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It’s true what they say. Chickens ARE the gateway (drug) animal to homesteading! After almost a year of learning about and raising chickens, we felt like we were ready for the big(ger) leagues. While a family milk cow is certainly a goal for us, we wanted to work our way up to that size of livestock. I had my reservations because up to this point, I’d only ever had cow’s milk. For years now, we’ve been getting raw milk from local farms and I loved it; so did my stomach as we (me and little ones) have lactose intolerance. Oddly enough, raw milk didn’t affect us.
When we moved out of Houston, we stopped getting raw milk until we were able to find a new supplier (or as I like to say, our dealer, lol). We had the opportunity to try goat’s milk from a local provider and I was hooked! I held a strong belief that it would taste “goaty”. And, while that does/can happen, we had a great experience with this supplier.
After months of research (naturally), my wife and I decided on Mini-Nubians for the breed we wanted to raise and eventually breed. Nubians themselves are excellent milk producers. Mini-Nubians are a cross between Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs. They produce a smaller version of the Nubian breed with the same great milking qualities.
We happen to buy a few Salmon Favorelle chicken from a neighbor; turned friend, a few months prior and she also had Mini-Nubians for sell! We started off with two and ended up with three that she was selling; all sisters or half-sisters.
Over the last nine months, we’ve been raising Peaches, Poppy, and Petunia. We also had a fourth doe that we ended up selling, Pansy, that didn’t fit our breeding standards for Mini-Nubians.
Our journey to raising and learning more about goats started with a field trip to our friend’s home where she taught us all about the goats and the proper milking techniques. Next week, we’ll share our story on bringing the goats home.
Enjoy!
