Becoming a Goat Herder

So we've taken the next step toward becoming a "farm," as much as an acre "in the village" can be a farm. A Gentleman's Farm perhaps?

 

This week we brought home three baby goats who are joining our 12 chickens in the barn behind the house. We decided on Nubians because they're sort of a good cross of goat. My 6'5 husband put the kabosh on Nigerian Dwarf goats because they are too small. Nubians are a pretty good size with does weighing around 135 pounds and bucks coming in around 175 pounds, standing at, 30 inches and 35 inches at the withers respectively. Plus, I absolutely love their huge floppy ears. See the picture below to see what I mean.

 

Then I read an excellent book "Goat Song," a gift from my sister-in-law when she heard we were thinking about getting goats, that is all about a couple who moved from New York City who bought a farm in Vermont and started raising Nubian goats. The author, Brad Kessler, made Nubians sound so sweet, funny, and mischevious that I was sold on the breed by the time I finished the book.

 

In a twist of fate I was searching for kids (baby goats) for sale on Craig's List and came across an ad for kids by the author of "Goat Song," although I didn't know it at the time. I emailed for information and a few days later we found ourselves driving three hours to see our potential new kids and to select a buckling, which was thrown in for free as a way to avoid the little guy from becoming a meat goat. Doelings turn into does which can be bred and then milked. Bucklings grow into bucks which then go into rut and become obnoxious, stinky, smelly horn dogs. Needless to say most bucklings go the way of the meat market.

 

But we did want a herd of sorts and two does seemed like a small herd. Two does and a wether (castrated male) seemed more respectable. Plus two girls and a boy would be the perfect bookend for our household. In the house live Katie and Suki, our female beagles, along with Lucky, our neutered male beagle. The barn needed a similar balance. Also, we fell in love with a dappled little guy when we went to visit Brad and Dona's farm and that completely sealed the deal.

 

I can't tell you how funny it was to put hay in the back of a black Escalade and load in three baby goats.

Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz traveled quite nicely with us. Brad called it -- the kids fussed a bit for the first 15 minutes or so with Boaz letting rip a few ear splitting screams initially. Nubians are very vocal animals.

 

I sat in back to keep an eye on them and Ruth, the youngest and smallest of the three kids, leapt into my lap after a few minutes. The  kids are all super friendly and people-oriented in large part because they were bottle-fed. I soothed Ruth and let her stay there for awhile but my husband was concerned that she'd pee on the leather seats so off she went back with the others. They were troopers on the winding roads but I think poor Boaz suffered from motion sickness. My clue was when he parked himself in a corner, head down, for a good 90 minutes. He seemed to rally though when we hit the highway in New Hampshire.

Naomi is quite the love. She stood on the edge of the tilted and folded dog crate that leaned toward the back seat where I was sitting for virtually the entire trip, alternating between nuzzling my arm and gazing intently out the front window. For the first couple of hours she would shy away every time a car passed us in the other direction, but she's a quick study and after that seemed to realize it wasn't a threat. She made the least noise of the trio and seems game for the new adventure.

Really, they all did very well. I was concerned when we first put them in the new stall because they ate hay non-stop and we just weren't sure if that was okay or not, but a quick search online seemed to indicate that a goat can't overeat good hay so we let them be and turned out the lights. At last check they were quiet and we assume asleep. We didn't want to turn on the light and take the chance of disturbing them.

I'm really amazed at how intelligent and wise these little guys are despite the gangly limbs and youthful, naked curiosity. Perhaps we got some old soul goats? I like to think so.