A couple of weeks ago, we brought home our first two goats – twin Alpine kids, Georgia and Carabel. At pretty much the same time, our guardian llama – Vivi – was delivered. Now, here’s where being newbie farmers really turned out to be a lucky thing for us. We didn’t really have a solid plan for introducing the animals to each other. Instead, we kinda threw them all in the yard together and hoped for the best.
Fortunately, Vivi is a really sweet-natured llama. Curious, very alert, but calm as could be. The kids also turned out to be pretty sweet-natured, but had never been near a llama before and approached Vivi cautiously. Well, I guess it was love at first sight, because Vivi adopted the kids from the minute she laid eyes on them. Carefully sniffing to find out what they were and then deciding they were hers to look after.
We recently added three Nubians into the mix: Leah, Misty, and Hazel. Again, we just threw the Nubians into the yard and hoped for the best. A bit surprisingly (well, to us naive newbie farmers anyway), the slightly younger Alpines definitely showed some assertiveness. Some shuffling and head-butting occurred (this is my spot, you get out of my way), especially at feeding time. But thanks in large part, I believe, to their llama mama Vivi, they seem to bed down quickly in the evening and play together peacefully in the yard during the day.
It’s simply a joy having the goats around, now that we have a bit more time to spend with them. When they first came home, we were still working on the run-in shelter: finishing the roof, adding storage bins for hay and feed, installing a gutter and rain barrel system for water. This past weekend we built some playground toys and now I have a place to sit and relax with my gang.