And one happy mama.

Earlier today, I was feeding the chickens and doing some general clean-up in the coop, when I was startled by what I thought was a soft “peep!” I went inside next to the broody box, and sure enough, heard it again. Then I ran to get Peter so he could hear it too. It appears that at least one of Shygirl’s eggs is going to hatch! (Or possibly already has, though I’ve read that you usually hear them peep from inside the egg up to a day before they peck their way out. The reason we don’t know for sure is that mama hen will keep the newborns under her so they stay warm and dry until the rest of the eggs have hatched.)

And Aberdeen… she’s in labor again! This time it looks like it’s for real. Her contractions have been getting harder and closer together throughout the day, and we’re expecting her to reach the pushing stage at any time.

We fully expect to have anywhere from one to three more goat babies by the time we get to bed tonight, and possibly some baby chicks as well!

More news when we have it…

Sigh.

Apparently our girl was experiencing false labor for the past approximately 36 hours. She was still having mild contractions when we checked on her during the night, but by this morning they were no more.

And even more surprising – her ligaments are back. Those ligaments near her tail end are the biggest predictors of impending kidding – they go soft to let her bones separate enough for birth. Yesterday we couldn’t feel them – except for a couple of times when I almost thought I could, but then they would disappear again – today they are soft, but they are clearly there.

She is up and alert and enjoying the mid-70s and sunshine on pasture with the other goats. Her actual “due date” is this Friday, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on her over the next few days, waiting for the real thing.

Almost 24 hours since her ligaments went soft, and Aberdeen is still in the first stage of labor – she’s having what appear to be mostly mild contractions, but has not yet started pushing.

We’re off to try to grab a little shut-eye, once again with the baby monitor (and Koko’s remarkably rhythmic cud chewing) in our ears. I suspect we won’t get much sleep again tonight, as even in our sleep we’ll be listening for any changes, and setting the alarm for every couple of hours just to be sure.

More news when we have it…

It seems like whenever we have cool stuff to write about, there’s not actually any time to write it. And when we have time to write, that’s when things are slower around here and there’s not so much to say.

In case you’re wondering, we do still plan to tell you the story of Drama Queen’s labor and birth, hopefully before Aberdeen enters her labor (though by now it may be somewhat anti-climatic, it’s still a cool story, with emergency late-night phone calls and amazing feats of goat midwifery).

And we also have lots of stories about learning to milk a goat, and about a first-time freshener (never been milked before) learning how to be milked. There’s been a lot of ups and downs – the ups include the first morning she actually waited at the gate for us and ran of her own free will to the milking stanchion for her treat, and fresh-that-morning Drama milk in our daily coffee and chai; the downs include kicked-over buckets and spilled milk, and currently some digestive issues that seem to be lowering her milk production to just enough for her babies (with none left over for us).

Also there’s the stories of our little Shygirl hen going broody, which means she’s sitting on a clutch of eggs, most of them not even hers (once she went broody, the other hens started laying their eggs under her). As Peter mentioned in his previous post, she now has her very own broody box where the other hens can’t reach her, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for some baby chicks in about 1 1/2 weeks. Meanwhile, the other 2 hens were upset enough at the change in flock dynamics that they pretty much stopped laying in the nest boxes. Now that Shygirl is in her own space, one of them has started using the boxes again, but the other one still has her secret hidden nest out in the trees somewhere. (Anyone up for an egg hunt? I’m tired of looking, and tired of realizing yet again that my chicken is smarter than I am.)

And then there’s the stories of the babies and their diarrhea, which lead to lots of research that said diarrhea can KILL baby goats, which then lead to taking fecal samples from all three adult goats over to our friend/neighbor/savior’s house (author of the fabulous Goat Health Care) to borrow her microscope and learn how to do a fecal exam (most likely cause of diarrhea in goat kids – worms or other parasites passed on from the rest of the herd or their environment). The adults all tested fine – the babies are over their diarrhea and happy and healthy – probably they just had some digestive upset because they’d started eating solid foods like mom does. (But hoo boy! Looking at goat poo under a microscope is FUN! We’re already lusting after our own ‘scope, and planning fecal exams for all the animals. No really, we are. We don’t own a TV, you see…)

And probably not last, and certainly not least, there’s the story of our approximately 3,000 new animals we’ll be bringing home tomorrow. Yes, I said 3,000. Tomorrow is the day we drive to Eugene to pick up our package of honeybees. We’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks reading up on the art of beekeeping. The main part of our hive is set up and ready to go, and some of our fruit trees are already in bloom, awaiting our newest residents. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of stories to tell about getting them settled into their new home.

And then instead of 11 animals with anywhere from 2-10 more on the way, we’ll have 3,011 animals with anywhere from 2-10 still on the way.

And oh yeah, we’re way behind on our planting…

EDITED TO ADD: Oops, I thought I had read that 1 pound is equal to approximately 1,000 bees. Found out this morning when we picked up our 3 pound box that it actually contains about 10,000 bees. So we now have 10,000 more mouths to feed! Wish us luck, we’ll be hiving them soon…

Drama queen with her little boy:

…and here’s the little girl:

Also I stopped in the middle of fixing the HTML/CSS, so it’s more broken than before, but I’ll finish that soon and IE users will stop seeing a mess =)

Ok, we know you’re all anxiously awaiting the play-by-play, but we’re still recuperating, so that will have to come later today or tomorrow. But oh boy, do we have stories to tell!

In the meantime, here’s some eye candy for you: indistinct and over-flashed photos from probably about 3:00 am, a couple of hours post-birth.

This is Drama’s boy baby – he was the first and most difficult to come out. See how Drama’s licking him? That’s her job, to get them cleaned up as soon as possible. The licking also helps stimulate blood flow and breathing, getting them up and moving about.

