Also desperately need goat proof chicken feeder ideas - Starving chickens!

[CAjerseychick]

So... we got goats, and they roam with the chickens and jump the fence into the chicken yard at night and sleep next to the coop. The littlest dwarf baby actually is inside the coop much of the time....
I had goat proof (sort of) bowls (I wrapped them in 2x4 in ag wire) but the dwarf goat kid fits his mouth thru that with ease.... and my Jersey Giants are not cooperating-- even before we got the dwarf kid, they refused to go thru cattle panel fencing that I had around their feeders to eat... and now with the teeny goat, he just walks thru cattle panel openings with ease....
So now they are getting fed about 3 or 4 times a week just feed scattered on the ground when the goats are browsing in the far pasture (I am gone 3-4 days a week, so they dont really get fed then)-- they do free range in 2 acres, but its started raining and also winter is coming on, so that is not going to be much of an option soon....
Anyone have ideas and also where could I get one (I was thinking Keyhole openings chicken head sized, wooden hopper style feeders I could mount on the wall?
Has anyone seen a catalog product that would work....

 

[cafarmgirl]

The only way I've been able to keep goats out of the chicken feed is to make sure they cannot get into the chicken coops and get at the feeders at all. Not an easy task even with standard size goats and you have dwarf goats! Even if they can't fit their mouth into an opening they will stand there and stick their tongue's in and lap up the food for as long as it takes. I've had goats sharing the barn where my coops are for 10 years now and I'm SO over it!

I've never seen any kind of feeder that a goat cannot get into one way or another unless maybe it's a treadle type feeder and I wouldn't put it past a goat to figure that out either. So I'll be interested as well to see if other people have some good suggestions!

 

[HEChicken]

I keep sheep, goats and poultry. When we first got the lambs, we tried letting them into the chicken yard because the grass there was so lush we thought it would be good graze for them. I didn't count on them figuring out how to enter the chicken coop via the pop door, and emptying the chicken feeder every chance they got. Chicken feed is too expensive to feed to lambs, so we had to keep them out of the chicken yard. We divided up our property into pasture for the sheep and goats, a 1-acre chicken yard for the poultry, and we also open the chicken yard gate whenever we can to let the birds out to free-range. We didn't find it compatible to keep the 4-legged livestock with the birds due to the feeder issues. While free-ranging, the birds frequently hop over into the pasture and that is fine - it just didn't work to keep the sheep and goats in with the chickens.

I realize this doesn't answer your question. I don't have dwarf goats, and if I really had to keep them together I could probably devise some kind of feeder the birds could eat from that my goats and sheep could not. But ultimately it was easier just to keep them separately.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Well it helps to hear that lambs are as attracted to chicken feed as goats-- they are too smart and mischievous for their own good (literally, they will eat feed til they get sick), we were thinking of getting lambs next year...

It so wet and rainy now the goats are not going to want to move out to the far end of the pasture into an unheated goat shed, they love our garage (we store our hay there, its right next to the hen yard)... fine.
Was thinking that in the spring we will transition them back there, they will love it those hot summer days, it lush and full of brush and willows and shaded and nice, and then transition them to wintering there....

Just for now need this feeder ideas (my poor hens, a couple dont seem to be growing their feathers back from the moult I am afraid they arent getting enough to eat to grow feathers, they look terrible and everyone is 90% all feathered back in)....
But keep the thoughts coming, thanks!

 

[Peplers chicks]

You can cover the feeder feeding section with bird wire, there is no way that the goat can get it, and the bird's beck can easily enters.

 

[CAjerseychick]

You can cover the feeder feeding section with bird wire, there is no way that the goat can get it, and the bird's beck can easily enters.

You mean 2 inch chicken wire? I will try that but the goat baby will just stick his tongue through .... also I noticed that with my feeder bowls, the big goats stick their feet thru the cattle panel fencing and knock them about to spill the feed out....they are devil-ish, these goats!

 

[Peplers chicks]

You mean 2 inch chicken wire? I will try that but the goat baby will just stick his tongue through .... also I noticed that with my feeder bowls, the big goats stick their feet thru the cattle panel fencing and knock them about to spill the feed out....they are devil-ish, these goats!

No, 2 inch is still to big, its smaller, half inch, it works, just to add, if it is a self feeder, if not, think about a inch then, cause on the self feeder the tray stays full and the chick don't have to put his whole beck into, what will cause the wire to scratch the top part, that is why if it is not a self feeder is safer to goes for a inch

 

[CAjerseychick]

No, 2 inch is still to big, its smaller, half inch, it works, just to add, if it is a self feeder, if not, think about a inch then, cause on the self feeder the tray stays full and the chick don't have to put his whole beck into, what will cause the wire to scratch the top part, that is why if it is not a self feeder is safer to goes for a inch

Ok I can get the 1 inch chicken wire... Yes they are the round self feeders, the poor chickens need access to something while I am away....

 

[Peplers chicks]

Godspeed

 

[Primo]

I have been struggling with this as well, since I decided to get goats and chickens at the same time. I am constantly amazed at how stubborn and persistent my 4 pigmy goats are. As soon as they know you don't want them somewhere, they make it their mission to go there. I built a pvc tube feeder based on ideas from this site. They were sticking their heads down in it and lapping out feed. I then got a 4" pvc cap and cut a half moon opening in it so the chickens could get their heads in it, but the goats can not. I am not proclaiming victory yet, but so far it is working. I do not have a good pic, here is a pic of my coop and run. You can see the tall pvc feeder just inside the run door (door is always open so the chickens can free range, and the goats can chicken feed range lol)