# How many goats do you have?



## Doug Hodges (Jul 22, 2013)

Lol. I get asked all the time. I honestly don't know. Do you? I'll try to count them sometime.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Off the top of my head? No. If I sit here and mentally track down every goat in every pasture and its kids, grandkids and so on......yes, I could tell you. But its VERY late, I'm only up to bake cookies for the big day tomorrow. Am I up to math at 1:00 am?? Absolutely not.=) Ask me tomorrow and I might know.LOL!!


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I start looking at the spreadsheet of the goats that have come and gone..... it's scary.


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## Bologna Budget (Feb 13, 2014)

Back when I was growing up,my grandfather had 150 to 160 head that I got to take care of.


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

I often hear that question, and have to mentally envision each pen & pasture before I can come up with the answer! At the moment, the correct answer is "19". Six milkers, 5 bucks, 3 bottle babies, 1 dam-raised baby, 4 coming yearling does. Does that add up?


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## Vahomesteaders (Jun 4, 2014)

We are at just 7 right now as we are thinning this heard to get into larger milk and meat goats. We have raised pygmies and nigerian dwarfs forever. We have had so many. But getting out of that. Meat goats are bringing anywhere from $2lb+ in our area right now. And I believe that healthy meat market is only gonna go up.


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## saltydogburt (Dec 15, 2013)

We have 9 does and 3 billys.We are picking up 3 nubian does soon.Im also rebuilding a old barn.I need to make milking easier for my girls.


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## wintrrwolf (Sep 29, 2009)

I count by name/sex...
Pawnee, Pebbles, Faline, Nibbler, Anuket, Penny, Vanilla = 7
Monkey, Partytime = 2
9!
That is such an uneven number....


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## V-NH (Jan 1, 2014)

I have five. Three milkers, a buck, and a wether. I can't imagine how some of you are able to take care of more than that, it is impressive! I have to leave for work at 6:00am once school is back in session, so I am struggling to figure out how I will even have time to milk three does every morning letalone any more than that.


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## Doug Hodges (Jul 22, 2013)

wintrrwolf said:


> I count by name/sex...
> Pawnee, Pebbles, Faline, Nibbler, Anuket, Penny, Vanilla = 7
> Monkey, Partytime = 2
> 9!
> That is such an uneven number....



It is. You must get more.


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## Doug Hodges (Jul 22, 2013)

V-NH said:


> I have five. Three milkers, a buck, and a wether. I can't imagine how some of you are able to take care of more than that, it is impressive! I have to leave for work at 6:00am once school is back in session, so I am struggling to figure out how I will even have time to milk three does every morning letalone any more than that.



You get up real early. I do


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## Doug Hodges (Jul 22, 2013)

Ok. I think I have 46. Give or take a couple either direction.


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## Ford Zoo (Jan 27, 2012)

People ask me that too, expecting that we just have a couple of pets to play with. The looks I get when I mention 40 or so (depending on the season) make me giggle. Then comes the next classic "What do you DO with ALL those goats?!" which leads to: "You EAT THEM??!!" From there the conversation can go in any direction.


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## LearningLife (Aug 11, 2010)

We have an even dozen: 9 does, 2 bucks, and 1 wether. Twelve is our saturation point. We usually have six or seven in milk at once, and we try to stagger breeding so that we'll have milk all year.


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

We have sheep, not goats, but we get asked the same question. My usual answer is the number of adult ewes and rams (75 + 1 right now, we're buying another ram for fall) and then add that most of the ewes have twin or triplet lambs.

Had the oldest ewe, an 8-year-old, show up with two lambs this morning, they must have been born yesterday. I am guessing that she slipped her lambs earlier in the year and rebred. Uno was with his girls until late April. So add two to whatever number we had before that.

Then they ask what we do with the wool and I explain that hair sheep are for meat, not wool.They stop asking questions after that. This is a big ag area and even the city-raised college kids understand that livestock=meat.

Peg


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## PermaAMP (Jun 13, 2013)

Personally I have 11. 2 adult milking does, 2 dam raised doelings, 1 yearling wether, 6 bottle baby wethers. 3 of the bottle wethers will be raised for meat and the other 3 will be raised for draft animals. 

