New Kid

Last week Chipper gave birth to a large, robust little boy. Surprisingly he was all white. I was expecting some color, but alas not a colored hair on him.

Chipper did fine. And Little Adam is strong and active. Adam named him Little Adam, though I haven't a clue why. This little kid is destined for barbecue in 5 months, so perhaps this is Adam's way of laying claim to his upcoming meals. 

Fencing in the Goats

With Francis the Goat having figured out how to jump over then fence, the task now is to come up with a working solution to prevent that. I'm looking into something that the farm can provide, as apposed to buying fencing. I could always resort to a hotwire (and perhaps I will need to do that in the long run), but I'd rather try something more self reliant. A few weeks ago while visiting another farm, I saw how they tied bamboo poles to a field fence in order to give privacy. Toying with this idea, I morphed it a bit into a fence height extender. 

Introducing the guava pole fence extender...........

Simple. Easy. Cheap. And hopefully when it's completed, it will look "woodsy & farmy", plus keep the goats inside their pasture pen. 

I have quite a nice guava pole production area which I've been harvesting for years to make garden markers, trellises, barrier fences, etc. Now those saplings are really going to come in handy. 

Above, a pile of poles ready to weave into the fence. This is going to take a lot of poles! 

With the guava pole forest being very crowed, the saplings grow tall, somewhat straight, with very few side branches. Perfect for garden poles. Looks like they will be good for this project too. 

Adam has been gathering poles, a slow process but not all that difficult. Their size and shape don't need to be perfect for this task. They just have to be thin enough to weave into the fence. 

No fasteners needed. Just weave them into the fence and they stay in place. Presently Adam is spacing them apart several inches, basically using one pole per fence square. We shall see if this is close enough to thwart a goat. 

Goats Are Challenging

Having dairy goats has been interesting, fun, but also challenging. But then, having goats is always challenging. They are, after all, an interesting critter. 

Calico, the mom, is a real sweetheart. Her first two kids, not so little anymore, are curious and mischievous. Recently I moved them into a new pasture. It didn't take them long to discover the uprooted tree stump left over from the windstorm of a couple years ago. 

Playing king of the mountain instantly became the favorite past time. The only problem with this was that the stump is a bit too close to the fenceline. 

Francis discovered he could give a mighty leap from atop the stump and be out of the pen. What-ho, what fun! Mr Destructo was on the loose! That necessitated enticing him back into the old pasture again in order to confine him. And that necessitated returning the rest of the herd to the old pasture with him. 

Next job on order..........beef up the fence height to keep the goats in. I have a couple of options on how to do that, but I've decided to try something I saw at another farm. By using guava poles, I'm adding slats to the fence and adding height. I'll show you how that's is going along in my next posting. 

New Baby Goatlings

Happily Calico decided to kid on a nice, dry, sunny day. She snuck off to the furthest corner of her pasture, seeking a bit of privacy. There she kidded two beautiful goatlings, one boy, one girl. 

I didn't capture the births, but judging from the looks of the kids, I'd venture to guess that the girl was born first. 

Above is the boy. He was still pretty damp when I discovered him, and his ears were still floppy. But he is strong, up and toddling about, and nursed shortly after the photo was taken. 

The little girl is an aggressive nurser and a real glutton. Every opportunity, she was looking for Calico's udder. 

Both kids are strong. They appear healthy. 

First Dairy Goats Arrive

Three new arrivals have joined our homestead farm, making the farm a bit more complete. 

Cali.......the mom. She's mostly Nigerian but not pure. Around here, purebred anything is the oddity, it appears. I'm not sure why people here prefer to mix their breeds of goats, cattle, horses, chickens, dogs....you name it, whatever. But they do. So Cali is mostly Nigerian, but something else was mixed in. She was bred to a mostly Nigerian buck, resulting in 2 kids........

Chipper......

It's a doeling. Cute, playful. Sweet. 

Francis......

A handsome little buckling. Smart and friendly. 

The kids are about 4 days old and doing fine. I plan to let them nurse off of mom during the day, boxing them at night so that I can milk Cali first thing in the morning. We shall see how well this works out. 

Being mostly Nigerian, Cali has small teats. She's a two finger milker, for sure. I've already been working with her and she allows me to milk her with very little problem. Nice goat, considering she's never done this before. I'm taking whatever amount of milk that I want for our breakfast table, then letting the kids rejoin mom. 

