In general, the Joy Farm has three groups of goats right now: bucks and wethers, does and older kids, does and younger kids. Edie was amused when I told her that the yearling sheep had joined the goat gang, and she thought that was actually a pretty good dilution method for any aggression issues among the does. Sheep are rather sturdy creatures and have lots of padding.
From all of these thoughts, I've rearranged how I want to divide the goats once the kids are weaned. If I had infinite fencing and shelter (and didn't have to worry about where to put the dogs), I would divide the goats for the summer (not during breeding season) as:
Sancho, Crystal, Goldie, Jessie,
Sashimi, Summer, Starbright, Aerin,
Loki, yearling sheep, lambs
With buck Jared added to the mix, the divisions would be:
Sancho, Jared
Crystal, Goldie, Jessie, Sashimi
Summer, Starbright, Aerin, lambs
Loki, yearling sheep
For breeding season if Starbright is big enough, it would become:
Jared, Crystal, Goldie, Jessie, Sashimi, Summer, Starbright
Aerin, lambs
Sancho by himself
Loki, yearling sheep
If Starbright isn't big enough to breed, she'd move in with Aerin, Loki would get the lambs, and Sancho would get the yearling sheep.
If Diane wants her sheep back to breed, then I might split the lambs so one is with Aerin and one is with Loki, and let Sancho suffer by himself again.
Of course, all good strategies look great until put into reality. (snort)
What I'm really considering is how to semi-permanently divide the front pasture into three runs and a fourth, smaller holding pen area. This would make the front pasture perfect for the whole summer until the weather gets nasty. We have the means of doing this. I'm just not sure if/when we'll have the time.
This also would need to pass the CK logic test. (grin)
And I'm also not sure what to do about winter divisions so that everyone has use of the barn and it doesn't get much draftier. CK is proposing splitting the barn and perhaps putting in other doors, so that each major stall becomes two minor stalls (with appropriate fencing to make them completely autonomous areas). And inside each minor, we can make semi-permanent kidding pens for next spring.
Get out the circular saw and the drill – we're gonna mess with wood!
