The Old Folks Home

[Bunnylady]

Quote: Lol, how about if we start calling them alpacas?
Ponies!

 

[CanuckBock]

Goats? the Jacobs? I thought they were sheep?

Yes my Dear Fella, Jacobs are sheep...


Some differences, not so noticeable to people but to me...yes.

Differences between Goats (Capra aegarus hircus) and Sheep (Ovis aries)​

Goats say MAA, sheep say BAA!

Goats have natural bobtails (usually a pointy end on the tail) and Sheep have long tails...you have to dock them to get short "goaty" tails. I don't dock because the more primitive and practical the sheep breed, the more likely they hold their tails high when the crap.

Goats have hair (Angoras have fiber that is shorn twice a year because it grows so quickly) and Sheep have hair and wool, pending what breed.

Whilst most goats are horned (good idea to dehorn all dairy animals...work too close and can get horned up good, eh)...there are NO multihorned goat breeds that I know of...if someone does know of a goat breed with more than two horns, please advise me.

There are polled sheep, two horn sheep in both genders, there are multiple horned sheeps like my Jacobs, Navajo Churros, Herdwick, and Manx Loaghtan etc... The Mouflon (Ovis musimon) is horned and one of two ancestors to modern (and primitive) sheep. Some girl sheep lack horns (or you want that in that gender) and some boys sheep are suppose to have horns. Intact males will always have bigger horns than females due to testosterone making that so. A wethered male has smaller horns than if he had been left intact.

Interested in sheep breeds...check this out with lots of kewl photos...

http://www.sheep101.info/sheepbreedsa-z.html


Sheep and goats can cross, but the resulting rare hybrid is called a chimeras and like hinnies and mules...infertile...it ends thar. Goats have 60 chromosomes and Sheep have 54 chromosomes which explains why their progeny goes no further.

Both goats and sheep can be used for dairy, fiber, meat, pets, lawn mowers, etc. Goats can be draft like sheep and goats tether out better than sheep do...I use dog collars on ropes (tied up high so they don't get tangled up) to put goats out to eat areas I want mowed. I heard one person would tether to old tires, you roll them to a new spot and hook up yer grazing goat...good thing! Put a pail of water inside the tire to prevent the goat from knocking their drink over and going dry for the rest of the time till you check on them.

Goats can be bullies as can sheep too, I know...not all goats are bullies but I was distressed to find that as each of my three doe goats passed on due to old age, the next in line stepped up to bully the underlings--pushy goat relived! The happiest day in Heidi's life was when her mother passed on...then she was on top of the goat heap...sigh. I know, I am not a goat person...I know that!

Goats are more stubborn (I say stupid cause they drive me batty sometimes and that be me) than sheep are and in some cases, refuse to learn that if you stick yer horned head in those wire panels...you'll be stuck there until I find a moment to trod down there and rescue your sorry (stunned...I mean five times in one day is a tad much!) butt... Sigh...I am not a goat person. No apology, just a well thought out conclusion, eh.

Goats can scream...scream and ball for no apparent reason at all...when I got my flock of Jacob sheep, I never knew they had voices until the ewes lambed and would call to their lambs. Not kidding...my sheep talk alot more now to me but goats are more vocal than sheep are...my experiences at least.

Both goats and sheep enjoy jungle gyms, the younger ones more so than older more sensible ones (do their knees hurt like mine do?). Leaping pushing, have a fun time. The new hair sheep took over the dog's playground and gave the dogs something to worry about...you hair dogs have bin replaced by hair sheeps--be afraid, eh!

Some people adore goat antics....me not so much. I had two intact male breeding dairy goats, they peed on themselves and stuck to high heaven. There was nothing I could do and the smell of a goat, to me, that is offensive. I know, many feel that sheep stink and well justified if you don't like the smell. Some figure horses reek too...I am quite fond of the smell of horses...but whatever. I also don't mind the smell of wet dawg, so who's a common sewer here??

Goat meat, chevon is an acquired taste...see above, I don't like how goats smell, so I won't like how goat meat tastes (even Boer goat which is least offensive)...I love how sheep taste...since I like how sheep smell...bring on the lamb chops, legs and watch me chow down.

