can goats free range like chickens?

[Arabiansnob]

There must be something wrong with my goat then....lol. We used to let her free ranged every where and put her in the barn at night......but with her free ranging she would poop on the tared drive way and she is agressive to other people... (like my grandmother) Needless to say we had to built a fence. Buuut for about five year we would just let her out in the morning and let her run around and eat and she would never run awway or anthing. we would just put her in at night. We also have a camp on a lake, and surring the summer my dad would just leave the barn door open for her to go into at night (witch i was agianst) I thought a cyote might get her or something. Buut it might depend on where you live to and your goat personality?

 

[Sydney]

I haveread they will usually return home at night to their shelter. Check out this site,its about a free eange goat farm http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/cgi-bin/page.cgi?id=644

 

[Bryannjamie]

I think the term free range confuses people. Our goats/chickens/rabbits free range over about an acre, but it is fenced. They go anywhere they want all the time within the fence. Smaller chicks and most rabbits can get out but dont seem to leave the yard. There are two goat shelters out there and some times they go inside- typically rain- other times they sleep out on palets that are stacked here and there. Predators dont bother them at all (and we do have coyote in the woods) and I would swear their presence keeps the rest of the free rangers safe.
The few times they have unlatched the gate, they wander around the yard together looking bewildered and easily go back in.
This is nothing like an escaped dog that you have to chase down and bribe with food to get home.

 

[savingdogs]

It looks like you have been given some really great advice already about goat keeping so I just have one comment to add.

My goats do free range....sort of. We live in a very remote area. Our dogs patrol the entire hillside for predators and keep them away from the house. We have fencing around certain areas where landscaped and poisonous plants grow. But other than that, they do free range the forest here. But we let them out only when we are home, especially when working outside, so we can keep an eye on them. Our goats are VERY bonded to people and we find they usually are hanging out on the porches, not trying to leave. But I don't believe all goats would have this type of personality. They are also bonded very much to each other, so where one goes, the others follow. But we did not PLAN for this to happen and had goat appropriate fencing around their shelter and kept them there for months and months before ever letting them out. We did take them on "goat walks" and found they would follow us without leads and have always tended to want to run back to their house.

 

[scrambledmess]

We just ran into a chink in our free ranging venture. They found their way into the garage and are NOT leaving LOL I guess they figure it is rainy and windy and they want better shelter. So they are locked up in the garage for the night cause non of us humans want to be in the rain or wind either.

 

[lilhill]

We just ran into a chink in our free ranging venture. They found their way into the garage and are NOT leaving LOL I guess they figure it is rainy and windy and they want better shelter. So they are locked up in the garage for the night cause non of us humans want to be in the rain or wind either.

Goats are smarter than some people think.

 

[IloveEdwardCullen]

hmmm idk

 

[Bryannjamie]

I thought of you today when the kids left the fence door open. Although there is plenty of land back there, the doe came out of the fence and ate all the forage around the door. I yelled from my deck "get back in there" and by the time I went outside she was in. But......today I went to visit the buck we breed with. He leaped the fence and went into the road. He is no longer.
You just never know.