But I work on a farm taking care of around 1,500 maybe it's 2,000 by now I don't know lol.


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## GoatGirl123 (Jan 23, 2014)

One nursing doe, one drying off doe, one never-going-to-be-bred doe, one might-be-bred-at-some-point doe, one pregnant doe, one doeling, one fiber doe, one sheep (if she counts), and three bucks. That would equal . . . eleven! Unless the sheep doesn't count. So ten.


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## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

had to think a moment, 
4 bucks
6 jr does
6 milkers
2 dry does
1 wether 

humm, thats kinda uneven hopefully I will sell a buck soon


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

I have 1 milking doe and one bottle doeling . she makes enough milk for me her and some left over to keep the pig happily growing .


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

We have 4.

Pack goat
Dwarf Nigerian whos only job in life is to keep the other goat company when we take the pack goat out
Milking goat who isn't very productive this year.
Doeling who keeps the milk goat milked


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

We try to avoid talking about how many goats we have. The current head count is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I'm at a sane number for vet school. My herd was at its biggest at around 25-30 when I had boers. That was including animals I planned on keeping out of the kid crop, but then sold everything off.

Now I have: 

3 Alpine does in milk
1 march Alpine doeling
1 march Alpine buckling
1 3YO Alpine buck
3 worthless old geriatric pet mini goats (12, 10, and 9 I believe)
1 worthless huge fat alpine wether
1 worthless boer doe and her 2 meat wethers for this year (she and her boys are getting picked up next weekend though, for meat)

So, actually that's still 15 goats. Ugh. Why does it seem like I had less than that? Probably because I only have 6 worthwhile animals.  Dad won't let me butcher the wether (its a pet, though we also use it for animals in isolation so he kinda has a purpose), and geriatric old goats were my first goats and I'm admittedly attached to them. They're the only ones I'm really attached to. I don't mind - the pet goats' job is to keep me sane the next few years. I always like to think that I'm a very no-nonsense, non-pet keeping livestock owner in the way I manage them... but if push came to shove, I'd sell the dairies and keep the worthless old fart minis till they die. The dairies are the most labor intensive and my minis are super easy to care for and seem to get fat on air, so they aren't going anywhere till they die of old age. One has a large anal-skin sarcoma (butt cancer) but she is doing just fine so far this year (obese on nothing but meh hay and pasture, in fact) so she gets to stick around. The other has a permanent limp from her shoulder assembly - really loose shoulders, but I believe she damaged her shoulder in a fight with a new goat and since she's still fat, sassy, grazing and being perfectly normal I'm not going to do anything about it. The oldest is my first goat, 12 year old Daisy, broken horned devil that she is... She taught me everything I know about keeping goats and in return all she wants is a good itch. She has bad teeth in the back, every once in a while the one side will swell along the jawbone - but so far, she hasn't needed any supplemental feeding in addition to the decent feed we provide. She is one of the healthiest goats I have. None of them have gotten copper bolused or BoSe'd in years (neither has the wether). I can't remember the last time I dewormed them either.


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## Cali (Mar 16, 2012)

Easy question for me! Two dry yearlings (1 LaMancha, 1 LaMancha x Alpine) and 2 bottle baby Alpine doelings. Can't wait to breed these yearlings and start feeling like I have a real herd.


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## yarrow (Apr 27, 2004)

haven't counted does in a LONGGGG time.. if I had to guess.. and I include this year's bottle doelings I kept/bought.. I'd guess between the upper 30's (38? 39?) but it may well be lower 40's.. they get out and browse and walk about.. makes them hard to count... bucks are easier..ALWAYS penned up in the same pen/groups.. 10 boys at the moment.. one of those for sale.. 

susie


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## Clovers_Clan (Jul 17, 2012)

I can now count them on one hand; 5. Down to just my favorites.:bouncy:


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## coso (Feb 24, 2004)

:hair Milking seven, two dry old goats, eight juniors, four bucks, for a total of twenty one. I will need to sell a few milkers after we freshen next spring !!:happy2:


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## GoldenWood Farm (May 31, 2003)

I have...14?

