Over dramatic or???

[bknthesdle]

Ok. I don't have a decent pen for the goats. I have a small 6x6 chain link kennel that I have been moving around the yard. doesn't seem like enough room for 3 three month old babies.

But I was in town yesterday and found these stakeouts. So I bought them thinking it would be easier to move the kids around and allow them more room and access to areas with lots of grass.

So since I have 3, I made a triangle with the stakes so they could be near each other with out getting tangled. Each has shade, water, & grass.

You would have thought I had killed them. They screamed and fussed and tugged. Worse than a 5 yr old on their first day of school. I tried to sooth everyone. Soon the ND's seem to settle down quicker than the Nubian cross who is older. The Nubian just had to test everything to include running and hitting the end of her stake out. Scared me to death watching her do a somersault.

So like a reluctant mother, I went to the house and am staring at them thru the window. Now that I am not out there, they seem fine. Will they get use to being staked out?

Has anyone else staked out their goats? Are my kids too young to be staked out? ND's are 2 months old, Nubian is 3 months old. Is there a way i can get them use to it faster?

Ps. They will never be staked out without supervision.

[eclipchic]

I've heard they might strangle themselves on a stake but that could be hearsay. I've been too chicken to try mine on stakes for that reason

[jill.costello]

I personally wouldn't stake out a baby goat; too much room for crazy tradgedy...they are SO fast.... get tangled & freak, etc. Money would be better spent on 8-10 16' long cattle panels, 20 tee-posts and some zip ties..... you can make a FINE goat pen by pounding tee-posts every 7.5' and zip-tying 16' cattle panel (utility panel) to them.....

[bknthesdle]

I am watching them. Two are basking in the sun and the Nubian is grazing a bit. Everyone quit screaming when I came inside.

[mpete]

LOL! I think it may be a combination of the newness of being tied and no fence line to jump on... I used to stake out my goats... only when I was home & watched carefully for roaming dogs.

[bknthesdle]

Originally Posted by jill.costello

I personally wouldn't stake out a baby goat; too much room for crazy tradgedy...they are SO fast.... get tangled & freak, etc. Money would be better spent on 8-10 16' long cattle panels, 20 tee-posts and some zip ties..... you can make a FINE goat pen by pounding tee-posts every 7.5' and zip-tying 16' cattle panel (utility panel) to them.....

Tried that. Still have the panels but the smaller ND's can still get thru the panels if they squeeze hard enough. Staking out was suppose to be temporary til they had grown big enough so they couldn't fit thru the panels. Was hoping staking them out in grass would help them start packing on the lbs.

[thaiblue12]

I would not do it, I did it once when I had new goats, I tied one out and left the other two loose since I knew they would not go far, the others tried to "free" her and got tangled, I was home and it took them less then 5 mins to get themselves wrapped up pretty good. So that was the first and last time I did that.

Just like kids even if you look away for a minute something can happen. A stray dog or coyote can come along and there is no way for the kids to get away. They can wrap themselves up pretty quick, strangle themselves and etc. They are goats not dogs and can figure out pretty quick how to end up getting hurt or killed.

Can you get 4 cattle panels and move that around? Those are 16 feet long and plently of room for 3 kids.

[jill.costello]

This is my "temporary" tee-post and cattle panel goat yard from my previous property; I think this one is only 7-8 cattle panels, and is a fine sized yard! It is lined with chicken wire along the chicken yard side, but that could be a solution for you if they are squeezing through the squares...

[bknthesdle]

I went out and bought 4 panels last week. Put them up, but the Nigerian Dwarfs can still manage to squeeze through the panels. Was hoping this could be a temp fix until they were big enough not to squeeze thru. Was hoping that would be in another couple of weeks.

[bknthesdle]

I am out of funds for fencing now. Between the sheeps new pen & the cattle panels I have spent my fencing budget. Any other ideas?

[Backfourty,MI.]