Goats browse from chest up and Sheep graze from chest down...that is the usual mowing behaviours of each species...but in the case of Jacobs, they act more like goats in that they love to deleaf trees...love weeds and all sorts of normally only goat browse. There are types of weeds only sheep may eat, leafy spurge I believe is what sheep can eat but others cannot. I could be wrong though as I have no experience myself with this plant.

Goats will happily eat thistle...sheep, some may but not so much.

Goats are more athletic than sheep, usually...until you meet Dorpers or Jacob sheep and then they act more goatish than most sheep do.

Both goats and sheep will come when called, sometimes a better recall than my own dogs...dang, eh.

Goats will not flock together as well as some groups of sheep...more individuals than a group in numbers I guess. Goats do appreciate members of their group and will cry if there is one missing for too long. They do have caring personalities, I have come to learn that in some herds, they just express it different than sheep do. A sheep dies, I find my whole flock depressed and distressed and mourning the loss; in the goats, someone dies and they celebrate one less in the climb to being top goat...just an observation of my own herd...not others mind you!

Goats are more likely to get into trouble...they are curious like sheep are but they usually push it one foot farther than I found sheep would. That is the rux I guess that I found. A goat by itself does not fret as much as a solitary sheep does. Alone is fine to a goat moreso than alone to a sheep is.

Sheep fence can be less than goat fencing...I swear only an electric wire on a page wire fence, hot zapping power will truly contain an intact fifty pound buck. Sheep will say, "fine, I stay," whilst a goat will push it to exasperate you. Goats will say, "A fence! Oh good, let's give it a go away!" Argh....

Physical differences I noted between my Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats and my Jacob and Dorper sheep...Goats have bare front knees, and Sheep whilst they kneel and get their knees dirty...have hair on their knees.

A goat is more likely to fight and a sheep is more likely to try to get along. Now not so much with forming new pecking orders but a flock of sheep is pretty stable (pending juveniles grow up and want a place in the flock as adults)...a herd of goats, it is like every day is a new day to be king of the castle, you dirty rascal...some times just going inside the barn and a squirmish breaks out...goats act more like people--some thrive in all the drama, eh...and where do we coin the phrase like a "flock of sheep?" I find sheep more relaxing, less drama...why one counts sheep to go to sleep...not rearing to go goats...get moi?

A young goat is a kid, a young sheep is a lamb and one that drives me batty...a group of GOATS is a herd...a group of SHEEP is a flock. Get it right peoples!

A male sheep is a ram, a female sheep a ewe...a male goat is a buck (or a billy ifn you wanna be rude) and a female goat is a doe (or a nanny).

Basically if it has hair, not necessarily a goat or sheep...pendulous ears, could be either...coloured or not, could be either....

Do not feed goat mineral/salt combo to sheep (other way around is fine, but lacking for the goats). Goats require a higher copper content and this will poison your sheep. You can accommodate a goat and sheep group by placing the mineral for each in with them each night in separate quarters...otherwise, use sheep formulated salt/mineral or you'll pay with sick or dead sheeps. Jest sayin'

Normally I look to see if the beast is angular...likely a goat, if the beast is roundish, likely a sheep. Only sheep have wool, the exception being the Angora goat but their fiber (both sheep and goats can have FIBER) is called correctly MOHAIR. All goats (not just Cashmere goats) have cashmere to one degree or another...a soft woolish like fiber that they grow in to keep warm for winter and shed out for summer.

Some sheep like Soay and my Dorpers shed--they are said to roo their fiber...scratch it off, shed it out...their hair or fiber comes out in patches in the spring and summer. So just because it sheds hair, no guarantee it's a goat or sheep.

Penny is a girl and had a very nice beard...​

Goats have beards (both genders) and some sheep have manes (Katahdin rams are suppose to have manes)...not quite the same location but that could trip you up some.

