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Purebred Nubian Dairy Goats

Please go to our For Sale page if you are interested in purchasing one of our goats.
BMR Goats are all 100% CAE Free, CL Free, G6S Normal and carry the Casein Protein for great cheesemaking. Email Kathryn or call (928) 536-7759
Our 2017 Kidding Diary is posted below this Kidding Schedule.
For help on using this table click here

2017 Kidding Season

Senior Does

Doe
Buck
Due Date
Result
Reserved
Price

SG Cora

Roscoe
Due February 28
Kidded March 2
Twins: 2 does 1 doe retained, 2 bucks reserved $550

SG Obsidian

Roscoe
Due March 6
(or February 28)
Kidded March 3
Quads: 3 does, 1 buck 1 doe retained, 1 doe reserved $500

SG Alchemy

Leonardo
Due March 6
(or February 28)
Kidded March 4
Singleton: 1 buck 1 doe retained $500

SG Ashlee

Leonardo
Due March 6)
Kidded March 5
Triplets: 3 bucks   $450

SG Betty

Luke
Due March 6
Kidded March 5
Singleton: 1 doe 1 doe retained $500

BeeJay

Luke
Due March 6
Kidded March 5
Singleton: 1 buck 1 doe retained $450

Jubilee

Roscoe
Due March 6
(or February 28)
Kidded March 6
Twins: 1 doe, 1 buck 1 doe reserved $450

Celeste

Luke
Due March 6
(or March 1)
Kidded March 6
Twins: 1 doe, 1 buck All does retained, 1 buck retained $600

SG Snowflake

Leonardo
Due March 6
(or March 1)
Kidded March 6
Quads: 1 doe, 3 bucks 1 doe reserved $500

SG Sky

Leonardo
Due March 6
Kidded March 6
Triplets: 2 does, 1 buck 1 doe retained $450

Rosetta

Gideon
Due March 6
(or March 1)
Kidded March 7
Twins: 1 doe, 1 buck   $450

SG Reese

Leonardo
Due March 6
Kidded March 7
Quads: 3 does, 1 buck 1 doe retained, 1 doe reserved, 1 buck reserved $500

Piper

Luke
Due March 7
Kidded March 8
Twins: 2 does   $400

Abby

Gideon
Due March 7
Kidded March 8
Triplets: 2 does, 1 buck   $400

SG Carmella

Luke
Due March 7
(or March 1)
Kidded March 9
Quads: 3 does, 1 buck 1 doe retained $500

SG Melody

Ninja
Due March 21
Kidded March 19
Triplets: 1 doe, 2 bucks 1 doe retained, 1 doe reserved $550

SG Celia

Leonardo
Due March 21
Kidded March 22
Triplets: 3 does 1 doe reserved $450

SG Arietta

Ninja
Due March 27
Kidded March 25
Quads: 2 does, 2 bucks 2 does reserved $450

SG Peace

Ninja
Due March 27
Kidded March 25
Singleton: 1 buck 2 does reserved $450

Junior Does

(No reservations will be taken for registered bucklings out of Junior Does)
Doe
Buck
Due Date
Result
Reserved
Price

Liberty Belle

Ninja
Due April 7
Kidded April 6
Singleton: 1 buck 1 doe reserved $350

Legacy

Luke
Due April 16
Kidded April 12
Triplets: 2 does, 1 buck 1 doe reserved $350

Cookie

Luke
Due April 21
Kidded April 18
Singleton: 1 doe 1 doe reserved $350

Finale

Leonardo
Due April 18
Kidded April 19
Twins: 2 does 2 does reserved $350

Onyx

Luke
Due May 8
Kidded May 8
Singleton: 1 doe 2 does reserved $350

Charlotte

Leonardo
Due May 9
Kidded May 9
Triplets: 1 doe, 2 bucks 1 doe reserved $350

Kathryn's 2017 Goat Kidding Diary

Kiddings will be listed below chronologically with the most recent first. To start at the earliest entry, click here.

Wrapping Up

Kathryn/David

5/10/17 And that’s the story.  Our 2017 Kidding Season has now ended.  It was overall a wonderful season with many beautiful babies being born and the does making lots of milk for us.  We did lose a few kids and even lost our beautiful herd queen, Celeste, who kidded and looked great, but started failing soon afterwards.  We suspect that she ruptured her uterus. We had to euthanize her.  It was a very sad day, but made better by watching her gorgeous buckling who we are keeping as a junior herd sire – a tribute to her and a very exciting addition for us.

We had 60 kids born – 35 doelings and 25 bucklings making it the second time ever having such a blowout Doe Year.

David and I thank our friends Amanda, Joan, and Hazel for coming to help out during our busiest times, as well as thanking all the people that are bringing our genetics into their herds.  Thank you so much for your faith in us!

We will be posting our 2017/2018 breeding/kidding schedule in July.  Please check it out and get your reservations in early.  Thanks for reading along.  We hope that you enjoyed it.

----Kathryn, BMR Herd Manager


Charlotte Shooters

Charlotte/Leonardo

5/9/17 Charlotte is a big yearling, she weighed in at 150# last week, and I knew she was carrying a large load of kids. I predicted triplets.  But Char never had an issue with carrying the load, other than being hungry regardless how much she ate!  She bounced around with the rest of the yearlings, running and jumping, begging for treats, and coming into the milking parlor twice a day for some grain.  She has been spending the last few nights in the kidding pen with her buddy Onyx, who kidded last night.

This morning at 5 AM I checked the goat monitor and saw the Charlotte was laying down and starting into hard labor.  I headed out and Charlotte stood up to see me.  I saw that Char had just a bit of kid hoof showing from her vulva.  I figured that it would take a while for Charlotte to push the kid head out, so I decided to milk Onyx and send her out of the pen since she had cleaned from her kidding last night.   

