Preparation

Kidding season is right around the corner. It dawned on me last week that I only have four weeks before the first kids are due. It's time to get everything arranged and be ready for the impending births. This weekend I cleaned all the stalls in the barn so I could move the goats into the kidding pens and get everyone situated. I wanted to put Cookie and Pepper in the kidding pens in the front because those have the heat lamp over them. Cookie is due first on March 31st and Pepper is due a week later. Cookie was living with Lucy in the big stall but Lucy was getting pretty grumpy about that situation so I needed to get Cookie separated ASAP. Lucy was going to have Gloria for a roommate for a while. That would have left the back pen open for the kids to go in. I wanted to use the back pen for the kids since it had been vacant for the winter and the parasites should have starved to death by now. With no goats in there, it wouldn't need as much disinfection to be clean for brand new kids to move into. Well, with Gloria and Lucy not getting along, I had to separate them. Lucy went in the back pen and Gloria stayed in the big pen. Now all the pens are full. I am not sure what will happen exactly when the kids arrive. I will need to rotate Cookie and Pepper out of the kidding pens so Lucy and Gloria can rotate in. Lucy is due when Pepper is. I will probably wind up shoving Cookie in with Gloria so Lucy can have Cookie's pen and the kids can have Lucy's pen. The kids will probably wind up in the house and then the garage for a while, so that will buy me some time before I need a kid pen ready in the barn.

Ah, the joys of goat raising!!!!