Friday 24th March 2017
Our first Boer kids!!
Garlic’s days and nights of groaning and moaning are over and have been replaced by the rather wonderful sound of goat ‘mother-hen’ bleating. This is a low, repeated bleat that says all sorts of things but principally: ‘I am your mum, stay with me and I will look after you..’ And now we know why she was the size she was and has been so uncomfortable - she was carrying TRIPLETS with a combined weight of around 11kg!!! The first two (both girls) popped out between around 11.30am whilst we were finishing off breakfast. The third, a boy, slid out in one swift expulsion just gone midday as we stood watching Garlic clean up the two girls!!
In theory, despite only have two teats, goats (and indeed sheep) can look after three youngsters but careful observation and potential help at the start are a good idea, just to make sure all three have had their first drink and mum is happy to have all three with her. Our last experience of triplets was back in 2011 when Whey gave birth to Pickle, Onion and Chives (and yes we do re-use names…). Whey accepted Chives, tolerated Onion and rejected Pickle!!
Thankfully, Garlic is proving to be a great mum so far and is being fab with all three. We have named them Ryka, Terelle and Shale (after characters in a book we have both read: The Stormlord Trilogy by Glenda Larke). Ryka (born first - we knew this as she was the driest when we found them) weighed in at a healthy 3.7kgs, Terelle next was 3.4kg and Shale (born last) was 3.9kg. We weighed them at teatime after a fair amount of colostrum so these are not quite birth weights!!
Terelle is a little weaker in her back legs than the other two and at the end of the day was still not standing up straight like her siblings. We hope she will gain a bit more strength overnight!
It’s all very exciting and such a privilege to be able to both plan and then enjoy new life! We should now have weeks of enjoyment and further planning as we decide which animals (goats, sheep and soon calves and cria) to keep, which to sell and of course ultimately, which to send off for meat (not that we are going to start those thought processes any time soon).
Thankfully, Garlic is proving to be a great mum so far and is being fab with all three. We have named them Ryka, Terelle and Shale (after characters in a book we have both read: The Stormlord Trilogy by Glenda Larke). Ryka (born first - we knew this as she was the driest when we found them) weighed in at a healthy 3.7kgs, Terelle next was 3.4kg and Shale (born last) was 3.9kg. We weighed them at teatime after a fair amount of colostrum so these are not quite birth weights!!
Terelle is a little weaker in her back legs than the other two and at the end of the day was still not standing up straight like her siblings. We hope she will gain a bit more strength overnight!
It’s all very exciting and such a privilege to be able to both plan and then enjoy new life! We should now have weeks of enjoyment and further planning as we decide which animals (goats, sheep and soon calves and cria) to keep, which to sell and of course ultimately, which to send off for meat (not that we are going to start those thought processes any time soon).