Rafique at 3 days old

Last Monday was an exciting day at Pie Ranch; the first of our goats (Dash) gave birth to two healthy kids, a girl (doeling) and a boy (buckling). Dash delivered her first ever kids on the morning of April 6th; farm apprentice Dede found mom and the two babies bonding in the morning sun outside the animal barn, and ran to find Sky, who thought she was joking at first, having recently fallen for several April Fools jokes involving goats giving birth to six kids, and Adelaide the cow giving birth to a goat. But it was no joke – Sky and Dede carried the babies into the barn and set up a pen for Dash and the newly named Mickey and Sylvia to rest. At a week old, Mickey and Sylvia are running around the pasture like they own the place.

Like clockwork, a week later, on Monday, our youngest goat, Honey Toast (aka Kanye, aka Trouble) went into labor. The whole Pie Ranch crew watched for several hours as Honey Toast pawed at the ground and paced in labor. Once their water breaks, goats and sheep typically give birth within two hours. The two hour mark passed, and we decided to investigate to make sure the kids were positioned correctly for delivery. Upon investigation, Sky and Dede did indeed realize all was not well – while the front feet of the kid were positioned correctly, the kid’s head was turned back, preventing it from moving through the birth canal. 

With books and diagrams, phone calls to local and distant farmers, some luck, and determination, Sky and Dede delivered a huge doeling safely. The stress of a prolonged delivery was obvious; the little girl was worn out and panting. Lauren, also an apprentice, arrived just in time to help vigorously rub the baby to stimulate her blood flow and dry her off. Sky noticed Honey Toast was still pushing and soon realized there was another kid on it’s way. She felt for proper alignment and realized one of the kid’s legs was back. Lauren helped straighten her out, and a second doeling was delivered. This one was much smaller, more energetic, and immediately tried to stand on her wobbly newborn legs. 

We decided to call he big first doeling Beyonce (her head was turned to the left, to the left, but she’s a survivor, she’s not gonna give up!). The Mission High Piesters visited today and voted on the name for the second doeling - Rafique, after our friend and former Mission High student who moved to a new school, but whom we miss dearly. So Little B and Rafi are doing well at 3 days old, and we expect to let them out to pasture tomorrow.

That leaves our older goats, Joleen and Flicka, yet to give birth. Flicka is so big, we think she will have at least six babies, though all the books say three is most common. We’ll keep posting photos. If you come to the Work Day on Saturday, you can meet the new additions and maybe even help tame them (i.e. snuggle!)