23 February 2011

Hardy Little Kid

We had bitterly cold weather last night; the thermometer read -5F this morning when I got up, which is close to the coldest I recall from this winter. Yesterday was +5, I believe.

Yet, despite the intense cold, the goat kid born two days ago continues to thrive. It helps that the lower portion of the barn has remained closed day and night, and I've been leaving the lights on 24 hours per day. The inside temperature was 26F when I went out this morning; it felt quite warm after walking across the driveway at -5F, but 26 degrees is still objectively very cold. Especially for a two day old baby animal.

The hardiness of these animals is remarkable. The kid had hunkered down in a cozy portion of the pen, next to Mom, and was just fine when she stood up to greet me.

2 comments:

naturegirl said...

Glad to see the kid is doing well. The straw seems pretty thin in the photo. Wouldn't more be better in this cold weather? It's just the mother in me.

TYF said...

Good thinking about the straw. It's not very visible in this picture, but we did put down a bunch of additional straw when we moved the two of them in there. The bulk of it is out of view of the camera. She hunkered down nicely in it yesterday.