Bucks will rear up and hit heads when fighting, Rams will back up and charge or just lower head and charge to crack heads...either way, the ram usually wins over a similar sized buck. Four horn rams cannot butt horns as hard as two horn rams may...so that explains why in the wild, you don't see multi horned RAMS--the strongest get to have their genes carry forward...the two horn Jacob kicks butt over a four or more horned ram even if the four horned looks more formidable...he'd have to do alot of bluffing but when it comes to actual head pushing and butting, two horn wins. Just the dynamics to engineering of what takes a charging crack to the tete better.

Both sheep and goats are PREY animals...eyes are on the side of the head...for the love of doG, quit trying to force prey animals from a light building into darkness or vice versa. A shadow on the ground to a goat or a sheep could be a chasm about to swallow them up--their fear is real because that is how they see it (we are predators with our eyes on the front of our face for 3-D vision)...for Pete'sake, let their eyes adjust and let them calmly and quietly get their bearings before asking them to move from one light exposure to the next. How often I have seen people trying to drive sheep or goats from a dark building into a sunlit pickup truck bed. Course they all balk at the light. I also smirk when I see my sheep leap over a shadow on the ground...it could be a puddle and it could gobble them all up!

Both sheep and goats shake like a dog when wet. Both sheep and goats love treats...feed treats in a pail or forever when you enter the pasture with your HANDs on your person...you will get mobbed, stomped and crushed by ruminants expecting those hands to always have treats. Be smarter than you critters please and keep the mayhem at bay, eh.

Glands on goats are located on heads and in males beneath their tails. Glands on sheep are located under their eyes in tear glands and between their toes. Both my very scent aware ACDogs will rush out when I move the flock without their help and follow where the sheep have been or went. I laughed because we brought the new Dorper ram home and I kid you not...both dogs were hot on the trail of this ram...they KNEW there was a new one and they forcefully barked their heads off until they finally accepted that yes, there was a new boy in town here. LOL

Do NOT..I repeat, DO NOT pat goats or sheep on the top of their heads...scratch the side of their faces, the cheek or the chins. For your own safety (and I mean a mini goat of fifty odd pounds can knock you to your butt in an instant if you are not careful), do not entice or encourage head butting by a sheep or goat. Their skulls are massively well equipped to butt and if the breed has horns and you did not disbud them as newborns...yer in for a heck of an awakening when baby sheep or goat gets to adult hood and wants to rule the roost. NO PATS on head. Not cute one bit and even less cute when ram or buck is tipping the scale at over 100 pounds...some rams are like 300 + and that is formidable.

Scritchy thru bull proof corral fence​

I personally have no issues with cheek scritchies with a well mannered non-shovey or demanding male ruminant...I have issues if you pat heads and he (or she--bossy whichever gender) wants you to immediately do their every waking command. You decide when to scratch and you decide when not too. Reward good behaviour, ignore bad or at least make it uncomfortable to act badly!

​

Goats lack the upper lip split that sheep have. Both have front teeth only on the bottom, like deer, they have an upper front dental pad...there are no cheesy full toothed grins, eh.

This don't mean it is a good idea to stick yer fingers in a goat or sheep mouth...good way to lose a digit, eh. I examine bites by feeling the top and bottom molars on the outside of the jaw...I can wave with all five digits on both hands (and feet in my younger years!).

Breeding Sheep males do not stink as much as some breeding Goat males can get. When baby boy goat starts smelling off...he's reaching sexual maturity...becoming a buck. Dairy goats are the worst stinkers I am told. Male breeding aged goats love to drench themselves in pee...I guess the girls love the scent...ode de toilet?

Both sheep and goats wag their tails when happy (or pooing...and alot of pooing is done, so both must be happy, right?). Sheep or goat beans, that is what their poop should look like...Glosette raisons or peanuts I guess (nfi)...no sampling please!

​

Only goats have hangers on the side of their heads, like earrings, Heidi has a set of these. For the life of me I am drawing a blank as to the term we use for these...bangles or...sorry, memory is failing me right now...sigh!

Lego had twin ewes but neither one had eyes coloured like hers ​

Both goats and sheep may have blue eyes tho sheeps have more marble blue eyes...otherwise shades of brown are more the normal iris colour in either. Blue eyes in goats is dominant...I don't know how it is inherited in sheeps.

Be it a lamb or a kid...the hoppy happy happens with both young'uns...I also note that when out on pasture for the first time after a long winter...both goats and sheep will pronk...that is leaping with front feet and back feet like a deer does...pronking...

When it rains...it is always, always ACID RAINS and goats are sugar cubes that melt if rain contacts them. Keep this foremost in mind when tethering a goat out...you must provide rain shelter to a goat or pay great wrath for your blunder...ijit!

This is a good read about differences in goats and sheep.

http://www.sheep101.info/sheepandgoats.html

Problem with this article is that my primitive park sheep Jacobs and my Dorpers ACT like goats would... I find Jacobs walking up fence posts to eat leaves on trees...belly is bulging like beach balls but they have to go for the dessert. Primitive sheep breeds (Dorpers are half Persian Black Headed sheep...go look them up, you'll get to see a fat tailed kewl sheep breed!) are agile like no tomorrow...got told you could expect them to clear six foot fences with the greatest of ease...keep in mind if'n you provide all a sheep needs...why do they hafta jump the fence...now goats, clearly totally other story---a mini goat clears or climbs a six foot fence...well just like the mountain climber...they climb fences because its a fence...that's why!)...

So what has eight legs, eight horns and two heads...Mia and her wethered son Rex do.

​

Bwa ha ha...

Lol, how about if we start calling them alpacas?

I'm humming up a wing dinger of a retort already...nope...just joshing...

Llamas and alpacas...I am sure someone can tell us the differences besides size, eh. LMBO...people and our creatures, eh.

Funny farm...all too funny!

My fav photo of the pair...ruddy, colour of my spouse's Fav old dog Fixins...RED​

The one I do want resolved and appropriate for BYC...as in poultry...what to call our Ruddies...not a duck, not a goose...so a doose or a guck... Zoologists who are suppose to name things so we are not confused have not named the shels either a goose or duck as they are an intermediate between both.

Ruddy pair with two pairs of our Australian Black Swans​

But don't let their small size fool yah...they can take out and kill geese much much larger than them...one lady describes the encounter her gander had with a male Ruddy...like an orange red feather duster hanging off the poor gander's throat...not to be messed with, in the wild, they nest by themselves...no community nesting--they dig a nest in the river banks and nest underground. Neat lovely birds. Love our single pair tons.

So the name game is sorta like the Egyptian goose, not a goose or a duck, so same thing...guck or doose?

Got goose stew for dinner to heat up...away I must wander...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Alaskan]

@CanuckBock

Not all goats have the dangly things under their chin ( not sure on the technical name either...I think they look like tenticals ) and not all goats have beards.

I just have 3 does, and one has both a beard and tenticals she is a Saaanan. However, Saanans I think all have beards, but only some have tenticals.

Nubians I think never have either. At least my Nubians don't and my sister's don't either.

This girl is actually 3/4 nubian and 1/4 boar.

100%Saanan

The same 3/4 nubian as before.

 

[Peep_Show]

The dangly tenticles: Wattles?

 

[Alaskan]

Maybe, but I hear "wattles" and I think "chicken"

Tenticals is funny.... I like funny.

 

[Ravynscroft]

The dangly tenticles:  Wattles?  

Yep...

Maybe, but I hear "wattles" and I think "chicken"

Tenticals is funny.... I like funny.

They're also called bells...

 

[Alaskan]

Bells makes ZERO sense. Trust me... They make no sounds.


That is almost as bad as the word "skat"
- run off
- tribute
- poop
- yummy tiny fish that swims in poop water

What nonsense.

 

[perchie.girl]

wattles

 

[Ravynscroft]

If you tug them hard enough there's a sound alright!

 

[Beer can]

Quote:
Same here, squirrels too, all the same fried up....Grew up on rabbits and chicken, and wild game.
My dad swears when he spent the night at his grandparents they ate canned pigeons, saw his grandad had a way to trap them in the cupola on their barn. They said it was canned chicken, he said 'I never saw them butcher any of their chickens, and the bones were way too small'......dang dad, that's 'squab' super expensive delicacy......