The End of Kidding Season

Finally!  This has been an exhausting and long season.  I was able to be present at the labor of all but one of the does and saw all but four kids born.  Sixteen kids, eleven boys, and five girls.  Last year I got lucky and had mostly girls.  It's difficult to sell the bucklings.  Most people just want one buck for their herd, but several does.  So unless someone is looking for a herd sire, it's hard to find a buyer.

This was the last doe to kid.  She's one of the does that I bought from a dairy last year.  She's a couple of years old, so I assumed she had kidded before.  But, I noticed towards the end of her pregnancy that her udder wasn't getting nearly as big as the older does.  So I started thinking that this might be her first time.  She had a harder time giving birth than the other does and had to push very hard.  Then when the kid was born, her behavior just confirmed to me that it was her first time.  She seemed shocked that a baby had just appeared and was unsure what to do about it.  

She finally figured it out and was an old pro by the time the third one appeared.

A boy and a girl.

And this little boy.

Since the doe is kind of an unusual color (registered as grey, but she's actually kind of a taupe color), I was hoping for some kids that looked like her.  I was disappointed that all three look very much like the sire.