My husband and I brought home our first 2 ND 5 weeks ago and are loving every minute of it.
We have a wether Lil Boy Boots, whom was a bottle baby and the perfect playmate for our 3yr old daughter...We were blessed to have the oportunity to bond with him over the bottle at his birth farm and then bring him home at 4months when we were ready for him....He was also the perfect friendly example, to our dam raised, not handled Doeling Princess Deenie (7months now), whom started out very wary of us, but now is just as friendly and loving as he is.
Our plans are to breed Princess Deenie come May 2012, we have been very fortunate to have found a wonderful breeder/mentor from which to buy our goats and she has 2 unrelated bucks we can have access too....I would like to milk and create my own cheeses infused with my home grown herbs.
For the time being we only have a small area fenced so we are limited to just the 2 goats but hope as time goes by to finish fencing our 5 acres and bring in a guardian dog or donkey, add more goats (meat) and sheep to pasture raise for the freezer.
I am still researching many things and am sure to need advice as time goes on...But for this morning I just wanted to pop in and introduce myself.
I have a blog about life at "Our Country Home" for anyone that would like to visit.
I am already learning so much and taking notes like a mad woman on new areas to research...I look forward to spending time to get to know other goat ppl.
Blessings Kelsie
Replies
Welcome!!! I also am a new owner of Nigerian Dwarfs so will be learning along with you. They are so precious and sometimes full of mischief.
Glenna
Plenty of people put sheep and goats together. Just make sure the sheep are negative for OPP (ovine version of CAE), Johnes, and scrapie.
Deborah
Kelsie Aman said:
Thank you very much Jordana
Hi Kelsie, good to meet you :-) I love the picture of your little girl with the goats; it's precious!
Thank you Ladies for the welcome and the advice...Any larger goats we bring in would be kept on the opposite side of our property and housed separately as they would be used for clearing of some underbrush also..Most definatly not be kept long term either.
I would guess that sheep and ND are not going to be a problem to live and graze together??
PLUS, I can tell you first hand, larger goats don't always mix well with smaller ones, so housing is WAY easier if you stick to one breed. (Nigerians being my breed of choice.) :)
Welcome to the group! Sounds like you have some wonderful plans. If you are already planning to eat goat, it is entirely possible to eat Nigerian wethers, so you don't have to have "meat" goats. Although you won't get a lot of meat from NDs, they are easier to handle than boers or kikos.
Welcome!!
Welcome!! Good to have you!