# First Kiddings of season



## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

My first 4 does finished kidding last week. Ended up with 4 does and 3 bucks, everyone doing fine. It finally stopped raining down south, for about 4 days, supposed to rain again tomorrow but only a day or two. Good luck everyone on kidding.


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## stacy adams (Oct 29, 2007)

:faint


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## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Hey Janet,
Four doelings? Wonderful! Hope you have lots of doelings this kidding season.

I have a doe due to kid in two days. Been watching her carefully. Of course, we're supposed to have Thunderstorms on the day she's due.
It's been nice to have a few days without rain.


Tamera


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## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

Wow Janet! You are already done with kidding? :woohoo And 4 doelings to boot! Congrats....I know you are happy!


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## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

Thanks, yep tired of rain.

Nope, not done at all, that' s about a 3rd of them, I try to get a few, usually half done in December, it's doesn't always work exactly right. 

Good Luck everyone.


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

We have 4 does to kid in December - all by Explorer
Apple Crisp - 2 bucks and wow! what a lovely udder and so much more capacious this kidding. DIL Ruth didn't think her rear udder would be very high but when she came to her milk - that rear udder is there!
SGCH Honeysuckle 92EEEE -- 1 buck and 1 doe - long tall beautiful kids!
Sultana - (Honeysuckle X Legend) 1 buck & 1 doe - she is nice, nice! her udder is everything we had hoped for on a first freshener!
Tiramasu - 2 does and 1 buck. The doe kids are keepers but we will be culling Tiramasu because of a blemished udder. Oh well, you can't win them all.


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

Congrats Janet!! Hope you continue to have doe kids.

Congrats also Tim.


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

COngrats! We've got 'til March to go.....


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

Congratulations. Babies in time for Christmas, How sweet.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Congrats, especially on getting some doelings!


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We have storm babies this morning-ain't it always the way.
Pinaria did a perfect job of giving us 1 doe 1 buck that look just like my foundation dam Poa.
She was a quick and easy delivery and the kids were up and at it instantly! Hope the whole group does as well.
Back to the barn!
Lee


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## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Congratulations Lee!
Sounds like it all turned out just perfect. You can't get much better than quick and easy.
My doe is due tomorrow and you guessed it, thunder storms and wind in the forecast!

Tamera


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## Nupine (Nov 2, 2007)

Congrats Lee, Tim, and Janet. We may have babies in mid Feb.


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## Ashlee H (Aug 5, 2009)

Congrads everyone with new babies!!!  Hope all are healthy and doing well!!! 

My 1st ones are due to start arriving after the 9th of Jan! I am getting so excited and can't wait!!! :crazy


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone! Very nice way to start out the kidding season.

Here we are waiting but our continued chant is "DOES, DOES, DOES!"
Tam


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Two more! Mara gave us another pair -one of each and looking like their grandam also- big and red!
Halfway done with FF for this year smooth sailing so far. 
Lee


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

I notice these all seem to be Nubians kidding this early and they would have had to be bred in July, were these all natural heats or do you give a boost to an early breeding season?


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

Yep! We gave them a boost. We put a buck with them in May and pen breed them. Some years they will cycle and have kids the 1st week of November. This year they bred to kid in early December! 

I am considering using CIDRS for my yearlings this summer and AI'ing them - I need to use up some of my old semen and bring back some of the good ole boys again.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

I've heard some folks say its better not to breed the first heat of the season, but you've had good luck with it?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

some folks say.....

:laughcry The longer you stay on the forum the more you will figure out that some folks say alot of nothing  :rofl


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

> I've heard some folks say its better not to breed the first heat of the season, but you've had good luck with it?


You can breed on the 1st heat and usually be successful. However, it is possible that on their first heat they will short cycle and then come in heat again 5-7 days later. All you need to do is simply breed them again as this is their true heat. This short cycle is most aggravating when you are AI'ing a doe because you have wasted the semen. Some years back though I AI'd a senior doe on her first July heat and she gave birth to a single doe kid.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Yeah, that's the kind of examples I'd heard before also, that there is usually a smaller number of viable follicles maturing on that first heat etc. So what's your experienced strategy now for early/pre-season AI if you want fall kids?


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Christmas Eve Triplets!
2 huge bucks and a very pretty doe!
Happy holidays all- back to the barn....
Lee


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Christmas Eve triplets get named after the 3 wise men Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar? Or their 3 gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh?


