My Goats Hate Me...

[Fields Mountain Farm]

I'm glad to hear it going well. .. Sometimes you just get escape artists..Lol
No need to worry about anyone condemning you and if someone does... Ignore em.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

From my experiences they are all escape artist. If they are content they will remain in their pen, if they aren't they can be hard to stop sometimes. Goats always keep me thinking.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

From my experiences they are all escape artist. If they are content they will remain in their pen, if they aren't they can be hard to stop sometimes. Goats always keep me thinking.

Too true!!!
They're good at keeping us on our toes for sure...

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Greaaaaattt......might need to leash train them sooner than planned. They REALLY like this other area, which is NOT the area I need them to clean out. And of course I'm also looking at getting a sheep to keep stuff mowed down in other areas. The one I've found is a wool sheep, not friendly and has 4 horns. I'm thinking that's a BAD call on multiple levels.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wild sheep are worse than goats. Goats seem to have brain, sheep do not. Goats will eat browse, sheep will need to graze.

I find a single strand of electric fencing run around the inside perimeter of your fence usually will keep goats in after the initial shock. We use a combo of welded wire and electric. I have tethered goats. You do need to supervise them as they are good at getting tangled.

You either enjoy goat shenanigans, or they will drive you crazy. You need to stay one step ahead of them until you finally beat them and figure it out. They will still test areas on a regular basis.

 

[Zoomie]

Sheep don't always do well as an "only sheep", but some are OK with it. Some breeds though are pretty herd-oriented. Before you bring home a single sheep, make sure you can switch it out, if it's utterly miserable and not happy without other sheep. OR just get two! You'll have a whole farm in no time!

I used to raise Jacob sheep and those can have 4 horns. They are a primitive breed and not what most people expect in a sheep. So do some research on the breed that this sheep is... if it's a Churro, my experience with them is they are more "sheepy" than a Jacob. Jacobs are more "goaty" IME.

And.... Jacobs are really freaking smart, for a sheep. You have to handle them differently than you might expect; mine all came to me when I called them and would follow me. However they could be difficult to herd. They could figure out what was going on and sometimes just would not cooperate.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Found the goats in the "forbidden" area again last night. I gave up and just plugged up the holes in the fencing that they could get through in the "forbidden" area and left it. They were perfectly happy munching on all the stuff in there instead of all the stuff in their own area! GAH.

Espresso was perfectly happy walking behind me. McDerp would bolt if I even made a noise. So Espresso should be relatively easy to lead with food if he needs to go to another area, McDerp I may need to hog tie...

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Sheep don't always do well as an "only sheep", but some are OK with it. Some breeds though are pretty herd-oriented. Before you bring home a single sheep, make sure you can switch it out, if it's utterly miserable and not happy without other sheep. OR just get two! You'll have a whole farm in no time!

I used to raise Jacob sheep and those can have 4 horns. They are a primitive breed and not what most people expect in a sheep. So do some research on the breed that this sheep is... if it's a Churro, my experience with them is they are more "sheepy" than a Jacob. Jacobs are more "goaty" IME.

And.... Jacobs are really freaking smart, for a sheep. You have to handle them differently than you might expect; mine all came to me when I called them and would follow me. However they could be difficult to herd. They could figure out what was going on and sometimes just would not cooperate.

This would be a Jacobs ewe...also sounds like a big fat NOPE on that type of sheep! LOL! Nevermind! Plus, she is a wool animal and a WILD wool animal does not sound like any fun.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Found the goats in the "forbidden" area again last night. I gave up and just plugged up the holes in the fencing that they could get through in the "forbidden" area and left it. They were perfectly happy munching on all the stuff in there instead of all the stuff in their own area! GAH.

Espresso was perfectly happy walking behind me. McDerp would bolt if I even made a noise. So Espresso should be relatively easy to lead with food if he needs to go to another area, McDerp I may need to hog tie...

In my experiences with goats they are near impossible to please. If given a chance a goat would be perfectly happy sitting on a throne waiting for all it's food to be brought to it. Than it would throw half of it on the ground saying it wasn't good enough.

Keep plugging the holes until they no longer fine any.

 

[PugNut]

If given a chance a goat would be perfectly happy sitting on a throne waiting for all it's food to be brought to it. Than it would throw half of it on the ground saying it wasn't good enough.

Doesn't it make you wonder how goats got the reputation as being trash eaters? Mine were so picky. Though I will never forget at a fair when I was a teen, the exhibitor next to me had some Saanens. A man roaming the barn tried to feed one of her does a $20 bill to see if they eat paper. Well, guess what, it did. And he was trying to demand a "refund" from the teenage owner.

I had mostly Nubians, a few LaManchas and one snobbish Alpine. Loved my "Nubies" but they were noisy screamers. And the escape artist thing is true. I had a friend ask to borrow two does to clean up brush on his property. I tried warning him his fence set-up wouldn't work, but he didn't believe me. Three days later he returned the goats because he couldn't keep them contained.