When it rains, it pours!

There is an old saying... Something like "A watched sow never farrows"...
Or..."A watched doe never kids". That's not quite right, is it? :)
Well, I was gone for 4 hours instead of three. Dazzle was due Friday with her kids. Madonna and Camille were due yesterday with their piglets.  Three of the sheep are due any day now.  (So far we have four lambs and 9 fainting goat kids!!!)

I came home to two freshly delivered fainting goat kids, and a hog in the beginning of labor with a piglet born already, with the other hog ready to start popping them out at any moment. 

What was unsettling was...the hog who wasn't in ACTIVE labor at the moment was really interested in the little goats that still smelled yummy and fresh.  And she was trying to work the hog panel divider free.  Another panel anchored in place, some feed bags shoved between, and the heat lamp moved away from the hog (who was literally salivating and watching every move of the red and white goat kid!!!), and all seems well.  I fastened that second panel even better before heading inside for the night.

Madonna the sow went on to have 7 piglets, all doing well when I closed things up for the night.  Camille the salivating sow decided to hold out on me some more, since I thwarted her plans to have a mid-day snack.

"A watched pot never boils"... Sheesh!  These animals have no respect for the many, many times I've checked on them, expecting labor to be in the end stages.  I've been in the barn a lot this past week or so.  We have bottle lambs for the first time, still with their mothers, but needing supplementing with formula every 4 hours.  Plenty of time to obsess about which pig or goat or sheep will be pushing out babies at any given time.  

Happy spring....!

Laura