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This Spring has been particularly exciting on our farm! The hubby and I decided we wanted to bring something to the farm that would allow the kids to have more interaction and a little responsibility! We were considering a few different animal possibilities, and after doing some research we decided that goats would be the perfect addition! For those of you who may not be very knowledgeable about goats, let me give you a little insight into what led us to make this choice. First...goats are adorable. Simple as that! In our research we investigated various breeds of goats and we settled on Nigerian Dwarf goats. These goats are small, weighing only 45-70 pounds when full grown. They grow for the first 3 years of their lives, so in a few years, they will still be smaller than our dog! This seemed like a good size for getting our kids used to caring for and being around them. Goats have very affectionate and loving personalities. They love attention and being herd animals, we knew we would need more than 1! They require fresh water each day as well as hay and forage. Other than giving them company and the basic essentials, they are relatively low maintenance. Once we decided on our breed, it was time to figure out where we were going to purchase our goats. Obviously, we headed to Craiglist! We saw an add for a breeder near us that had a wonderful website with lots of information and photos of their goats. After one phone call to her, I knew I wanted to buy my goats from their farm. She was extremely helpful and understanding of our new adventure and all the questions that came along with it! We sent a deposit for 2 doelings (females) and anxiously awaited the birth of our goats! We knew the due dates for the pregnant goats our breeder had and our fingers were crossed that we would get two girls in one of the first kiddings (this is what its called when a goat gives birth). The first mother had two bucks, so we enjoyed a few pictures of their sweet faces and continued to wait. We were hoping to have our goats ready to come home around April/May. This would give us time in the spring to get their fence up, house built, and have the weather improve a little so it would be easier to care for them with the kids. A goat must be 8 weeks old before it is ready to be separated from its mother, so we were expecting their birth sometime in February/March. On March 13, I was excited to receive a text saying there was good news...2 doelings had been born! However, there was also bad news...their mother had rejected them and they were going to need bottle fed. The goats were not sisters, but rather were born 2 hours apart on the same evening. The one mother was a first time mother and unfortunately had a difficult delivery due to one goat being stillborn. The other mother had two goats, our all white doeling and a buck. Due to the difficulty of the evening, the extreme cold temperatures, and the fact that goats are herd animals, the breeder made the decision to bring all three in and to bottle feed them. The breeder gave us the choice to wait and hope for 2 more doelings in future kiddings later in the spring, OR to take on the task of bottle feeding the babies. She sent pictures and we fell in love. One little girl was all white with beautiful blue eyes. The other was white and brown with sweet brown eyes and long eyelashes. I immediately called my hubby at work with the exciting news! He too was very excited to know their were new babies and while the idea of bottle feeding seemed overwhelming to both of us, we were afraid of passing up on the two of them incase the future kiddings only produced bucks. While bottle feeding seemed like a big task to bite off, we were also excited about the idea of having our adventure start sooner and we both felt it would be an awesome experience for the kids! So we decided to take the little ladies. The breeder agreed to keep them for a couple days while we got what we needed to care for the little babies. The next 48 hours were filled with excitement, work, and LOTS OF READING! I spent the two days before they came home researching all there was to know about bottle feeding goats and anything else we were going to need to be aware of during the first 8 weeks of their lives!
That Saturday, Sean and I headed off to pick up our new babies and bring them home. The girls had already helped us select names for them based on the pictures the breeders had sent us. Our all white goat would be named Alice and the brown and white one Millie. On our way to pick them up Sean and I discussed that since we had 3 kids, and we were going to be bottle feeding them, maybe it would be a good idea to bring all 3 born that night home since they had been together since birth. We decided to discuss it with the breeder when we arrived and as long as the other buck wasn't spoken for, we would bring him home too. When we walked into the breeders home, we were surprised to see 4 babies playing! The brother of our goat had already been taken home by someone else, but to our surprise (and the breeders) there were 2 other goats born the night before we arrived, one boy and one girl. THEY WERE ADORABLE! I sat on the floor and they came and crawled in my lap. They climbed and played and fell and snuggled...they were perfect and I was in LOVE! After almost an hour of chatting with the breeder, we figured it was time to get headed home. Sean looked at me and simply asked how many we were taking home. With a smile and NO hesitation, I answered 4! He just laughed and said OK! And away we went!
We headed straight home to be sure and beat my parents to our house. They were bringing the kids back to our house and everyone was very excited to meet our goats. We chose to keep the 2 extra additions a surprise until they saw them!
That Saturday, Sean and I headed off to pick up our new babies and bring them home. The girls had already helped us select names for them based on the pictures the breeders had sent us. Our all white goat would be named Alice and the brown and white one Millie. On our way to pick them up Sean and I discussed that since we had 3 kids, and we were going to be bottle feeding them, maybe it would be a good idea to bring all 3 born that night home since they had been together since birth. We decided to discuss it with the breeder when we arrived and as long as the other buck wasn't spoken for, we would bring him home too. When we walked into the breeders home, we were surprised to see 4 babies playing! The brother of our goat had already been taken home by someone else, but to our surprise (and the breeders) there were 2 other goats born the night before we arrived, one boy and one girl. THEY WERE ADORABLE! I sat on the floor and they came and crawled in my lap. They climbed and played and fell and snuggled...they were perfect and I was in LOVE! After almost an hour of chatting with the breeder, we figured it was time to get headed home. Sean looked at me and simply asked how many we were taking home. With a smile and NO hesitation, I answered 4! He just laughed and said OK! And away we went!
We headed straight home to be sure and beat my parents to our house. They were bringing the kids back to our house and everyone was very excited to meet our goats. We chose to keep the 2 extra additions a surprise until they saw them!
The kiddos were so excited to meet their new goats! Since we had not built their "goat house" yet, we were able to get a large shipping crate from a manufacturing company. This was an awesome temporary home in our garage. We lined it with a tarp for easy cleaning and then placed old towels in the box for the goats to snuggle into. Since it was still cold here in March, we also gave them a heat lamp to help keep them warm! On day one when we brought the babies home, we placed them in their crate and when the kids came into the garage they ran right over. Miss L stood there for a moment and simply said "there's 4"! Lady A just giggled and immediately tried crawling into the crate with them! Since it was still clean we boosted them in and they snuggled right down with the goats. They were so excited about the new babies! Mr. N was also curious, and did a great job following his sisters leads on being gentle and we practiced being "soft"! They did a great job! We spent the rest of the first day (and lets be honest the whole first week) out in the garage with the goats! We brainstormed and had names picked out for the other two additions by that first evening. Our little boy, instantly became a Henry and our 3rd little lady, our cow spotted girl, Elsa Mae. Both my parents and my husbands parents came to meet the new babies and share in the excitement with us and the kids! It was love at first sight. From the first moment I saw them I knew they belonged with us and I can happily report that everything I read about them is true. They are loving, affectionate, and LOVE getting attention! They are sweet with the kids and enjoy being with us outside! They were the right pick to add to our farm! Keep checking back here on the blog for more pictures and stories about learning about life with our goats! It has been a fun few months getting to know them, and I have lots of stories to share!
See you soon...
See you soon...