Goats Who Bully the Other Goats
We had sleet a couple of days ago. It poured from the sky in icy sheets, coating the whole farm with cold. The chickens stayed in their coop. When I checked on the goats, three of them were outside in the weather.
The other two wouldn’t let them come inside the barn.
“You don’t always have to be buttholes,” I told Dolly and Margaret. They are the queen goats. Actually, Dolly is Queen and Margaret is her Chief Advisor or Lady in Waiting or something along those lines. Any time the weather gets bad, I have to keep an eye on the goats. It’s always likely that Dolly and Margaret will decide to keep Edith and her girls from coming in the barn. Even though Margaret is only second-in-command, she will be the one to most aggressively bully the others. I think she wants to impress Dolly. Or maybe she’s just following orders.
I solved the issue by dividing the herd, giving Dolly and Margaret their own space. Now they can bully each other — a fight Dolly will win, even though she only has three legs. After dividing the group, I tried to give everyone some treats — but Dolly wouldn’t let Margaret have any. “That’s what we call ‘karma,’” I said to Margaret.
They aren’t really being buttholes. They’re just being goats. It’s how herds operate. They have a hierarchy, and Edith and her daughters are at the bottom of that hierarchy. I can separate the herd, but in doing so, I’m only making more queens. Edith is now queen of her pen. Fortunately, she’s allowing both of her daughters inside. She’s a kinder queen than Dolly is. She’s also a really good mama. Her daughters are adults (although they don’t look it. They’re ridiculously small). Edith and her girls are always together, snuggling and playing.
I don’t hold it against animals when they act like bullies. They really don’t know any better. When humans act like bullies, well, that’s another matter entirely. Especially when adult humans act like bullies. But with goats, they’re just acting according to their nature. This is why we have two hay feeders — so the queen can choose the one she wants, and Edith and her daughters can eat from the other one.
Sometimes Margaret runs back and forth between the hay feeders — which are at opposite ends of the pen — so she can try to guard them both. In doing so, she actually gets less of the hay. She’s too busy being aggressive to actually eat. Being in charge is a lot of work sometimes.
If they lived in the wild, the queen would lead them to good places to eat. She’d also make sure they didn’t eat anything toxic. Being the queen has perks, but it also carries responsibilities.
My goat herd includes a chicken. Dark Red Henny moved out of the chicken coop many months ago. Now she lives with the goats. When I divided the herd, she actually changed sleeping spots. Now she sleeps between the two pens, in the middle of the herd. I guess she didn’t want to choose sides.
