The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa...with a dog like that, little kids will NEVER be afraid of monsters....they'll just think it's a dog!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: Wow...impressive - your Jack and the video.

Now...did you have to do a lot of training with him? How do you learn to do the training?

 

[Leahs Mom]

One more question on jack... is he a "barker"? My former shelties were barkers...constantly. Just barking to bark. Doesn't have to be any reason in particular. I don't mind barking when appropriate, but just barking for the heck of it can get annoying for neighbors

 

[delisha]

Aoxa,
When they first kid, you do not milk them out all the way till the kids get a solid 2 weeks old and is eating hay. I had a kid trainer on my milk stand and all the does I fed on the stand no matter what age. The bucks I never fed grain. They stole grain from the ground and out of chicken feeders. They had hay and pasture. I fed the goats very little grain. Yes it takes a good 1/2 hour to milk a goat. Good quality goats should give you a gallon a day with a kid. Two kids..maybe a splash of milk. Trips and quads you need to give milk and bottle feed. Two milkers is essential. It would be nice if you found a flock close to you. You buy two does and drop them off in October for breeding. Pick them up end of November. You need a piglet or two..or a bred sow. They do not need much room. Nothing more wonderful than birthin baby pigs. They are so tiny its a wonder they are so feisty. I loved my pigs..

 

[jendodd79]

Aoxa,
When they first kid, you do not milk them out all the way till the kids get a solid 2 weeks old and is eating hay. I had a kid trainer on my milk stand and all the does I fed on the stand no matter what age. The bucks I never fed grain. They stole grain from the ground and out of chicken feeders. They had hay and pasture. I fed the goats very little grain. Yes it takes a good 1/2 hour to milk a goat. Good quality goats should give you a gallon a day with a kid. Two kids..maybe a splash of milk. Trips and quads you need to give milk and bottle feed. Two milkers is essential. It would be nice if you found a flock close to you. You buy two does and drop them off in October for breeding. Pick them up end of November. You need a piglet or two..or a bred sow. They do not need much room. Nothing more wonderful than birthin baby pigs. They are so tiny its a wonder they are so feisty. I loved my pigs..

I want all of that

 

[delisha]

One more question on jack... is he a "barker"? My former shelties were barkers...constantly. Just barking to bark. Doesn't have to be any reason in particular. I don't mind barking when appropriate, but just barking for the heck of it can get annoying for neighbors

Shelties are beautiful and horrible barkers. If they are kept busy with a job to do they do not bark adnauseum, but, they still bark. My mom raised them. She had one I took to obedience to see if it could be curbed. She was a delight to work with but she started paced constantly when not working, and barked..poor dog. My mom would not work with her so I did the poor dog a disservice.

 

[Sally8]

It takes roughly 15 minutes per doe twice a day right? That's what we were told. Let's double that if we are just starting out.. i.e.: 30 minutes twice a day per doe. I'll do night and Susan can do morning milking. We won't get goats until this fall, and by that time we will probably just buy bred does. I have to do some more research on it. I want to get fencing up before purchasing them, and have everything all planned out. It may even wait until next spring. I just want to be prepared.

I don't drink much milk at all, but I am a sucker for cheese. I love goat cheese. Of course my animals will get any extras along with family. We only want two does (because you need at least two). I like the look of nubian goats. Their ears..

We are also looking at options for the guard animal. If we get a dog, we are thinking Komondor. We don't want to get another that looks like Clem - it's too hard. I think this is a good option, and it is adorable.



Look at this one taking down a coyote.

I think these dogs are gorgeous. I've only ever seen one and that was on tv in a dog show. My question. Would you have to be careful about weeds, sticky things, burdocks getting stuck in his fur? Just curious. I'll second the shelties. We have an Australian Shepherd and he can bark non stop for an entire day. No Kidding!!!!!

 

[Melabella]

Wow...impressive - your Jack and the video.

Now...did you have to do a lot of training with him? How do you learn to do the training?

Yes, I did have to work with him to get him to understand what I wanted, but since i don't have large needs around here, it wasn't too intensive. Another built in beautiful thing about an ES is an incredible desire to please his master. In fact, if I can fault Jack in any way it is that i have to be careful not to discipline harshly, as if I do, he takes it quite to heart. Takes half the day for him to get over. Nothing takes him very long. Anything that is yours, he will gaurd and protect. Everything that is new, I teach him is mine, and he leaves it. The chicks were climbing all over him by day 3. With him, I just show him once, and announce,, "mine", he gets it. I will take a video tomorrow of him moving the roo away from me, it's wonderful, he just positions himself between myself and the roo. I have read a great deal and connected with many ES owners about training. Watched videos, etc. They are unbelievable cattle dogs, diary farmers prefer them as they don't rile cows and effect milk production. I was told to begin with geese, as they are easist to herd, and don't get flustered like chickens. I know two that work the goat farm two towns over who I heard the woman will give herding lessons. I have no experience with training a herding dog, and just taught Jack on a long horse lunge line, and methodically walked behind the flock, encouraging him to work one side, as I worked the other. I have taught him two commands, "move em" for when I want him to move the flock away from something, or out of the barn, and 'put em in" which he knows means to put them in the coop.

One more question on jack... is he a "barker"? My former shelties were barkers...constantly. Just barking to bark. Doesn't have to be any reason in particular. I don't mind barking when appropriate, but just barking for the heck of it can get annoying for neighbors

Jack only barks to alert me to something off, thankfully quite rarely. He will bark if the horses get to running around the place, but I taught him as a pup chasing the horses is off limits, for his sake and the horses. He was barking one night two weeks ago, and I let him out. He was gone quite a while, didn't even come in when I called. He came back 10 min later. The next morning I found a dead possum out behind the barn with grab marks behind it's neck. He must have grabbed and shook, and it was gone.

MB

 

[Leahs Mom]

Do you keep Jack outside at night? I have fencing around most of the property I'd keep a dog in but they could easily wiggle under gates and jump some of the lower fence that the neighbor doesn't maintain but belongs to him. Do you think if I had one it could be trained to stay in it's area (even if it was easy to get out) or would I need to beef up the neighboring fence line? I have a highway bordering the front and they just decided that it had to have a sidewalk - on our side

. Now in the warmer weather there are folks walking out there. I put up a 6 ft. chainlink fence along that sidewalk line but the side fence on the neighbor side is short and would be easy to just leap right over.

As you can see, I've been considering a dog but it must work well in this busy highway areas with one close neighbor....

 

[Leahs Mom]

Whoops - forgot to ask - did you get him as a puppy or as an adult?