Harley and Pricess

Boots and Shirley

I like your goats! Why does Shirley not have horns? Just not grown them, yet? (I'm assuming that all goats have horns, since "Princess" has them and is a female?) Are their personalities totally different?

Shirley had her horns removed when she was little, some people do that. It usually is done with the milk goats of the larger breeds, because horns are really dangerous and they use them to push and pull, they are quite destructive.
Ours are fed in a little hut, which also gives them shelter from the weather. It lasted a long time when we had big goats without horns, these guys have "remodeled" it so it only has a roof and one intact side-wall, they are working on that one LOL

Lilo, thanks for responding; I plead to much ignorance about "farm life". I've been a "city girl" all my life. :>)

But some people think goats....and cows are easier to handle with horns....something to grab and to tie a rope to.
And some sheep have horns.....

Enjoy seeing the goat pics. I see plenty of green vegetation in their field. Do they feed on that in addition to what you feed them?

Yes, Wrest Gardener, that's actually their job to keep this vegetation down, it has turned brown by now, but goats like coarse food, they really prefer branches and rough growth.

Love the pictures. I like goats, never had any but a neighbor had a goat herd and of course I had to visit there very often. I can attest to the fact that goats love to butt, got plenty of blue spots from them, they even will do it without horns.

That hornless Shirley will take on Harley and Boots and whack them in the side hard. And those boys have really formidable horns. Lots of it is the way they play, they think humans are wimps because they don't butt heads.

Come to think of it, the only time I've been around goats, was at the Children's Zoo at SF Zoo and they were baby goats. Our children were little and one of the goats started chewing or "gumming" our daughter's long hair, another started nibbling on one of the boys' jacket.
We started tucking in everything when we went there.

Yes, they are "mouthy"too, how would you investigate things without fingers and hands? That is actually why people think they eat everything, they are fussy eaters, but investigate everything with their mouth

I had to mention an ad in this morning's Lost and Found column.

LOST. one Goat.

It's not often we see an ad for a lost goat.

Good looking bunch, glad they are there to keep you company. Many years ago when I was with my ex we had a 4h neighbor that kept Pigmy's, Nubians, sheep and chickens at our place as we had an acre and were zoned for it. They are a lot of fun and keep you on your toes.

so how long does it take for goats to kid? think not for sure what breed she is any help would be greatful

And some goats are just naturally polled......genetically they just don't have horns. If you're going to have goats around little kids, I'd prefer them to be polled. They swing their heads around a lot and children just naturally gravitate to a goat and can get injured even when the goat isn't aggressive. One of my earlier childhood memories was visiting our aunt in Texas and they had a nanny and a billy. The billy was mean and used to stand outside the outhouse and dare us to exit. BTW, I had to pull a goat out of my car the other day. Had the door open to get my purse and she just got in and sat down. LOL.

Remamber goat by any other name is still cabrito.

LOL, I think the outhouse goat ended up cabrito. I know the mean rooster ended up in a pot of noodles.