Chat
03-06-2017, 07:54 PM
Hello Jack-Sven, and welcome!
I love having goats of various ages around the place. It's hard to say what's going to happen if you introduce younger goats. In my experience, yearlings tend to be the most brutal toward younger/smaller goats, especially when there is no older goat present to act as referee. However, it all depends on the personalities of the individual goats, and there's no reason it has to be a bloodbath. My guess is that there will be some rough-and-tumble in the beginning, then the youngsters will learn to stay well out of the way of your older goats, then the more dangerous type fighting and bullying should die down within a few weeks. Goats are always nastiest toward each other when there's food involved, and sometimes also when fighting over shelter. Make sure to put food down in several spots far enough away from each other that even the lowest goat gets to eat. Next make sure your shelters are adequate. Not only should there be enough room in the shelter for everyone to fit without being too close, but the doorway needs to be large enough that one goat can't lay across it and keep everyone else from entering (or exiting as the case may be).
One thing you can do that will reassure the breeder is to give your new little guys access to a place where the yearlings won't fit. There are several ways to do this. One might be to section off a corner of your pen using a picket fence with openings wide enough for babies but not wide enough for yearlings. Or it can be a shelter with a low roof (make sure it's deep enough that the yearlings can't put their head inside and pound the kids against the back wall!). I think the biggest cause of trouble between goats is not enough room. If your bottom-rung goats have plenty of space to get away from the head honchos, the head honchos will usually not harm them. I've only had one goat that was so mean she would run others down without provocation, even when the others were already running away from her. Most goats are not that sadistic once the pecking order has been established. Best of luck to you!
I love having goats of various ages around the place. It's hard to say what's going to happen if you introduce younger goats. In my experience, yearlings tend to be the most brutal toward younger/smaller goats, especially when there is no older goat present to act as referee. However, it all depends on the personalities of the individual goats, and there's no reason it has to be a bloodbath. My guess is that there will be some rough-and-tumble in the beginning, then the youngsters will learn to stay well out of the way of your older goats, then the more dangerous type fighting and bullying should die down within a few weeks. Goats are always nastiest toward each other when there's food involved, and sometimes also when fighting over shelter. Make sure to put food down in several spots far enough away from each other that even the lowest goat gets to eat. Next make sure your shelters are adequate. Not only should there be enough room in the shelter for everyone to fit without being too close, but the doorway needs to be large enough that one goat can't lay across it and keep everyone else from entering (or exiting as the case may be).
One thing you can do that will reassure the breeder is to give your new little guys access to a place where the yearlings won't fit. There are several ways to do this. One might be to section off a corner of your pen using a picket fence with openings wide enough for babies but not wide enough for yearlings. Or it can be a shelter with a low roof (make sure it's deep enough that the yearlings can't put their head inside and pound the kids against the back wall!). I think the biggest cause of trouble between goats is not enough room. If your bottom-rung goats have plenty of space to get away from the head honchos, the head honchos will usually not harm them. I've only had one goat that was so mean she would run others down without provocation, even when the others were already running away from her. Most goats are not that sadistic once the pecking order has been established. Best of luck to you!