The Boy Goats Get A Home

Aaron and I got the fencing put up so the bucklings couldn’t escape. They will be living in the grassy run area around the chicken coop. The girls will stay over with the donkeys. This should help to prevent unchaperoned breeding! Tank and Dozer are the cutest little guys. They are as sweet as the girls and actually are somewhat less demanding.

Aaron and I also built what we have named “The Bomb Shelter”. It is a stack of cinder blocks and railroad ties we had lying around. Because goats love having things to climb and hop around on, this gives them a place to play king of the castle. It is also open underneath which gives them a place to get out of the sun.

To let then live among the chickens, the puzzle was how to keep them from getting at the chicken feed. While they would love to eat it, it is very bad for them. Goats, like cows, are ruminants. This means they eat primarily grass, weeds and leaves. Corn and other grains can cause “bloat”. This comes from their inability to digest something and it can be fatal quickly.

So far, all is going well. They lived up to their billing as being incredibly energetic. It was explained to me while learning about them that keeping goats is like giving a three year old a hammer. Yep. Good description.

Tank eating out of the new feeder I built (Still needs a cover).