David came out and held Onyx still while I milked, Charlotte stood next to us watching.  As I was finishing milking Onyx, David suddenly moved over to Char – and caught a kid!  Seriously?  Getting the head out usually takes a first-time mom at least a FEW minutes as well as a few grunts!   But Char just squeezed that 5.8# doeling right out in record time.

I finished up with Onyx and moved her out of the pen while David cleaned the little girl.  Charlotte continued to stand and watch what we were doing.  Then, with very little warning, she squirted out another kid.  This one a 7.3# brown buckling.  I was able to catch the boy and get him over for David to clean up. 

David and I were laughing at how fast and easy Charlotte’s babies were being born.  Then I saw that the second kid had a very long umbilical cord still attached and I wanted to cut it shorter before it got tangled.  As I was reaching for some scissors out of my kidding kit, David said “Watch Out”!  I turned in time to see an explosion of amniotic fluid followed by a lump of kid falling out of Char.  The kid splattered into the fluid in a twisted-up mess. 

I grabbed the newborn, straightened out the parts, and handed the 5.4# buckling to David for cleaning.  I bounced Charlotte to be sure that she was out of ammunition, then cleaned up her teats and easily milked out almost a quart and a half of beautiful, yellow colostrum.  Charlotte is going to be a powerhouse milker when she matures - and a heck of an easy kidder.

The first born - a doe
Second born - a smokey brown boy
Third born - another boy.

Undramatic Onyx

Onyx/Luke

5/8/17 For the last few nights we have been putting Onyx and Charlotte into a kidding pen in order to keep a watch on them via the Goat Cam.  The two girls are friends and loved having easy access to extra food.  Lately they both have been eating almost non-stop.  I was hoping that they would both kid early since they are the last of our goats to kid this season.  But I guess they had access to a calendar and decided to kid on their due dates.

Tonight Onyx was unsettled.  She fussed around, laid down, got up, played with the food, then fussed around some more.  Finally she curled up to sleep and I went to bed.  Around 10PM David woke me up to let me know that Onyx was starting to string some birthin’ fluid.  I had a Goat Cam monitor on in the bed room so I zoomed in on Onyx’s backside.  She was definitely stringing mucus, but not enough to get me out of bed.  I closed my eyes. 

About an hour later I checked the monitor and saw that Onyx was actually laying down and starting into hard labor.  I jumped into my clothes and headed out.  I got a landing zone ready to lay the kid on once it was born, got some paper towels ready for cleaning mouth and nose, newsprint for slicking slime, and a towel for drying the kid.

Pretty soon, very undramatically, Onyx pushed out an amazingly gorgeous 6.8# doeling in proper forward position.  The doeling was feisty right off the bat.  Onyx, a first freshener, had no idea what had just happened.  I tried to show her the baby, but she wanted to lick on me instead. 

I bounced Onyx’s belly and didn’t feel any more kids.  I cleaned her teats and milked out her colostrum to feed her beautiful daughter.  Onyx thought that was fine, but she really just wanted to go back to sleep.  Me, too…


Checking In With Finale

Finale/Leonardo

4/19/17 Finale has been following the Goat Kidding Check List for the last month or so.

  • Udder developing – check
  • Rump softening – check
  • Kids dropping – check
  • Udder filling with colostrum – check
  • Rump ligaments undetectable – check
  • Squirming around in First Stage Labor – check

But that seems to have been the end of her check list.  Maybe another goat ate the rest.  Anyway, Finale just didn’t seem to be moving into that second stage of labor – pushing the kids out.  She just fussed and moaned and ground her teeth, laid flat out like she was dying, and licked on me a lot.

After watching her do this through the night and most of today, I decided to do my own “checking”.  David calmed Finale and held her still while I cleaned up her backside, cleaned me up, gloved up, lubed up, and went exploring.  Finale is a first-time momma so the birth canal was tight.  I massaged it to help it relax and open wider.  Surprisingly that worked quite fast.  I felt in further and felt a head and two legs starting into the canal.  One leg felt normal, the other one felt more like a back leg.

I pulled the head and “normal” leg while Finale finally starting having some hard contractions.  Amazingly quickly the 6.5# doeling slid out.  I laid her on an empty feed sack and David started to clean her up.  She really didn’t want any part of that and tried to stand up right away.  What a feisty girl!

Once David had the kid fairly cleaned off of slime, he put her in a laundry basket to contain her while I went fishing for that back leg that I had felt.  I reached into the birth canal and found that leg plus a hock.  I pushed the hock back into the uterus, felt along it to find the back hoof, then rotated the leg so that the hoof was coming out first.  I pulled the two legs and could tell that the stifles were still bent.  I tried to straighten them out, but didn’t have any luck.  The 7.4# doeling came out in a less then ergonomic position.  No problem for her, but not as easy for Finale.

Finale can now check off...

  • Have Babies

Both doelings seem more like they are several days old instead of just born.  Our kids this year have really been amazingly vigorous.

First born doeling
Second born doeling

Cookie Doe

Cookie/Luke

4/18/17 It wasn’t Cookie that I was watching today.  It was Finale – it was her due date, her udder was filling, her rump going soft.  I did check Cookie several times during the day but she didn’t seem at all ready.

Evening milking proceeded as usual with the milkers coming in first and then the lead feeders.  Lead feeders are the does that are close to kidding.  They come in to get used to the milking parlor and to get some grain. 

As we finished with the milkers and started bringing in the lead feeders, David mentioned that there was a goat in one of the auxiliary sheds and that the dogs seeming interested in what was going on inside.

I let David finish up in the parlor, and I went out to investigate.  Cookie was the doe in the shed and behind her was a very alert and cleaned up doeling.  I bounced Cookie’s belly and didn’t feel anyone else in there. 

Soon David came out and held Cookie steady while I milked her.  She made plenty of colostrum to feed her 6.5# daughter.  Normally milking a first freshener is tough since the teats aren’t as big as the older does’, but not Cookie.  Her teats are nicely placed, nicely sized, and her udder milks out easily.  Cookie will be a wonderful addition to our milking string.


