Goat proof chicken feeder, SUCCESS!!!!

Sooo i decided to get some Nigerian dwarfs from a family friend who breeds them.





Ive always done a lot of homework before i jump into anything so i knew going into it that the goats can not eat chicken food because it will make them sick, and they will do anything to get to the food. I was hoping that my pop hole would be small enough that the goats would not try to get in, but like i said they are Nigerian dwarfs, and they are 2 months old so they are tiny. so after about 2 days they found their way in and i couldn't keep them out.

I decided I would go lock the chickens inside every night at about 6:30 so they could eat, and during the day i would simply take their food away. They have free range and I give them plenty of scratch and veggie scraps throughout the day so I figured this wasn't a cruel method. But after about 2 days I realized they were ravenous in the evening when I would put the food down, and they were eating the goat ration which is kind of annoying. So i decided to make a goat proof chicken feeder. People all over say its impossible, but i have proved them wrong

my first attempt was half successful, my wether couldn't get his head in but my doe could. she's smaller cause she was a triplet. plus my leghorns wouldn't eat because their combs didn't fit through the hole. so I revamped the design and now every ones happy! well the doe isn't, she's kind of confused. but she'll get over it

I took some short wire fencing that i use to keep rabbits out of my garden and wrapped it around the feeder. then i cut holes above the feeding trough area and used a drimmel tool to file down the edges. I assure you it's not sharp, i ran my finger across everything and had no discomfort or issues.

Heres some pics!!













I'm going to add a cover so that when the goats are big they cant reach their heads into the top part of the feeder. But I'm stoked on this right now!!

Great design but goats are clever and I would think they will learn to bop it around until the feed falls out and eat it off the ground. Let us know how it works out!!

Your girl looks like my brown one. She is busy getting knocked up for the third time so far with her other lady friend who is now on her second try. Silly things just don't want to get pregnant.

good so far... i think its too heavy for them to bop it around right now. they dont even try because they know that they cant get to it. last night i found both of them sleeping in the nesting boxes tho! silly goaties

Thank you so much, Andiexb, for your post and pictures!! I have three 8 week-old nigerian dwarfs and have been tirelessly trying to figure out a way to keep them out of my chicken feed. I was awake at 2 am this morning and had thought of something like this but my idea was no where complete. I plan to build these today and sleep well this evening!!!

farmchick897 said:

Great design but goats are clever and I would think they will learn to bop it around until the feed falls out and eat it off the ground. Let us know how it works out!!

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x2. I'm curious how this design worked in the long run. I had some rabbit cages in a goat pen years ago. I wound up having to move the rabbits because the goats were destroying the cages. They had learned that they could get the rabbit food to fall out of the feeder if they butted the cage hard enough. Needless to say, it wasn't making for happy rabbits, either!

An update would be good. I too can mentally picture the goats learning to play 'butt the feeder'.

We've built one of these and plan to put it to use starting tomorrow. I will post back on how it works, although my goat boys are only 8 weeks old so they may not be the best test subjects. Nevertheless, I believe this has to be better than anything I have tried thus far!!

yea so that feeder worked for a few months… but then one of the goats figured out how to stick his head in the top.

I ended up building something new that worked very well once the goats mouths were too big to fit through the hole. here are some pictures.





it is a 3x1 ft garden box from home depot. I cut holes in the front and put it on legs. i also put a lid on with a latch. initially the goats were trying to stick their heads in and would stick out their tongues and get a couple pieces of food. so I put another thin piece of ply wood with the little A shape on top of each hole. this stopped them from getting their mouths close enough. I also made sure not to fill the feeder too much.

I think using this set up in the beginning wouldn't have worked because the goats had such small snouts, so I have hung on to the other feeding apparatus for when I have baby goats around again. I think using the combination of the two worked out well. its all just a learning process.

We are using the caged-feeders (shown in the original post to this thread) and it has helped (ours have lids so no entry from the top). Two of my three goats don't even bother trying anymore. But one, and there always has to be one, has learned he can stick his tongue through the little square and lick at the pellets!! He isn't getting a lot but my vet doesn't want him getting any due to the high copper in chicken feed. So it looks like we will have to try something else.

The box built by Andiexb looks worth trying. I just wish the little stinkers weren't so tenacious!! Or that chicken food wasn't so yummy to them!