Chickens and Pygmy goats? Questions...

[wynedot55]

sounds like your hubby wont have a legg to stand on when he gets home.an have to let you get the baby goaties.but know this goaties are wrecking crews.they will jump on top of cars an trucks.an scratch them up bigtime.been there done that.

 

[Kmath]

I got 2 pygmy goats for free as well I just added chickens to their range . I let them out to forage but they don't mind chickens!

 

[Ocean]

Hello. I am interested. I joined this site just now so I could message you. =) I just got my yard ready to adopt some goats and chickens. I do not use internet often. Please call me. 2065780719 I can send you pictures of my yard.

 

[EliyaSage]

Ok, I am loving the whole "ooo! We're a farm now" thing I'm goin threw with the chickens.

My neighbor (well, about a mile away!) breeds lovely goats and wanted to know if we wanted one or two. They are sweet and gentle and oh so cute little bity things. Mom and Dad are on scene and in great shape and still quite small. My neighbor says they are Pygmy kid goats, but have a special breed name that I don't remember. It has something to do with their hair, which is actual hair, not the coarse stuff that covers some goats. These are soft. I'm not sold yet. Wanted to ask about the whole dealio.

1. Can chickens live in a yard with a goat or two?

2. Would I need to make them each seperate pens? The goat would have one half of the yard most of the time and the chickens the other half, but I'm wondering if they could EVER be in the same area?

3. I've heard that a goat in the same yard with your flock is a natural hawk deturrant (sp?). Is that true?

4. Is it hard to keep a goat or two? I have a small area that would be an ideal size stall that I could attach a pen to, or just let them roam the yard thats fenced.

5. Do the fences hve to be special? How strong is a FEMALE pygmy kid goat when grown? They seem docile. Do they stay that way?

6. What all is involved with feeding, upkeep, etc. ? Right now they are young and still bottle fed twice a day, but eating feed too.

He isnt asking anything for them, and they are just so darn cute! I run a day care here, and the kids are loving the chicks. I just know they'd adore having something bigger too thats not something they'd see everyday. (they're all city kids)

Any advice? Should I pass on it, or is it something I could do pretty easily?

1- As long as you aren't putting the goat in with the chickens to replace another goat's company, putting them in with them is up to you, but you should know the pros and cons. The chickens will likely be scared of the goats for awhile, it may disrupt their laying if they are stressed a lot. The goats won't be too clean with chickens, since goats roll around..., can u imagine? There is a possibility of one of ur goats head-butting a chicken and hurting their wing. Not likely, but you can't be too safe. In my experience goats do not eat chicken food but chickens may steal some goat food... If you have a large area for your chickens space may not be a problem, but one goat needs much more space than 20 chickens. Depending on the breed of goat you get, although there are area calculators that would help you figure out exactly how much you'd need.
(Btw, you where probably talking about Cashmere goats. One of mine is cashmere. Very nice to snuggle with :3 )

2-if you do make them both separate pens, Yes you can put them together for awhile, I wouldn't let them constantly be together but occasional meet&greets are perfectly fine. Mine go in the chicken pen once a day to collect hen eggs, They do fine. They have only gotten in a fight once so far.

3-Well i'm not sure what good a pygmy goat would do against a hawk.. hawks have NEVER bothered my goats even as kids, but if the hawk really set his mind on a chicken and the goats weren't right beside, i wouldn't say he'd be stopped by the presence of a goat. They'd be safer than if the flock was alone, but still not guaranteed safety.

4-It is impossible to know exactly what your getting into when you first get goats. It's not like it is on paper. It's better. If you do get a doe, and don't milk her, you shouldn't sleep past 9 AM if you have to lock the goats up at night. I lock them up incase a coyote or predatory animal wonders into their pen at night. Just for safety, but if they always have constant access to outdoor pen, you should just wake up in time to feed them. ( i wake up at 7:30 AM as choice so that is when my goats get out. ) Full on daily care takes as low as 5mins! If you aren't miking. It doesn't take long to give a cup of sweet feed (which btw is a good choice for good food. Pellets swell up and can cause blockage) and a chip of hay. Extra 5 mins to clean out water bowl, but you don't have to do that every day. In the spring when pollen is everywhere, it's good to replace it every-other day. As for cleaning their shelter which should be done monthly, For me, it takes 2 hours because my back hurts because of low ceilings and there are vines under the hay. Not awesome to rake up hay while catching vines every second. Choose where you place your shelter Wisely..
Over-all, goats aren't hard to take care of if you don't have like a 20.

5-I have weathers. Little bit jumpier than does will be, but still, this type of fence works perfectly. This isn't my picture i found it online, but if u can see the fence, thats what we use. We used to have a garden that looked like that but then we got goats and the garden turned into a goat pen. (it's only some garden/chicken fence with metal posts. Zipties work great to keep it strong.)


6- i answered some of this already but, if you are bottle feeding some still, it's gonna be more work. about 8-10 times a day you should offer milk. Though depending on ages, you can look up exactly how often on google.

If your up for it, Goats are the greatest experience you can get in life. Especially for young city-kids. I'd say go for it
-If you have any other questions i'm happy to help

 

[EliyaSage]

That ended up being way longer than i expected it to be...... Hope i answered some questions!
Have a good day!

-EliyaSage.


These are my pygmy goats. The white&black one is Castiel, he is a cashmere. ( VERY FLUFFY )................ I call him my Fluff-awuff-agus... Don't know why but it just came out of my mouth one day and it sticked.