Have you ever heard that chickens are a gateway animal? Its soo true, we started our farming journey in 2014 with 6 chickens, today August of 2016 we have 25 chickens, 7 ducks and 3 goats. How the hell did this happen? Where did the time go and where did all these animals come from? The answer can be found in simple chicken math, an addicting form of mathematics where numbers really don't matter and the answer always equals happiness!
As an experienced goat owner of all of a week now let me share what I have learned with you. First and for most they are just as cute as you thought! We have two five month old babies and their mom. Mom (Annie) is such a lover, she yell when you walk away because she wants more love. Harley is our independent one and doesn't care much for love, although after one short week she is slowly coming around. Quinn is a lover just like her mom. She will come up to you and want her head scratched and a snuggle.
They really do love to climb. We have stumps, an old washer with a barn door leaning on it, a wagon of hay and their actual hay bales and they love to climb it all. They climb it and sometimes even lay for a nap!
We have read that bored goats escape so we are trying to keep them busy but honestly so far they dont seem to intenet on roaming far. We have tie outs around the yard and the babies are just to little and scared to go out there but mom loves it! We put her out 3-4 times a day to eat her fill, this keeps our weed eating down and saves us money on hay and feed.
They really are low maintenance. We built their pen, gave them hay and once a day I give them feed to supplement. Once a month give or take you have to give dewormer and trim their hooves. Beyond that they really don't require much more. They do need shots when they are young and I am out there all the time loving on them or putting Annie on the lead but if you had a big pasture they would take even less time! We havn't had them over the winter yet so I am not sure how that will work and how much more or less work they will take then.
The biggest thing I found that they don't like: Water, the babies are not fond of wet grass and adults and kids DO NOT LIKE BATHS! Now I'm sure your like ok lady you have really lost it you gave your goats a bath, before you put me in the loony bin let me explain. My husband is super allergic to poision ivy, like he looks at the stuff and he breaks out. Somewhere, either here or at thier last home the goats came in contact with it and he was breaking out. So we gave them all a bath to see if it helps. Although, it was funny it was not an experience I would want to repeat on the regular.
Ok so enough about my goats and farm, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Come back in a few weeks and I'll have an update!
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