# How Many Goats To Start With?



## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

My brain is ready to explode with all the info I have on goats, and I still need more. How many goats should a complete newbie start with? I've been told 2 does and 1 buck - how does that sound? Does the buck always have to be separated from the girls? How about a pregnant doe? If I get kids, how long would I have to wait to have milk? I'm going to look at Nigerian Dwarfs this weekend, but I must say the mini-nubians are sort of interesting. And, can you mix & match sizes? Do they all eat out of the same type manger, just one lower than the other? What would be the drawbacks to having standard size and miniatures together? 

I'll be working on housing shortly (just a warning) :help. I already know from reading the posts that I need Vicki's. Any pics posted?


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## SecoCreek (Jan 27, 2010)

I would say if you are just starting out, and only plan on having two or three does, you don't need to buy a buck yet. (JMO) Try to find a breeder near you to breed your does to. Once your herd grows a little, and you see what characteristics in you does you would like to improve, then buy a buck.


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

How many goats to buy really depends on the space and time you have. You will need at least two does to keep each other company. You don't need to own a buck unless you don't have stud service available in your area. You can keep mini and full size goats together without any problems. I've run a couple Nigies with my big girls in the past. You don't want to keep a buck with the does full time. Though I have seen full size bucks bred to mini does with no problems, that is not someting I'd recommend to a new goat breeder. If you do wind up getting both large and small breeds it would be best to either breed them to bucks of their own breed or buy/lease a mini buck to use on all of them.
Buying a bred doe is OK, but I'd be sure they have a breeding date on her so you don't get all crazy like I've seen some newbies do wondering when the kids are due. When you can start using the milk for your family depends on how much she makes vs how much her babies need. If you buy doe kids rather than adults, if they were born late winter/early spring and they are growing properly, you should be able to breed them late fall/early winter. I never had to do seperate feeders for my different sized goats.


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## Dana (Dec 7, 2009)

Buy as many as you can! :biggrin You won't be sorry. Just buy healthy goats from reliable breeders.

I started out with 2 and in 4 years went to 8. I love them. But there is a lot more feed and clean up to do.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

I would recommend getting one kind and spending your money on the two best does you can afford. It gets complicated with different breeds, you really want two bucks for each breed. If you have someone near you that offers stud services, then use their buck the first year or two. By then you will better know what you want and can get your own buck or bucks. Best way is to get two bucklings and raise them together. Once you get very many does at all, you start getting tired of trucking them around to bucks.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

Depends on how much milk you want for your family if ND you will most likely get aprox 1 qt to 1/2 gal a day from 2 milkers and this would be good milkers. Yes you can keep large goats and small goats together I had ND /Mini Manchas/ Nubians and LaMancha all together never changed anything for the small ones everyone got along and was able to eat same as the full sized. Starting out I suggest 2 does of what ever breed you decide on get them in milk if possible and milk them before buying. then go for a buck at a later date or have them bred where you bought them this fall. As for a buck when your ready get you a buckling use him this fall and then sell or eat him Thus not having to have a special place for him. NO you don't want to leave them together other than for breeding.


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## Fiberaddict (Jun 4, 2009)

One thing - you need to assume that any goats you get will NOT be champion/good milkers, and plan accordingly. I had read that good Nubians give 1+ gallon/day....I bought 2, assuming I'd get half that, and...I am. These are well-bred does, with good milking lines (one of thier dams IS giving 1 gallon a day....), but here we are. (FFs, both of them....so they might get better.)

We started out with 2 bred Nubians.....we now have 4 Nubians (the orig. 2, + a doeling I bought, + the buckling one of ours had) and 3 Alpines (1 doe, 1 doeling, + 1 buckling) (I'm ignoring the Cashmeres/crosses right now. You don't want to know....:lol ) We are a family of 4...the Nubians couldn't keep up with the milk demands, so we bought the Alpines. We're now swimming in milk - the Alpine is giving us right at 1 gallon/day.