Relaxin With Legacy

Legacy/Luke

4/12/17 Some goats really do their homework before kidding – they get soft in the hindquarters, their milk comes in, their vulva goes slack.  Well, Legacy is one of those.  The ligaments around her tail head have been so soft that I couldn’t detect them for the last week.  Her back legs were wobbly and she didn’t want to stand up much.  What causes this?  There is a hormone called Relaxin that works with other hormones to maintain the pregnancy and as parturition approaches it (as the name implies) causes the ligaments around the pelvis to relax plus soften the cervix.

Legacy didn’t want to join the other goats at the manger and would lay down instead of eating.  She would wait until the other goats were finished, then she would go up to eat some leftovers.  I checked her urine to see if she was throwing ketones and thankfully she wasn’t.  I started putting her in a private pen several times a day so that she could eat all she wanted. Finally, I decided to induce her to kid early since she really was getting unstable on her legs due to the Relaxin.

I timed the injections so that she would kid around mid-day on Thursday.  On Wednesday evening I put Legacy in a kidding pen for the night so that I could keep an eye on her in case she kidded earlier than planned.  She laid down in the pen and I gave her some grain since she had missed lead feeding due to being in the kidding pen.  She ate with gusto. 

It was a lovely evening and I was sitting out on the deck while David grilled up some of our home-grown pork chops.  I heard a loud grunt coming from the goat pen and so I went over to investigate.  Legacy was laying in the same place as she had been when I gave her some grain.  Behind her, in a lake of goo, was a darling little kid!  I yelled to David that we had kids coming! So much for timing the kidding to happen the next day...

I grabbed my kidding kit, brought it into Legacy’s pen, put on a pair of nitrile gloves, then went to work cleaning the kid’s mouth and nose, plus slicking slime.   David showed up and got the 4.8# doeling onto an empty feed sack and continued cleaning her off.

Soon Legacy started pushing hard and a head started out.  I checked for a leg and found one.  I pulled it forward to help the kid come out easier, but that didn’t help.  The kid just wasn’t moving out.  As I reached back inside, David suggested that the leg might not actually belong to the head.  So, I felt along that leg to the head that it was connected to.  David had been correct.  There was a second head in the birth canal and the leg actually belonged to that one.  I pushed the leg and its corresponding head back into the uterus and found a leg that belonged to the head that was hanging out. Finally, the lovely 7.4# black spotted buckling was born.  He sputtered a bit but David got him breathing easy. 

The head and leg that I had pushed back into the uterus started their journey again and soon a lovely 6.1# brown doe with brown ears was born.  I checked back inside of Legacy to be sure that she was done.  I didn’t find anyone else at home.

Legacy is doing much better now that those triplets are born and the Relaxin is leaving her system.  That is a big load of babies for a yearling to carry around!  The kids just couldn’t be cuter.   

First Born Doeling
Beautiful Buck
Third Born Kid - Another Doe

Belle Becomes a Milker

Liberty Belle/Ninja

4/6/17 Liberty Belle’s due date was tomorrow and this morning it looked like she would wait until then to kid.  But this afternoon I noticed that her milk was coming in, the kid(s) had dropped, and her rump was noticeably sunken.  At about 3 PM, when I saw her laying off by herself I knew it was time to move her into a kidding pen.

She settled in pretty quickly and within an hour she was moving into hard labor.  She pushed out a lovely clear kid bubble and soon I could see two front hooves floating inside.  Then she pushed out a nose.  I popped the bubble and the whole head moved out.  Soon the 8.1# black buckling was born. 

First time new momma, Liberty Belle, seemed a bit in shock but recovered quickly and licked on her baby.  I got her some molasses water and then Liberty Belle stood up to be milked for the first time in her life.  I bounced her belly and didn’t feel any more kids inside.  She was a great sport about the whole event.  Her boy is more like a three-day old kid instead of a newborn.  He was jumping around on very sturdy legs within minutes.


Peace Of Work

Peace/Ninja

3/25/17 I checked on Peace this morning thinking how nice it would be if she kidded soon.  That way we would get almost 2 weeks off before the next doe was due to kid.  But Peace did not look at all ready.  Her milk wasn’t in, her rump was not soft.  I put her in the holding pen with the other does that were waiting to be milked or lead fed.

Half an hour later, when I opened the milking parlor door to let in the first girls, Peace was standing right there – stringing a lot of goo.  David moved her into the kidding pen while I got to work milking the does.  We worked fast, moving the does through the parlor while watching Peace on the Goat Cam as she just fretted in her pen.  As soon as we were done milking I checked on her.  She was starting into hard labor.  I radioed to David that kids were coming and got set up for them.  Actually, I would have been surprised if Peace had more than one kid since she really hadn’t grown much during her pregnancy.

Soon two front legs showed up and I pulled them straight to make the kidding more ergonomic.  Peace was still not very loose in the backend so it was taking her a lot longer to push the kid out than if she had done her homework.  But soon the 6.9# buckling was born.  Peace loved licking on him and really enjoyed her molasses water treat. 


Awesome Arietta

Arietta/Ninja

3/25/17 Arietta was huge.  I started calling her Army-etta a month or so ago, but she didn’t let it bother her.  She’d come for lead feeding, enthusiastically jump up onto her milk stand, and eat her grain.  Then trot off to eat some alfalfa in the barn… and eat, and eat, and eat some more.  She was insatiable. 

Yesterday afternoon, as I was getting ready to milk the does, I put Arietta into the kidding pen so that I could keep an eye on her.  She had been hiding under the deck, fussing, and digging a little.  I was trying to figure what the chances were for her to download all those kids without needing help.  She looked impossibly large. (The picture at the right does not even begin to show how big she was!)

At just before 1 AM I woke up to the sounds of a goat in hard labor.  I jumped into my clothes and headed out to Arietta’s pen.  I was rummaging around in my kidding kit for my nitrile gloves when I heard Arietta give a mighty push.  I turned around to see a cute 4.9# doeling laying in a puddle of goo behind Arietta.  I placed the kid on an empty feed sack, cleaned her mouth and nose, then slicked slime off of her. 

