It’s been just over a month since we got the new goats, and we finally brought the new doelings in to meet the “herd”.
Following good herd management practices, we have kept the new doelings separated from the rest of the goats (just to make sure everyone was healthy). They have all been doing great, so we decided it was time to bring all of the goats together (and of course take a bunch of pictures of the visit)!
Their first introduction went really well. The boys (Jeff and our son) carried over the new girls (Amberle and Eretria). Our older does – Leeloo, Primrose and Apricot – were all in the barn eating at the time, so it took them a few minutes to notice their “company”.
Primrose was definitely the most aggressive. She gave Amberle a few head butts in the barn, however, it was quite interesting to see Amberle’s reaction – she stood her ground and head-butted right back!
We spent about an hour or so with them during this initial visit. They ran around outside together, chasing both us and each other. It was so much fun to see them interact! Lots of standing up and head-butting (although Leeloo was a lot more gentle with the doelings than Primrose was). It is amazing the size difference between the new doelings and the other girls, even though they are only four months apart in age.
We are continuing the supervised “visits” for the next several days, before leaving them all alone together. Other than Apricot starting to bite the new doelings’ ears (don’t know why she is doing that?), the visits have been going really well. We are going through a cold snap right now, so looking forward to when they are all together and can keep each other warm(er).
Click the thumbnails below to view larger images…
Our herd queen has been biting our newest doeling’s ear as well….I have no idea what that is about?? She is pregnant so I was thinking that was why she was being so aggressive but who knows. I love watching them play! Do you keep your billy goats seperate from the rest of the herd?
We found that even if any of our does were separated only for a short time (like after having their kids), there was always some kind of fighting that would take place afterward. Thankfully, it only lasts for a couple days at most, and then things get back to normal. And, yes, we definitely keep our bucks separated – we want to make sure we are tracking all the pregnancies that take place here (plus, don’t really know how crazy things would get if we had several bucks in with our does – I’m thinking someone might get hurt). We do have our 4 grown bucks together, and they get along really well. We also have three bucklings that are now together (they are just old enough that we had to separate them from the does now), and they also get along great. But I highly recommend keeping your bucks separately.
Hello! Will be introducing a new doeling of 8 weeks to existing herd of 1 yr old wether, 1 yr old doe and 2 yr old doe (mother and daughter) The 2 yr doe is definitely the Queen of the herd and is a little aggressive. What is your best advise how to introduce the doeling? Can the doeling be paired with the 1 yr old doe or should the doeling be kept separated and if so for how long?
Hi Diana – Sorry for the late reply (your comment was being held in my approval queue). With any new additions, you will want to keep them separate for a bit to ensure they are healthy before adding to your herd (ideally, this would be for 30 days). Once that period is over, what we’ve found works the best is this: we bring our new goat(s) into their new home by themselves (and move the original goats out for a bit). For us, this just means closing the outside barn door to keep out the herd, and put our new addition(s) into the main goat stall. After about an hour, we put out some food for everyone, and then open the door! The food usually helps distract everyone for a bit (both the new and old goats). There may be a bit of “head-butting” afterward while they are establishing dominance, but that tends to go away after a few hours or at least by the next day. Just watch closely so that no one is getting hurt. They will work it out (usually) and before long the new goat(s) will be part of your herd.