Iodine | Better Hens and Gardens

Kidding Supplies and Preparation

We’re now less than two weeks from the start of this year’s kidding (see Kidding Schedule), and if the does deliver on time, we’ll have four does kidding over a three day span! The closer it gets, the more excited and nervous I get. There’s nothing I can do though, except to make sure we’re prepared. What does being prepared mean? Well for us it means:

Going through my list of kidding season supplies and making sure that it’s up-to-date, and that we have everything on hand (see list below). I try to have supplies on hand to handle all reasonable [...]

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Basic Goat Care - After Kidding

We were fortunate that Tinker Bell kidded without having difficulties, and is a very good mother too. I’m amazed at the way she cares for her kids – as newborns, she’d wake them every few hours and get them to nurse – as they’ve grown older and the stronger kid wants to nurse all the time, she regulates how often he gets to nurse but still encourages the weaker one to nurse frequently. She also cleaned everything up after kidding – I suppose it’s to prevent predators from finding the young; but it’s still incredible that they can do it [...]

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Kidding Season Supplies

With our first kidding season coming up, I’ve been accumulating notes on what supplies to have on hand and how to use them. The first half of the list below is everything that I could find that might be necessary to support a normal kidding, while second half identifies supplies that may be necessary if kidding isn’t going well (kids not coming out, weak kid, etc.). It’s six weeks or so before our first kidding (Tinker Bell is first) so I’m putting together an order of supplies so we’re sure to have everything necessary on hand – did I forget anything?

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