Triple Goat Treat!

Today marked a first: in all our years of raising goats, we finally had a set of triplets born to us! We've had several sets of triplets from our Icelandic sheep, but our goats have never done anything more than twin.

I discovered the birth while out in the barn this afternoon taking care of chores. One little kid was wandering around the goat area, and my first thought was that Hollyhock's recent arrival had escaped from the kidding pen and couldn't rejoin her mother. But a closer look showed this kid was a newborn, wet from the birth and with some umbilical cord still dangling. Then I spotted the two other kids, swarming the mother goat. Homeschooled Farm Girl helped inspect all the mature does, and we confirmed only one had recently delivered.

What's amusing how crazy the genetics are getting: one of the three is quite dark, one is white, and the other is in-between. HFG tells me we have two males and one female.

Wilbur decided to do a close inspection of his new little charge. Until Mother Goat butted him away.

We moved Mom and her triplets to the kidding pen, with Hollyhock and her kid. I administered shots of Bovi Sera to all, and to the mother. And now the four kids are having a grand time getting to know each other.