins. One of the reason I quit boers is they are the dumbest of goats. No idea how to mother, need you in attendance to have a successful birth and prefer to eat grass over brush like a sheep. I had 110 acres of woods and 3 acres of pasture and they spent all their time in the pasture. :)

 A very similar breed meat-wise is the Kiko goat. Great meat goat that loves brush, great mothers and very hardy. If I ever got back into meat goats they would be the breed I'd go with.
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on October 11, 2023, 08:16:56 pm
Today my sister Haley purchased her last goat for the foreseeable future.  She named her Louise after the main character in Arrival, which is my sister's favorite movie.  We got Louise from a farm we sold a buckling to earlier in the year, but unfortunately, they had almost all their fencing destroyed in a wind event and are now having to sell all the goats because they can't keep them in until the fencing is replaced.  Because of this, Haley got a really good deal on Louise, who has a pretty expensive pedigree, including a grand champion in her lines.  8)  As a result of them having to have all their goats together in the one remaining paddock, Louise is probably bred to the buckling we sold them, even though she is a little too young to be bred, but my sister feels confident she can handle the situation.

We are going to be butchering two wethers and one buck this fall, and we will be butchering Bella, the black doe who threw 3-teated Mr. Moon, next year.  That will leave us with 4 does and 3 bucks, plus Mr. Moon who is wethered now, which is what my sister has been working towards for several years.  So that will be our herd until our oldest buck Phantom "dies of natural causes", as Haley has been saying.   :D  All the kids from here on out will be sold or butchered.
 
(https://i.ibb.co/Q9t7Hnk/Louise-091.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Q9t7Hnk)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on October 12, 2023, 11:02:06 am
What is the life expectancy of a goat?
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on October 12, 2023, 12:56:38 pm
For does it's about 12-14 years, an intact buck is about 8-10, and a wether could even be 15+ years, since they have really no stress on their bodies.  Phantom is 5 years old, so we've got a while to go with him.  :thumbsup:     
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on November 01, 2023, 07:17:27 pm
Good news, Louise went into heat a few days ago, so she is almost certainly not pregnant!  :)  Haley is very happy, since it would have been rough on her body being so young and still growing, and oftentimes does who are bred too young will reject their kids, so this could have meant bottle feeding a baby too, even assuming everything with the pregnancy and birth went well.  This will also make her integration with the older does a lot easier and safer, since there is usually a good deal of beating up on each other before they get their pecking order resettled, and as the newcomer she was likely to take the most hits. 
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 08, 2024, 03:01:30 pm
We're expecting our first kids of the year this week.  Prim's due date is tomorrow, and we are expecting very bad weather, rainy and extremely windy.  There is some evidence that does try and have their babies during bad weather to protect them from predators, so she'll probably be on time!

Mr. Moon's training as a pack goat has been going extremely well.  He now gets in and out of the car on his own without any hesitation, and a few days ago he went up and down stairs for the first time when we took him for a walk over at WCU.  Haley commented on how much better he is than a dog to walk, since he doesn't need to be trained not to pull.   

(https://i.ibb.co/s293vvx/Toddlers-021.jpg) (https://ibb.co/s293vvx)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 09, 2024, 02:40:05 pm
Well the bad weather came last night and so did the baby!  We had a buckling born at 1:48 AM, and we waited until 4:00 thinking she must have another one in there based on how big she looked, but the placenta came and nothing seem off, so that was that.  It's the first time Prim has had a single.   
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on January 09, 2024, 08:39:28 pm
Here's some pictures of the little dude.  We named him Asher.  Since he's a single and can't even begin to drink all the milk Prim is producing, Haley started milking right away.  This afternoon she milked out a bunch of colostrum to freeze in case of emergencies.
(https://i.ibb.co/Rh6ZwL8/IMG-7288.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Rh6ZwL8)

(https://i.ibb.co/WV3xw4k/IMG-7289.jpg) (https://ibb.co/WV3xw4k)

(https://i.ibb.co/WfxZm6H/IMG-7308.jpg) (https://ibb.co/WfxZm6H)
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: Bakersdozen on January 11, 2024, 11:26:00 am
How precious! Nothing is cuter than a baby (insert mammal of choice here)!  :D
Title: Re: Baby Goats Anyone?
Post by: The15thMember on February 03, 2024, 09:22:27 pm
Murphy was our next doe to kid this year, and somehow we missed the birth again!  Since we missed it last year, Haley was checking on Murphy every several hours Wednesday, and even overnight Wednesday, and on Thursday she was checking every hour.  Haley checked on her after milking Prim at like 8:15 PM, and there were no signs of labor.  Murphy was just standing in the kidding stall eating hay.   Then we watched an hour of TV, and Haley went out to check again at 9:30, and there were 3 babies on the ground, the last one of which had just been born!  Haley said next year, she's just going to have to live in the barn for 48 hours if she wants to see the birth.  :D  Once again Murphy did a great job by herself, and the babies who were born first were quite dry.   

Murphy had a girl who looks just like her who Haley named Arwen, like from Lord of the Rings, because someone on her goat forum desperately wanted Murphy's name to be Arwen, so much so that this person still calls Murphy "Arwen".  :D  She also had 2 bucklings, a white one who we named Peter Lake, after the main character in Winter's Tale, and a caramel one who a repeat buyer of ours has a tentative reservation on, and Haley likes the names she chooses, so we're going to let her pick his registered name.  We are just calling him "Caramel" for now.  The boys, particularly Peter, were having some trouble drinking consistently on their own for the first 24 hours, but they finally got the hang of it last evening after Haley milked Murphy a little bit to relieve some pressure on her udder.  Here's some pictures of them.  You can also see Nova, one of our LGDs, in one picture.  Her and her brother Mason always park themselves at the barn when there are new babies, because they feel they need extra protection.  :)

(https://i.ibb.co/DtmJ7VW/IMG-7573.jpg) (https://ibb.co/DtmJ7VW)

(https://i.ibb.co/NF2QTg6/IMG-7592.jpg) (https://ibb.co/NF2QTg6)

(https://i.ibb.co/0hBVSgn/IMG-7600.jpg) (https://ibb.co/0hBVSgn)

(https://i.ibb.co/7jPLPwS/IMG-7585.jpg) (https://ibb.co/7jPLPwS)