We've gone from two to three to two to three.
My first goats were Abigail and
They are Boer/Nubian crosses, mother and daughter. These were badly needed as brush goats, with future plans that they would breed meat for us.
Next on my list to get was a dairy goat. As I looked around on Craigslist, I thought even the mixed breed dairy goats were kind of high. I was actually thinking about a Kinder. As a small dual purpose goat, they seem perfect for the modern homestead. Since I couldn't find any in my area, the next best thing would be to start my own herd. For that I needed a a registered Nubian doe, so I bought Surprise...
Then the problems started. I knew there would be an adjustment phase, but what I didn't know, was that Abigail would turn out to be something of a bully. She never fully accepted Surprise.
At first I assumed this had to do with maternal instincts, but once Surprise had been around long enough to obviously be no threat, (and indeed, Baby loved her), I thought everything would be okay. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and Abigail never liked Surprise. She was ever chasing her away from the food and the barn. Since she was horned and Surprise wasn't, this was a concern. I tolerated it until Abigail cornered Surprise in the barn one day, ramming her until her shoulder was bleeding. That was it. I sold her.
Baby frantically searched for her mother (in between mouthfuls of grass and browse) for about a day, and then we got Charlie....
Never mind mom, what in the world was that huge fuzzy thing in our barn??? Baby attached herself to Surprise pretty quickly and adjustments were made all around. Then Dan thought we needed another goat, since two and a llama weren't keeping up with all the vegetation in the field.
I perused again craigslist, and found a gentleman in his 80s, who was selling off his herd. By the time I went to visit, he had three registered Nubian does left. Two were in milk,and the third was being dried off. Since we aren't really set up for milking, she was the one I bought.
This is Deer Ridge Farms L Jasmine.
She started her residence here like the others, in the barn (shed really, but we call it the barn), with the gate closed until introductory sniffs could be made. I don't believe she'd ever seen chickens before, so she was a bit cautious about them. She'd definitely never seen a llama, and she wasn't all that thrilled about her new caprine companions. Understandably he just wanted to go home.
After the others wandered off to browse and graze again, I let Jasmine out. She stuck to me like velcro. She had her face glued to my backside as I walked her out toward the others. I had to sneak off by taking gradual backward steps because she hollered every time she thought I was leaving her out there alone with them. (Melodrama is a Nubian specialty.)
Everyone gets a small amount of feed in the evening. Jasmine of course, didn't know the routine and wanted to chase Surprise and Baby away to eat it all herself. That's when Charlie stepped in. I usually feed Baby and Surprise from a large pan, and Charlie from a small, handheld enamel sauce pan. I had a smaller pan for Jasmine. When he saw Jasmine try to run the other two off, he got right in there. He shouldered Jasmine out of the way and blocked her so that he, Surprise and Baby all ate from the big pan.
Of course Jasmine was upset and the whole neighborhood knew all about it. We soon got it all straightened out and over the next days things settled down and Jasmine quickly became one of the girls. Anytime I say "girls," all three goats will answer me. (I made the mistake calling the hens "girls" the other day, and the goats all answered in unison. I have to remember to call the hens "chickens" with the emphasis on the "ch".)
Jasmine is a very sweet goat. Loud, but very friendly. And she adores Dan. Of course, her previous owner was a man, so while she likes me well enough, she'll drop me like a hot potato and run to Dan every time she sees him.
The plan now is to breed them this fall. I'm trying to find a registered Pygmy buck to breed the Nubians to, so I can start my Kinder herd. That's proving to be a more difficult task than I thought, as there seem to be zero registered Pygmy herds within 150 miles of here. Hopefully I'll have some success with that to blog about one of these days soon.