Arietta very quickly started pushing hard again and soon a second kid was born.   This one was a very splashy 5.4# buckling that came in the classic nose and toes position.  That’s when David showed up to help slick slime.  Good thing, too, since not long after that Arietta pushed out a 6.3# buckling quickly followed by a 6.1# doeling, both kids came nose and toes first.  Four kids born in less than 15 minutes!  Arietta is sure in the running for winning the Easiest Kidding of the Year Award!

First Born - a doe
2nd born - a buck
3rd born - a buck
Fourth born - a doe

Searching Inside Of Celia

Celia/Leonardo

3/22/17 Yesterday Celia seemed ready to kid.  She was standing off from the herd, her milk was in, and her rump was fairly soft.  I put her in a kidding pen and kept an eye on her.  As the day wore on I was quite surprised that she didn’t get down to business.  As the night progressed all she did was fuss around and dig up the straw bedding.

At 5AM she seemed anxious.  I decided to do a check inside the birth canal in case there was a problem.  David comforted her while I cleaned up her back side, cleaned me up, gloved up, lubed up, and slowly worked my hand in through the vulva and into the birth canal.  She was fairly tight to begin with, but loosened up quite well.  I didn’t feel any kids in the birth canal and found that Celia’s cervix was only open enough for me to get one finger through.  I decided to wait a bit for her to dilate the cervix.

After milking the does, feeding the livestock, and feeding the kids, I hung out with Celia.  Around 10 AM she started having some hard contractions.  After she had several bouts of those, I, again, decided to check things out.  David held her steady while I slowly felt into the birth canal.  When I got to the cervix I could feel that it was now open enough for three of my fingers to get inside.  I worked to massage the cervix the rest of the way open so that the kids could be born.

After just a few minutes I could get my whole hand into the uterus.  I felt a mess of legs, none of which were putting the needed pressure on the cervix that would have encouraged it to open.  After working to decipher the riddle of legs, I finally found two hocks that belonged together.  I rotated first one, then the other one so that the rear hooves were in the birth canal.  I made sure the cervix was open enough to allow the rest of the kid to follow, then pulled out a 5.0# doeling.  She was feisty right off the bat!

Once the little girl was cleaned up and put into the kid carrier, I checked back inside of Celia.  I felt a head and two feet entering the birth canal and soon another doeling was born.  This one weighing 6.9#.

After David had her cleaned off and tucked with her sister, I reached in again.  This time I felt a head and one leg.  Out came a third doeling.  This one weighing in at 7.0#.  All the girls were active and standing up in minutes.  Celia licked on her babies, had a big drink of molasses water, then slept so hard that I had to check her breathing to be sure she was OK!    

Doeling #1
Doeling #2
Doeling #3
The girls at 1 hour old

Melody Sings

Melody/Ninja

3/19/17 It was a busy day around here with milking the goats, people picking up their new goat kids, disbudding kids, working in the cheese kitchen, and sending good vibes to my sister-in-law, Cynthia, in Philadelphia who would be singing a solo performance during a concert that would happen around 5 PM our time here in Arizona. 

This afternoon I saw that Melody’s milk was in and that she was off in the wings looking for a private place to kid. I moved her into a kidding pen and kept an eye on her. Around the time that Cynthia would be getting ready and in position for her performance, Melody was getting ready for hers. She was panting, possibly due to it being over 80 degrees (20 degrees warmer than our norm this time of year), she was grinding her teeth, and pawing in the straw.

I had David come out to hold her steady while I checked to be sure the kids were in good position. I was surprised to find a kid already in the birth canal ready to make its debut.  I felt two hooves and a nose. I let Melody work to push the kid out and even gave her a dose of MFO to help her have strong contractions. Soon the 6.6# buckling slid out as Melody gave a cry followed by gentle nickers. Melody sang her little solo about the time that SIL Cynthia was thrilling her audience. 

Melody had two more “solos” to sing. One when the 5.9# buckling was born head only and I had to help by pulling one shoulder forward a bit, and one when the darling 5.8# doeling made her grand entrance head first with one leg folded back. The trio sang quite a chorus as they were being slicked of slime and dried off.

Melody milked a good amount of colostrum to feed her singers and looks like she will be a star performer in the milking parlor again this year.

First Born - A gorgeous boy!
And another boy...
This doeling is stunning!

Carmella Kids

Carmella/Luke

3/9/17 I wasn’t expecting a large load of kids from Carly.  She had a singleton last year and this year she just didn’t look very large.  Two days after her due date, Carly started stringing some brownish goo.  After a few hours in the kidding pen I did a check to see if the kids were lining up OK.  I could feel that Carly’s cervix was still opening and I did not feel any kids directly behind it yet.  I let her work another hour.  She wasn’t pushing hard yet but she was stretching, yawning, and grinding her teeth.

Around 5PM I cleaned up, gloved up, lubed up and went in search of kids.  Once I got through the now fully open cervix I felt lots of legs.  I searched for a head but didn’t find one convenient, so I pulled out a pair of matching front legs, then felt back in for the head which should have been coming along for the ride.  The head was folded back along the kid’s body in what I refer to as the “Dreaded Head Back” position.  I knew I’d need more room to work so I pushed the legs back into the uterus and then worked to get my hand around the head.  That actually went pretty fast, but I could tell by the feel of the eye sockets and the limpness of the body that the kid was dead.  I got the head into the birth canal, found the front feet again, and pulled the big, dead doeling out. 

I went back in to pull the next kid.  It was identical to the first – head back, limp, a doe, and dead.

I expected that to be all of the kids but checked back inside anyway.  I found a pair of back legs.  I pulled them out, straightened out the stifle joint, and out came a very lively 8.5# black buckling.  Once David had him breathing well and contained (he was very squiggly), I went back to check that Carly was done kidding.  I felt a pair of back legs – again.  This was a repeat of the third kid’s birth, with the exception that it was a squiggly 8.0# black doeling that came out.