It's a pain to keep the bucklings separate, but I don't want cross-breeds. I also didn't want to have to schlep the does to whatever buck I could find - we don't live in dairy country, and the breeder we got the Nubians from has a closed herd - no driveway breedings there!

I would recommend you start with 2 does - if you can't find any in milk, then get bred ones. You'll be milking as soon as they freshen (150 days, give or take)... buying bred ones will give you time to get everything else you need together.


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## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

Two does, from the same breed, from a reliable goat person near you so that you can get them bred when needed.

There is SO MUCH to learn that you don't want to overwhelm the learning curve.


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## prairie nights (Jan 16, 2009)

I agree with the above advice on 2 does to start with - same breed, maybe make arrangements with that breeder for breeding services in the fall or ask for a recommendation to another breeder. Since you will still be learing you do not need as many as you can buy  While goats are addictive and you probably won't stay with 2 , 2 are nice to learn on. I started with a milker and a dry yearling and would do that again in a heartbeat. Got a gallon of milk per day, I would recommend spending the money on an older milker(s) that is already milking consistently, is rock solid on the milk stand, has higher immunity, etc etc. I found one to milk to be plenty of work the first season. 

Jana


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Jana, That is a good idea - one older and one young. I hadn't thought about that combo. That makes good sense. I didn't think I wanted a buck right away but I don't find many dairy goats around to use for breeding. 

Rose, do you have any bucks that could be used for breeding? I think you must live pretty close to where I am.

My main purpose is not so much the quantity of milk at first - I just want goats and the milk/cheese/soap will be a fringe benefit. 

Anyone know who might have some mini-nubians? in Texas?


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Starting out I suggest 2 does of what ever breed you decide on get them in milk if possible 

Sondra, could you explain a little more about them being "in milk" Does that mean that they just had a baby? And do most owners take the kids off the mom and bottle feed?

Linda


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## prairie nights (Jan 16, 2009)

I only know of mini nubians in OK. Good prices, tested stock.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Visit Joanna, see a real commercial setup, and buy the does bred. This way the person has done all the work of raising them out and breeding them....then get a deposit into a breeder (and it can be the same one) for a buckling in the spring...that way you can raise him out with your kids, save a buckling from one of the breedings the breeder sold you, and you have an instant buck herd of two semi related buckling to linebreed back over the does themselves and the daughters you get. Make sure in ND that you hand milk the doe herself, or her dam, there are lines, especially from those who only let kids nurse or who machine milk, that have small teats...only if you hand milk does teats become something you breed for.

Honestly it's going to be a hassel to have mini-nubians there are just so few around us...there are lots of ND and you cant' start better than with Joanna, both in quality but in milk and there are lots of mini-lamanchas.

Have you actually visited a herd of full sized goats? You do know that being smaller does NOT make small goats easier to handle. Imagine trying to control something thats center of gravity is at your knees or mid thigh....now think about tring to control and animal thats center of gravity is just like you, your waist. It's about purchasing for health first, temperment, if the breeder can't catch the does she has, you will never be able to catch them, its' the danger of buying goats that aren't bottle raised. You don't want wild goats.

Going all the way to Brenham why not make a couple of days of it, get up to Joanna's early in the morning, and then on your drive south hit 59, come see my nubians, we can go over (as long as it is not wednesday or sunday) and see mini lamanchas..if you are going to go north on 6 to brenham go see the Binders LaManchas...since you aren't taking your checkbook just go visit....then go home...because being around one of the breeds, you will fall in love with them. With breeding season right now, someone will have something for sale that can be bred, blood tested biotracking.com for CAE and to confirm pregnancy at 30 days bred (even if you have to pay some boarding fees) so you have two bred does to take home.

Please stick with one breed to begin with, having multiple bucks out of multiple breeds is always going to end up with cross bred does from accidental breedings. It's too expensive anymore to do more than one breed justice with the price of good bucks. Also you said something about Seguine in another thread...Cinco De Mayo, Elizabeth Pannille is in SEguine, she has beautiful nubains and lamanchas also. On your way to Brenham is also Bryan, in Kurten is Becky Fraley, excellent milkers, Nubians, her grown kids have Toggs and I believe Alpines still? vicki


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

We are not far from Vicki so if you want to come by and see some of our girls you are welcome to do so, we have Nubians and La Manchas (From D'Ann Binder).


