Kids...Kids....& more.. Kids...

Its been a wowonderful year for kids so far this year. We've had 32 kids from 17 mums so far and we've another 8 to kid so hopefully a few more to come along. Kiddings' an exciting and nerve racking time here on the farm though this year has been even more so as we put all our Anglo Nubian females to our Boer buck this season, meaning that all except 3 kids born here this year are at least 50% boer. We thought we would try the cross this year to see what the kids they produced were like in the hope of improving the meat quality of the males, which as they are no good to the diary industry is there only purpose. Always the hardest part of the job, i personally always have slightly conflicting emotions about it, but console my self in the fact they lived a very happy life, longer than your average lamb or pig and we make every effort to use as much of the animal as possible, including the hide. We actually met someone today running a larger diary herd who humanly killed all the male kids at birth this year!!! I knew this happened but it was rather shocking to know someone who practised this! Made me feel better about how we do things here as unless people start eating the meat practises like this will continue as people think they will lose not make money on the males. So far it seems a success, all the kids are healthy and growing well. 

Another exciting part of kidding this year is that we've got double the amount of 100% boer does to kid this year than last year!!! Our doe Glory started us of on march 21st with twin buck kids Gaius & Gwaine. Weighed 3.9 & 3.1kg at birth, 1 week later they weighed in at 5.7 & 4.7kg so growing really well. Very interested to see what Gaius weighs at their next weigh in this weekend! Next was Neave with her beautiful pigeon pair Evie & Ned. 

These 2 were 4 & 5.4kg at birth. He was a very large boy and despite the fact she is the smallest boer doe we have she had a very quick easy birth. She did the same last year and had the largest kids so we're hoping she'll remain that easy for the years to come! Really excited about their weigh in this weekend as if they're anything like last years kids they will do incredibly well. These 2 were born on march 30th and i think her easy labour inspired the others to give it a go as Ginger had twin buck kids the next day. We've called these 2 Corry & Charlie and they were a very nice 4.6 & 4.1kg.

She was followed the next day by Kate, who gave birth to triplets for the 2nd year running! 2 buck kids and a little girl. The first born was a lovely healthy boy at 3.7kg. He's been named 'big' Ben. The second boy & her little girl are both very tiny, she's only 2.2kg & he's 2.6. Despite her size her little girl is incredibly feisty and doesn't hesitate to tell her mum whats what! Hence we've named her Annie after one of my favourite childhood movies with the feisty but lovable red-head (just like her) She's a good set of lungs on her too... Bertie her little boy isn't thriving as much. He's in the house with us but is making some progress which i've been updating to facebook for those of you abit concerned about him. Kate bless her actually gave birth to these 2 at the same time!!! Never seen or heard of this happening before! 

Apologies for the poor picture quality but here's Ben with his sister Annie. You can see why he's called 'big' Ben. Below is Annie snuggling up after a feed. 

The next day was Fame. Again a lovely pigeon pair. These 2 we've called Freddie & Hope and they weighed a surprising 3.7 & 3.1kg considering we thought they werent due for a few weeks. Both are doing incredibly well.

Finally yesterday was Erin, the first of our Leeds girls purchased last year to kid. She's a first time mum and is fantastic at it. She caught us out as we weren't planning on bringing her in for another couple of days but yesterday morning at breakfast time she wandered out of the hut with them following her! A lovely boy called Ed weighing 3.7kg and Eearwen 2.9kg. Eearwen is a very sweet little girl, but both are healthy and she loves being a mummy to them. 

We've still 8 boers to kid so fingers crossed we''ll be adding a few more to our kid list over the weekend...... Hopefully it will be a busy one... :)

Beckie