I would not stake out goats, too much chance they can get tangled up too quickly & like Jill said they freak out so fast.

If they can still get through the cattle panels, What about zip tying 4 foot high chicken wire around it for now till they grow up. I don't think it cost's that much & comes in rolls of 100 feet. I have some just can't remember what we paid for it. I use it around my garden.

[Backfourty,MI.]

We must have been posting at the same time, keep your eye out at garage sales for chicken wire or put an ad on craigslist or your freecycle asking for chicken wire?

We've found it at garage sales for $2.00 a roll before.

[thaiblue12]

The chicken wire does help. My buck pen is cattle panels and when my Nigie buckling was little he would walk right through it, so I got some chicken wire and wrap it tight around the bottom. It was cheap and a good fix and kept him in.
You might find some on Craig's for cheap.

[bknthesdle]

Well, while they seemed ok on the stake outs, I took them off and put them back in their pen.

[shanzone2001]

We staked out one of our goats when we first started. Big mistake. She jumped onto the doghouse and over to the other side. We were only in the back for 5 minutes and when we returned she has already been strangled to death. It was horrible. If you do, just watch them....sounds like you are.

[shanzone2001]

Nice pen, Jill! I like the cattle/hog panels, too.

[Rechellef]

I couldn't even think about staking my goats out. We had a water hose hanging over the fence this morning to fill the duck pool and within 2 mins. one of my does had managed to create a loop and get it around her neck and started pulling on it. Darn goats!! Please be careful!!

[QoTL]

I have staked my goaties out before. It's my best bet for yard-clearing where my husband doesn't mow (and keeping them away from the garden).

It's not my first choice, necessarily. You have to watch them... and it's hard to keep a water bucket anywhere near them without them knocking it over. But imho, it DOES work. Keep your ears open if you are in the house, and constantly check on them. That said.. I wouldn't stake babies, either. They are just too mischievious. Well.. my babies are always too mischievious .


LOL lately, I've just been letting my tiny herd free-range in the evenings. They stay near the barn, anyway, and put themselves back into the (open) pen when they are done. Last summer, my babies were escape artists, and I couldn't keep them contained.. they stayed near the barn, though, and the grownups. Even when I don't free range, my wether is STILL an escape artist. He slips in and out of the goat yard constantly.

Oh, one last quick thought. If you do decide to stake them out, stray animals are another HUGE hazard. Just be safe

[bknthesdle]

The staking out was only in areas where they could not get tangled into anything else. It would have only been for short periods of time and supervised just like I would have if I had a young child out playing. Only until the kids were big enough to stay in the cattle panels.

BUT....I took them off the stakes.

If I need them to graze a certain part of the yard, I will move their small 6x6 kennel fence and they can graze in that.

Hubby had a roll of 100' fencing that was left over from the sheep fencing. He was going to return it. And while I wanted to keep the goats seperate from the sheep, I decided to attach that fence to the sheep fence making a nice 47' x 25' enclosure. It's not the best fencing. Specially put up by myself and with nothing but T-posts, but hopefully it will hold three little kids. It's not portable like I wanted, but it will do for now. Now...just hoping hubby isn't mad when he gets home.

[Ellie Mae]

we have cattle panels up also and the babies come right through.

we covered the bottom part with chicken wire, but the big girls just love rubbing on it, pulling at it, stepping it down and now it's in a bunch on the ground and the babies are escaping, it's really upsetting their mama's, but they caused it,lol

we talk about doing this and have not yet, but we want to train the young ones to an electric fence, the older ones will take a big ole jolt to go where they want...

how about returning the sheep fencing and see if that gives you enough money for electric fence and charger...we found a great one on craigs list and another on ebay..

at the moment our fence would win redneck yard of the week, it has any and everything I could find pushed up against it and either held in place with concrete blocks, old tires or zipties & baling wire...old tin, broken pallets, pickets,whatever, lol, so I feel your pain..