Goats pros and cons

[lovemybudgie517]

Unstoppable!!! Goodness......think I'll go back to the two goat farms I visited. They had bunches n' bunches of goats.....maybe, I could use some face to face contact with a farmer. This one lady had sooooo many goats, sorted into pastures & goats were in herds, looked to be behaving themselves. (maybe that's not even a good description "behaving") from what I'm hearing I still have a lot to learn! Makes me laugh (a little nervously), but, I love a challenge and cannot wait for the fun! Thanks so much for the comments!!

 

[H Diamond]

Oh my!! Escape Artists.....are you all talking about goats! I was wondering if a couple of the Dwarf Nigerians would be hard to keep in pens? Like what kind of pens would keep them in? I take it my 4 ft. regular wire pen (it's a big part of my back yard for my little dogs) isn't gonna work?!!? Can goats run free inside my fenced in chicken area? I have big areas but the fencing isn't heavy, sturdy. Guess I'm gonna have to do more researching.

What kind of "regular wire" are we talking? Like small square wire? Or 3 hot wires? Or cattle panel? Or hog panel? Or chicken wire? Lol.
As long as the holes are small enough that the goat can't get through, it should work. I would imagine 4 foot would keep Nigies in.. it keeps my large Sables in.
I use cattle panel to keep my goats in. At the moment I have kind of a weird set up in the pasture. It's barb wire down one side (5 strands), but it's open on the other end. But the pasture is long enough that they don't really ever leave it, lol. And I live in the middle of nowhere (literally, I live in an area of the country marked as "no man's land") so if anyone but the mail man goes by (and that's only 3 days a week lol) it's a rare occasion. They come in the corrals at night, so no predator problems. I also have dogs and burros that keep anything away.
The thing to remember, if they can get their head through, they will try and get their body through. (They can get their head through cattle panel, but no way to get body through).
They will STAND ON THE FENCE. Why does that matter? If it's not sturdy or stretched real tight, they can and will gradually just work it lose/bend it etc.
Also, goats can be trained to hot wire.. I don't know why people seem to think they can't. They absolutely can, and it works well. That being said if that's their only pen, it is not predator proof.

As for free run in the chicken area, they be with the chickens, but the chicken feed must not be accessible to them. They can bloat on it. Chickens can and will also eat the goat feed. As long as it's not medicated, I haven't run into a problem with that.

If you go to google images and search for "goat fence", there will be several pictures of goats stuck in fence as well as good examples of fence. Look at that, you'll get an idea.

 

[lovemybudgie517]

I'm actually using regular fencing, like 2"Wx3"T , for my dogs. And, since you mentioned it, I think if I put more posts in to where they would be, like, 2' apart, I think it would work. No way can they get there heads into the little rectangles. I am small boned and I have to work to get my hand into the fence. As far as predators, I have a small building that I am not using. It has 2 window that I can wire cage for air, it has a large fan to blow in or exhaust, the door is solid wood or I do have a fenced door on the inside, it has a small door (something like a doggie door) that has a glass to it, to slide up or snaps shut at night and it has another solid wood door that goes out into some open pens. All doors get locked at dusk and opened in the a.m. but the animals can only go out into pens. Are coons or hawks prey on goats? Those were the prey I had messing with my chickens. Do I have to have tops on the fenced pens to keep predators out during the day (in case I were not at home)? I will check out the sites on goat pens that you told me about.

I thought about getting just one small Nigerian to raise with my 3 small, socialized dogs....My dogs will be playful and, of course, trained to not hurt the baby.....they don't mess with my parakeets, they know. But, I've heard of people raising a small goat with their dogs and they will train to go in and out the doggie door with my dogs. That would be something we discussed to see how much we like the goat and it would be protected with my dogs all the time and live inside. I've seen people do this (my son, in my avatar, is holding onto a baby goat that is living inside with it's owner. A girl who works for my son.) So, can I get your thoughts on this....(maybe you saw where I had a post on this topic....maybe you already commented, if you did, sorry I'm asking again) I've gotta find out if a little goat like this would mess up my original wood floors. Sorry, I'm rattling, I'm gonna get off of here. You surely need a break from me and I, from myself. LOL. Thank you, again, for all your help!