Which is smarter - goat or chicken?

hoggie · #21 08/28/12, 07:16 AM

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Originally Posted by goatlady

To each their own, but I have never in 30 years of raising goats, fed in a trough. Each goat goes on the milk stand, even the bucks, and they get their ration there. That way I am never mobbed, they line up in their own pecking order and wait their turns, I know which goat gets what ration and medications if applicable, makes it real easy to check and trim feet, check udders, legs, tummys, etc. for cuts or scratches. Even the kids get on the stand with their nanny and learn their manners. I was running 28 head for a couple years. Sure, it takes a bit more time, but well worth it for my purposes.

Have never goat as far as feeding them on the milk stand - someone once told me that it makes them fidget when they are milked? But I do usually feed the milkers their oats separately once I have milked them. The feed they are going mad for is the alfalfa pellets which they all have out of a communal trough when they are penned together.

They have been out in the field and on tethers all summer so beign fed separately (mostly) but I have had them in for a few days so they are in a temporary pen with 6' high fencing so there is no way I can feed them over or through it - I just have to go in and run the gauntlet

hoggie · #22 08/28/12, 07:16 AM

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Originally Posted by Cliff

Lol if your chickens were big enough to knock you down they'd eat YOU

hoggie · #23 08/28/12, 07:19 AM

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Originally Posted by fordson major

i learned the hard way, not with goats, but with sheep. have the bad back to go with the punch in the back i got.

When I get as far as finishing the permanent goat enclosure, I will have a feeding passage where I can walk down and put the feed in the trough and they have to put their heads through to eat - helps with the pecking order thing as well.

Unfortunately, it is a long job and I only have my (and 10yo DD) hands to build it. It is taking a long time and I think they will be in temp accommodation AGAIN this winter

hoggie · #24 08/28/12, 07:21 AM

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Originally Posted by CrownRanch

You have your chickens trained well. Mine act more like your goats. I feel like a rock star when I walk out there with a bucket.

Wish I could claim to have trained them - they just see me and rush back to their pen to their feed bowls

L.A. · #25 08/28/12, 08:50 AM

Quit feeding them.

You'll soon see whose smarter

MOgal · #26 08/28/12, 04:14 PM

When I have to walk through the goats with any feed, I carry a water pistol or small spray bottle I can hide in one hand. As they start to crowd me, they get a squirt from the bottle and I make a noise like Tssst. They come to associate the noise with getting squirted so when I stop squirting every time they hear Tssst, they still back off when they hear the noise. Once in a while I have to give them a refresher course, but not often.

I remember an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents when I was a kid that spooked me for chickens for ages! Laurence Harvey fed his chickens blood then the bodies of his murdered victims. Don't remember who did him in but the chickens took care of his remains or something like that. I've seen mine kill and eat mice and toads so basically, I'm glad I'm the bigger critter.

old school · #27 08/29/12, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverseeds

This had me laughing hard!! Back when we first had rabbit and chickens my young son was a bit upset we kept eating them. what eventually calmed him was two things, one being we do keep the best for breeding, but mainly it was telling him that if he was grass the rabbits would eat him, and if he was tiny the chickens would eat him as is. He was skeptical until one day I sent him in to feed them, and they swarmed the little guy and he got a few pecks. He came back out and said, dad I think your right they DO want to eat me, with eyes as big as saucers.

THANKS I NEEDED THAT.