Trying to Hang Feeders

[dfchaser]

Hi All,
I wanted to say thanks so far for all the help and support - we've been doing better and better with the information we've been getting from the site.

I have an interesting problem now, I'm trying to hang feeders for our free roaming chickens, but keep the goats out of them. So far we have made two feeders, and they seem to work well. The problem is to keep the goats out of them. The feeders right now are sitting on top of two spools, about four feet in the air. It's high enough to keep the goats out, and apparently high enough where the chickens don't want to fly up and eat either. If we pickup up a chicken and put her on the on the spools she eats and is happy as could be, but no one has flown up to eat.

Before I go out and start building stuff, I was looking for suggestions on mounting to give the chickens a place to stand and eat - but keeping it high up enough to keep the goats from enjoying the corn (it's like candy to them).

Anyone deal with this before?

Chris

 

[DDRanch]

I used to have sheep that loved to get in the chicken pen and eat food while the hens were out free ranging. I used to leave the full size pen door open so the girls could go in and out to lay eggs, eat, etc. while I was home. Hubby has since built me a new coop, run and shed with chicken sized doors so the sheep can't get in. But, this is what I used to do.

The full size chicken wire door to the pen was left open while the girls were out free ranging. I hung a second piece of sturdy wire, about 2 feet by 3 feet, attached with hooks about mid waist in the doorway. I hung this wire piece about 10 inches from the ground which allowed the hens to go under the wire, but kept the sheep out. Attached with hooks, I could easily lift it on and off the open gate area.

Don't know if this will help you or not, I think goats are smarter and more persistent than sheep. I wonder if you could build a fence around the feeders with only enough access for the chickens. Chickens are pretty much bottom ground feeders, I am not sure if they ever would fly up to eat, but I really don't know. Others might. Good luck.

Anne

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Goats are so darn agile, it's hard to keep them out of things, while still letting the chickens in! These are ideas based on how people have been keeping goats out of their chicken coops.

If you have big goats, you could make a little enclosure with a small chicken only sized door, to put the feed in. Just make it large enough that the goats can't reach the food when they stretch their necks all the way inside. We had a chicken sized door between our sheep paddock/pastures and the chicken run. The chickens could pass through, but the sheep couldn't.

If you have much smaller goats, a baffled entryway, that looks a bit like a maze, can work. The goats can be small enough to fit in the opening, but are too long to turn the corners, that a chicken can.

Something using metal posts and 2"x4" welded wire fencing is pretty easy to do. One side can open and close with any kind of clips, to service the feeder. I'm sure there are a lot of different things you could use, depending on what you have around.

 

[greenmulberry]

I was wondering if you could surround the feeder with cattle panels, and the chickens could walk through the panels, but the goats could not.