Clementine is the name of my Alpine doe, and, yes, I do sing this song to her when I go to milk her. We bought her a couple of weeks ago so that we could have goat milk. She's 3-4 yo (I cannot remember now), was living on the farm where she was born, had two babies still nursing, and had never been milked before when we bought her. The first few days were rough...

She's calmed down quite a bit. She doesn't kick the milk bucket now. She had been eating from my hand the latter part of last week, but she is moody and when she gets mad at me she won't come near me. Right now she is mad at me...

Getting her on the milk stand is sooo much fun....NOT. Generally we have to run her into her stall, and then she will allow us to put her on the leash.

We are getting around a quart from her (more or less), and I am satisfied with that considering the situation. We will breed her this fall...

We also purchased a Nubian doe, and buckling (unrelated to each other). I named the doe Agatha, calling her Aggie. She's not overly friendly, and she had not been milked when we bought her. She has learned that milkstand=food though, and jumps up readily. She also isn't as skittish, and stands pretty still during the whole thing. Yesterday I milked Clemmy second, and she jumped up on the stand behind Clem *waiting in line* for her turn at the food.

The buckling is 3months old and his name is "Billy Boy" ...I had been calling him Cracker Jack, but he's the only buck we have and Lander named him after *Billy Boy* in the cartoon....remember, "Ole Billy Boy's back, back, back..."
The plan is to breed the Alpine and the Nubian with this buck this fall. Looking at him now I cannot imagine him breeding anything...he's just a wee little baby that likes to snuggle with *mama*.

None of these animals were expensive, and none of them are registered or show quality. We had discussed having goats to clear off the land, and I had wanted dairy goats. We made the decision to purchase these goats to try it out...and knew that it wouldn't really be a waste if they didn't work out because they would still clear the land. I have found that I do enjoy milking them, and hopefully next year I can start building a herd of registered goats...either Alpine, Nubian, or LaMancha.

My husband wants to buy Boer goats...they are popular in our area, much more so than dairy breeds for some reason.

We also have a pygmy doe named Nancy...and we are going to borrow a buck to breed her with this fall. Pygmy's are another popular breed in this area.

So, now you know the truth...I've become a goatie addict.