# Behavior of your LEAD doe/Herd "Queen"



## kids-n-peeps (Aug 24, 2009)

Mine is not such a peaceful ruler. She wants none of the other does around her. If they dare, she chases them away and butts them in the rear end or side. She won't share shelters with the others and she controls the main hay feeder. She used to be the bottom goat in her previous herd, but here she is the oldest and the strongest. She is sweet with her kids and we will be keeping her daughter, so I anticipate she'll be less lonely, but apparently her behavior with the rest of the group will not be changing.

Is this all pretty typical for a lead doe or are there some who rule a bit more peacefully? I was hoping many of you would be willing to share a description of how your lead doe behaves . . .


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## elchivito (Apr 18, 2010)

pretty well describes our herd boss to a tee also. However, she's getting older now and I've noticed is starting to defer at times to one of our others who is more or less second in command...may be nearing retirement.


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## SterlingAcres (Oct 19, 2009)

Also describes our herd queen to a tee as well. Moony is the largest and strongest and she's not afraid to use that to her advantage. She shoves, nips, headbutts and even mounts the other ladies during heats. What she says goes. She'll be a good companion for Zee once the buck pen is built.


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## nutmegfarm (Dec 23, 2009)

My herd queen is a 6 year old CH doe, so she thinks she rules all....(which she basically does) A few weeks ago my 3 yr old Saanen attempted to revolt against her, but ended up with a broken rib and sores on her ears (Allure the queen is a lamancha recorded grade with little ears, so she preys on everyone elses) No one can knock her off her pedestal...oh boy :roll: She has her "safety" zone that no one else can enter, although she is such a sweetheart to everyone. I guess you just have to put up with them old ladies :shrug:


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## Realfoodmama (Apr 13, 2010)

I only have two goats so I'm not sure if this changes things, but my "herd queen" is actually pretty mild. To be honest if she weren't the biggest and oldest, I suspect she wouldn't be in charge, but she got lucky when I brought home a 7 month old companion.

She generally shares, and the two of them play a lot, but she does tend to be snarky about food sharing and if she thinks the other girl is getting treats she isn't she pushes her around.

Generally though things are pretty mellow between the two of them.


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

Thyme is actually a pretty benevolent dictator. I think that is because she is so tightly bonded to her twin, Rosemary. With Rosemary as her very loyal second in command instead of being very aggressive she is just as bossy as she needs to be to get her way, as long as her sister is backing her up.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

Our herdqueen is our 5 year old LaMancha/Alpine recorded grade doe, she is "Da Boss." Our barn is split into four areas by feeders, and Molly will usually take one area and one feeder for herself to just eat, and now that she has a daughter that we're keeping, if her little princess wants to eat at a feeder thats full of goats, Molly will clear the feeder first and send everybody running, then just stand at the end while her little girl has access to the entire feeder by herself  There are a few does that are bigger and older than Molly, but regardless, she is still the boss, and just as a one up to everybody else, she excels in everything she does. She produces the prettiest kids, milks the most, she's the most awesome doe(she has the highest LA score in our herd, 91). And even though she's a total b***h most of the time, when there's company she comes up and lets everybody pet her and she's just the sweetest doe ever.

Although the main position of herdqueen is to be a total terror, Molly does know when she is needed. Like when one of the other does is having a baby, Molly will round up the ENTIRE barn and keep all the other does and kids outside so that we can take care of the doe in labor without being bothered or having to move her. When a goat is sick, Molly will not bully that goat and will not let other goats bully her either. I remember one time a few years ago Molly had to be confined to her kidding pen for almost a week after a rough kidding, and the second in command doe had taken her place as herdqueen. The barn was just total chaos, everybody was fighting, nobody was getting along at all, and Gabby, who is second in command had no idea how to be queen so she was just beating everybody up 24/7 and nobody was giving as much milk as they were. At the end of the week we let Molly out of her pen. She didn't make a noise as she walked through the barn, she just put the hair on her back up and walked through with her head high and a look in her eye that wasn't very happy. It was like the parting of the Red Sea, all the goats just split and backed away against the wall looking at her, then they all ran outside fearing her wrath. The barn was in peace afterwards and they all lived happily ever after


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

kabooki is queen.. but she knows i'm boss


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Snow White is our herd queen. She's a yearling boer, and the third eldest in our herd. She's pretty laid back, but will let someone know if she gets irritated with them, or doesn't want them too close. THe doe she was raised with is her best buddy, and if they are together, she will stand up for her buddy when the other doe picks on her.
Our new doe who is almost 3 wants to be herd queen, but she is scared of Snow White, but she picks on Snow White's buddy, who used to be 2nd in command.

