Thursday, April 8, 2010

Oh My - Goats!

This morning I saw this ad on craiglist:

I contacted the owner and will go visit them on Sunday.

A month - that's enough time to get shelter and fence set up - I hope!

6 comments:

  1. Uh-oh! You're a goner! :o):o):o) Yay, yay, yay!

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  2. Congrats on making your decision to acquire goats--they're delightful. A couple tips if you'll permit me from experience. Fencing, Goats are escape artists! The best luck I've had is using the moveable electric Poultry Netting from Premier Fencing. It's easy to move around a property and if you get the one for Poultry, you can even keep your chickens enclosed with the goats without a worry of them escaping. The moveable fencing doesn't work well during winter ice storms so you'll need something permanent in your barnyard like a woven wire fence with a single strand of electric running along the inside to prevent them from standing on the fence and eventually making it sag and needing replaced. Though all goats are cute, getting purebred goats with 'papers' might be the way to go only if you're wanting milk. Here's why: You'll have to breed yearly to get the milk and breeding begets goat kids. Selling the kids is easier if you can have them registered and also makes them more valuable which means buyers are less likely to resell them to unapproved homes after they leave your farm. Finally, Fias Co Goats is a GREAT website for goat information! Best of luck!!!

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  3. woohoo!! babies!! I'm so excited for you!! That whole fence thing..good luck and thanks to the anon help. As I am away from home a lot during the days now, I'd need something pretty much idiot/goat proof. Sounds like they know the ropes on this one..thinking of Jenna's Finn escaping the alapca fence.

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  4. I'm so excited!! Anon - I do have a section of that fence, but need to buy more, obviously, and a charger. I'm going to practice what I want to do long-term - moving them around the property with that fence. What do you use for a charger?

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  5. For an energizer/charger I purchased the IntelliShock 52B from Premier Supply. I have two of them now for running my poultry and another for my sheep/goats. I purchased the first one with a solar charger. I give this a mediocre review because the solar charger fails to fully charge the battery when the days are short. For the second one, I only purchased the energizer. To save on money I bought a second back-up battery and a battery charger from TSC. The battery charger was several hundred dollars cheaper than a solar panel. When a battery runs low, I just switch it out with the back-up battery I have ready in the barn. I think it's a much better system than relying on one battery and a solar panel. The only drawback is that the batteries are HEAVY! I have to say again that I'm so happy for your decision to get goats. They're so much fun to have around. They're like what you'd get if you mated a cat with a dog. The independence of a cat combined with the affectionate nature of a dog. Also, read up on deworming and parasites as keeping up with them is a constant never ending battle. I was using chemical dewormers but have recently switched to the products on the Fias Co. site. I'll do some regular stool sample checks to determine if the natural products are working and if so I'll stick with them since parasites don't develop resistance to them. . . to be continued!

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