chick rookie ~ I'm glad Isabella had the babies on a warm day. I don't know about goats, but I just did some looking online and found: All goats are very vulnerable to cold wet weather. Goats need access to shelter to protect them from the wind chill and freezing rain. If they're in your barn, make sure that there's plenty of hay to keep them warm and water (not frozen) is very important. Here's more info:It's been a very bizzy afternoon, took the oldest babies outside to enjoy the weather
but they only got 20 min. cause I had to hurry them back inside.
Isabella had 2 billy's at 4:45 pm today. the first one I had to preposition cause 1 leg was going the wrong way and I think he got fluid on his lungs cause he is not doing to good . he was wiggling around before I could get his leg out. the 2 nd had no problems and is doing well.
Goats need plenty of fresh air. Pneumonia is the second most common cause of death among goats, and it's poor air quality that causes it. Goats should actually be put outside every day unless you have really extreme weather, such as single digit wind chill or storm. Although our does come into the barn at night, our bucks live in three-sided shelters that are open to the south, and we make sure there is plenty of straw in there when it's going to be getting below 20 degrees.
The other thing to keep in mind is that heat lamps are the #1 cause of barn fires -- and we almost had one here, but luckily my daughter walked in when it was still a small fire in the straw, and she was able to put it out with a bucket of water. If you have temperatures below freezing, and you have newborn kids, be sure that your heat lamp is secured to the wall or something overhead and cannot be knocked down by a curious goat. Once the kids are a couple days old, they will be fine unless temperatures fall well below zero Fahrenheit.
If you're worried about them, a good alternative to using a heat lamp with kids is to either make little goat coats or little huts for the kids to curl up in. We put a small plastic dog crate in the kidding pens for the kids to sleep in, but I remove the door because it seems to get closed a lot if you leave it on. For my Nigerian dwarf kids, I use the sleeve of an old sweatshirt to make coats. The wrist band becomes the collar; the seam runs under the kids belly, and I cut two little holes for the front leg. If you have a buckling, be sure to cut away enough of the coat under his belly so that he doesn't pee on it.
The only thing I really do differently with my adult goats in cold weather is to give them warm water, which they really seem to love. All of them usually take a big drink every time I bring a new bucket of warm water to them.
This is exciting as I'm looking forward to trying my bee's honey from my plants this year. When you first start a hive as I did last year one doesn't usually have enough honey to harvest the first year as the amount they make you leave for them to eat during the winter.