2 bucks
7 milking does
5 2014 doe kids

The most I had at one time I believe was over 40 goats (I was young and stupid) and generally I would have around 20-24 goats. Just this past year I REALLY cut back and I lost just last year three of my oldest goats (put them down due to age and other things). So right now I am sitting pretty at just my 14 goats. Next year though I am adding at least 2-3 new bucks and a few does so my numbers will go back up.

Justine


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## RovingAcres (Mar 3, 2013)

Goats are easy, I have 14.

2 bucks
4 of this year's doelings
3 yearling does from last year
5 adult does

Now if I tried to figure out how many sheep I'm up to it would take a while.


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

I have 8.
Three milkers
One dry yearling
One 3-year-old wether
Two 4-month-old wethers to be butchered this fall
One 3-month old buckling

So, after this fall, I will have 6. If I end up keeping a doeling next year, one of the milkers will go. I like to keep the numbers down.


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## Awnry Abe (Mar 21, 2012)

No, I couldn't give you a precise count. It isn't a huge amount. <30? I have a list on computer that I use for management tasks. The list lies occasionally. For instance, it isn't aware of what was for dinner yesterday. DW updates it when we get ready to go out and do something major.


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

This time of year my answer is usually TOO MANY!

Let's see, 12 adult does, 2 keeper doelings, 9 other kids including my jr herd sire and 4 bucks. 

27? Goal is 12 does and 2-4 bucks. Man, now that I've put a number on it, I know why I'm so overwhelmed!


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## copperkid3 (Mar 18, 2005)

GoatGirl123 said:


> One nursing doe, one drying off doe, one never-going-to-be-bred doe, one might-be-bred-at-some-point doe, one pregnant doe, one doeling, one fiber doe, one sheep (if she counts), and three bucks. That would equal . . . eleven! Unless the sheep doesn't count. So ten.


+ + + + +
That's why they can never :smack:yawn::hysterical::drum:get to sleep!


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

Y'know, I get how everybody ends up with so many goats now. When I had no goats, two sounded like plenty. Now that I have three (one came with a baby! how could I say no!) six sounds like a nice herd. But if you have six you may as well have your own buck, and if you have your own buck you might as well have two (he needs a friend!), and now I have fallen down the rabbit hole. XD


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## SnowGoats (Dec 15, 2013)

Let's see.
2 bucks
1 wether
3 does in milk
3 2014 doelings
2 bred does due in August
2 open does

That adds up to...uh....not enough to satisfy my goat addiction. Or 13. 13? I seriously need to either sell 1 or buy more. Can't have 13. It's bad luck right?


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## poppypatchFarm (Jun 8, 2012)

People ask how many we have all the time and I tell them I have no idea. They look at me like I'm crazy&#8230;


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Glennis, age 9 and herd queen.
Meggie age 7, naughty about jumping on the milkstand. Learned not to kick though.
Mocha age 4. Small teats, but gorgeous udder, heavy milker, calm and well behaved. (half alpine.)
Peach age 3. Beautiful udder and nice large teats. A real sweet heart.
The Vs are all yearlings. All does and will be bred this fall for the first time.
Virginia, Violet, Veronica, Vanita, Vanessa, Vashti, Valera, Victoria
The G's were all born this past Jan.
Georgette, Geraldine, Gloria, Genevieve, Gertrude and their brother, the wether Flash Gordon. The V's and G's all have the same Sire, Buckwheat, who we lost suddenly this past winter.
Bought a new herd sire, born in Jan '14, Rudolf Valentino.

All LaManchas. 19 in all. Only milking 2 right now. Sold two of my best milkers, with a sad heart, because both have scurs bad enough to damage their herd mates on the trip north. I have daughters from both though and expect good things from them. Will probably not breed the doelings from this spring until as late as possible next year. That will give me 12 freshening around January '15.


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## Frosted Mini's (Nov 29, 2012)

Too many!!

I have to use my website to figure it out.

31 dairy goats including the for sale ones and the kids.

6 boer kids destined for freezer or salebarn.

1 dairy buckling same.

2 sheep same.

That's 38 goats and 2 sheep.


