We Have Goats!

Our animal-loving son was very predictable this year with his holiday wish-list. The main theme of his list included an animal and feed.

Since the weather has pushed off the build for the barn a bit, we were unsure if we could take on any of these animals for his Christmas present. We discussed it and found a referral to a family selling Pygmy goats. We have never owned goats before and may be naive, but the smaller size seems a bit more manageable. My thought was that if they are smaller, we may be able to contain them easier when the inevitably escape their confined quarters, as I hear goats tend to do. 

We may be crazy for adding more animals when the other farm projects are still incomplete but the smile on his face made it worth it!

Meet Caspian and Diggory (named from the Narnia series)!

It didn't take long before they became a beloved part of our family farm.

Their small size works great for our temporary living quarters. We have included them in the rotation area protected by electric netting fence. We obtained a large dog crate from a friend, filled the inside with warm bedding and covered the outside with a tarp to protect them from the elements.

The dog crate is moved with the chickens and rabbits in the Chibbit to a new grazing area roughly every five days. If you don't know what a Chibbit is, check out our previous blog post for details: Chibbit – PJ's Projects (pjsprojects.com). The animals have quickly adapted to the combined living arrangements it is so fun to watch them interact with each other. We plan to move them to a more permanent shelter when the barn is complete. 

These sweet creatures will have to earn their keep. We have a lot of overgrowth around our fence rows and our plan is to rotate them along these areas and let them do what goats do in order to help us clean it up. I know that their small size will not allow us to clear the fence rows as quickly as larger goats would, but we are happy with our decision. The entertainment that they are currently providing more than makes up for their small stature.