I started on the goat venture as pets for my son. He had a sheep that got mean so I got rid of him and went to a smaller variety and ended up getting into the Nigerian Dwarfs. I started with one which after a week or so I felt bad and decided she needed a companion which is when I got my other doe. Last summer I decided to get a buck since I wanted to milk the goats and that brought me to three. When I went to get my buck I was given the option to get a wether for free so I took one. I was satisfied at 4 and knew that eventually my does would have babies. A few weeks ago someone showed up at our place and begged me to take an abandoned goat that he couldn't keep. I believe that one is a pygmy though. So, my goat herd went from 4 to 5. In the past 2 weeks the size has double due to having twins two weeks ago and triplets just last night. My son absolutely loves the babies as well as the others. He is already begging to keep all of the babies but I am not set up for that many goats!! Especially since I started with one. I will most likely be asking a lot of questions so please be patient with me as I learn more about this breed.
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I am super happy with my herd that I have now. These guys have super personalities and my son loves them. Although he does get carried away at times and winds up doing more chasing then anything. I intend on selling all of the babies because I don't have the room to keep them all, my son is not very happy with this decision though. I keep trying to tell him that we can't keep every baby born on the farm! (We have horses too)
So far this group has been very welcoming, polite, and informative so thank you! I look forward to getting to know everyone better and learning more about the Nigerians!
Welcome. Yes, goats seem to increase exponentially. I am one who MUST keep my herd in check as I am older then most here. It means I work at selling babies and milkers each year. So far, so good. However at this point I have two bucks and two bucklings! One of the bucks will have to be sold in late summer. Through the winter I would like to see my herd at 8, not counting new babies coming in the late fall.
I think it is hard to keep the numbers down if you don't have a really good reason such as money , disability or age.
Because we have the space and love goats if I were younger we would have several more. (my daughter is milking 40 at this point, by machine of course) These little goats are so personable and fun to be around. They are definitely good for both physical and mental health. That's what I tell my husband when he gets concerned that I might be doing too much work!
Totally understand only wanting a couple of goats we started out with just two does, a buck and a wether and that was enough for us but with in six months we bought another buck and another doe going into breeding season last year we had nine goats and now after all our does have kidded I have a total of 25 goats. We are not keeping them all would love to but dont have enough time or space for 25 goats but after all the goats that are for sale sells we will have a total of 14 goats left far cry from the couple of goats we wanted and we have only been raising them for 3 years they are very addicting. Welcome to our group and the the addicting world of owning Nigerian Dwarf goats
Welcome to the group! Thanks for introducing yourself and telling us about your goats! I originally just wanted a couple of goats to make cheese, and now I'm milking 18!
Thank you everyone!!
Join the crowd. We understand and you will find very helpful advice from all these nice folks.
Welcome Megan - this is a great group!
Welcome to the world of goat potato chips. (betcha can't have just one!) Nice to "meet" you!