We Have Our Goats - quick question or two

[Buzz'n Billy]

Yesterday we established our goat herd with 6 does - two definitely pregnant, one possibly and two not. These are not friendly, but extremely curious and of course, cute as can be.

Long story short, we brought them home and pulled them off the trailer into the net fencing. All went relatively well, except for two escapees who are bounding carefree throughout out our heavily wooded 10 acres.

My first question is we have the opportunity to purchase a very, very friendly doe, about 18 months to two years old. Do you think putting in the friendly one will help the others become a little easier to manage?

Also, ANY, ANY advice on getting the two escapees back with their herd?

My bribe to you for help:

 

[goats&moregoats]

Beautiful animals!! Time& patience: that is the key to winning them over. Lots of time. However, having a people friendly goat in there would help them see that you aren't about to tear them apart. Most of them will at least settle down a bit when they figure out that you are their food source.

They may wander back to be close to the others or not...lol. Hopefully they will, you can try some good smelling treat for them, but that is only if you can get close enough. Good luck and congrats with your new goat family.

 

[bloonskiller911]

we had a very skittish goat and a tame one, it took lots of time but as my wife says, "the way to a goats heart is the same as a mans. Through its stomach!" sweet feed, just a little daily will get them on their way to being friendly, and just being around with out having to catch them to perform some task. they are very curious animals. Good luck and they are very nice looking.

 

[Southern by choice]

It really depends on how "wild" they are. Often goats that have been out on range with little human contact will not get any better. If they were use to feed then shaking a feed can may help. If they were never "trained" to a feed can and lived strictly off forage than it probably won't work.

Bringing in one sweet doe could be harder on that doe. If you had 2 so they could pair and buddy up that would be better. If this herd has always been together than I doubt they would accept her into the herd.

Check around for some cattleman... sounds like if they continue to stay away they may need to be roped.

 

[Rosebud's Favorites]

We have had little luck with the hook catcher with an elusive goat...we have found that we can use a fence panel to corral them in a smaller area to catch them. I agree with offering treats so they will learn to come to you. I have a buckling I'm still working with that the breeders did not people orient him He's becoming more trusting and he has learned his name. I make sure when he is at the feed trough, I pet him, so he knows I'm friendly. It takes awhile.

 

[Buzz'n Billy]

Thank you all! Plans changed, drastically - we now have 6 on the lam within the 10, heavily wooded acres. Hubby found them this morning. They were herded up together and hanging out munching on forage. Looked happy as goats on the lam. Bringing in a tame one definitely is not going to work - and she's going to be super lonely. And like a poster above said, I would definitely now be afraid of the herd picking on her.

I've detailed the recent experience on our blog. I'm not proud of what happened, but it ended well and the good news is we still have our 6 does and they are doing fine.

We have a net fencing trap set up in a flat open area - they have food, water and shelter there. They went last night and ate.

The big thing we have in our favor now, is that the area they are bedding down in is also very flat and perfect for the net fencing. We should be able to get them there. Also, we believe that a few of them met our electric fence, because when hubby was near them early, they flushed, but gave a lot of respect to the fence.

UGH!!

 

[Southern by choice]

Glad they are at least safe.
LOVE electric fencing!

What kind of netting are you using?
Wee they trained to netting before you got them?

 

[Buzz'n Billy]

What kind of netting are you using?
Wee they trained to netting before you got them?

Premier 1

No they were not, but either were we. We did a very poor job of setting it up. You have to have more meadow/pasture- like (flat) terrain. We now have our "trap" set up properly. Electric to that is currently NOT on, but when we turn it on and train them, it's juiced up about 8.5 volts.

(I'm trying very hard to not beat myself up over this - everything did turn out fine, and I have to believe that I'm not the first person this has happened to - putting this out publicly here and on our blog was VERY hard).

 

[Southern by choice]

Nah don't beat yourself up!
Sometimes things happen and sometimes, in hindsight, we think wow I should have thought of this or that etc.

The first time we trained our dairy goats to hotwire we set up a big square- inside of our hard wire area. We knew they may go through and we were worried they would run out to the road- we live on a country highway.

If was awful! They were getting shocked but not "getting" it and some were jumping over and some... well some got tangled in it!
yep 3 strand hotwire wrapped around a flailing goat! UGH.
To turn it off was all the way up at the house- OH MY! I thought they'd never get it. Now we use tape 5 strand (for kids and pups) and they all respect it but I know they would never respect the netting.
I wish they would I'd love to use the netting.

Our Kikos get moved through the woods and we have to still put posts and string the wire... UGH it takes forever.

 

[babsbag]

Don't feel bad about the escapees. When I first got my 3 goats we had a pretty secure inner corral and a not so secure pasture. I would let them into the pasture after work and constantly watch with one eye. DH didn't know that as he worked out of town during the week. On the first weekend he was alone with them he let them out and he took a nap. Woke up to NO goats. We looked all the next day and then we put up a sign. The next day we got a call from 3 MILES away...our goats were eating their roses and they were now in locked in their chicken coop We retrieved our goats and learned about hot wire installation and they have been captive ever since.
They respect the wire, all I have to do is run one strand and they will stay away, but I have a 2x4 no climb fence 4' tall and a hot wire at the knee level and the top. Keeps the fence looking good and keeps them in and the LGDs.

I do have the netting also, but have never used it for the goats, only for chickens. Not sure what they would do with it.