Can pygmy goats live in with my chickens and geese? How strong does their fencing have to be? I realize they would need a feeder up off the floor so the alfalfa would stay clean. I m hoping they can live all together.

-- Michele Rae Padgett (michelesmelodyfarm@Yahoo.com), March 06, 2001

Answers

I asked the same question about a year ago and was told a resounding NO. The chicken feed is different then what goats would eat and can eventually make them sick. How many chickens do you have? When I had mine together, I only had a couple of chickens and two pygmy goats. I did keep them together as there were so few of them. Now that I have more chicken (14) I don't have them together because the mess of the chickens is so gross and makes for a smelly goat. My little pygmies would romp around and fall in bird poop. I would go hug them and, well, you get the picture. If for no other reason then that I would keep them separated. I am sure someone will post with all the particulars as to why not, I am not 100% sure, I just stopped doing it so I would have cleaner goats. OH, one other thing....my pygmies got to the point that they would "bowl for chickens" it was funny to watch, but potentially dangerous for the birds. The goats would go backwards several feet, put their heads down, then charge the unsuspecting chickens. Then they would butt the birds, who would fly in the air, often landing on a goat. It was very comical, but I was afraid that the birds would get hurt or a goat would get a bird claw in the eye. I also had one pygmy get an eye infection, chicken feed got in her eye.

Good luck! Cindy

-- Cindy in Ok (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), March 06, 2001.

When we started here in the woods, I bought a book called All in one barn. I loved the idea of having all my animals together, but practical experience won out, it simply doesn't work. I do let my hens out each morning after chores are done and they eat every speck of grain spilled, and keep the pens scratched up, which does make for a health inviornment in your barn. But roosting birds in your hay, or above your grain feeders, or your milk stand, Geese fouling the goats water, and goats eating your birds feed, kid goats can't compete for feed against large ducks and geese and drinking fouled water, is just a diasaster waiting to happen! 4 cattle panels make a nice 16 by 16 feet pen, and purchase a used igloo type house for your pygmy's, or better yet build them a big dog house with a flat roof they can lay up on top of and sun! You don't have to think "barn" when you think goats. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 06, 2001.

thanks Vicki and Cindy. I guess that is a bad idea. I have 17 chickens and 5 geese and ducks, and I guess I wouldnt be hugging my goats in that environment. Oh 'well!

-- Michele Rae Padgett (michelesmelodyfarm@Yahoo.com), March 08, 2001.

I got rid of ALL my ducks and geese. Those turds would wait till I went in the house and then swim in the water troughs! OH, how they made me so mad every day. They had a pond of their own, but NO, they liked the bathtubs. They actually knew to run like the wind when they saw me commin! I would find a duck actually stuck, sitting in a 5 gallon bucket of water! I put them in a chain link pen around the pond and they actually climed out with their claws hooked into the fence, I saw them. They didn't stay here long. Now I don't have any duck poop water for my garden, but I also don't have any big globs of duck poop on the porch to slip and fall when I am running for the phone either!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 09, 2001.

We had two Pygmy goats in a chain-link fenced-in backyard. We had to add an electric fence to keep the goats from tearing up the fence. They pushed it out of shape between all the posts. They broke the gate latch and so we put a bolt through the latch. We also added rebar between the posts. I wish that we had added the electric fence to begin with. They are strong goats when they take a notion to destroy or 'move' something. I lost one of the goats (probable heart attack) last week and have just introduced a new nanny to the yard. The new nanny is still acting lost and the established nanny is still acting like a charging bull. (They've been together only a day and are improving as time goes by, thank goodness.)

-- Louise Walker Adderholdt (louise.adderholdt@gte.net), March 05, 2002.