Queen Bess, in the maternity ward

Photo:  Bessie reminding me "Hey, Farmer Laura!  Stop your worrying!"  :)

Queen Bessie is none too happy that I've shut her in for the night.  I am considering her to be in the "maternity ward".  Looking at the interior area of the barn, I realize that I should have someplace warm and cozy for just such an event.  Someplace with clean sheets (fresh bedding), ice chips to suck on (cool water to drink), warm blankets to curl up under (heat lamps at the ready), nurses on call (barn cats in attendance....)

 

Bessie spent most of the day standing in the (cold!) doorway of the barn, looking intently out at the pasture and the corn fields, probably imagining that she was watching for danger as her body prepares itself for the birth process.     

The doorway faces due-west.  Yesterday and today, a very cold breeze was being pulled in and chilling the whole milk-room/bedding-chamber where Bessie sleeps in the winter.  A new calf would be wet, hungry, and potentially be chilled before it could even dry off, and that's assuming it was delivered in the barn and not under the birthing tree outside (the huge spruce under which Ruby was born).

I never shut the big door unless Bess is already in the stanchion for milking.  Then the door is closed to keep rebellious and pushy Ruby out of the milking area so that I can milk Bessie in peace......  I'd almost forgotten about that.  It's been 3 whole months since I last was able to milk Bessie!

Bessie tends to view the door as a nuisance if it's in her royal pathway, and has simply put her queenly bulk up to it on other occasions and pushed until it raised up enough for her to amble out to freedom (it is on an overhead barn-door track).  If she does that tonight, she won't be able to get back in and the calf COULD be born out in the open, under that spruce tree, where the breeze isn't deflected at all by a half-shut doorway or a thick layer of straw on the floor.

I was so sure that I was prepared this time around, and determined that I wouldn't feel panicky, and that I wouldn't stress.  The cold snap and chilling wind isn't something I had thought of.  I've ordered a calf blanket, but it won't help if the calf is born tonight before the weather gets a bit warmer.

I will be relieved (to the "nth" degree!) if I go out to check before heading to bed and either 

a). see that Bessie is resting comfortably and has not forced her way out of the door, or

b).  see a new calf.   

That last scenario would probably mean that I don't sleep tonight, but then, will I be able to sleep if the calf ISN'T born and I'm left to wonder whether tonight will be "the" night?!!!  If it's there, I'll make sure Bessie gives it the mother-cow treatment, make sure it gets a tummy-full of warm colostrum, make sure it's good and dry, check if it's a boy or a girl (maybe that will be first!), and then park it in the stall with a heat lamp overhead for the night.  Then the job would be to try to contain my excitement enough to get a few hours of sleep before dashing out there early tomorrow morning to make sure I didn't dream it all. 

Not panicking, not stressing.....just concerned, at least that's what I'm telling myself.  (I read too many first-hand accounts of what to do if you find your newborn calf unresponsive after a very cold night!)

Last time, Bessie showed me just how strong her God-given mothering instinct is, despite never being allowed to mother her calves before Ruby came along.  This time, I'm sure she'll do just as well.  If only it weren't quite so cold!

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/