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

If you get a doe in milk, I want to re-itterate what Vicki said about milking her first but I want to add two things. Don't just milk the one you are planning on buying. If you have never milked before you may think the doe is fine to milk but really she might be harder than other does. that was my mistake at first. I milked the doe I was buying and she seemed fine but after I had other goats I realized that one was difficult compared to others.
And the other thing, don't assume that small teats means hard to milk and large teats means easy. Some small teated does can be quite easy to milk.


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## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

I have an Alpine buck and a Mini-Mancha buck. Both registered. We test for CAE, too.

I'm between Houston and Corpus Christi.


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## Fiberaddict (Jun 4, 2009)

Michelle (and Vicki!) has a good point - we had never milked anything when we brought our Nubians home. We got a quick lesson - but both us AND the Nubians had never done this before. Talk about a steep learning curve! (We were lucky - both girls are very sweet and patient. 1 of them can be milked by *anybody*, but the other is picky - she HATES my husband. :lol )

We would have stuck with the Nubians only if my husband hadn't decided he needed more milk. (Hey, at least it's goats and not tools! :lol ).....keeping all the bucklings separate is a pain.

Good luck! You're gonna love whatever breed you get!


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## billinohio (Jun 24, 2009)

A friend of mine used to have pygmies along with her Alpines. When I would help her, I found the pygimies much harder to handle than the Alpines. When I am at shows, my back starts to hurt just watching all those people bent over leading their Nigerians. Nigerians are cute and i love the variety of colors.....but my back......:shrug:


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

Plenty of good MM in TX and if you are planing on cheese and soap you will need more than 2 ND but 2 full sized or good milking MM will let you have cheese and soap and milk.


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

Vickie I second the check out a full sized dairy goat thing it works both ways. My father (70) has been Hounding me for some goats to take back to florida, which is never going to happen. Well he was here last weekend, and we walked him out back to *B Kickadee-hill Abraham, He's not the biggest buck we have but he was handy. They regarded each other, dad got a look at the Hooves that need trimmed every 6 weeks or so. and wha-laa. He's done wanting to breed goats.


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## prairie nights (Jan 16, 2009)

Sherrie, isn't that the truth ! I think I turned off a few folks just by sending them here - once they found out all there is to keeping and managing goats, some are thinking it over  I also recommend keeping a few for a whole year (doing the holidays thing and the winter thing, milking for 10 months, raising a small crop of kids ,etc) and then deciding if larger scale is or isn't for you. 

Jana


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## NPgoats (Mar 18, 2010)

Linda, I know some people that have mini Nubian's here in Texas if you are interested. They are very cute. Just PM (personal message) me and I'll give you their contact info. Welcome to the forum. 
I started off with a few (3) and then added a few (3) more two months later, and then a few (2) more two months later again, and finally realized I needed a buck this fall! I am enjoying my goats. DGI, this site, has been very helpful in educating me on all things goatie. I have full size Nubian's, a couple mini Nubian's, and one Alpine/Nubian mix. 
Linda


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

complete newbie--we started with three. That was a good number for us to get our feet wet with. Even then our goat mentor was driven to distraction by me obsessing over so many crazy things.


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## Theresa (Oct 26, 2007)

I would recommend 2-3 to start with. That way you can get all your management down and then move to bigger. It also gives you a chance to see how much work is envolved with them without being over whelmed. Then if everything seems to be going well, you can add the next year. Of course by then you will have kids from your original goats so your herd will grow. 
Theresa


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

Dana watch out, we started with three and in less than 6 years have over 100 and a licensed dairy!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I think LeeAnne should be in charge of mentoring all new folks on the forum!  Vicki


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I send 'em all here!


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