We don’t know why Carly lost half of her kids, but are happy that she is doing great.  She even milked close to half a gallon of colostrum!  What a trooper.

The Boy
The Girl

Alternating With Abby

Abby/Gideon

3/8/17 This evening Abby was obviously getting ready to kid.  She was squirming around, her milk had filled her lovely udder, and she was starting to string goo.  We decided to milk a little early to try and be ready to catch kids soon.  It was just David and I since poor Joan had fallen earlier and was at the urgent care center getting a broken wrist and finger splinted.

About halfway through milking and lead feeding the does, I saw on the barn cam monitor that Abby had a kid bubble pushed out.  I could see the kid head floating inside.  I left David to finish up the girls that were already in the milking parlor and I headed out to Abby’s pen and put on some nitrile gloves.  I burst the kid bubble and saw that the kid was coming head only.   I felt inside the birth canal for legs but didn’t find any.  I gave the head a tug but it was stuck pretty tight, so I reached back into the birth canal and found a shoulder.  I pulled the shoulder forward so that the kid was a little more streamlined.  That did the trick and out came the 7.7# brown doeling.

I put her on an empty feed sack, cleaned her mouth and nose, and slicked slime off of her.  David showed up and took over caring for the newborn.  I headed back to the milking parlor to finish up milking the rest of the girls.  Once David had the kid dry and cuddled in a towel, he also came to help milk.  We almost got finished when another baby bubble showed up.  I went out to assist and Abby popped out an 8.7# black buckling in nose and toes position. 

Soon David came back from finishing up milking.  That’s when Abby pushed out a belted 6.8# doeling in perfect forward position.  She did a great job getting her triplets born and she milked out almost a quart of lovely yellow colostrum from a lovely udder with great teat set.  Abby is a joy to hand milk and a fun girl to have back on the milk line.

First born - a doeling
Second born - a buckling
Third born - another doeling

Piper Can't Wait

Piper/Luke

3/8/17 This morning our friend Amanda had to head back home.  She is a huge help around here and we really have appreciated all of her work, not to mention having some time to hang out and chat. 

Due to Amanda leaving we were a bit late in getting the milking and lead feeding done.  As I was moving what I thought was the last goat into the milking parlor I glanced around the holding pen to be sure.  I saw Piper still in there – with company!  She had her twin doelings already born and partially dried off!  What a sneaky, efficient little girl. 

The driest doeling weighed in at a hefty 7.8#.  The wetter of the twins weighed 6.1#.  Both were up stomping around and demanding room service within minutes.  Gotta love fast, easy kiddings with heathy babies.  Piper loves being a milker and it will be fun having her back to work.

Driest Doe Kid
Wetter Doe Kid

Reese Rocks

Reese/Leonardo

3/7/17 Reese has been waddling around for weeks looking ready to download her babies.  I was surprised that her due date came and went without her losing her load.  But finally, today, she started stringing mucus.  The mucus was yellow and filled with meconium and she was draining a lot of it without any signs that a kid was coming.  After waiting a few hours with only lots of yellow goo to show for it, I decided to investigate.  I gloved up, lubed up, and went exploring.

Her birth canal softened up quite nicely as my hand massaged inside.  I found a nose and two toes waiting at the cervix.  I gave a little tug and out came a 6.8# belted doeling.  She was quite a bit dryer than she should have been due to losing all that lubrication, so I was glad that I had gone in to get things started.

Once she was slicked of slime, I went back inside of Reese.  A 6.0# blonde doeling came out head first with one leg folded back.  I reached in again, and another doeling came out!  This one is brown with brown ears and came back legs first.

I checked back inside to be sure that Reese was done.  I found a fourth kid.  This buckling also came backwards, he weighed 7.3#.

Reese milked almost half a gallon of lovely liquid gold (AKA colostrum) and really enjoyed licking on all of her babies.  The babies are amazingly vigorous, active, and hungry, Reese looks like she will be a powerhouse in the milking parlor again this year.

First born doeling
Second born doeling
Third born doeling
The boy

Rocky Rosetta

Rosetta/Gideon

3/7/17 Last year Rosetta had a very hard time for the last few days of her pregnancy.  So this year we kept a very close eye on her.  Yesterday morning she seemed fine, but by evening she was having trouble walking.  I induced her to kid since she was full term anyway.  It takes about a day and a half for the drug to work, so we just catered to Rosetta during that time, bringing her food, water, and attention.

This afternoon Rosetta seemed ready to kid but didn’t get down to business.  Due to her problems, I decided to check inside to be sure all was well.  She was still a bit tight in the birth canal but softened up as I massaged. I found a nose and one hoof and soon an 8.5# buckling was born.

Rosetta was standing patiently so I reached back inside.  I felt hocks.  I straightened them out so that the rear hooves were coming out first.  Then I pulled the kid, and pulled, and pulled some more.  This kid is the longest kid ever!  Her rear legs were actually touching the ground before she was even halfway out of the doe.   This strapping big girl weighed in at 9.6# making her the third largest doe ever born at BMR.  What a good-looking moose!

Rosetta is doing much better now without her big kids inside of her.  She is milking well and walking much better.  The kids are jumping around with the older kids already.

The buckling
The doeling

Sky's The Limit

Sky/Leonardo

3/6/17 Sky has been on my “watch list” for several days now.  Her rump has been soft and her milk coming in. This afternoon she has been laying in the kidding pen looking quite comfy.  Around 4PM she started squirming and Amanda, Joan, Hazel, and I went out to catch kids.  It seemed a bit excessive having so many helpers, but as it turned out everyone had a job.

As Sky was starting into hard labor I got called away for a few minutes and while I was away Sky pushed out a hock.  That is not a good position.  Hazel worked to push the hock back and retrieve the back hoof, but found that there was a backbone blocking the way.  That’s when I got back.  I gloved up, lubed up, and checked it out.  What a mess.