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## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

Mine usually start cycling in May, but October is a busy month so I wait until July. And it seems like when one starts they all start. 

Congratulations everyone.


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## DostThouHaveMilk (Oct 25, 2007)

Ours start cycling about mid-late July.
We bought a grade Togg who had been bred in early June and delivered in early November, but we have not had one of our own freshen before late December.

Our first kid arrived yesterday. A dead polled Boer cross buck kid to a first freshener. Not the best start to the season.


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## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

Sorry Roseanna, I"m sure things will get better, I know it's never easy. 

Take care.


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## DostThouHaveMilk (Oct 25, 2007)

It would have been better if May had kidded before her like she was supposed to. I would have had a kid to foster onto her right away. Now it will be harder to try and foster a kid on her later.
She did beautifully on the stand though for a first timer.
I had even checked the doe two hours prior and her ligaments were still tight as drums. Just more confused is all. I hate not knowing for sure if I could have saved him or not, but I really doubt not from the looks of him.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Am I understanding that your does start cycling in May and July? Are these all Nubians? 

Some of us around here were talking that it seemed particularly late this year that the LM"s & MM's were coming in heat this year... into Sept if I remember right. The swiss breeds are strictly fall breeders without injected boost, right?


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines (Oct 26, 2007)

not all Nubians. I had several Alpines kid in December last year and other years without doing anything to induce heats.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

hmmmm.... any ideas out there what gets them to start natural heats earlier in the season then?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I find it's pretty dependant upon the age of the senior buck and where you live. We always have July heats in our Nubians, but using the buck effect with a young yearling buckling about the same age as the junior yearling does, we can pretty much have half a group of does bred by just putting the buck in the pen with the does in the spring and early summer. I am going to use CIDR's because I want the group of 8 bred.

Senior bucks, especially Nubian bucks, seem to keep the reproductive health of the whole herd in peak performance, course it's nice to be known as the person with bucks who will breed a post if you ask them! Vicki


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

"course it's nice to be known as the person with bucks who will breed a post if you ask them!"

:rofl I had a buck like that once.. course you didn't have to ask him. 

I've heard the saying 'he would put udders on a fence post'.. but I've yet to see udders on any here.. :rofl Lets just say.. anything moving better not go in the buck pen when he was here or it was getting bred! 

I'm not far from Janet.. but I never can get those does to come in heat like hers.
Must be the seasoned buck thing.


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## DostThouHaveMilk (Oct 25, 2007)

Ours are mostly Nubian and Boer influence. I don't think I have ever seen earlier than mid-July for us, or later than March. This is the first year I saw my half Saanen does cycle in before October. Usually they don't cycle until October for me..and usually late October at that.
I've tried the breeding in April and have failed dismally so far. I'm going to try again, but will have to use a coming two year old Nubian and a yearling Boer if I do so. I simply don't have a Nubian buck any younger than that at this stage.
We've had at least one mature buck for the past five years. I run anywhere from 4-10 bucks and bucklings in a pen butting up next to the does.
I think part of it also depends on where you live. 
I know the woman at the feed store with Boers was noting just how early her does were cycling. I was still waiting on mine to cycle. She managed to hold off breeding until about November, when they finally gave up and put the bucks in.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> ... young yearling buckling about the same age as the junior yearling does, we can pretty much have half a group of does bred by just putting the buck in the pen with the does in the spring...


ROFL... sounds like teenagers on Spring Break!

I know, you were making a different point, I just got a (cheap) laugh out of it.

The "where you live component"... looks like most of you with early natural breedings are in the southern latitudes? What's the theory on that? Despite the weather you've been having lately, maybe most years ours are just thawing and shedding when yours are breeding already, lol? I guess it makes sense that natural breedings for December kids might not thrive in nature? They'd need to be born with webbed feet here... granted our barns/shelters make it ok for them, but not as great as March-April.


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## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

I used mostly young bucks this year, as most of the daughters are from the older boys. The does share a fence with the bucks, so I just wait and watch, besides the younger ones waking me up at night yelling. The neighbors never know what's going on sometimes. 

:rofl


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

"The does share a fence with the bucks, so I just wait and watch, besides the younger ones waking me up at night yelling. The neighbors never know what's going on sometimes." 

:yeahthat. Finally got Gwen bred and two left to go. Neighbor wants to know why we are torturing the poor boys I told him it is breeding agenda. I explained the breeding plans and it made more sensebut he still thinks its mean :rofl.
Tam


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