And goat determination wins....

[katlovesaandw]

Well, bought some foundation remesh as holes looked big enough for chickens to get thru but not goats. And at 42 in. x 8 ft overall it was perfect to hang chicken feed in corner, put wire in front and goat couldnt get thru.
Well, it took 2 days but Snow did.....GRRR

Food is once again hung up out of the way until hubby gets home and we move onto another solution.

Ok, those that have goats AND chickens residing in same area.....HOW do you keep chicken feed from goats?
Keep in mind ours are babies and therefore I think able to get thru most places still.....I know it will be easier once they are larger but right now.....GRRR.

 

[animalmom]

I do feel for your problem. We have both chickens and Nigerian Dwarfs. We house the "extra" roosters with the goats; three goat pens, three extra roosters.

I feed the goats and the DH feeds the chickens. Goats get fed twice a day. We have pens for the goats. When the goats are fed I add a handful of "milking ration" to each bucket for the roosters. The milking ration has pressed corn in it. The roosters in the goat pens also get chicken scratch that they share with the goats... only fair as the goats share their food with the roosters.

We started out trying to set up a corner where we could hang a feeder for the rooster that would also be goat proof. We were successful but it is not the stellar corner of the pen to say the least. We stopped worrying about the roosters when we took the rooster that was in with the hens and had availability to chicken feed whenever the chickens were out of the coop. The chicken hen did not weigh as much as the rooster we replaced him with... one of the goat roosters.

This may not work for everyone, but it works for us. Nice to have back-up roosters who scratch around in the goats' pens and good to know they are getting enough to eat. Roosters come to the food trough and eat with the goats, once they finish whatever is thrown in for them.

As I said, works for us. Goats don't get chicken feed, and the roosters seem to do quite well on the goat milking ration.

Would this work for your layers? That is another question!

 

[katlovesaandw]

I have no idea....
I read on another that they closed the hen door and opened the nesting boxes...with the chicken feed in house during day...hens went in via the nesting boxes, goats couldnt.
That would work BUT we have muscovy ducks as well.....and nesting boxes are outside the coop.....

Right now, babies are sleeping at night in chicken house....this weekend, their igloo is getting a secure door added OR hubby is making them a house with a door and they will be moved to that....whether they want it or not! Tired of petting a poopy backed goat.

When that happens, I will show hubby the door entrance someone on here added to prevent the goats from entering chicken house....then food will be moved there.

OR once the goats have their own house.....we will scatter the chicken food, let them out while we fill water buckets, get goat feed out for the day, etc. and once it is gone....it is gone. Then let goats out at the end. Or feed them in their small pen and chickens with scattered food in their pen, then open door as last resort....

We are only on day 3 of this......I am just glad we only spent $7.20 on the wire piece....and didn't splurge for something like a hog panel at the feed store.... the hole spacing was about the same.

I know once the boys are larger....this will be easier but they are determined little turds! Funny part is it was Snow, who is not food motivated..... he sees you with a treat....and usually ignores you. Grover on the other hand.....sees a fly on your hand and thinks you have a treat and comes running.....

*sigh....back to drawing board!

 

[Squirrelgirl88]

We hung the chicken feeder above the nesting boxes.....thinking the goats couldn't possibly jump up there. HA. So hubby nailed a board up at a 45degree angle. The chickens can jump up on the board and get to the feeder, but the goats can't jump over it because it angles up over their heads. It has worked for us for two years now. We have Nigerians, so they can't get as high as a full size goat.

Now the chickens can get to the goat feed, but the goats take care of that. They refuse to share and any chicken that dare stick her neck into the feeder gets a horn in the butt.

 

[Fluffygal]

Animalmom I may use your rooster arrangement. Right now I have only 1 extra roo and he is lonely in his pen. I got some girls for him but they are too young n small to put with him yet. Ofcourse I honestly would not mind a slightly smaller rooster that is more yard Davy then the big ol Wyndotte roosters.

Due to fox issue my chickens are only getting to free range a few hours in the evening when I get home. So once the goats are fed and put up the chickens are let out.

Before the foxes showed up everyone free ranged together. The chicken food is put up till the evening when the goats are put up n fed. True chickens would then have a couple of hours of yard time goat free with their food.

 

[treeclimber233]

What I did to keep the goats out of the chicken feed was put a feeder outside of the goat pen and let the chickens stick their head thru the wire to eat. I have chain link fence on part of my goat pen. May be you could buy a chain link gate to put in a corner of your stall. That way you could open the door to put food in the feeder and close the gate and let the chickens stick their head in and eat. I have a J-feeder used mainly for ferrets that is easily wired to the chain link fence.

 

[katlovesaandw]

That is a good idea on having the feeder outside the chain link!
That is all the pen is made of, chain link panels and posts.
We could get one of those long open feeders and have hubby put a roof on it so it doesnt get wet....need to make sure ducks can get to it too.