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03/13/11, 09:56 AM
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Show us your teats!!
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Northeast Tennessee
Posts: 721
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Letting new babies out with the herd?
Our pasture is a combination of 10 Kahtadin sheep (5 ewes, 4 lambs and one ram), 5 goats (3 does and 2 kids), 1 donkey and various free range chickens. I let our new bottle babies out of the stall and into the small milking area/shed/paddock this morning after feeding. They were leaping around like little grasshoppers and ran into the fence a few times before realizing it was a barrier (it's springy 2x4 wire, so no one was hurt). One got out into the main pasture by accident and was checking out the feet of our donkey, which makes me a little nervous. He was only slightly irritated and lifted up his hooves a couple of times. However, when they were back in the paddock, he showed a great deal of tender interest in the girls through the fence. The doeling also tried to nurse on our two mommas, but that wasn't going to happen of course. I would leave them out in the small paddock area, but that is access for my chickens to get in out of the coop for water/food and laying boxes. For the sake of safety, when would you let them out into the pasture with the rest of the herd? I am not worried about the ram because our wether climbs on him all the time to gain access to the top of the hay roll and he has no more than flinched. I am a little worried about our donkey and the older goats pushing them around a little bit.
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03/13/11, 10:10 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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It's truly going to depend on your animals' personalities. No way to predict. Allow monitored play time for a while to see how it goes.
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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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03/13/11, 10:16 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 8,960
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Some people let them go anywhere with Mom from early on. Some separate them during the day after a week or two, allowing Mom to go out while babies stay safe in the barn. I always kept mine in for three weeks or so unless it was still cold, then they stayed longer.
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Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
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03/13/11, 10:36 AM
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An Ozark Engineer
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Powhatan, AR
Posts: 9,412
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My two little bottle guys (orphans) are now 11 days old. At first, I'd let them out in the milking room area, with the older goats gated away from them. Gradually, I'd let them in with the herd, supervised, of course, and for longer periods of time. They fit in well now, and there are no problems. I was worried at first, because they had no mama to protect them & look out for them.
Also, I've provided lots of little hidey-holes, and they know where they all are. If they feel threatened or are just tired, they chill out in one of the cubbies.
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03/13/11, 10:44 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,012
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Winter kids stay in a minimum 1 day for a single, 2 days for twins, 3 days for triplets, as long as there are no pending storms, then we'll wait till after the storm & clean up.
We monitor the 1st 1/2 hour of introductions & head-butting. The rest of the herd sniffs & gently butts/nibbles ears of the new ones, and they learn to dodge them. This 1/2 hour is total chaos as the moms are head-butting & the kids are not sure where to go or what to do, why we hang around. I try to send out multple moms (sometimes companions if only 1 was due) so the re-introductions are not ganged up on too much. Any more than 3 ganging up and I intervene. The new kids lose mom often but catch on fairly quick, of course she's busy head-butting.
Otherwise they are pasture born & the doe is off by herself (with one of the dogs). The herd is really very gentle (considering) of the new ones from what we've seen.
HF
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03/13/11, 10:50 AM
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Farm lovin wife
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,236
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If they're on the doe, we let them out with the rest of the herd after a day, sometimes right away, but with bottle babies, you'd just have to watch. I mostly worry about ours the does being "too" pushy with the babies not letting them near any sort of food source and butting them around.
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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow
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03/13/11, 11:27 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 1,190
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I keep my bottle babies in a pen next to the two bigger pastures that holds the mature goats. They have 'escaped" into the big goat pasture with no problems but I won't let them out there for several more months. My does with kids stay alone for a few day then into the back pasture for a few weeks. I have had kids injured mainly when it is raining and all go to the barn and they get stepped on in the melee. I am still constructing pens and shelters for the goats.
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Living the good life in Kansas.
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03/13/11, 12:06 PM
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II Corinthians 5:7
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia
Posts: 8,102
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We leave the new borns with the dams most of the time, even with the herd buck around. (I actually found one of the new borns who was too young to go to the pasture with the other kids asleep in the sunshine up next to our snoring buck.)
We also have a dog who thinks she needs to stop anything that looks like a fight; so a baby is very well protected here. However, as one of your posters stated, it all depends on the personalities of your animals.
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