I’ve wondered a long time what to call this… lifestyle we’ve taken on with the move just over a year ago.
It’s something I’d consciously wanted for over five years, and probably on some level since I was a kid (what little girl doesn’t want to be surround by cute furry things that she’s in charge of?).
Okay, maybe the necessity of both components is unique to me.
But somehow a herd of rabbits and a flock of chickens is hard for me to name.
It helped when I took over the animals’ daily care (my good husband had been doing it all as a gift to me, but that meant the only time I interacted with the animals I was managing was during breeding and birthing. It felt too unbalanced).
We are in the process of planning a garden, and a rather extensive first-go, at that; but even the seed-starting is a month or two away, and doesn’t seem quite real.
Then, yesterday, we jumped at the chance to get our own milk goats. And now, with that addition, calling our place a little homestead seems legitimate for the first time.
They are so little and cute!!! Are they already producing milk or do you have to wait a bit?
Wait, definitely.
It will take nearly a year before we’ll breed them, and then they’ll have milk a bit after they deliver (gestation is ~five months).
We chose NDs because they cycle (come into heat) frequently and so we can stagger the breeding in order to have a continual supply of milk.
They should be “dried up” 6-8 weeks before they’re due, and we plan to let the babies be mama-raised at first, so that could be 2-3 months w/o milk if we had only one animal, or they all kidded at the same time.
Ultimately we’d like to have at least 3 does in rotation to provide milk throughout the year.
oh my, they are adorable. this is fascinating to read!