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who never knows how many goats they have


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## creeklady2000 (Feb 22, 2004)

Let's see i have 22 some of them are milkers some are young does and some are wethers for freezer camp , and one alpine buck , a young togg buckling and a young alpine buckling,, I think i need afew more lol,,


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## dozedotz (Dec 12, 2012)

We currently have: One FF SOLD after this fall breeding
Two bucks a rutting
Three girls a milking, and
a magnificent girl who flat out refuses to be bred...
Needless to say, we have reduced the herd and plan to keep it that way...unless our "girl who will not be bred" decided to finally give us kids (we may keep them ALL!).


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## countrylivingtx (Jul 7, 2014)

I only have 2 does but plan to get a buck and breed


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Right now we have 19 but a few are kids from this spring/summer that I just put up for sale.


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## teresa280 (Jul 7, 2014)

I have 12!


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## CAjerseychick (Aug 11, 2013)

3. Down from 6, after we rehomed the 3 that were CAE positive (but asymptomatic)....


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

Well, I lightened my workload slightly by recently selling 2 bottle doelings. BUT! I bought a doeling & a buckling just prior to that. So the number remains the same, and only ONE bottle baby - soon to be weaned.


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## momagoat61 (Mar 30, 2008)

I have 2 11 year old never bred does and 3 11 year old wethers. These will be my last..I'm done. Over the cource of 22 years I probably had as many as 25 over the years total and sold only 3. I raised them all as PETS ONLY.. I'm no good at selling anything I raise and I'm tired of the stess & heart ache of the loss of them . Several have lived to be 17 years old, others 14, 15,16 and so on.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

heres my bottle baby "Prancie" a lamancha she thinks i'mher mama ;and this is my milking goat "Brownie "a lamancha also


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

Well, the numbers vary almost from day to day! A few days ago, I took a young buck to board at a friend's farm, and came home with. . . . TWO DOES IN MILK!!!


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## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

Too many?

I try to count them when they are sleeping but they move around. It is in the low 30's I do know that and I sold 11 last month and have about a dozen more on my coming up for sale list. So I should end up in the low 20's, seems like a good number  

All dairy mostly NDs, some Nubians and mini Nubians, mostly all are does. 

There are two bottle kids I cannot decide between so I will probably keep both lol.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Man, I feel like such a slacker! I'm milking one, and her yearling does did not get bred last year. 

That's it.

Three goats.

Three ewe sheep, one adorable ram, and two ram lambs, but they're low maintenance. 

When we're not both working off-farm and have more time for what we really love, there will be more goats. Oh, yes... there will be more goats.


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

I have 2 babies left to sell so they don't really count as part of my herd...
4 Milking does
1 Dry Yearling 
And my guilty secret... 4 bucks! I can't help it. Each one is awesome and I can breed for years without having to purchase any new bloodlines, need I justify it any further, lol :happy:

So 9 altogether.


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## Doug Hodges (Jul 22, 2013)

Picking up 5 more Friday out of Oklahoma........


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## TRAILRIDER (Apr 16, 2007)

I have seven does at the moment. One in milk, one boer doe, two dry does and three yearlings. 

All of them need their feet trimmed now. Its been too hot and humid for me to do them, and too hot for the ones that fight to have it done. How in the world would I trim all those feet if I had 30 or 40 or more? I guess you've got to have some help on those days? 

I might skip breeding the girls this fall and take a year off. But I sure would love to see what kind of kids the yearlings would produce!


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## Frosted Mini's (Nov 29, 2012)

When I need to trim feet, I just do 3 or 4 every milking until everyone is done. I must admit that I'm pretty bad about getting the bucks done, though. Ah well, put their feet to the test and make sure I am breeding good feet into the herd, right?


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## goatgranny (Jul 14, 2014)

2 boer/nigerian dwarf cross twins (a wether and a doe) and one Nubian doe
( also 2 red sexlink chickens almost ready to lay 2 feather legged Bantam Cockerels and one tiny bantam of a breed I am not familiar with. All bought from Tractor Supply as chicks just a few days old 14 weeks ago).I am retired /granny using my 1.5 acre pasture and woodland property in NC Florida to care for my adorable pets.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

12
Three purebred boer does
One purebred boer buck
One 50:50 boer/Savannah doe
Two 75:25 boer/Savannah buck/doe
Three 1:7 Nubian/boer does
One Nubian buck
One purebred boer buckling


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

We started with three. Have had as high as between 35-40. Currently we have about a dozen and should have a few more born between Oct and Dec, as long as my bucks are still earning their keep, lol.

