Now that most of the chickens are almost a year old, I’ve been thinking about other additions to the farm.
My long term plans include bees and dairy goats. I’ve been reading a lot about both subjects and with regard to goats, have almost definitely decided that the breed to start with is Nigerian Dwarf goats.
As their name implies, Nigerian Dwarfs originated in West Africa and are small in size, about as big as a medium-sized dog. Dwarf goats are proportionately sized like their larger breed counterparts, unlike pygmy goats which have short legs and large torsos. Nigerians are excellent dairy goats and produce almost as much milk as larger breeds. That milk is high in butterfat and excellent for cheese and soap making. They are also very gentle and easily trained. There small size requires less space, so we can have more goats on our small farm. The video below is from multi-media photographer Susan Seubert, who videoed 2 day old baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats at Pholia Farm in Oregon for Culture magazine. Read more about them at both sites.
OK – I am now totally on cuteness overload!!! They are adorable – and that high butterfat milk is gonna make some good butter and cheese, that’s for sure! Can’t wait!
How do you think they’d do in St Louis???? I never really liked our backyard anyway!
i just found out that the life of a worker bee is three weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
resource…………rtm bee man
So—need an update here. Did you get the dwarf nigerian goats?
No goats yet. Hopefully late spring 2012.
Thanks for asking. Stay tuned!