Well Don...I have commented about your weather before. How do you do it? Back home in Ohio my wife says the weather has been weird. One week it will be really cold and snowing. The next week it gets into the 40's - 50's and does a little raining. Last week there were some serious high winds that came through our county (like a lot of areas throughout the midwest). We live in a little valley so the wind blew right over top of our place; but it leveled several businesses in my home town. I am going to have to drive a little further if I want a Frische's Big Boy hamburger now because it was flattened!

When I was home over Christmas thru 1st week of January it was really cold (mostly in the teens). Of course that is when all but two of our goats kidded...LOL!

Here in Kurdistan, Iraq it has been unseasonably warm (30's most of the time). Weather report says it is going to change though...drop into the teens with snow coming. I am about 6,000' up into the mountains so it is a long time coming. It has only snowed once here this year and I was at home..hehe.

Stay warm and keep those does calm. Stress will bring on an aborting epidemic.

God Bless,

Brian

I don't know how you are able to deal with -30 for that length of time. But, hearing about it makes our weather situation a little easier to deal with.
In Ohio it's 5 degrees. Windchill -15. All of the schools are closed and the state rt. looks lonely....not too many people out and about this morning. We will be below freezing for the next week. Even at these temps it just makes everything that much harder. Waterers were freezing over 1/2 hour after they were changed, so more trips to the barn to keep everything hydrated.
But your post made me realize that it could be much worse. Bless your heart.
If you don't mind the mess you might want to give the goats something to do. Take some empty paper feed sacks, put a hand full of feed in them and crumple them up, let the goats figure out how to get into them. That will keep them busy for a little while. Just take the strings off first.
If I can ask, why do you kid this time of year? I know for some, it's the 4-H deadline. Is it for marketing purposes?
For my younger goats, I have some wooden barrels for them to play on, but they are getting restless too. I think everyone is ready for spring. Especially you!

Yep, some of the early kidding is for the 4-H projects. Unfortunately, our bucks got "over the fence" and in with the does and several were bred before we realized what was happening. Usually we breed our Boers early for market purposes (and the 4-H). The bigger we can get them by Fall, the better, but it does cause stress at this time of year. Usually we breed our Nubians for May kidding because the weather has usually mellowed by then and size doesn't matter as much when selling dairy doelings. Milking is much easier at 30 or 40 degrees that at -30 degrees as well. Unplanned breeding has presented us with a few more problems than usual this year. It has warmed up a bit today and it snowed last night--it was almost up to zero when I got up this morning.