Goat Sociology

Being an adoptive mom to goats is new territory for me. For a year or two, JD and I talked about bringing goats in to keep down the blackberries that are slowly burying us alive. I've never had goats before but by all accounts they are pretty great animals and keeping something that likes to eat blackberries is pretty appealing. Seeing them last year at the Oregon State Fair sealed the deal for us:

 

 

Despite growing up in rural areas of New Mexico and Texas, we never had goats. There were always an assortment of animals around: dogs and cats, a few horses, flocks of chickens and I even had two pairs of ducks and a little Bantam rooster and hen. I even have a vague memory of pigs at our house in New Mexico. But no goats.

When JD and I first brought Spike home, I emailed photos of him around to my family. They all know that four-legged animals are my version of children and have come to expect a different sort of "family photos". Everyone thought our latest addition was pretty cute.

Except Dad. My mom told me that he had a less than enthusiastic reaction: "I showed the picture to your father, but maybe you remember his speaking of Depression Days when he was growing up and on welfare. They were given charity food and some of it was canned mutton and he has never been able to eat lamb or anything resembling it since. So, I'm sorry to say, he didn't not wax enthusiastic about your new family member. But I still think he's a pretty color." That certainly explains the lack of goats around my childhood homes.

So I have a learning curve when it comes to goats. I rode a fair amount when I was a teenager so I understand how a horse operates. I've had a few dogs and I know how to interpret their behavior and how to be the pack leader. I have kind of a bird phobia but they are small and I can run away from them (yeah, that's right, I'll say it out loud!). Even cows, while being large and kind of cumbersome, are pretty direct-able (bulls are a different story, I know that much.)

Goats are another story entirely. I'm still learning what their behavior means, what their social structure consists of, whether they have an Alpha Goat (male or female) or just small groups within a herd, etc. JD told me one thing he learned was that when a female had kids, their position in the herd was one rung below their mother's rank. There is definitely a hierarchy among the three that we have now. Spike is at the top, then Sir Robin and at the bottom Sir Lancelot. I'll be curious to find out if those positions can change as Robin has displayed some challenging behavior towards Spike.

We've done some reading and there's always Google but does anyone have goats? What should I look out for? Does a herd of males act differently than one of mixed genders? None of our males are, um, intact. Does that affect their herd behavior significantly? I'd be grateful for information about your experiences with goat sociology be it anecdotal or scientific.

Building A Goat Feeder

So our other weekend project was to build a feeder for the goats.  They need to have their hay elevated so it won't get soiled with their, uh, presents.  JD read that it will decrease food waste and help keep them free of parasites and worms and other nasties.

We started with an old workbench I'd built several years ago - I'm a master craftsman I am.

We cut the legs down to about 24 inches and added braces.

That's Henry modeling it for us. (Don't let the picture fool you - he's not that well-behaved. JD is standing off to the side holding Henry's toy.)

We added angled uprights to hold the hay in. We had to space them wide enough to allow them to stick their heads in but not so narrow that they'd get their heads stuck.

We placed in right inside the shed's sliding door so we can open it up and put a whole bale of hay right in the feeder.

We went out to say good morning to the goats the next day and found out that the uprights were wide enough alright - so wide they could jump right up and stand on their breakfast!

So then we added cross pieces to make the openings smaller. It's a good thing we did because as we were working on it, one of the twins (the shy one, strangely enough) jumped right up in the feeder between us while we were working on it!

I think we are all set now. They can stick their heads in and then duck down a little to pull their heads back out. JD suggested we add a second row of cross pieces just to be sure they couldn't jump over. That was a good idea since I already caught them standing on the lower cross piece trying to climb in!

The Newest Member Of Our Flock

We have been planning to get a few goats to help us with the blackberries that are taking over and we brought home our first last night. He's a seven month old Boer mix.

JD's co-worker raises them for meat but this little guy was so friendly, his family demanded that he go to a to a home where he'd be a pet! I'm a vegetarian so we assured them he'd have a long and happy life with us.

He was just like our yellow lab, Henry, when we brought him home - scared and loud! He sounded so upset, I felt terrible even though this was going to be a much better situation for him, not to mention a longer situation.

He had no way of knowing that of course. All he knew is that he was ripped away from his family, crammed into a box (Henry's crate), then taken for a long, windy, noisy ride on the back of some monster (our diesel pickup). Next, he was abandoned in a totally unfamiliar pasture with another funny-smelling animal who made weird noises at him (the llama). And it was full dark to boot!

We put lots of hay in his new little shed and talked to him a bunch and even gave him some grain as a treat. When we finally went in, I swear he sounded like he was being butchered then and there!

He finally settled down after a few hours but I slept very lightly all night worried that he would get eaten by a coyote or tangled in the fence trying to escape. When JD got up to go to work this morning he was, of course, fine and yelling for attention.

I got up a few hours later (I'm recovering from a broken leg so I'm off work for several months), I went out and he did the same thing. I hobbled around the pasture with him showing him all the blackberries and stuff that he could eat. He stayed right with me the whole time! I guess being with a stranger in a strange land is still better than being alone in a strange land....

I went back in for a while and he stood by the gate bleating off an on for about an hour! So I dragged a chair out into the pasture and sat with him for a little while and he quieted right down. He'd wander over and eat some hay and then come back and chew and gurgle at me for a while.

Henry and The Goat (no name yet) are still trying to figure each other out. And the llama, Maya, isn't sure what to do with this little noisy creature either. She's pretty skittish in any case and this isn't helping. I'm hoping they'll get along okay and keep each other company until we can get a pal for The Goat. Maya's mom died a few weeks ago and I haven't decided if she misses her or if she's just happy to have all the food to herself! I think she likes company: we let our neighbor run his cows in the other pasture and Maya frequently hangs around them. So maybe they'll get to be friends soon. Llamas are supposed to be good watchdogs - er, llamas - which would help keep those coyotes at a distance.

Our next task is to get a collar and chain for him so we can take him around to all the blackberry brambles. That's going to be a fun chore - gotta go take the goat for a walk!