got new goats. how do i "blend" into one herd?

[gibbsgirl]

Hey. I'm brand new here. I've got three myotonic wethers (had them about two years). Today I got 3 new goats. Two pregnant does and one buckling. The new ones I think are boer or boer crossed with possibly alpine. I have no idea when the girls are due-but, they're showing, so maybe sooner than later.

They're not terribly interested in being "good friends or neighbors" at this point. I need some recommendations for getting them to learn to get along.

I've got to shelters for them all. One is where my three wethers have been. The other is a pen we just moved into the goat yard today. The new pen is going to be where the girls will do their kidding.

When that happens, they'll be separated in two stalls and the baby buckling is going to have to bunk in with my other boys.

The girls chased my wethers out of their original shelter pen today and hid in their all day with the buckling. They wouldn't come out for food water or anything.

I don't want to stress them out (especially the mommas-to-be). But, I know I've got to get them all to deal with each other. I don't want the girls to kick all the boys out and I don't want the buckling to be on his own like an odd man out when he's separated from the girls during kidding.

So, I shut them all into the new pen together with a bunch of bedding, a bucket of water, several flecks of hay in different areas and three pans with some grain in them.

I'm going to go check on them this evening.

I'm worried the girls are going to get too stressed or the wethers might head butt them badly or something. The three new goats have horns. My wethers are polled.

My plan is to let them out tomorrow and possibly lock them all up at night together for the next several days to hopefully nudge them into learning to live with each other.

I'd like to just let them take their time and work out their differences. But, since it's winter and I've got limited shelter options because the girls will be kidding sooner than later, I'm feeling like I should be pro-active.

But, I have NO IDEA if this is a really stupid plan, or if there's a much better way to go about this. So, please reply with any advise you may have for what to do differently.

Thanks.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

My experience when I added my latest goat was that the current residents were pretty brutal with head butting, pushing, etc. I was glad that the new girl could get away and go out into the field or go into one of the other stalls.

So just make sure they can have their own space if they want it and they can not corner one and beat it up.

 

[jodief100]

They will work it out. That is just the way goats work. Whenever you rearrange things they have to spend some time working out the new herd order. Females are typically dominant in the herd so that is why they have "taken over". Eventually everyone will get along.

 

[gibbsgirl]

UPDATE-
Well, it's been going better than I thought. I think these does were not the queen of their old herd. Neither has been actively blocking my wethers out of the shelters. The two groups are mostly avoiding getting too close. But, there hasn't really been head butting going on that I have seen.....But.....

I think things are about to get a little exciting around here. I found another herd (13 head) for sale of the other breed that I wanted to breed my new goats with. So, we're headed out to get them. 3-5 of them are supposed to be bred, due to kid in January of February. The price was too good not to head out and check them out. So, I think unless there appears to be major red flags, we're getting the new herd today.

The lady said she's had this herd since 2008. She bought them for her grandson, but now she's moving several states away and would like to just sell this herd and not have to worry about moving them.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good decision and things will work out.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

I agree that they just have to work it out on their own but wanted to add that a quarantine period is critical when bringing new animals onto the farm.