Snow White is my sweetie, and I love that she is herd queen. She just doesn't put up with any crap from the others..LOL


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## TinyHoovesRanch (Jan 16, 2010)

um my herd is stupid lol.....they like to take turns haha and then some of them dont follow rules and have a seperate herd....I swear my goats have gangs hahaha


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## AlaskaBoers (May 7, 2008)

I have two separate herds at the moment. one for the dry does, and the other is kids, lactating and growing does. Calypso is so mean, she's part of the lactating doe herd, no body can even drink before her lips touch the water. While the other girls' boss lady is Narcissus...not the flower, the narcissistic- killer type. lol!


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## myfainters (Oct 30, 2009)

Yep.... my herdqueen is a beast most of the time. Although, she does keep the peace when the 2nd in command tries to bully everyone she always stands up for those getting picked on.  Apparently only she is allowed to beat the tar out of everyone. LOL 

She is also our friendliest doe and we LOVE her dearly.


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## Perfect7 (Apr 19, 2010)

Our herd is fairly new with two adult does and now three doelings, but there is a queen. Karma is actually very sweet and tolerant of the babies. She will first give them "the look" to either back away from the food dish or scoot their fannies further away from her side of the shelter. If the look doesn't work she will lower her horns and move just a tad towards them, and if THAT doesn't work she will butt them but not enough to hurt them. When our other adult doe arrived a week ago, Karma lowered her horns and then reared up but Bandi just turned and walked away. That was that, no muss. I'm guessing she's around 165 lbs now (Boer) but she's super sweet to people and never acted aggressive. My kids love all over her. I guess she's firm but only puts forth the effort to get aggressive if she has no other choice, and after warnings. She's a gentle ruler. Maybe that's because she's lazy being so big and prego right now. :laugh:


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## elchivito (Apr 18, 2010)

I think the older and more established a herd is the more serious a herd boss becomes. Our boss who I spoke of earlier, Rita, lays out in the pasture closest to the fence at night, everyone beds down behind her. She's first to key on anything that might pose a threat and is first to puff her alarm signal. She hasn't bred in years, but is the school marm for all the babies. She'll nip them on the ears when they're jumping in the feeders, and follows them around looking after them when their mommas are taking a break. It always amazes me that as rough as she is with the other adult does, she's stern but gentle with the babies. It's as if she knows they're valuable to the herd and just need some raisin' up. We let them all out of our pasture in the afternoon before feeding so our buck can get a chance to run around outside his pen. Rita is first out the gate and once past the gate, she stops and lets the others through according to some arcane plan she has. Eventually everybody gets out, but not before Rita has given them a hall pass. She eats first, and when she decides her feeder is no longer appetizing, will run off 6 or 8 other goats from a different feeder to check it out. As I said, she's slowing down and will some day give up her responsibilities to Vivian, but Vivvy will have big shoes to fill.


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## kids-n-peeps (Aug 24, 2009)

Great firsthand accounts - it was just what I needed to read to gauge our doe's degree of "normalcy", lol. 

Goathappy, loved the story of your herd queen.


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## FunnyRiverFarm (Sep 13, 2008)

My herd queen is actually not a "queen"...it's our alpine wether. He is nearly twice the size of our lamancha does (close to 250lbs) and uses that to his advantage. The does rarely challenge him--they just try to stay out of his way...but he is still a terror at times. Sometimes it is so bad that I have to separate them. We built him his own house and 20x40 pen so if he gets too rowdy with the girls or babies I can put him there...I usually only need to put him in there if it is raining because sometimes he won't let the girls and their kids in the shed and will make them stand out in the rain.


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## MiGoat (Apr 21, 2010)

FunnyRiverFarm said:


> My herd queen is actually not a "queen"...it's our alpine wether. He is nearly twice the size of our lamancha does (close to 250lbs) and uses that to his advantage. The does rarely challenge him--they just try to stay out of his way...but he is still a terror at times. Sometimes it is so bad that I have to separate them. We built him his own house and 20x40 pen so if he gets too rowdy with the girls or babies I can put him there...I usually only need to put him in there if it is raining because sometimes he won't let the girls and their kids in the shed and will make them stand out in the rain.


He sounds like a real queen. LOL


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

LOL I love reading about everyone's Queens and whether-wanna-be-queen haha


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