Why Nigerian Goats?

Why did I choose to go with Nigerians? Fair question. There are plenty of goat breeds that produce a heck of a lot more milk than Nigerians. So little Nigerians are a poor choice for milk production and feed conversation. But have you noticed that they have short legs? I consider that to be a major plus! 

Around here, I use standard 4' high field fencing. I tend to rotate the livestock through the pastures, so I want an economical fencing that will hold in all my livestock. Fencing sold here for sheep is too short for goats. And anything over 4' high gets pricy. So 4' is my best compromise. 

Now....4' isn't high enough to keep in a curious standard sized goat. While I see plenty of goats behind 4' fences, I also hear plenty of tales of owners chasing wayward goats......gardens and prized shrubs getting eaten....goats getting onto the highway and causing accidents. I've had my own incidents of my own goat, Bucky, hopping my fence and eating almost my entire garden by morning! 

Building a goat-only pasture system wasn't appealing. Having to go to the expense of 5' or 6' fencing plus all those extra long t-posts wasn't in my budget. And the thought of having to pound in 8' t-posts sounded way too painful. Remember, I'm doing most everything by human power, not farm machinery. 

Nigerians are also known for having sweet milk. Among my Alpines, while most had decent tasting milk, I often had to cull out those that had a strong goaty flavored milk. And even their best milk had that slight goaty undertone. I thought that off flavored milk was due to having a buck around or by letting them eat strong tasting foods, but that wasn't the case with my does. They all ate the exact same diet and sometimes I'd get a new doe with strong, objectionable milk. So there must be a genetic factor involved. Nigerians supposedly don't have this problem. We shall see. 

Nigerians have nice personalities. Every person I've talked with who has or had Nigerians say that they liked them. That's a plus. I can't say that for some breeds. Even my own Bucky, a Nubian wether, isn't all that pleasant to be around. Some Nubians can be a challenge to handle......and those make nice smoked meat, sausage, dog food.

So I'm on a quest to find a few nice goats that are all or mostly Nigerian. Around here, purebred anything is difficult to find, so I'm willing to consider goats that are high percentage Nigerian. As long as they have short legs and sweet milk! 

Setting Up For Dairy Goats

I'm ready to add a couple of dairy goats. While Saanans, Alpines, and other breeds are better milkers, I've settled upon getting a couple of Nigerians. They are smaller goats that are less apt to jump a four foot high standard field fence. And besides, I don't need lots of milk. Since Nigerians already exist on this island, it won't be a major problem finding a few for sale. 

The first task is to make a secure pasture. The area near the mini-barn has several large rock piles that would make a wonderful playground for goats. It's about half an acre. And it's a plus that it's near the barn, the electricity, and a water source. The only down side is that some of the area is pahoehoe lava with very, very shallow soil. Thus pounding in fence posts will be a challenge without bringing in a hydraulic hammer or a big rock drill. 

Keeping that pahoehoe lava in mind, I purchased some standard 6' t-posts, but also some shorter 5' ones. It turned out to be a good idea. Some of those 5 footers were needed. Since they couldn't be pounded in far enough, a bit of concrete at the base holds them well enough. 

A roll of mid-grade field fence was fairly easy to put up. Not that a fencing job is easy! It's not complicated, but it's hard work. Since the grass had grown up too much, the first step was to weedwack a path for the fencing. Pound in the posts, then roll out the fence. Working from one end, pull the fencing into place and clip it to the t-posts. Sounds simple. It's a workout far better than any gym will give you....and without the need of a membership fee! 

In that this fencing may some day need to be raised in height, I opted to buy a 6' high gate. It was only $10 more than the 4' high one. I thought it was good insurance to go with the 6' gate. But let's hope that the goats don't learn to jump the fence. 

Once the fencing was up, the next task was to erect a shelter for them. Here in my area, the only shelter they need (or will use) is a rain roof. 

I wanted the shelter to be near the mini-barn. So a simple rain roof was built up against the tool shed. This will work for rain protection just fine. Rains here are seldom ever wind driven. In fact, in the past 13 years I've never had rain come in sideways at an angle. But if we were to get a hurricane, I could nail up temporary tarp walls for better protection. 

I plan to build a milking stand against that shed wall under the rain roof, but that will be a future project. 

One extra benefit of that rain roof will be to help keep the goats' water trough full. I plan to get two small Rubbermaid livestock troughs and position them to catch the rain running off the roof. 

