PLEASE help me with fencing!

[lilhill]

We have the 2x4" welded wire, 5' tall, and have never had a problem with escapes in almost 6 years. With bucks, we put hot wire inside the pens to keep them off of it. Some of our property has some little "hills" and the fence will stretch just enough to get it close enough to the ground on the T-posts.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Guess what, goats will walk right over chain link fencing, grrrrr
Add electric, it works
Mostly, they learn to respect that wire. When Dixie first came onto our place, we didn't have electric. A few days later, we ran some around part of the backyard, just to keep them off the back door. One tentative nose touch and that was it, she kept her distance from that point forward. Even when our cheapo charger died, it took them several days to figure it out and escape.

We will be running electric on extended insulators all the way around our fencing soon.

 

[jlbpooh]

We have about 1/3 acre fenced in for 4 Nigerian Dwarfs. We used cedar posts 10 feet apart and Red Brand 4' tall woven wire field fencing. I also have a strand of electric on the inside about 12 inches off the ground to prevent leaning on the fence. There is another strand of electric 6" off the ground on the outside and a strand about 6" above the top of the woven wire. We have had our goaties since they were babies and no one has ever even made the attempt to escape. Our fence charger runs on a battery with a solar powered trickle charger attached to it. It is a 2.something joule, 9600 volt 30 mile fence charger with 3 8' ground rods 10' apart. If you bump the fence, it will remind you that it is there. LOL.

 

[dianneS]

One question, do any of your goats have horns? That would impact the type of fencing you can use.

I have a woven wire field fence that has smaller holes at the bottom 2"x6" and the holes get gradually bigger at the top 6"x6". The bottom holes are small enough I've never had even the tiniest baby kids escape. The only problem that could be encountered with that type of fencing is that the upper holes are big enough for a taller goat with horns to get its head stuck.

So far for me this fencing has been fool-proof (well almost, Patsy got her head stuck a few times, but I think she's learned her lesson! and it was cheap too. It was around $150 for 330' as well. We do have the advantage of having it tacked to the inside of 4 rail split rail horse fencing though, but the wire is really what holds the goats in.

My goats are all dwarf breeds so no one can jump this fence either. Its around 4'.

 

[sammileah]

horns are a pain. we have 6ft chainlink around our backyard and dog run. took yrs and alot of connections to amass enough fence. works great, unless you have a rabbit hutch that a pain in my buck jumps on and then ove the fence or your gates sucks.
my goats have a nice 3/4 an acre lot that they have run of but nooo. we have feild fence and ele. my buck has learned how to ground out the ele and jump the fence. i guess horns make good insolators.
so he's in my 1/4 acre backyard. and if he's in there then my doe thinks she needs to be and if she can fit her head thru she's out.
so i'm still trying to figure out the fence. and straight ele won't work here in the winter.
i have a saneen and a kinder.

 

[Shootingstars]

HI, thanks for all these answers, my goats don't have horns but some have scurs.

The bus just pulled up, I will be back!

 

[mully]

Look into high tensile fencing ...add an electric fencer and you have a goat proof fence. Electric needs to be about 7,000 volts and a 6 wire fence ... from the ground up at 6", 12", 18" 26", 36" and top wire at 48" HT fencing is cheaper than woven wire, goes up easely and fast. Lots of good info on some of the mfg, websites. Go here for good info www.gallagherusa.com/

 

[Drk_wlf]

We used Cattle Panels I think they are 4x16, I have 3 Alpines a pygmy and 3 sheep. One of the alpines has horns and so does the pygmy and the ram. They are pretty good about figuring out how to get their heads unstuck. I have not had to help one of them yet. I don't know what I will do come kidding season, the holes are pretty big and a kid might be able to wiggle out.