Here’s baby boy again, looking for seconds – um, in the wrong place – of mama’s milk (actually, colostrum).

And this is Drama’s little girl – she followed her brother out with almost no effort, probably not more than 10 minutes later. She looks an awful lot like her mama, but the one white foot is a gift from her pops.

And, here’s Peter holding baby girl, just to give you an idea of how tiny they are right now.

Mama and babies are all doing really well. For now, they’re keeping their private room together, to give them time to bond and rest (Drama) and become a bit stronger and learn how to use their legs (babies), before re-joining the rest of our small herd.

The story of Drama’s incredible extra-long labor and birth will follow, as soon as we’ve recovered sufficiently to have enough energy to write it. And I’m sure there will be plenty more cute baby photos on the way as well!

22 hours after Drama’s ligaments went soft, signaling impending labor, she gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl.

25 hours after Drama’s ligaments went soft, we’ve finished the goat care and cleanup, and are falling into bed.

It’s been a long, long day.

Stories and photos are on their way tomorrow, we promise.

They say the waiting is the hardest part…

Our very pregnant Drama Queen is showing signs that she could go into labor any day now. We’re checking her obsessively several times a day, and at night are putting her up in the private “kidding room”, just in case. Last night it was my turn to get up at 3:00am and check on her, and tonight (haha) it’s Peter’s turn.

Realistically, we probably don’t need to be quite so obsessive, since even though we know she’s close (probably within a day or two of giving birth), the biggest sign of impending labor hasn’t happened yet – but once it does, kidding will likely take place within the next 12-24 hours.

Goats have two ligaments (one on each side) very near their tail – when a doe is entering labor, these ligaments feel as if they’ve disappeared. In reality, they’ve simply loosened to allow her pelvis to open and allow the kid (or kids) to pass through the birth canal. This is the sign we’re waiting – and compulsively checking – for.

Other signs she’s currently exhibiting that tell us her time is near: Though we can still feel her ligaments, they are softening, and the area is taking on a slightly “hollowed-out” look; she alternates between wanting extra affection and reassurance, to being extra twitchy and not wanting to be touched at all (though that part could have something to do with the constant poking and prodding of her hindquarters…); she’s holding her tail differently – kind of arched; her vulva is a little swollen, and yesterday presented with a clear mucus (an expected sign of pending labor); and she’s exhibiting various other unusual (for her) behaviors, like yawning and a general restlessness.

Our fat little Drama, with now-starting-to-show Aberdeen behind her (this photo is a week old – she’s even rounder now):

And, our little girl has gotten her boobs! (This photo is also a week old – yep, these are bigger now too.)

So, we’re anxiously waiting, excited to welcome her precious babies into the world (and excited to soon have our own fresh goat milk), hoping for the best, and nervous about all the things that could go wrong (but probably won’t).

Drama, taking her time…

Here’s Aberdeen, just recently starting to show when I took this photo a week ago, now even bigger – she has one month yet to go:

And random cuteness from Koko, not pregnant but not to be left out, in her “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” pose:

Several weeks ago now, we received two more beautiful black little hens from the same neighbor/new friend who gifted us with Atom and Molly. The new girls have settled in beautifully, and our ladies are currently giving us 12-14 eggs a week.

Our birds are also now officially free-range for most of each weekday (they remain inside for the weekends – too many dogs roaming around when we and our neighbor/friend/landlord are home and outside working on projects). I leave them in their coop-and-run until about noon each day, to give the dog a couple of good off-leash walks/runs while they’re still safely un-chase-able. Then I open the door to freedom.

Here’s Atom, taking the first steps out of the coop, on the first day I let them out:

And here two of the girls have followed him out (that’s Molly on the right, with Leo – short for Leopard-skin Pillbox Hat – on the left, and Shygirl – who is actually no longer quite so shy, but the name has stuck – still in the coop behind the chicken wire):

And here are some very happy birds:

Surprisingly, they tend to stay fairly close to their coop, our house, and our outbuildings. Occasionally they range a bit further afield, but if I look for them, I’m always able to locate them without a problem. And at dusk, they always return on their own to the safety of their coop – all I have to do is close and bolt the door behind them, to guard against predators.

By allowing them to free-range and forage for their own food, they supply themselves with a far better diet than what we could provide – full of fresh green grasses and a wide variety of slugs, bugs and worms – making their eggs that much more nutritious for us (the fresh greens are what gives truly free-range chickens that vivid yellow-orange yolk – so different from supermarket eggs). The various grains and treats I throw to them in the mornings are just icing on the cake.

And fittingly, it was on last Friday’s Spring Equinox that we found ourselves outside hunting for eggs. A side effect of allowing the chickens to roam is that they soon find many suitable places – places other than their nest boxes – to lay their eggs.

Shortly after I let them out that day, I realized that I only saw two of the hens. The third was obviously off laying, though not in either of the nest boxes.

So we went on a hen-hunt, trying to find her nest. After about 20 minutes of unsuccessful searching, I saw Molly walking serenely back to join the others, down a little path next to one of the giant trees that guards our home. So we narrowed our search. A few minutes later, we found the nest – with Molly’s still-warm egg nestled next to two others left from a day or two earlier.

This is the well-concealed nest that we must have walked by about a dozen times while we were looking for her. Can you see it – right in the middle of the photo? (Oops – I should have taken the photo with the eggs still in the nest.)

We’ve left the nest alone, since if we destroy it they’ll just make others, and then we’ll have to find them all over again. As long as they feel like it’s a safe spot, they’ll keep laying there. And I’ll keep checking it – along with their nest boxes – a couple of times a day.

Chicken parade: