H.N.G.’s Journal

[H.N.G.]

So I’ve decided to go ahead and start a member journal! The earlier the better, no? Anyway I’m going to go ahead and start introducing my animals and go from there.

We have 19 goats. All of them are Nigerian Dwarfs. Sweetest little things that always manage to get into trouble somehow. I’ll provide more info on them later. We have two Great Pyrenees named Yeti and Penny. Penny was born November 10th 2017 and we got her on Christmas. As for Yeti not much is known about his past aside from what the pervious owners know about him.

Then we have out llama, Ray. He doesn’t care for people but likes the goats well enough. Not the best guard unless they’re in the pasture, though.

Finally we have my Mini Rex doe, Persephone. She’s a red(I think) broken doe only about 8 weeks old or so. Not a show bunny but a sweet pet.

That’s about it. I’ll post pictures later and talk more about the animals in detail.

 

[RollingAcres]

Looking forward to reading your journal and seeing pictures of your animals!

 

[H.N.G.]

@RollingAcres Thank you

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hi and welcome from another Texan.

 

[Mike CHS]

It sounds like you have been at this for a while. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

You’ll love it here! Glad that you went ahead and started a journal. It’s a fun way to keep up and keep track of the farm happenings.

Btw we love pics around here so bring them on!

Do you milk your goats? We have Nigerian Dwarfs, 2 Lamancha doelings, and a rescue Nubian doe. Milk is our main goal at the moment but confirmation is a must. I’d like to get into some of the different evaluations in the future.

We also have an Anatolian named Queenie. I’ve had Pyrs and love them. I’ll have another one of these days....

 

[H.N.G.]

Pictures from left to right: Gramps, Betsy, Rosemary,Ricky and Lucy
We started out with five goats; the ones shown above. Ricky and Lucy were our first goats and are both siblings. We got Betsy, Gramps and Rosemary from the same people and were our other three goats we got a few weeks later.

Gramps
A black buck and our former Billy. We got him fixed about a year or so ago because we had too many babies to comfortably keep up with. Not exactly sure on age, but when we got them six years ago I think the three older goats were 2-4 years old at the time. He’s sweet and since we fixed him, he’s calmed down a lot. He’s the father of all our babies. He was fixed October 2015.

Rosemary
She’s a pure white doe on the small side. She has some different colored brown spots on her ears, but I’ve never been able to find out what cause them. They’re part of her pattern. As I said she’s kinda small and has runty legs. We don’t know anything on her history so perhaps she grew differently or maybe she could be a mix of some kind. She too is a wonderful mother and always cared for her babies.

Kids: Snowflake, Lucky, Star, Sage, Basil, Valor, Simon, Cypress, Winter
- Snowflake, Lucky and Star were born early December during an ice storm of course. They were our first litter in December 2012/2013 I can’t remember for the life of me. Star died the day after Christmas that year and we think mama goat might’ve squished her by mistake. The other two have been doing fine, though. Snowflake and Star are does and Lucky is a buck.
- Sage and Basil were born July 2014. Mama goat cared for them well and they’re still with us today.
- Valor was a huge singleton and was kinda fat actually. At least we would tease that he was. He went missing winter 2014/2015 after we let the goats back into the forest area. We didn’t know what happened to him and after searching for an hour or so we couldn’t find him. He was a handsome gold buck.
- Simon, Cypress and Winter were the final litter between Rosemary and Gramps before he was fixed. Simon was a buck and Cypress and Winter were does. Both Simon and Winder were pure white, Simon was a buck and Winter was a doe. Cypress is a chocolate and white doe. Winter and her half-brother, Stanley, both became our first bottle babies. They were doing so well and thriving. However they got coccidia and ended up passing away early spring 2016. They were sweet babies and due to over medication; the strand here was immune to it and they were too far-gone at that point. Simon went missing in the back forest spring or summer 2016 along with another kid named Cece. Cypress is still here with us and she’s doing well.

Betsy
She died this past January from unknown causes. She might’ve been sick but we couldn’t tell. She was standoffish, but a sweet goat all around. She was actually quiet big, a little bigger than Gramps I think. Pure black like him except for some frosting and a small, white patch under one of her front legs. She was an excellent mama and loved all her babies.

Kids: Oreo, Sherlock, Ebony, Midnight, Shadow, Cinderella(Cindy)
- Oreo and Sherlock are twin bucks part of her first litter. Both are strong and healthy. We recently sold them December to family friends. They were born 2014 in February.
- Ebony, Midnight and Shadow were born about a year later in January 2015. We weren’t as experienced with goats then and though Ebony was doing fine. We noticed she wasn’t as good as we thought and started feeding her, but we were too late and she passed. We then figured that Star might’ve died the same way, but we don’t truly know. Midnight and Shadow are both doing great currently.
- Cinderella or Cindy is a black and white doe and was quiet big when she was born. She was Betsy’s last litter with Gramps before he was fixed. She was born February 2016

Lucy
She’s a little bit on the shy side but she’s a good, sweet thing. She’s 5 years old or so. She’s a good mama like the other does we have and has taken great care of her babies. She’s had 3 litters with us. All the does Lucy had have died, so after we sell some of our goats we hope to get a buck or pay for a stud in hopes of getting at least one doe from her in the future.

Kids: Charles, Diamond, Pliget, Roxie, Dipper, Mable, Stanley
- Charles and Diamond were our first litter. They were born January/February 2014. The wood that separates the two stalls in our barn wasn’t even at the bottom and was big enough for baby goats to escape from. We put wood up to separate the stalls but didn’t have time to screw them on and we kept forgetting. Turned out to be a fatal mistake because at some point in the night one of the panels fell on poor Diamond. Mama goat was freaking out when we found her and baby had passed. Charles lived for a good few months until I brought him on the deck. I don’t remember what I was doing, but I had his halter tied to one of the posts near some steps. I went to the bathroom and when I came out it looks like he fell and twisted his neck. Our dog, Leia, was fat and old so I thought it’d be fine to leave her there. She never chased the goats and liked them but it looked like Charles got scared and tried to run getting killed in the process.
- Pliget and Roxie we think were a little premature. A day after their birth Roxie ended up passing away and we think she was a weak one. Pliget is still with us and he’s a sweet chubby little thing.
- Lucy’s last litter with gramps was Dipper, Mable and Stanley. We had to take Stanley in because she wasn’t caring for him like his littermates and alongside Winter they became bottle babies. As I said earlier he contracted coccidia and ended up passing away. It was because of Mable we stopped letting goats out into the back. Mable was missing so we took Yeti, our Great Pyrenees, to the back forest and he was able to sniff her out. A predator had gotten to her and that’s when we realized that predators probably picked up the other babies that went missing. We still have Dipper and he doesn’t like us. Whenever we approach he runs away.

Ricky
When we got him, he was banded so no kids form him. He’s such as sweet boy and a great goat. He’s a black buck with a nice set of horns on him. Rosemary, Gramps and Betsy has their horns cut by the pervious owner. We think his sister never had any horns because we’ve never found the buds. He and Lucy are 5 years old or so because we got them at 6 months old in June.

 

[RollingAcres]

Nice pictures of your goats!
Are your goats pets? For meat? For milk?
We don't have any goats.

 

[H.N.G.]

Nice pictures of your goats!
Are your goats pets? For meat? For milk?
We don't have any goats.

Thank you. They're currently pets and lawn mowers. We also used them to clear the back area for a while, but we need more protection for them before we can do it again. We were also going to use them for milking, but we didn't have the right equipment and didn't know exactly what we were doing. Once they start producing again we'll try once more to milk them.

 

[Latestarter]

Awesome looking group of animals! Goats (I'm finding) are a lot like potato chips... one just is never enough! Since Nigies breed year round, they can be rather prolific I imagine.