Bottle Feeding Goats

This has been our first experience bottle feeding goat kids. I shouldn't say that, we tried once years ago, and the kid died, and it broke my heart. I didn't plan on ever trying again. Well, when Lilly's first kid came out stillborn (a little buckling) with irregular looking amniotic fluid (looked infected), I grabbed the feet of the next two doelings and pulled them quickly out and got them cleaned up. Mom was not looking so good, so we put her on antibiotics. I am pleased to say she is coming along nicely and hopefully will be fine. The two doelings are over two weeks old now, and just thriving! We are bottlefeeding three, as that same night Sarah, one of our angoras, gave birth to a little nubian/angora buckling. I figured I'm bottle feeding two, might as well three! I have to say, I've never had such friendly goatlings!!

When I bottlefed that first goat years ago, I used the goat formula you mix up. I was worried about having the same results as before, so I looked up online to see what other people use. One website that I have always trusted the information on suggested whole cows milk with corn syrup mixed in (of course, fresh goat milk would be ideal, but I knew I wouldn't have enough to feed three kids). I decided, hmm, makes sense. The site http://www.fiascofarm.com/ said "real cow's milk was better than fake goat milk" which made perfect sense to me. Als0- no mixing needed. Easy to get. If you run out in the middle of the night- it is sold everywhere.

What I ended up doing is using whole cow milk, adding whatever goat milk I got from the mommas, adding a little goat drench to some of the bottles, and a little corn syrup to the milk. About once every other day I add a tiny bit of sulmet for coccidia. The goats are doing so well. They are growing daily and have doubled their birthweight at 2 weeks. They are active and healthy. And, I am still sane! (In spite of the one night they decided they were STARVING at 2am!) I have learned, feed them a little extra right before bed, and turn off the light! Then they just might sleep.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! The goats are bonding to the humans, and hopefully will make awesome 4H projects for the children! It didn't take all that much extra work, and it was kind of fun! With two more does to kid this week, I am hoping that those kids will stay with their moms, though, and three kids are keeping me busy enough! But, if I have to bottlefeed, at least I'm not terrified of it anymore!!

New Yarn!

Spinning yarn is incredibly relaxing, as many of you know. I never ever thought I'd be spinning my own yarn, that's for sure. I used to play with my grandmother's spinning wheel (she didn't spin, it was just a decoration) when I was a child, but spinning was something they did in the old days, not in the present. I did love to crochet (and quilt), not knit, though, in spite of my nana's wonderful instruction. Knitting took too long, I could crochet something in record speed, LOL.

Many, many years later, I got a few sheep. I had no idea what I was going to do with their wool, but I wanted a couple pet shetland sheep. I enjoy shetlands tremendously. But- then I had all these bags of wool stocking up. So, I bought a little antique spinning wheel, got it working, and decided I was going to make my own yarn! But, how? Well, I figured if women, and young children I found out, for centuries were able to do it, so could I. Those colonial women didn't go to the yarn shop for spinning instruction- they just did it! So, that was my plan.

First- okay, you have to wash the wool. No problem. I skim the info, got it- you put the wool in a pillow case and put it in the washer on cold. I should have read further to find out that I didn't want it to go through ALL the cycles (like spin). But- it gets better. How do you dry the wool? Apparently NOT by throwing that wool filled pillowcase into the dryer!! My first, beautiful, deep back, shetland lamb fleece...became garbage. Went back, reread entire instructions, and now know how to wash wool.

I bought hand carders, carded the next fleece, and sat down at my wheel. About a week later that wheel went into the basement and the wool back into a bag. I could not do what a 6 year old colonial child could do!

A few years, and many more sheep later, it was time to learn to spin. This time I bought another wheel, hated that one, bought yet another wheel (this time and older Ashford traditional) and woo-hoo!! I learned to spin yarn! I now use that same wheel, and also an inexpensive electric wheel (the least expensive of the babe NW flyers, that runs on a sewing machine motor.) I love that little wheel also. I am hoping to fix and get running my aunts big antique wheel (a classic Canadian wheel) in time. Spinning is just such fun! I am so proud that I can spin as well as a 6 year old colonial girl (at age 41,LOL)

My latest batch of yarns include some lustrous dyed and natural color mohair skeins, a few soft and fluffy alpaca skeins, and some various wool skeins from our many breeds of sheep. I hope to try spinning some angora (bunny) yarn later this week...a first for me, I have't yet spun straight angora. I also have plans for using some colorful cotswold locks to make some "fun" yarn. I can't wait!