I was able to rotate the hock to pull the hoof out first, then I got the kid’s back manipulated so that the rump would come through once the back legs were pulled into the birth canal.  That way the kid’s exit would be more ergonomic.  Then I tried to find the other back leg to pull out.  Sky was pushing hard which made working to move body parts very hard.  Eventually I had to just let her push the kid out backwards with one back leg still tucked up along her body.  Neither she nor the 5.6# doeling seemed to mind much, so all was well. 

Very quickly after that Sky pushed out a 5.8# doeling with brown ears in nose and toes position, and then a 7.5# buckling with one leg folded back.  Amanda, Joan, and Hazel were working overtime to dry off all the new arrivals with Sky helping out, too.  I have been SO thankful for everyone's help.

Doe Number One
Doe number two
Third born - a buckling

Snowflakes

Snowflake/Leonardo

3/6/17 Snowflake is a big, wide, deep doe so it’s hard to judge if she is carrying a large load of kids or just a few.  Today we found out.  I had put her in the kidding pen yesterday since her milk was in, but she didn’t get down to business until this morning. 

Around 9AM Snowflake pushed out a kid head.  I gloved up and checked to see if there were any feet that could be pulled forward or if this was going to be a head first kidding with both legs folded back.  Luckily there were two feet just behind the head and once I pulled those straight, the 7.1# doe slid out.

As the doeling was being cleaned up, Snowflake pushed out a 7.5# buck in nose and toes position.  Next was an 8# buck with brown ears, followed by a white 7.9# buck that tried coming hocks first.  That’s a lot of kids delivered in a very short time!

First born - a doe
Second born - a buck
Third born - a buck
Fourth born - another buck

Celestial Son

Celeste/Luke

3/6/17 Celeste is an older doe that had trouble kidding last year.  This year I decided to induce her to kid a day earlier than her scheduled due date.  I thought the added hormones would help her soften and be able to deliver her kids easier.  But the time that I had calculated that she would kid (yesterday around 5PM) came and went and still no kids.  Celeste spent the night in the kidding pen where I kept an eye on her via the goat camera. 

At 4AM it looked like she might be starting to think about kidding.  I must have drifted off to sleep then because the next time I opened my eyes to check her it was 5AM and her gorgeous 8.0# buckling was already on the ground, cleaned off, and trying to stand up already.  What a delightful way to start the morning!

I bounced Celeste’s belly to see if she had any more kids inside.  I didn’t expect another one since Celeste wasn’t that big.  I couldn’t tell, but I thought I felt a small lump.  I left Celeste in the kidding pen and kept an eye on her.  A few hours later Celeste went back into hard labor.  She pushed out a tiny doeling that had died many weeks earlier – her eye sockets were sunken and she was fairly hairless.

Celeste continued to stay in the kidding pen to pass her placentas.  But later she went back into hard labor again!  Soon she passed a clear kid bubble but there was not a kid inside -almost like a Cloudburst pregnancy.  What a strange kidding!  But Celeste looks fabulous and is as feisty as ever.  Her buckling is amazingly active, sturdy, and beautiful.

3/8/17 Even though Celeste looked great right after kidding, she started going downhill fast. We think that she ruptured her uterus during kidding. We tried hard to save her but ended up euthanizing her today. It is a very sad day at Black Mesa Ranch. We miss our herd queen but are very happy that she left us such an amazing young man to become a BMR herd sire.


Jubilee

Jubilee/Roscoe

3/6/17 I put Jubilee in a kidding pen this afternoon when I saw that she was stringing mucus.  She pawed around and acted close to kidding but didn’t get down to pushing.  I left her there so that she could keep working on getting her kids born,  and after Betty and BeeJay kidded I headed to bed to get some rest.  At midnight, when I heard David, Joan, and Amanda feeding kids, I got up to check on Jubilee.  It had dawned on me that with the amount of slime she had been losing that the kid might end up too dry to slide out easily once Jubilee started pushing.

I had David hold Jubilee along the fence line, I cleaned her backside up, cleaned me up, gloved up, lubed up, and checked inside.  I felt nose and toes in the birth canal and when I moved them a bit to feel why they weren’t progressing outwards I felt a shoulder dislodge from the pelvic brim.  I guess the kid had been stuck there and not able to continue being born.  It was a simple fix and the 8.0# buck came out fairly easily after that, though a bit less lubricated than I’d have liked.

Once that boy was dried and cuddled in a towel, I checked back inside of Jubilee.  Way down deep, and I mean REALLY way down deep, I felt a kid head.  I could barely reach it and it was pretty embedded in placental material, so it was hard to move the kid into the birth canal.  Finally, the 6.1# doeling was born head first with one leg folded back.

First born buckling
Second born - the doeling

BeeJay's Boy

BeeJay/Luke

3/5/17 BeeJay is a wild child, having been dam raised and not handled much (but that is a different story).  So, this evening when I saw her in the main doe barn stringing ropes of birthin’ goo I knew it would be a rodeo to get her into a kidding pen.  Amanda, Joan, and I used strategy, cunning, and trickery to try getting a hold of her, but in the end it was the rest of the goat herd that cornered her and made it possible for Amanda to get hold of her collar and lead her into a kidding pen. 

BeeJay fretted for a while, then pouted a bit, and finally settled in and accepted her captivity.   At around 9:40 PM she laid down and pushed out an amazingly striking 8.5# buck kid in nose and toes position. 

I’m not sure what’s going on with all these singleton births, but the kids are all stunning.


Battered Betty

Betty/Luke

3/5/17 Amanda, my long time birthin' buddy, arrived this afternoon to help out for a few days! It's always good to have Amanda here. We are also lucky enough to have Hazel from Witch Hazel Dairy here for a day to help out, and Joan is here for the week to help also.

