Latest Unique Birth at Iowa Farm: Goat Quintuplets

May 5, 2008

MECHANICSBURG, Iowa –- One expert estimates that quintuplets happen only once in 10,000 goat births, but the owner of Honeybear, who delivered five female kids last week, says it’s really no big deal, even on a farm that’s produced other unorthodox animal offspring.

“It’s just another day in the neighborhood,” laughed Helen Burge, 77, who has a 122-acre property located 30 miles east of Cedar Rapids. “We live on a farm. This is just part of our work. And everybody’s all excited about it.”

Burge and her husband, Ralph, 83, have been farmers for more than 60 years and goat owners for 14 years, she says. When Honeybear gave birth to three kids last year, that’s the most the Burge’s had experienced – until April 27.

“When we went down to check on her, she had three,” Burge said. “And we thought she was done. She was just standing there in the pen, messing with them, being motherly.”

When Ralph went to shut the barn door, Helen says, “He said, ‘I counted three. There’s two more running around that pen. I was so shocked. I stood there and I counted them about four times before I finally realized that there was five goats in that pen.’

“So it wasn’t anything that was expected, that was for sure. She was waddling around, and we knew she was heavy with kids. But I expected probably, maybe three. But I surely didn’t expect five.”

Honeybear’s age is estimated at seven or eight, and this is her seventh birth, Burge says, adding that mother and babies are doing fine.

“It’s not bothering her a bit,” Burge said. “She’s just calm, cool and collected. It’s not any big deal. But she’s really proud of them. If you pick one of them up and mess with it, she lets you know it’s her baby.

“She just looks up at you, and might bellow at you, like, ‘That’s mine.’ And when you put them back, well then she’ll check them all out to make sure they’re all right.”

Honeybear is a Pygmy goat, a breed more likely to have quintuplets, according to Dr. Allen Cannedy, a sheep, goat and llama specialist in Raleigh, N.C.

“Some breeds are much more prolific than others, and the African breeds, and particularly the smaller Pygmy breeds, are the ones that tend to have higher numbers of births and birth rates,” Cannedy said.

Similar to human newborns, goat quintuplets face a greater risk of complications due to lack of space in the uterus, Cannedy says. The longer delivery time could make the kids compromised if they don’t come out fast enough.

“The mothers, or the nannies, may not produce enough milk to supply that many babies. That’s always a risk,” Cannedy said, adding that in such cases milk replacer can be purchased.

Unusual animal births have happened on the Burge’s farm before. Their cat, Boots, produced two hairless kittens in separate litters, one 18 months ago, the other three years back.

“She’s nothing but a farm cat,” Burge said, again downplaying the unusual. Burge says Boots has more kittens due May 12.

“But I don’t know if she’ll have hairless ones, or whether she’ll have hair ones,” Burge said.

The Burge’s have just one daughter themselves, and for the record, Helen says there was nothing extraordinary about that birth. She boasted that the family does have five living generations, with a five-month-old grandson and a great-great grandmother whose 100th birthday is in June.

Having witnessed goat quintuplets and hairless cats, Burge was asked what’s in the water at her farm.

“We have a lot of iron in our water,” she joked. “It’s rust.

“Don’t ask me why we get all this oddball stuff, because I don’t know. I think it’s the good Lord’s way of keeping Ralph and I from getting bored.”

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