# How long are your goats locked up for the night?.?



## GoatCrazyLady (Oct 17, 2012)

Is 14 hours to long?


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Oct 17, 2012)

I don't lock mine up at all. I keep my Kikos with two dogs and they have a shelter but they choose if they go in or not. Most nights they choose outside the shelter and lie down together. The dogs bark almost all night and keep anything away. Same with the Nigerian bucks. They also have two dogs and a shelter that they choose if they want in or out. The Nigerian does are in a field much closer to the house and they don't have anybody in with them. The do share a fence line with the bucks so the dogs keep anything away for them too.

Oh and yes, imo, 14 hours is way to long.


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## aggieterpkatie (Oct 17, 2012)

They're not locked up at all.  They're out in their pasture with a shelter. No guard dog, just field fence and a hot wire.


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## marlowmanor (Oct 17, 2012)

Ours get locked up around 6pm (DH feeds and locks up before he heads to work) and let out in the mornings when I get up which can be between 8 and 9am. That's about 14 hours there and I am seeing no ill effects from it. They go right out and start browsing. It's possible that we may just start letting them choose to stay or go at night but right now we are trying to play it safe. We don't want anyone getting an idea to mess with the goats at night. My goats have a 10x12 space for night time too, access to hay and water. Plenty of room for them to roam around and munch on hay all night if they wish.

So in answer to OP question. I think if they have plenty of room to roam around in their night time enclosure that 14 hours isn't bad. I'd just have hay and water available for them at night.


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## Tmaxson (Oct 17, 2012)

The only time I have locked mine up at night is when the moms just kidded and I do have to say that with my second kidding they were only locked up at night for a couple days vs a couple weeks.  Mine only choose to go inside when it's raining.  Are you locking them up for protection reasons?


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## Catahoula (Oct 17, 2012)

I start locking my goats up at night earlier and earlier...depending on the daylight left and even earlier if there is a storm. Then I let them out around 8am...  It could be more than 14 hours easy...especially when we get less daylight in the winter. I have hay and water inside their 10x10 till we can expand and enclosed more space for them. We have bears and mountain lions so we must lock them up.


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## 20kidsonhill (Oct 17, 2012)

Great subject. 
Location: Virginia
We have not had a problem with preditors.


We don't lock ours up, except a few nights right during kidding season. Doors are shut at 10pm and head count is done and it is normally opened back up at 6 or 7am. I do not to make sure that more timid animals are not being pushed out of the barn at night and made to stand in the cold or snow or rain. In that case, I will pen up a couple animals in the barn seperate from the main herd. 
I always have to pen up an adult doe that I have that is dehorned, she is the only one that has no horns. She has her own pen at night and gets her own feed for the evening.
Last kidding season we also penned up a group of 5 yearlings together every evening, to keep them from being picked on in the barn and shoved out in the cold. Just penned them at night and they had their own hay feeder for the evening. This helped make sure they were getting enough hay as well.


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## Pearce Pastures (Oct 17, 2012)

I only lock ours up when a) it is storming badly because I don't want the rain or snow to invade their inside space and get everything damp b) I am going to be gone for a few days---I do have someone coming over to feed them but don't want them just out without me checking in on them or c) my dog alerts me to coyotes or whatever critter gets her snarling.


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## GoatCrazyLady (Oct 17, 2012)

I use to always leave the shed door open for them at night until we got our baby Nubian. She would cry a lot at night and so I started shutting the door because I was worried about predators hearing her. Now it's cold so i'd be shutting them in anyway. Thanks for your responses everyone.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 17, 2012)

What do you mean by lock them up?

My goats are locked up around the barn but I have an overhang around the barn so they can still get outside. But they are locked out of the field. You know what, whatever is convenient for you is fine. Quite frankly, you have to do what works for you and it doesn't really matter what anyone else does. If you need to lock them up because of predators, then do it. I'm assuming there is water and hay in the barn so there is no suffering going on.


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## aggieterpkatie (Oct 18, 2012)

I agree with Karen, if they have food and water, they'll be fine. I have kept mine in a pen in the barn before for an extended period, like a couple weeks.  If they have enough space to move around, they'll be fine.


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## GoatCrazyLady (Oct 18, 2012)

ksalvagno said:
			
		

> What do you mean by lock them up?
> 
> My goats are locked up around the barn but I have an overhang around the barn so they can still get outside. But they are locked out of the field. You know what, whatever is convenient for you is fine. Quite frankly, you have to do what works for you and it doesn't really matter what anyone else does. If you need to lock them up because of predators, then do it. I'm assuming there is water and hay in the barn so there is no suffering going on.


Yes. They have fresh water and hay. Their shed is fenced in also. Thank you!


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## 20kidsonhill (Oct 18, 2012)

We have some that will stay under an overhang on the side of our barn, in 12 x 12 pens for most of the winter. We try to let them out some, but it depends on how much snow we get. There are 3 pens that are 12 x 12 and one pen that is more like 12 x 6.  We use these pens as sick pens, but also to grow out kids and for a doe or two that needs to be seperated out of the herd do to any problems. Right now I have 2 young bucklings in one pen and a single doeling from this springs kidding that isn't doing well in the other pen.  they have access to a small pasture right now,(may 40x 15) but in the winter they will just be kept in the pen.  
These are really more like an open fronted 3 sided shed, so we put huts in the pens for them to get out of the wind.


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## GoatCrazyLady (Oct 18, 2012)

You have a really nice set-up 20kidsonhill!


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## Stacykins (Oct 18, 2012)

Mine are closed up in their shelter from sunset to sunrise. I don't have a guard dog, and I feel that it is safest if they are inside a shelter. I hear coyotes singing every single night. While I have never even lost a chicken to a coyote (they get closed up too, but sometimes I can't round up a straggler who decides to be stupid and not go in the coop), I am not taking that chance with my goaties.


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## 20kidsonhill (Oct 18, 2012)

GoatCrazyLady said:
			
		

> You have a really nice set-up 20kidsonhill!


thank you, I have my husband to thank for our barn and the set up.  Although we hired a contractor to help build the barn, we did a lot of work with him and ourselves as well. I love the overhang, which worked out well, since the barn sits on a slope. Our new project this year is making feeders out of 55 gallon barrels.  I can't wait to see how they work out.  We have a design that we talked about and came up with together, but haven't tried one yet.


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Oct 18, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> GoatCrazyLady said:
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I'm working on making waterers out of pickle and 55 gal barrels. The dogs and goats will be able to drink and not spoil the water and the best thing is I shouldn't have to fill them up often.


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## marlowmanor (Oct 18, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> GoatCrazyLady said:
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My dad has a setup that uses 55 gallon barrels cut in half for his feeders. I may have to get a picture of it the next time I am there to share. We are going to cut one in half too and use them for feeders. Currently we have a pvc pipe that is cutout that we use and it works okay for the 4 goats we have right now but they could use something bigger and if we do the barrel idea we will have bigger feeders and also be able to put 2 feeders up so the goats don't have to crowd on one feeder so much.


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