Goat Housing

[Southern28Chick]

I want to get 2 pygmy goats. Can y'all show me the type of housing y'all use for your goats. I'm trying to talk DH into letting me get a couple.

He also thinks goats will have a bunch of vet bills. He's cheap. I don't think 2 goats will send us to the poor house. Am I right?

Give me as much info as y'all can I need to be educated when I talk to him again.

 

[tiffanyh]

I used an extra large dog house for two pygmys for a year. I upgraded to a $500 shed from home depot (8x8) when I moved up in numbers--to 4.

I get hay for free but I buy about two bags of grain a month-$20. I have had them two years, and havent taken them to the vet yet--although I am a CVT so I do all their worming/shots at home. Those are not required, and worming meds are over the counter.

You could throw them in with the chicken, but goats are tricky adn WOULD figure out a way to eat all the chicekn food everyday within the first 5 minutes of putting it out!!

I highly recommend it--then you can be a member of GOATWEB.COM!!!!

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Goats are inexpensive to keep. I only give mine rabies shots, but there are other vaccinations that you can decide to give or not. They pretty much eat anything for brush, weeds and grasses. I feed them medicated feed to prevent cocci when they are young, but after they are full grown I won't give them any grain, just free-choice good quality hay and will supplement with minerals.
So far I have used half a bale of hay this summer...they are just babies though and have been grazing as well. Copper is essential... it keeps their coats nice and aids in their overall health. You have to worm them, as well, but you can use DE for that, or horse wormer's or other natural wormer's. Their hooves need to be trimmed but that is easy to learn and you just use little trimmers.

I think a large dog house works great for house for them, as long as they can get out of the rain and have a dry place to lie down, they are fine. Good fencing is essential, but you have chain link, I see, and that will work out great.

I bought mine de-horned and banded the boy myself, or you can have your vet castrate them if you get boys, but I highly recommend getting males neutered otherwise they will be stinky and have attitude!
Hope this helps

 

[Southern28Chick]

I talked to him again tonight and he said absolutely NO. I have plans on having a large farm when we move out of our 3 acres to a roomier 20 acres in about 3 years. I guess I have to wait til then.

I even told him that I would take care of them myself...Like I do for ALL of the other animals and I'll even buy them and their housing and feed with my business money. I told him that I could have fresh goat milk (I want a male and a female to reproduce so I can get milk and sell the babies) for my goat milk soap. It would be great not to have to buy milk for cookin and drinking and soap making but he's totally against it.

Maybe I'll just tell him I'll keep them on MY half of the 3 acres.

 

[MissPrissy]

I have large goats. Saanan/Nubian cross. My two does weigh in at about 150lbs each. I have a full size barn and they have a 25x25 stall area and just over 3 acres of pasture just for themselves.

My goats forage the trees and eat some grass (goats are not grazing animals unless there is nothing else to eat) and thristle and brush but because I milk them I heavily supplement their diet with sweet feed (about 2 qts per day for the does and about 1/2 for the babies), free choice minerals, salt lick, baking soda and hay. The 6 ( 2 adult 4 babies) also drink about 10 gallons or more of fresh water daily. They get alot of vegetables from my garden - tomatoes, melons, cabbages, lettuce and we even pick some apples from the orchard as well. They eat very well.

I clean their stalls daily making sure I shovel out the poop and keep the bedding turned over so wet spots can dry and air out. Weekly I add a new layer of pine shavings to their stall bedding. I am building a deep litter to carry them through winter. The deep litter on a dirt floor allows urine to wick away and the composting bottom layer will begin to generate heat which will help keep the barn warm in the winter.

I have learned to watch for signs of problems. I have learned to trim their hooves and check their udders. I practice preventative measures by adding DE to their feed and bedding, making sure where they are housed is clean, good food, lots of water and much TLC. I try to keep the flies down and often brush them down with a horse brush and powder them up with DE.

So far so good. We are currently drowning in milk LOL and soon it will be time to find a lucky buck to freshen the two does. The milk, yogurt and cheese has more than surpassed the cost of those same products from a grocery store. All in all they are actually saving us money. With milk nearly $6 a gallon for national brands a bag of feed costs me $6.04 for 50lbs. I am getting a gallon of milk a day. Input vs. Output. They are earning their keep and then some.

The surplus milk, whey, yogurt and failed cheeses end up as chicken feed and help to make my chickens healthier and more productive.

My goats have been extra work of course and they sure are fun but they are also beneficial.

Fresh goat milk for soap making would be a plus in your corner.

Goats are social creatures. So get 2 or 3. Lonely goats get into trouble and can be destructive to property.

Enclose their pasture with electric fence. They learn to respect it quickly and won't test the boundary of their yard very often.

I wrote all of this to say -

Get the goats. You'll love the silly creatures.

 

[KKluckers]

I have my goats in a 10 by 10 shed. I also have some heavy equipment tractor tires and a big dirt mound they love to play on. In the four years I have had the goats I had to call the vet once and that was for a dog attack. Mine have never had problems with kidding and the pygmy babies are so easy to sell. I know my heart melted when I bought my first

 

[mdbucks]

Quote:
Thats not nice sounding. Listen to your man.

I could hve got you 3 for free, yesterday 3 wondered into the shop next to where I work, went into the break room and just stared at the workers eating thier lunch. Around 6 one of the guys I work with called and asked if I knew who the belonged to. I didn't but they wondered off down the road. Hope they found there way home.

What if one just happened to follow you home?? would he make you take them back??

 

[mamaboyd]

I always said that since I'm the one taking care of all the animals, feeding them, cleaning up after them etc., that I'm going to get what I want. That's how I managed to get our new dog on Saturday, and how I convinced my hubby to keep 15 of our hens for eggs while the rest of the chickens are going to be processed. Of course, I always find something to use against my hubby, like, well, he gets to go play poker with his buddies every other Saturday night, while I don't get out of the house unless it's to buy groceries. Hope you get your goats!! I want some too, hey,we have electric fencing for our horses, if goats respect the fencing.... oh oh, my hubbies in trouble....

 

[Frozen Feathers]

I wouldn't trust a goat in electric fencing, though my friends have never had a problem with their goats and a 3 strand electric fence...mine seem to be naughtier then most goats! I just raised my fence another 6 inches because my Nigerian whether was jumping out...grrrr.

 

[theOEGBman]

Those are my girls in their old pen. Momma on the left, and her daughter, Zoe, on the right. I've never had to take them to the vet. Never had any problems at all. Just hoof trimming, which isnt a problem,lol. I got Momma and a boy for free from my sister's ex. When Zoe was born, the boy went to the neighbors. Im borrowing their buck soon to breed these two girls. They are great animals, I love them. They arent expensive at all. Unless you consider grain and hay to be expensive, then you are in trouble!


Here is a pic of the pen. It might not look too big in the pic, but it is.

We werent done with it at the time. There is a shelter in the left corner, its kind of hard to see.