Betty had been in a kidding pen all afternoon, fussing around and pushing on and off.  By 8PM she was grinding her teeth, looking uncomfortable, but not making any progress.  I cleaned up her backside, gloved up, lubed up, and checked inside her birth canal.  I felt a head and legs entering into the canal.  I gave some traction to the legs and slowly, very slowly, the kid advanced towards the exit.  It took a while for this big kid to move out into the world and at one point Betty, who had been standing up, laid down to finish working this monster out.

For many years the BMR record for the largest doe born here was 9.7#.  Well, Betty’s big doeling smashed that record by weighing in at 9.9#.  That is pretty extreme and just not an easy delivery, but mom and daughter are doing great.

Betty's Big Doeling
Amanda, Hazel, and Joan in my office feeding babies. I thank them for all the help!!

Easy Ashlee

Ashlee/Leonardo

3/5/17 Last year Ashlee pulled a fast one on me and had her triplets born while I wasn’t looking.  This year I put her in a kidding pen for the night and had the barn cam trained on her.  David watched until he came to bed just after midnight, then it was my turn to monitor.  I slept with one eye open, checking the monitor in the bedroom often.  At 2 AM I saw that Ashlee was getting very squirmy and starting to push.  I woke up David and headed out to catch kids.

David and Joan showed up as I was working to clean off a 7.1# buckling that Ashlee had easily delivered.  They took over that job while I waited for Ashlee to push out her next kid.  It didn’t take long for the 6.6# blonde buckling to arrive, and it wasn’t much longer before a very splashy 7.3# buckling showed up.  Three good sized, feisty boys born in less than half an hour!  Now that’s sweet. All came still wrapped in their birthin' bubbles and in nose and toes position. They were stomping around in no time.

It's a boy!
It's another boy!
And another boy!

Alchemy Angst

Alchemy/Leonardo

3/4/17 Ok, maybe this should be titled, “Kathryn Angst” since I’m the one that worried.  Our friend Joan is here to help out for the week and when we were checking on Alchemy this evening I commented to her that it would be a bad kidding.  Alchemy did not seem loose in her backend and her milk wasn’t in but she was starting to string goo.  We put her in a kidding pen and I went to bed early so that I would be rested for when Alchemy would need help.

About an hour later David let me know that Alchemy was starting to push.  I reluctantly got up, wondering just how bad this was going to be.  But as I was putting on my shoes David let me know that Alchemy was already pushing a kid out!!

I got out to her pen and sure enough she already had a kid bubble coming out.  Inside that bubble was a kid head and two feet!  They were BIG.  I popped the bubble and wonderful clear fluid poured out.  I grabbed an empty feed sack and then assisted as Alchemy finished easily pushing this 8.7# behemoth out.  What a good-looking fella.

Alchemy loved licking on her son.  I got her milked out, Joan worked to dry the kid off, and David got him fed.  I got back to bed in less than half an hour.  It just doesn’t get easier than that! 

Alchemy buck right side
Alchemy buck left side

Overly Filled Obsidian

Obsidian/Roscoe

3/3/17 Obsidian is a magnificently long, tall doe.  So as her pregnancy advanced and she started looking like a tanker truck we knew that she was carrying a very big load of kids.  This afternoon she went in search of a private place and was stringing just a tad of mucus.  I put her into a kidding pen and kept an eye on her either by sitting out with her or on the barn camera monitor in the office.

After lead feeding the close-up girls and milking Cora, we had dinner in the office so that we could keep an eye on Obsidian (nicknamed Dion) from the camera monitor.  Just as we finished eating, her water broke.  Great timing, Dion!!  We headed out to catch her herd of babies.

Dion fussed around, dug a few craters, laid down, and started pushing on and off.  About an hour after her water had broken I decided to check inside to be sure that the kids were coming in good position.  Surprisingly, no one was in the birth canal.  I reached in further and felt a lot of body parts.  I found a head and pair of legs that seem to belong together and pulled them into the birth canal.  Out came a light brown 6.3# doeling.  She was feisty and active.  Once David had her somewhat dried off and wrapped in a towel, I reached back inside of Dion for the next kid.  The blonde doeling came out head first with one leg back.  She also weighed in at 6.3#.

David slicked the slime off of her and got her cuddled with her sister.  I went back in for the next kid.  I felt a backbone at the cervix.  I felt along the backbone until I found a tail, then felt further down to a rear leg and pulled that into the birth canal then repeated that to find the second back leg.  Out came a 6.6# light brown buckling who got dried off and placed with his sisters.

When I checked back inside of Dion I felt a fourth kid – also with backbone trying to come first.  I felt along the backbone and found the head and one leg, pulled those into the birth canal, and out came a 5.0# black spotted doeling.

All the kids are active, strong, and hungry!  Dion looks fantastic and we are so glad to have her back on the milk line.

Obsidian's first doeling - brown with brown spots
Obsidian's 2nd doeling - blonde and white splashes
Splashy buckling!
Finally a black doe kid!

Cora Kids

Cora/Roscoe

3/2/17 This morning Cora didn’t come in for lead feeding.  I found her hanging out in an axillary shed stringing mucus from her vulva.  I moved her into a kidding pen and got ready for babies.  I moved in my kidding kit which holds newspaper for slicking off kid slime, paper towels for cleaning noses and mouths, bath towels for wrapping kids in, lubricant in case I need to check inside a doe to pull kids, dental floss for tying off umbilical cords if they don’t stop bleeding on their own, Fight Bac spray for after milking out the doe, and containers to milk into, plus an assortment of other odds and ends.

I sat with Cora on and off during the morning.  Cora fussed around, pawed at the straw, and finally laid down.  Around 10 AM Cora went into hard labor.  I called David on the radio and he came out to help.  Cora would push for a while then lick on me.  Finally, she pushed out a 4.7# doeling in nose and toes position.  David worked to dry her off and get her breathing well.  The kid had industrial strength goo plastered on her so she didn’t get very dry.