Feral Goat Herd

I don't think I've mentioned my feral goat herd. They're fairly recent additions but have been around long enough now that they are getting use to seeing me come & go. With them being captured ferals, I don't expect them ever to become friendly, but at least now I get to see them daily, albeit at a distance. So all of the photos I have of them are taken at quite a distance, thus are fuzzy.   

I started out with 6 goats, but I think one flew the coop. So it looks like I still have 2 billys and 3 nannys.  In the above photo, the big brown billy can be seen walking in front of the large tree. This was a lucky shot, plus the closest I've been to that goat since I released him into the pastures. I didn't have to use a lot of camera zoom. To his right there are 2 black girls, but it's tough to pick them out. 

Usually this is how close I can get to him......that little light dot in the center of the above pic, to the right of the tree trunks. And further into the distance are the 3 black nannys. 

Checking on the sheep one morning I was surprised to see the black billy among them. He was quite obvious to me, because he has horns. My sheep don't. I had to use quite a bit of zoom to get the photo because as I tried getting closer the billy saw me and took off. Flash.....gone! 

Just this morning I lucked out again, finding all 5 up with the sheep flock. Still had to use quite a bit of camera zoom to get this photo, but you can see not only the brown billy but the young small black nanny standing in front of him. Once they spot me, they take off. But at least they are running slower and take their time before deciding to leave. Ah, I'm making progress. 

Why keep feral goats? Because I'm a sucker. A local hunter needed some cash and was going around selling a pick up truckload of feral goats that he had captured. He had managed to sell all but these last ones. After being tied up in the back of a truck for two days, they were really sad looking and terrified goats, not to mention hungry. Judging from their dirt and smell, they had been on the bottom of the pile of goats. Since he had run out of a market to buy these last few, he planned to slaughter and smoke them himself. I happened to enter the picture at that time when he drove to my gate. Being a sucker for a stressed animal, I ended up buying them. Geez, I'm a wuss. 

If I don't want to admit to being a softee, I can always claim that goats help round out pasture management and keep it healthier and more productive by eating the browse that sheep won't. Gee, sounds like good reasoning to me!!!

New Feral Goats

Feral goats are fairly common around here. Plenty of locals will buy them from the hunters, tame them down, and make brush/lawn mowers out of them......often eventually eating them at some future family luau. 

Here's my first two feral goats that haven't been tamed yet. Both adults and wild as can be. Both captured down at Pebble Beach yesterday. 

This is a small billy, quite stinky as only a billy goat can be. Puwiieeee! My neighbor is guessing he's about 4 years old. I don't have any experience trying to age guess a feral goat. So for now I'll just say that he's a young adult. This guy is small but quick, highly alert, very distrusting, quick to bolt. 

The second one is a young nanny, a couple years old too. She's already had a kid, so she's at least two years old or more. Like the billy, she's real wild. Bolts at the drop of a hat. 

Since I haven't tried taming a feral before, I dropped by some locals who do it all the time in order to get some instructions. Apparently food is the key. Tie them up on a short rope and be the sole bringer of food, particularly good tasting food. So I'm planning on getting these two addicted to mangos, papayas, sweet mix, and alfalfa. I'll let them graze grass and brush during the day on their short tie out ropes, but if they want the goodies, they will have to learn to accept hand feeding. 

No names on these two yet. I'm going to concentrate on taming them first. 

Will Goats Eat Tomato Plants

Yes, will a goat eat tomato plants? That's one of the questions I've recently fielded via email. 

Answer ......yes. 

Above, Nani is ignoring the various grasses and hono hono grass to purposely eat the volunteer tomato plant that she found. 

You would think that a goat would avoid this plant. It's mildly toxic. The leaves are strongly scented. It just doesn't seem to be a thing that animals would want to eat. Wrong. Both my goats and sheep will, and have, eaten entire plants right down to the thick stems. They prefer the young growing tips, but will repeatedly return to the plant until there is almost nothing left. 

Conclusion? Keep the goat away from the garden. 

Goatling Leaves for New Home

Little Stormy is heading for his new home. One of the neighbors has been wanting him in order to keep their other goat company. So they have bern patiently waiting for Stormy to grow up. He needed to grow large enough where he couldn't squeeze through the field fence. Well, he's finally made it. 

What a cutie he's been. And a little brat....but then again, he's a goatling. They are all brats! 

