fur needles and goats?

[Gypsy]

I hope it is OK for me to post this in both the poultry and goat forums. We just moved into our new place and are trying to plan the layout a little. I have one spot which I would like to use as either a coup or part of a small pasture for milk goats. The only thing is that there are large fur trees overhanging and the area gets covered with needles. Is this particularly bad for chickens/goats (as per forum)? I don’t think the previous owners were much into homesteading (based on the property) but it looks like someone, a while ago, had some kind of a pens (one with chicken wire and another with that 4 x 4 wire mesh) in this same spot. Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Jen H]

My goats like to eat the fir saplings I pull out of my flower beds, so I can't see that the needles would be a problem for your goats at all.

[geminigoats]

When we bought our farm in VA there wasn't a house or barn, only an old tobacco barn. We had to build a barn, out first barn was a small one near the edge of the cedar grove. That first barn was a chicken coop really. But the cotten picking chickens roosted in the dag trees. I even remember them being in the trees during the 2 hurricanes we had, oddly enough, didn't loose any. They roosted in those cedar trees even in the winter. And...they could have gone into the barn anytime, but didn't have the sense to come in out of the rain or snow! :no: :no: We added on to it and made a pig pen in the back, then added another section for our few goats we had at the time. Worked great for the 4 goats we had at the time with the barn being in divided sections. The goats sure had fun stripping the bark off those trees next to it though! The next barn we built, which was the goat barn, (the herd was then at 10) was bigger and not near the trees.

Bernice

[AnnaS]

My goats love to eat pine needles and bark! They like the bark so much I have to fence off the pines I want to keep. As long as it's not their only roughage, it shouldn't hurt them. I've heard the turpentine in the needles acts as a natural wormer, but I wouldn't rely on it. It could taint the milk but I haven't had that happen.

[Mrs_stuart]

Our goats eat pine needles and pine bark, pine trees as well as anything else that grows. I trimmed off my pine trees till they were taller that the goats and wrapped chicken wire around and around and around the trunk of the trees so that that didn't kill them. (and the ones that we didn't want, we left them unwrapped)

Belinda