Official Poll: How do you care for your herds during winter?

[amykinsmarie]

We've been snowblowing paths for our goats so that they can still get out of their barn and run around. They love it!

 

[1crazybird]

I do a few other things not listed... I put a flap on the front of the goat house, make sure my critters have extra food, i have a watering pond that i will put a heater in to keep it warm and let them out of their pens to search for extra treats among the woods near by.

 

[1crazybird]

This is my first year with goats in the winter but I have had rabbits for 3.

I serve warm water to them and keep it available all day. With 3 goats it is pretty easy. With the rabbits, they get it 2 times a day.

I keep them off the freezing ground. The rabbits all get baskets of hay to stay off the cold and drafty wire and the goats get moved into the rabbit barn with individual stalls to keep them dry and warmer than their 3.5 walled, uninsulated hut. Two of the goats are sissies and flat out refuse to get wet or snowed on while one just doesn't give a care. I have been feeding a little extra grain to them and the rabbits along with tons of hay. I do not use straw as it has no nutritional value and if they nibble on that, they will fill up and not eat the healthy stuff. We also do not use heat lamps or heaters of any kind due to fire hazards. Not to mention, rabbit hair (French Lops especially) gets on everything and just clings to it.

Next year we will be doing something totally different as the rabbits will be gone.

Goats like to snuggle, so just as a suggestion don't separate your critters. Good luck!!!

 

[samssimonsays]

Goats like to snuggle, so just as a suggestion don't separate your critters. Good luck!!!

Thanks! We kept the does together stalled in two stalls we made one big one and the weather is too ramy with the littlest goat so he got his own stall.

 

[Goatchaser]

Mine already have shelters they are free to go in and out as they please. It's rare I would close them in due to weather. For winter here:

Switch to a heated water tub for the ponies. There's no heated water bucket for the sheep yet - no electric at the barn, and I dump and refill the sheep's buckets much more often, which would take longer with an electric bucket.

Make sure I have enough hay (in this area, by September or October), so I can feed extra hay when it gets extra cold.

Make sure a broom or snow shovel is handy, so when it snows I can keep the snow shoveled away from gates, so they can still swing freely.

In the winter, I tend to give the ponies more of the fancy flavored salt licks, like apple and peppermint, to help encourage water intake. Started this after one of them had a (thankfully) mild impaction colic one winter.

Bring anything that might freeze from the barn into the house (hydrogen peroxide, iodine, etc... from the first aid kit; horse fly spray, grooming products, etc...).

Make sure hammer and sieve (with handle) is at the barn for the sheep's water. Hammer to break up the ice, sieve to fish out the chunks of ice (I froze my fingers for years till I read this tip in a horse magazine). Some people switch to the black rubber water buckets that can take a real beating and never break.

Thank you norseofcourse, I live in south western N.Y. state and usually get the same weather as you folks, only about 3 or 4 hours later. I'm new to herd animals, this spring we get 3 goats. 2 nigerian doelings and an alpine/nigerian buckling. The buckling. I banded the buckling at the appropriate time and he healed up healthy!
I am trying to learn all I can for herd safety for our cold winter season in advance. Because we all know how quickly it'll seek up!!
Great posts by every one
Mike

 

[Goatchaser]

Thanks! We kept the does together stalled in two stalls we made one big one and the weather is too ramy with the littlest goat so he got his own stall.

They sure do like to snuggle! And not just in the winter time!!!!