How We Came to Own a Few Does
We had a decent routine going with our buck and wether by the time the does came to our homestead. About one month after we brought the boys home Sherry had suggested a couple of does, one from the same farm Jingle Bells came from and the other from one of our new goat friends. Kelsey fell in love with both does and we named them Estrella Roja and Midnight Star.
Estrella Roja is Spanish for red star, and it is pronounced Estreya Roha. Although most of the time we say it with the “L” sound. Estrella is a red goat with a white star on her head and a white patch on her side. Sweet little Midnight was all black except for a white star on her head and a few other random white spots along her belly and on her front legs. These lovely doelings wouldn’t be ready until the end of April 2024 and we were so excited to have more goats to love on.
We picked Estrella up on April 27th, she is a sassy sweet girl. She screamed almost the entire forty-minute drive home. She was not happy, and nothing would get her to stop until we finally made it home. Once she was out of the car and on solid ground, she was cool as a cucumber. As we were adding onto the boys’ temporary goat pen for the girls to have their own space, Estrella enjoyed exploring her new yard.
Sweet little Midnight had a rough start to life, she was the smallest of a set of triplets. I don’t remember all the circumstances of her birth, but she was a fighter, nonetheless. We were able to pick her up on April 28th, while she was on the small side, her health had seemed stable by this point. We took Estrella with us to pickup Midnight, thinking to alleviate the stress of a car ride alone.
We had hoped Estrella wouldn’t mind the car as much since she was more familiar with us, but she still screamed half of the car ride. As we drove away after picking up Midnight, Estrella started headbutting her against the side of the kennel. We pulled over to take Midnight out and Abby and Kelsey took turns holding her the rest of the way home.
We had to bottle feed both does and enjoyed doing so, but it came with some frustrations. First, Estrella only wanted the bottle Midnight was drinking from. Second, little Midnight wouldn’t eat very much for us most of the time. Us being so new to goats, we were very unsure of what to do, so we talked to her original owner, and she suggested that we reach out to Sherry since she was closer to us. She suspected it was pneumonia, and that Sherry would have what was needed to hopefully get Midnight on the right path.
After the trip to Sherry’s for medicine we were back home and keeping a close eye on her. She was such a fighter, one moment she would be running around bouncing and being a baby goat and the next you could tell she just wasn’t feeling right. Despite our best efforts of loving and caring for Midnight and the help of our experienced goat friends, we were reminded that sometimes nature has other plans, and she ended up passing on May 2nd.
That morning, I had messaged Sherry asking her to check on Midnight while I was at work because she didn’t eat much that morning. Sherry sent her husband after her and no sooner than he got her comfortable and cozy in their home, she passed away.
We believe several factors may have contributed to Midnight’s passing. As the smallest of her siblings, she had to compete to nurse. She also struggled with bottle feeding before arriving at our homestead and ate very little once she was here. On her first night with us, a severe storm rolled through, and we brought the girls inside for safety, which may have added to her stress. Also, the journey to our home may have been more taxing on her fragile health than we realized.
The lovely people of American Jewell Farm (where Jingle and Midnight came from) gave us a goat in place of Midnight. This lovely doeling was named Shakira. She is super sweet, loves all the attention, and we love giving her lots of it. Most of Shakira’s fur is brown but she has several white areas all over her body. A lot of the time we would rather handle Shakira more than Estrella. We do love Estrella but sometimes that sassy attitude of hers is a bit much.
We were excited to see how Jingle Bells and Glacier would react when we introduced the girls, especially since they would be sharing a fence line. Jingle was very curious and interested in the additions. Bucks are definitely special creatures when there are ladies nearby. Glacier couldn’t have cared less, of course by this time we had started the castrating process, and he was a bit of an angry goat.
We have had so much fun with our little goat herd this year. We have learned so much about them and their unique personalities. The dairy goat world has been amazing to us and we have had such a blast going to the shows. As we continue to grow our homestead, we’re learning that raising goats is as much about patience and flexibility as it is about love and dedication. We look forward to the next chapter of our goat adventure, with endless goat antics and hopefully a successful breeding and kidding season.