As you can see, Stormy is already getting his horns. Since the neighbor's other goat is horned, we opted to let Stormy keep his. He will need them in order not to be bullied by the other goat. If I had planned on keeping him, then Stormy would have been dehorned. So horns he got to keep. No so with testicles. He's been banded, so he won't become a stinky billy goat. 

My next door neighbor has helped raise Stormy.....in fact he named him too.....and has made this little guy rather tame and friendly. 

So I expect that Stormy will do well in his new home. Lucky goat! He gets the chance to live a long natural life. No BBQ or smoke meat future for this little goat. 

Oh by the way, his name is going to be changed to Clyde. Since little Stormy doesn't know his current name yet, it's fine if the new owners wish to use a different name. Over time, he'll learn that he has a name...and Clyde is shall be. 

People often ask me if I'm sad when a kid, lamb, pig or whatever gets sold or given away. No, not really. By the time I've thought about arranging the deal, my mind has already accepted the fact that this one goes. When I got into having livestock, I accepted the fact up front that some special ones might stay forever, but 99% won't. 

People also say, "How could you sell or give away an animal knowing that it might be slaughtered?" Again, I accepted the fact before I got into livestock. So for me it's not a problem. 

Goats & Sheep With Horns

I just posted about the disbudding of kids and lambs, but what about adults that already have horns? How do I deal with them? Well, that depends upon the individual animal. 

Bucky is a smarty and is wise enough to understand the value and use of his horns. I often see him using them to scratch his back. He's been known to rip barbed wire right off the t-posts and take down electric fencing using those horns. He's worked on gates and other barriers trying to escape. Not that he hates being where he is, but he's a goat full of curiosity, just doing goat things. His most dangerous habits are using his horns on others. He will bash other goats and sheep. I've seen him try to jab the horse and donkeys. And many a time he's been successful in jabbing me. 

Harley on the other hand seldom uses his horns. First of all, they are far larger than Bucky's, so they aren't as versatile. But he's never tried to butt or jab with them. 

Neither Nanny nor Honami use their horns for anything but scratching their backs. But both do have a history of getting their heads caught in fences. They will stick their noses just about anywhere. 

Except for Harley, I've had to do something about the horns because of dangerous problems. Bucky cause injuries, thus his horns need balls or knobs on the ends. Nanny and Honami need rods attached to the horns to prevent them from being caught in the fencing. 

A neighbor has a goat who is horned and lives with four non-horned pasture mates. She has resorted to balling the horns to prevent injuries to the pasture mates. 

I don't know if you can buy horn knobs for goats, but I've heard of people using all sorts of things in place of commercial knobs. Balls work. So do the smallest kong dog chew toys. They just need to be attached in some way to the horns. I heard of gorilla glue and liquid nails being used. Some people try using various tapes. And others will screw the ball or kong to the horns. But care must be taken when using screws because only the last inch or so is dead horn. Further back is sensitive, blood fed quick. 

Goats & Sheep : Disbudding Debate

Jenna at coldantlerfarm.com recently talked about dehorning goats. Good topic that any small goat or sheep holder needs to consider. Same for cattle owners, but I'll only be talking in regard to goats and sheep since I've never owned a cow. To horn or not to horn, that is the question. Pros and cons. First a definition-- dehorning in my discussion applies to adults, disbudding applies to young kids. Young kids don't have horns, they have horn buds where the horns will eventually grow.

In the USA we still have the right to decide if we wish to disbud our kids. In some countries, that right has been taken away and disbudding has been made illegal. So I'm not going to get into the political aspects. But I'll give you some background. In many European countries it is entirely banned. In the UK, disbudding is banned unless done by a veterinarian and under anesthesia. Coming from a veterinary background, I'm not all that sure I agree with this. Whether this whole disbudding ban/regulation is good or not is still debatable. There are pros and cons, to be sure. It's a complicated debate fraught with emotion and questionable argument.

Disbudding kids is done when they are young, usually between 2 to 10 days of age, depending upon the health of the kid and the development of the horn bud. The most humane and quick method is to use a hot iron designed for disbudding the particular size animal. The growth ring of the horn bud is burned for 5-10 seconds. Yes, it hurts at the time. (But so do vaccinations for infants and children.) The pain seems to be transitory. The kids immediately go back to nursing if returned to their mom immediately.  Whatever discomfort they may have afterward doesn't appear to be much worse that the sore, tender site of a childhood vaccination. Not to belittle the procedure, but it isn't all that debilitating if it is done correctly. The problems arise when disbudding is not done correctly. 

