Meet Huckleberry

Huckleberry is the newest member of the Iron Oak Family. We had doubts as to whether any of our does were pregnant this year. Our buckling, Timber was only five months old last fall and hardly displayed anything even remotely resembling a rut. We were sure he was simply too young to get the job done and when the tentative "due date" for the girls came and went without signs of pregnancy, we thought we would have a kidless spring.

Then about a month ago Eleanor, our smallest doe started making udders. We were shocked! Shortly after that we felt little Huckleberry kicking in his mother's womb and we were both excited that we could expect a new baby this spring.

Eleanor cleaning little Huck

Eleanor made her udders early for a first fresher. It lead us to believe that she was further along than she really was. We introduced Timber to our girls on Halloween, October 31st of last fall so her earliest "due date was approximately March 25th.

Huckleberry's daddy Timber

Huckleberry was born on May 14th around 10:30 at night. Eleanor's pin bones had been gone for about 36 hours so we knew he was coming soon. We checked her about every 2 hours that day and at 10:30 he had appeared. We completely missed the delivery!

Keeping an eye on him while we tie his umbilical chord and give him some vitamins

Eleanor is a wonderful mother. She is nursing and watching over her little one. Which is a treat for us because our does have a history of abandoning their kids. Eleanor's mother Nan, rejected her so we didn't know what to expect.

He is favoring one teat over the other so we've been keeping an eye on that. I had to milk out her one side the other night because she was engorged. I think the udder fills too full and the teat gets too large for his liking. Once she was "deflated" a bit he went for both.

We are enjoying every minute with our new little one. And Eleanor seems to be a happy and caring mother.

Abigail trying to get through the gate to her sister.

The one goat who's not thrilled with all this baby stuff is Abigail, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor and Abigail are usually two peas-in-a-pod. She threw a fit when we separated her from her sister in her late pregnancy. We tried putting them together but she's being too rough with Huckleberry.

Each day we let Abigail visit with her sister while they graze and we watch over Huckleberry for a while. We'll continue this until he's a bit bigger and can hold his own with his Aunt Abigail.