Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Prairie Fleur I bought all of my goats from others so it wasn't up to me about how they were raised. I believe that both of mine who were bottle fed lost their mother & that's why they were bottle babies. Yes, it's usually better to have the mother feed them but that's not always possible in some circumstances such as the death of the mother & there is no other to take care of them. My doe I bottle fed personally & she grew really fast on the bottle, she was a pig. The dam raised one I got had not been handled any at all when I got her, she had been in a large herd of goats & she was very skittish. It took me awhile to get her to trust me. She still even with being around them every day isn't as tame & friendly as the bottle baby doe. She will let me pet her now & get close to her but she still isn't like the other one. I agree the bottle babies can be brats, I have one who is, but she is also the one who will follow me wherever I go so she's easy to handle.

I have just heard from others that the dwarf goats are much harder to contain & I just didn't want to deal with that.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Trish, Ya it's each to what works best for their situation. I wanted mini goats because they were my first livestock and I wanted to be able to handle them on my own without worrying that they were too big for me to manage if I had to do something they didn't like. I am planning to get two ND/Nubian cross doelings next spring. They'll be bigger than my current girls but not too much. If I like them I may end up getting a full Nubian doe so I can raise my own mini Nubians. We'll see. I totally agree that some situations call for bottle raising babies. I just can hardly wrap my mind around doing it if the mom is healthy and there is no reason to not let her raise them, if that makes sense. If someone here does it that's totally fine I just prefer to dam raise when at all possible.

Next spring I'm also hoping to find a couple of CVM Romeldales to start a fiber herd. Guess we'll see if that happens.
Meanwhile I'm dealing with predator issues. London is doing well but I've lost 5 birds to Hawks or owls in the last week or two. I'm not very impressed!!! we can't let my chickens out to free range for even an hour or two without DH or I out there constantly. I've lost my two young peas and 2-3 young chickens. And there's not a sign of feathers or bones or anything; they just disappear.

 

[Trish44]

Yeah hawks & owls are bad right now, even in towns. Your pup just isn't old enough yet to help.

 

[chicken danz]

Prairie fleur it's owl and hawk season. Owls are feeding babies and hawks are migrating. There really isn't much you can do about it unless you can invent a guard dog that flies or cover your entire area with netting. This is fall activity and again in the spring but not nearly as bad then. We have hawks everywhere but the dogs and the geese are doing a good job of keeping the owls intimidated enough not to be striking. Of course I have covered pens so the stupid owls can't grab things at night. Hawks tend to strike in the day time but they don't handle the big birds well so they don't ever score around here.
You just have to change your strategy in the fall when your birds are still small. This will pass soon and things will get peaceful again.
I had Nigerians as well and I loved them. They were small enough to handle. Produced wonderful huge amounts of milk and easily tamed. All of mine were Dam raised but they got tamed really easily by feeding and handling.
I too wanted Nubians because they were a milk goat and a smaller goat that was still able to be handled. If I were to get goats again I would definitely dehorn them all as babies. Not because the horns create a hazard for me, but they do for them.
My goats weren't ever bad about climbing fences but they were jumpers when they were babies and liked to climb on things.
Zig it's probably a little late for answering you but I always just leave the hen and the eggs alone. When she is done sitting she'll get off the eggs. I always candle but in my case the eggs are laid at different times so you have stragglers. In your case since you put the eggs there if they don't hatch by the time she gets off I'd just toss the others.

 

[Trish44]

I wanted meat goats so that they could not only clear brush for us but the babies could be meat if we decide to go that route or sell them for that. I guess it just depends on your motivation for wanting goats. At certain times of the year certain ethnic groups are looking for goats because they eat them regularly in their countries, so it's fairly easy to sell them. I'm actually thinking of maybe growing one out for butcher next year now that I have a buck & try it. If we don't like it then I can always sell the babies. We have a very wild 5 acres down where we put the first paddock, it is overgrown & has a lot of hedge trees in there. The boers don't seem to be bothered by thorny things, they ate my barberry bushes down to stubs. I'm glad we now have them where they can't eat things I don't want them to any more & they seem very happy out there browsing around.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Ugh I was having trouble posting and now I don't know How many times it posted!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Ya we'll just keep them cooped for now until I get a pen built.

You're right Trish. It all depends if you want milk or meat. Extra Nigi bucklings can make decent butchering but they wouldn't be as big as a boar. I Didn't have any problem selling my buckling this spring thankfully and I made more off of him as breeding stock that I would have as meat. Will you do your own wethering when you have bucklings to wether or will you have your vet do it? I took Star in to get his horns burned off and my vet had quite a fight getting them burned off properly. He grew some hefty scurs so I had to take him back in and the vet ended up cutting the one off and burning the other. I didn't want him horned as he was going to a home with kids and I didn't want him to accidentally hurt them. Hopefully I'll get some doelings next year and their horns are easier than Stars!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I would prefer a doe to a male. I don't want the smell through rutt, this was why I turned down an adorable nigerian dwarf for a trade......his cuteness was tempting though

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Wouldn't a female need to be bred to produce milk though?

 

[chicken danz]

Tarabella yes you breed the females and then bottle feed the babies normally. That is a the beauty of a Nigerian. They are tremendous milk producers. The more you milk the more milk you get and you can continue milking for months. Just because a baby gets big doesn't mean it she won't produce milk. Lots of milkers sell the kids and just milk the nanny. Then they breed them back and start all over.
The males do stink. I really hate that goat smell. It kind of gets up your nose and stays there. That is one major reason I decided to get rid of my goats. I just couldn't stand that billy smell any more.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I think we would want a bigger breed for weed control. The Nigerians are adorable though. How easy do you all think it would be to find someone willing to stud out their Boer, if we decide to breed her? How much milk would a meat producing breed like the Boer produce?