So are my own goats disbudded? No. Why? Because they came to me too old for disbudding, except for the three that were born here. I didn't disbud them because I didn't plan to keep them. Would I disbud kids I planned to keep for myself? You betcha! So I'll go into the pros and cons that I've weighed inside my head. 

Cons.. 

...causes pain when the procedure is being done. 

...there is a chance that the procedure could be done incorrectly, thus severely harming or killing the kid/lamb. 

...training of the person doing the procedure is not required. By the way, just because the person is a veterinarian doesn't mean that they were trained to do disbudding. Oftentimes it is a lay person who is the expert. 

...post procedure complications can occur. 

...anesthesia often is not used. Post procedure pain relief is often not used. 

...adult animal cannot use their horns when interacting (butting) with flock members. 

...adults don't have horns to use for scratching their backs. (Neither do naturally polled in animal)s, by the way.)

...adults don't have horns for defense nor fighting. 

...no easy "handle" to grab when catching or handling the adults. 

Pros..

...the long term benefits out weigh the short term discomfort. 

...pain is temporary and beyond the first 10 seconds, does not seem too inhibit the kid/lamb as long as the procedure was done correctly. 

...no horns to be accidently knocked off or entangled during fights.

...no horns to injure or kill other flock members. 

...no horns to get stuck in fencing. 

...no horns to become entangled. 

...no horns to cause human injury. 

...dairy animals can enter milking stations easier without horns. 

...non-horned animals can access keyhole feeders. 

Horned animals can be managed ok, of course. But the danger factor isn't eliminated. 

Most sheep and goats with horns are fully aware of them. Besides using them as tools, it strongly affects their temperament and behavior towards others, be they four legged or two. I have seen plenty of instances where a horned goat was incredibly dangerous to be around but once the horns were "knobbed", the aggression ceased. The goat knew that its weapons of pain had been neutralized. I also hear vast more stories of goats and sheep being too aggressive to be around, with just about all those animals being horned (and the billys and rams being non-neutered). Of those animals that had been knobbed (and the intact makes neutered), almost all became manageable. Regretfully for the animals, most simply end up being shot. Dangerous animals don't fit well on a farm. 

A Time to Die, A Time To Be Born

On a homestead, I've become acutely aware of the circle of life. Some things die, some are born. It's an ongoing affair. 

A homestead blog that I enjoy just announced the passing of one of their goats, Gruffy.

http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Death is normal and inevitable. 

Today I'm announcing the birth of a new goat kid. 

This little one was born during the night. When we found it this morning, it was already dry, well nursed, and standing strongly. 

We haven't named this one yet. I'll let my neighbor come up with some suggestions. If it had been a boy, I might have opted for Gruffy. But it's a little girl, so that name seems too harsh for a doeling. I'll let you know what her name turns out to be. 

The New Kids are Named

My neighbor made the name suggestions. 

The blue eyed one will be Stormy. 

The brown eyed one will be Windy. 

I have a major correction to announce. BOTH kids are males. I must have been blind the first time I checked.......or my brain needed rebooting. I really believed that Stormy was a pretty blue eyed girl, but wait......is that pee dribbling from the center of her belly? What? Take a second look. Oh brother, it's a boy, duh. Call me stupid. 

So we have two little buck kids. I would have been delighted if they were doelings, but little bucks are ok too. 

New Kids Born In The Storm

The storm killed a lot of trees and damaged a lot of stuff. But in the midst of fury, life arrived to the farm. Two baby goats! 

Sometime before dawn, Honami gave birth. Luckily I had made a temporary shelter for her, not knowing how violent the storm would be here. But it gave her protection from the rain and the wind. And she chose to give birth in the shelter. 

Honami was acting somewhat bewildered when I checked on her. She was letting the babies nurse, but surely acted confused. Giving birth in the middle of a violent storm surely isn't very supportive of new motherhood. All the crashing trees must has upset her. But Honami is doing pretty good, in spite of it all. 

This little one is a blue eyed girl. Judging from her ears, I'd guess she was the second born. Her brothers ears have already unfolded. 

This is the boy. A tad bigger than his sister, he's also a bit more adventuresome. 

Now that her kids are born and she has bonded to them, I'll be letting Honami off her tether. I doubt she will jump the fence and leave her kids behind. We have about a 1/4 acre fenced off for her. 

