...and I'm a goataholic. There. I admitted it. So I might have too many goats. Or not! But I do need to rearrange my goat housing to fit everyone in nicely. Because I've purchased miniature breed bucks and both my full size does are possibly bred, AND the sleeping quarters are much bigger in the current buck pen, I have to switch pens. Easy Peasy, right? Wrong!!
Goat relationships are a mystery to me, kind of like chickens... and people. Herds have queens and peons, sires and servants. But around here they've all got to get along in their little spaces and shared quarters. So I'm introducing the changes slowly. It's been kind of like goat chess. Not cheese!- CHESS. Each move creates a reaction and may or may not change my strategy.
I started out with all the goats in the doe pen and Dilly (the tiny newby) able to escape to the buck pen whenever he felt threatened.
After everyone got used to the new goat, I opened the gate between the pens and left some pellets in the buck pen trough to encourage the does to explore the buck pen for a few days.
Then, I closed the gate with the does in the buck pen and Moose in the doe pen. I left the dog house that Dilly had gotten used to in the buck pen so he would be comfortable sleeping by himself if the does didn't accept him as a bunk mate.
Which brings me to today when I moved Dilly's temporary dog house into the doe pen so he will be sleeping in the same pen as Moose. Hopefully Moose will have decided that sleeping alone is no fun and the body heat will be better with 2 bucks in the same shed. Then I can remove the dog house for good. We shall see.....
Meanwhile I'm training myself and DH to refer to the two pens by their new names and trying to not get confused in the discussions of goat pens. I think the goat training has had much better results but us humans are much older and set in our ways. It happens!
