what's big enough for a chicken and too small for a goat?

[bj taylor]

that is the question that has been plaguing us around here. we cut a hole in the fence in a planned effort to get the chickens to move into the goat area & stay the heck off the patio w/all their not so lovely poop. INSTANTLY, the goats find the hole. one leg in, followed by the head, followed by the next leg - squeeze big belly through & POP right into the chicken run. of course the chickens are too scared to go through the hole the other way like things are supposed to happen.

so, we block part of the hole, throw some scratch down both inside & outside the hole in the fence to convince the chickens to step through. Noooooo. it's too scary - But, here come the goats again. ramming & jamming each other in an attempt to get to the chicken scratch. Ugh!

But we win! We make the hole smaller a different way. "herd" the chickens to the hole & one by one they gingerly step through! in less than a minute the buff orpington has herself a nice little snake. now That's how it's supposed to work!

 

[Smart Red]

Yea! It is difficult to be smarter than a hungry goat. Glad you got you plan to work.

 

[digitS']

BJ, we once had a goat - or, my brother did.

She would climb into a low branch of the cherry tree that hung over the fence, climb thru the tree and drop down in the yard.

I once had a neighbor who thought he'd corral his goats. He decided that he'd electrify only one wire but put multiple strands of that wire between the posts. His idea was that the goats wouldn't be smart enuf to know which wire was "hot." Wrong.

As we were standing there weeks later - he told me that his next idea was to see how many strands of wire it would take to keep them in. He was up to 10 or 15 - had lots of that wire and it was a small corral. It must have been embarrassing but the goats kept him busy putting up wire while they pushed thru, avoiding the electric, again & again.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Oops!

I went over to read the humor thread about "being old" and forgot something! (Only missed "limbo" and that is probably because I wasn't all that "agile" back in those days either . . .)

Anyway! You can put a "yoke" on your goat, BJ. It is just a branch of a tree with a way to cinch it around the critter's neck. The 3 prongs will keep the goat (or pig, calf or whatever) from pushing thru a fence.

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

Anyway! You can put a "yoke" on your goat, BJ. It is just a branch of a tree with a way to cinch it around the critter's neck. The 3 prongs will keep the goat (or pig, calf or whatever) from pushing thru a fence.

Steve

OMG!!! You need to post pictures if somebody tries this...or even better, video!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dad used to make yokes for cows to stop them from going through a barbed wire fence. I dont have any photos but Dad would make it out of a tree branch that formed a Y. It needs to be a Y and not a branched connection so it will hang right. The Y would go around the neck with the straight part hanging down to the knees. Hes just tie it on with a rope fairly high up so it would not come off. The top parts of the Y would stick up maybe 8 to 10 inches. They could still bend their heads down to graze but they could not force their way through a fence.

As nimble as goats are it might be a bit harder to fit it but Im sure it would work. Or you can go online and find iron yokes for goats made for this purpose.

 

[digitS']

Iron yokes?

Sounds cruel . . .

The rack, if they make thru the fence with an iron yoke!

Steve

 

[canesisters]

If ya can't find it on TEG, check BYC...

Taa-daa - a goat who's head is now wider than it's body.

And ti probably get's better TV rectption too...

 

[so lucky]

Oh my gosh, what a funny sight! Hillybilly engineering at its finest!

 

[bj taylor]

cane, that is perfect!