goats (coop, loan, house)

[Valley Living]

I've got two miniture and they make wonderful pets! They will remain on a leash and really enjoy walking around on the farm eating everything in site! LOL!!! My children addore them and will let the goats bite and nibble on them every chance they get. Goats only have teeth on the bottom jaw and it doesn't hurt at all.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by CapeCodder

Thank you so much for this info.
So, if the goats area was cleared of snow they would be ok? We could easily do that. I have five acres but it's wooded not pasture. Would they be ok if I just fed them hay etc...during the summer too?
My friend had big goats (the kind with the weird slitted pupils) and they ate my hair all the time...they were so friendly and would run to the gate when I would visit. There's just something about goats...then when one gave birth they were running around wagging their tails. oooh I could have just scooped them all up.
A piglet sure is cute, so pygmy kids must be adorable!

What's the best way to secure the goats? (I need to pay attention when I drive by some of these farms.) The little goats down the road just stay with the horses. There's a little white one and he seems to follow this one horse wherever it goes.

Full size goats are okay in snow.

I built sheds for them using wooden pallets. Roughly four foot tall and four foot wide, a series of eight of these side-by-side. It seems to be enough shelter from the snow. It is back in the forest, so the forest blocks wind.

During the summer we only feed about a half cup of grain to each goat each day. They feed themselves otherwise. The grain is just to keep them 'anchored' knowing where home is.

Goats are high browsers, they like to strip trees of leaves and bark. They only eat a small amount of grass. So their preferred forage is in among trees.

Goats are semi-intelligent and very curious, tasting your hair is normal for them.

If you watch goats socializing, you will see that they are very rough on each other. They routinely smack each other very hard, which is hard for me to watch, but it is how they are. So if you smack their nose, you truly are not hurting them, and eventually they will catch on, that you do not want them to nibble on your hair [or whatever].



"Securing goats"?

LOL

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by CapeCodder

When you say trained..what do you mean? Will a goat come if called? This is sounding better and better.
Is a wether much bigger than a pygmy? I know nothing about goats and I will do research before getting any.

Goats can be trained very easily to do tricks.

I have a dinner bell, a hand-held old time school bell, we used to ring it for dinner when we had foster children. I rang it over the goats heads when I fed them. I did it for a week. Just once a day when I was feeding them, I pulled out the bell and rang it for 20 seconds while they were eating.

Six months later, ring that bell, and they will come at you. They can be deep into the forest, if they can hear the bell, they will come running.

A wether is just a buck that has been snipped. From that point on they do not develop the musk glands, or other secondary sexual attributes.

[bigfez]

Originally Posted by Valley Living

I've got two miniture and they make wonderful pets! They will remain on a leash and really enjoy walking around on the farm eating everything in site! LOL!!! My children addore them and will let the goats bite and nibble on them every chance they get. Goats only have teeth on the bottom jaw and it doesn't hurt at all.

I go hiking quite a lot here in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. There is a gentleman who hikes with his dog and his pygmy goat. Both on leashes. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen! I'd love to have a goat or two.

[Submariner]

I put up a mesh fence around our goat sheds, see the two girls on the rock?





Then here is inside the fenced area









Yes, chickens like to hang out with goats.



I later covered it with tarp, so the rain does not drip through. But add three foot of snow and so it sits today.

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Goats can be trained very easily to do tricks.

I have a dinner bell, a hand-held old time school bell, we used to ring it for dinner when we had foster children. I rang it over the goats heads when I fed them. I did it for a week. Just once a day when I was feeding them, I pulled out the bell and rang it for 20 seconds while they were eating.

Six months later, ring that bell, and they will come at you. They can be deep into the forest, if they can hear the bell, they will come running.

A wether is just a buck that has been snipped. From that point on they do not develop the musk glands, or other secondary sexual attributes.

oh my, I have a lot of research to do.

You mean...the goats are free in the woods and they come running at the bell? They don't run away?

I'm finding this so interesting!

[CapeCodder]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I put up a mesh fence around our goat sheds, see the two girls on the rock?





Then here is inside the fenced area









Yes, chickens like to hang out with goats.



I later covered it with tarp, so the rain does not drip through. But add three foot of snow and so it sits today.

That's great! I have a little green wooden shed (sorta looks like a big outhouse) and I'm going to add a cover on the side of it, that way they'll have a choice to hang out or in and be covered either way. I'm going to build a little "bunk bed" inside the shed so they can get up if they want to.

I can't wait!
Ok...what are the white birds in the picture? Do I want them as well?

[CapeCodder]

I still can't get over that those are pallettes...I need to show my father this...he was a farmer and loves things like this.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by CapeCodder

oh my, I have a lot of research to do.

You mean...the goats are free in the woods and they come running at the bell? They don't run away?

I'm finding this so interesting!

I am not sure where they would 'run' to.

We have only fenced in the area immediately around the goat shed. And now that the snow is getting close to the top of the fence, it is only a suggestion. If they want out, they go out.

Most fences are truly only a suggestion to a goat any way.

I figure that if their home is here, and they know that I am going to feed them grain each day, then they shouldn't have a big desire to go any where.

In the summer, they come charging out from the pen and eat as fast as they can. But in 15 minutes their bellies are huge and hard, so big they have a hard time walking. They eat so much that they just cant eat any more. So they wander back and lay down to chew their cud. Each stomach will make gases and pressurize which is why they feel hard like a basket ball. Most of the day they lay in the shade chewing cud. They socialize, and eventually they agree as a group to go back out eating. How far can they go? in a few minutes they will be back with huge bellies again.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by CapeCodder

Ok...what are the white birds in the picture? Do I want them as well?

White Leghorn chickens at that time about six months old.