We're looking to add a few more does, but haven't settled on anything yet.


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## livluvgoats (Jul 9, 2015)

I have 4 does, a Nigerian dwarf mix, Nubian mix, boer, and boer/Spanish, 1 doeling boer/Spanish, 1 buckling another boer/Spanish and 1 bottle baby again another boer mix. and before long a Nigerian buck


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## GoatGirl123 (Jan 23, 2014)

Currently we have 7 does, 3 bucks, a buckling (he's for sale), and a ewe. The ewe lives with the goats so I always count her when I think of how many goats we have.


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## punchiepal (Oct 11, 2008)

Making the sell, cull, keep list now so we can buy hay. Like to keep no more than 20 into winter.


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## mboman21 (Jan 10, 2015)

2 sr does, 1 jr doe, 1 buck
All kids and Wethers sold.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

3 permanent. The rest are in "transition". I don't think the meat goats count. They are a 4-H project.

Dairy (the buck, oldest and youngest doe are permanent)
3 does in milk
1 buck
3 doelings
1 weather

Meat
2 does
1 weather


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

Today, too dang many. One of the meat kids figured out how to do this crazy barrel roll and get through a tube gate. That one needs to GO.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I'm so proud of the number I have right now. Fewest I have had in a long time, thanks to vet school keeping numbers down.  

3 dairy does, 2 dairy bucks, 1 huge worthless pet wether, 2 mini pet does that don't breed (on purpose). And 4 bucks-on-ice in my AI tank. (they don't take up much room, though. )


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Currently have 5 adults, 1 buck, 3 does, 1 wether and 6 babies about three months. 4 wethers and 2 does. One adult may have been impregnated accidentally  recently. Was planning to re breed in January.


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## Jlynnp (Sep 9, 2014)

We have 3 - a Nigerian wether, a Nigerian doe who is older and will not be bred again and a Nubian doe I hope to breed this fall if I can find a buck to breed her to.


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## kbwinter (Jan 23, 2015)

I had 10 2 months ago. Sold most though due to my breeding and buck pen catching fire. Had to cut back so the remaining three are staying in my smaller stall and grazing area they're so happy the others are gone. After rebuilding I plan to get a couple more does.


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## luckyinkentucky (Feb 15, 2013)

So I just did the math, 23 right now, BUT 2 boys are sold, 2 boys have reservations at freezer camp, so that leaves 19. Of the 3 bucks left I plan to put one up for sale. I also plan to offer 2 does and 3 doelings for sale, so hopefully I can get down to 13-ish. That would be awesome!


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## stevhoff (Dec 29, 2012)

Too many, very successful kidding season which just finished up(kidding goats in the heat of summer-will never do again). 3 alpine wethers will grow old and die here, they are the namesake of our farm-3 Bobs farm and dairy and yes they are all named Bob. We have 2 mini alpine bucks and a doe from this kidding season to start a mini alpine line. A bunch of nigerian dwarf does,kids and wethers. An alpine doe, an alpine/nubian mix doe. 2 nigerian bucks. All are very healthy and have incredibly low worm loads thanks to the tlc of my devoted wife. Lots of kids for sale, if interested please contact via pm.


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## Phil V. (May 31, 2013)

Right now I have 4-1yr. old obie does. I plan on adding 8 more of 2 different breeds to have not so common breeds for my area.


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## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

We just sold a buckling yesterday so are down to only does now. We have two does and two doelings (both 4 months old). My cousin and her husband have their own herd (of kikos and spanish) about 400 yards from my property and they have promised to let me use their buck to breed my does when the time comes. We try to help each other out when the need arises.


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## VA Susan (Mar 2, 2010)

One half Boer doe 1 1/2 year old, Two Oberhasli does, one is half Alpine. One four month old Alpine buckling. Next spring we should have a few more, Lord willing.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Runt










Paint










Pixiepen










Brick










Bulk










Ana










Baby










Unicorn


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## deodra (Aug 18, 2015)

We have two does of unknown breed. We picked them up off a friend who was moving off her farm. We've heard they are part pygmy. No idea if that's the case or not. Good times!

This is the best pic I have of them right now. They are still pretty wary of us.


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