Goat proof feeder for kitchen scraps

[Becky Perry]

I free range my chickens and ducks along with lots of kitchen scraps. My problem is that goats can’t have the high protein scraps that the birds can. My goal is to be self sustaining as possible. My chickens and ducks thrive on hard boiled eggs. I take them she’ll and all and throw them in the food processor - shell and all - along with the days veggie scraps. Goats used to back off and let birds eat, but now the birds are backing off and I can’t let the goats eat that.

 

[Araucana Nest]

You can try to feed the chickens on a platform that the goats can't jump on, or teach your goats to tie with some hay in front of them while you feed the chickens, or wait until the goats are elsewhere browsing to feed the chickens. If your area is small, you may need to build a pen to feed the chickens in. Goats and feed are hard to keep separate. I've heard of goats developing a taste for dog food when their guardians are fed.

The only way I've found to keep my goats from eating chicken feed and chickens from eating the goat feed is to feed them separately where they can't get at each other's food. Here, that means they are kept entirely apart. The goats are in a 2 acre paddock where my dogs don't allow entrance to chickens. The chickens free range during the day on the other parts of the property and are fed when they enter their coop at night.

 

[Alaskan]

Here, that means they are kept entirely apart. The goats are in a 2 acre paddock where my dogs don't allow entrance to chickens.

Something like that.

I can't imagine something chickens can get at that goats can't.... of they are housed together.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

How about putting the scraps in something with a small opening only a chicken can fit in?

A box made of 4 pallets with a small hole cut (or just let chickens hop up and in?) Welded wire fence circle with a hole?

 

[Alaskan]

I have heard of goats squeezing through tiny chicken pop holes, climbing up completely vertical ladders...

And though I was able to keep my goats out of my fully enclosed and roofed chicken complex... I never was able to keep them out of my orchard. Those goats could easily clear a six foot fence in order to eat apple trees... -sigh-

 

[Araucana Nest]

I have heard of goats squeezing through tiny chicken pop holes, climbing up completely vertical ladders...

And though I was able to keep my goats out of my fully enclosed and roofed chicken complex... I never was able to keep them out of my orchard. Those goats could easily clear a six foot fence in order to eat apple trees... -sigh-

Mine have done a lot of damage to the avocado and peach trees. Set my first harvest back to sometime in the future. This will be my last year breeding goats (I make goat's milk soap for myself and as gifts). I will keep my Saanen, hoping she freshens with a doe to keep her company. The others I've been rehoming here and there and have one Lamancha (the avocado tree destroyer) and the buck to find homes for. Cows are so much easier.