Soon Cora started back into hard labor.  I did a one finger check inside of her and felt a kid bubble in the birth canal.  After a few more pushing sessions and the bubble bursting, I checked again.  I felt two hocks.  Not a good position.  I pulled the lower leg of one hock so that the rear leg was coming out hoof first, then went back in and pulled the other leg so that it, too, was coming correctly.  Then I applied some traction to help this kid come out faster.  Sometimes a backwards delivery like this can cause the umbilical cord to be compressed and the kid will start to breath prematurely.  Out came a very limp doeling.  She gave us quite a scare as she lay motionless.  But David worked to revive her and soon she was breathing.

Both doelings took a while to realize that they had been born.  We had to put them on a whelping mat for a few hours to help them keep their body temperatures up.  After Cora cleaned I found a small pair of partially formed legs with some “guts” wrapped inside of the placenta.  Evidently Cora had conceived triplets and one of them had not formed correctly.  Possibly this is the reason for the doelings to be born weak?  It’s a mystery.  But reproduction is a mysterious event even when all goes well.

First Born Cora doeling
Second born Cora doeling

Getting Started

Kathryn/David

2/26/17 The cows have all calved, the sheep have all lambed, and now it's the goats' turn to kid. We will have 27 does kidding this year, with 15 of those expected to do it at the same time in early March.  Normally BMR is a two-person operation, but luckily, we have many friends that are planning on coming to help.  It's going to be hectic and exciting and a whole lot of work and fun for everyone.  It will be quite different than last year kiddings which dragged on from January through June!

BMR is a goat cheese dairy and candy kitchen.  David is the Cheese Maker, Candy Maker, and gourmet chef as well as being the ranch maintenance man, road grader, feed hauler, sales manager, and computer expert. He is also a great help with the goats.  I’m Kathryn, the herd manager.  I care for the goats, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, livestock guardian dogs, and barn cats, as well as keeping the website up to date. 

We try to attend all births and are ready to help a doe out if she runs into trouble while kidding. The kids are bottle fed colostrum for the first few days, and then we feed them goat milk until they are weaned or go to their new homes - we never use milk replacers. They also have access to free choice hay, water, and alfalfa pellets once they are old enough.

The does are looking great, humming a lot, and waddling around with amazingly large bellies.  We are expecting a wonderful kidding season and I’ll report on the kiddings as often as I can. Thanks for reading along.

Reese looking SO ready to kid!
My favorite Kidding T-Shirt

10/8/16 There was a line-up at the buck pen when most of the does decided that they were in heat at the same time. Hopefully a few were just "tag-alongs" that will come back into heat later even though they stood fine to be bred now. But at this point it's looking like a VERY busy couple of days in March when three or four dozen kids could hit the ground at once!

Melody, who was looking at me while I took the picture, did not come into heat and couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. She'll figure it out soon.


Bucklings must be preordered!

  Click here to place a deposit or payment.  Be sure to discuss your selection with Kathryn first. 

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Click here to email Kathryn or call her at (928) 536-7759 for more information on how to reserve the kids of your choice.  If you are not sure about which kids might work best for your herd Kathryn would be delighted to discuss this with you.

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The above listed prices are for reserved kids.  Prices for kids purchased after they are born may be higher. Updates to our Goats for Sale page are posted regularly.

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We try to limit reservations to two doelings and two bucklings from each breeding on Senior does, and one doeling from each breeding on Junior does.  If you are interested in getting a kid from a doe that is already "booked up" let us know and we can put you on a waiting list.

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Occasionally a different buck will be used than is listed.  Reservations on these breedings can be honored, changed, or deposits refunded at the buyer's request.

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For more information on how to use the above breeding chart click here


Goat Sales

Prices and Policies

We offer fine Nubian Kids and Goats for sale from time to time. All of our Nubians are purebred and can be sold registered.

Goat Sales Prices
  • Registered Does and Bucks $400 and up
  • Doe Kids and Buck Kids with Registration Application $300 and up
    (10% Discount on purchases of 5 or more kids from this category)
  • Unregistered Bucks $200 and up
  • Wethers $100 and up
Goat Sales Policies

We require a $100 deposit per reserved kid with the balance due within 7 days of the birth of the kid. If payment is not received within that time the buyer will forfeit their deposit money. Prices for reserved kids are for kids picked up by 3 weeks of age. After 3 weeks of age reserved kids will incur an additional $7.00 per day boarding charge. This is due to the cost of feeding the kids our pure fresh goat milk (instead of us being able to make cheese from the milk). While all reasonable care is taken to ensure the health and safety of the kids, Black Mesa Ranch will not be responsible for sickness or death of a reserved kid after it is three weeks old.

Deposits are refunded if your choice of kid is not born or if the kid is not up to our standards of quality. Deposits will not be refunded on cancelled orders. Refunds on deposits paid by credit card may incur a transaction fee. We will honor all reservations for kids to the best of our ability, however we do reserve the right to retain any kid as a replacement in our breeding program.

All goats are guaranteed free of CAE and CL. They are also all G6S Normal and carry the double high casein protein gene for better cheese making. All of our kids are sold disbudded. Any kids purchased as wethers will be castrated (banded) before leaving the property unless other arrangements are made and a refundable deposit given. There is a $20 fee for any replacement registration paperwork.

We prefer all kids and goats to be picked up at the ranch though other arrangements can be made.

Airport runs by BMR for shipping kids by air are $200 due to the 10 hour round trip from the ranch to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Buyers wanting to fly their kids are also responsible for having an appropriate shipping crate delivered to the ranch at least one week prior to ship date, and for reserving the flight (Flight Schedule must be approved by BMR first). Buyer is responsible for the cost of the flight, the crate, the health certificate, and the airport run. Due to airline heat restrictions for flying, we may not be able to fly kids after May 1st (earlier if a heat wave comes in).

If you are interested in buying a goat, please contact us for availability (or to be put on our waiting list) by emailing Kathryn or calling (928) 536-7759.

Sale prices, terms and conditions subject to change prior to sale confirmation.