Unexpected Goats Join the Homestead

Well, I've been considering adding a goat or two to the homestead, but I had a Nigerian milking doe in mind. Something that would give us some nice milk for our coffee, some creamed gravies and soups, and goat milk for a little cheese. Also a small breed that wouldn't be as apt to jump our fence. I wasn't ready yet to make the move, but figured that I'd look over this coming spring's kids and see if my heart got hooked on one, possibly two. 

Ha, dump those plans! Out the door! Kaput! We just now opened our farm to three goats in need. They are Hawaiian feral goats, caught over a year ago and tamed down quite a bit since then. They're Spanish type. Being feral one never knows if there are any domestic breeds mixed in, but the billy looks real Spanish. I can't even try fooling my mind that they are even the slightest bit Nigerian. Egads, look what I've done. 

But hey, the billy is pretty cool looking. Uuuhhh, ignore the smell...... Take a gander at those horns. Neat, right? Reminds me of motorcycle handles. Appropriately his name is Harley. 

Then there's the skinny little brown doe. A homely sack of bones, but at least she doesn't have lice. She's named Nani, which is Hawaiian for beautiful. 

And finally the black, one eared doe. The guy we got them from called her Honami. Well I think that's what he said. Supposedly that was his ex-girlfriend's name. I wonder if she had only one ear too? 

The two does are pregnant and Honami looks like she'll be the first to kid. She's bagging up, so I'm guessing it will be sooner than later. 

Feeding Goats

Leigh just posted some excellent post about feeding goats. 

This link is for her blog. The goat article is December 15, 2014

http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Goats N Gardens

A truism --- goats and gardens don't mix. One ends up with a satiated goat, minus a garden. 

Mr. Bucky, who I temporarily wanted to make the guest of honor at a BBQ picnic, broken into the community garden the other day. He apparently was in there enjoying the open buffet for several hours because he was totally stuffed to the gills. Yes, he did a lot of destruction eating things, but I found the pattern of his likes and dislikes to be rather interesting. 

Young cabbage plants...total consumption. Not a single leaf survived the orgy. 

Young broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Chinese kale, 100% consumed, right down to the ground! 

Carrot tops eaten but roots, pulled up, left behind. Turnip tops nibbled, one bite out if each turnip then the rest of each one discarded. Uh, picky goat! The green part of the bok choy leaves eaten, but the white fleshy stems ignored. Radish tops eaten but many of the radishes discarded, some eaten. 

Wow, I went around picking just the best delicacies, from his point of view. He found the young daikon. Must have been getting full because he only ate the leafiest parts. Didn't bother to pull them up out of the ground. 

He hit both beds of the green beans, totally annihilating all the leaves. They now look like a bed of simply green sticks. Odd thing is that when I offered Mr Bucky green bean bushes in the past he totally refused them. But today he striped them 100%. 

He attacked two things that surprised me, passing over others that I thought he would have eaten. He didn't touch the peas. Passed them by to eat the genovese basil. Skipped over the lemon basil. Didn't touch any of the squashes. Ate the sweet potatoes down to the ground. Didn't touch the potato plants but ate every potato that he found near the surface. Somewhere during the feast he found the pineapple plants. He ate the tips off of all the outer leaves. Now THAT surprised me. Pineapple leaves are tough stiff swords. Very fibrous. And he never touched the sifter inner leaves. 

One other thing that I thought amazing was that he sampled the tomato plants. The first plant he striped the leaves off the last 12" of the uppermost stalks, he then moved to the next plant, only eating a few leaves before abandoning the tomatoes entirely. Didn't touch any of the green tomatoes themselves. 

While it was interesting to see Mr Bucky's taste preferences, I was madder than hell that he trashed the community garden. Luckily there is still a lot growing there and there were plenty of starts to replant the decimated areas. 

Mr Bucky has officially lost his freedom status. No more wondering the front pasture at night. He's now confined to one of the back pastures or else on his grazing tether. Goats are little devils......yes, I love goats for that very reason. Don't worry, I have no plans to eat or get rid of Mr Bucky. We love him dearly. But at times a goat can be difficult to own. 

Confining Goats

Bucky, the goat. 

Now here's a big challenge--- confining a goat who doesn't want to be confined! Our Mr. Bucky says he's a free roaming sort of guy. Him and I disagree on this view. But he has proven to be quite a challenge to keep confined. By far he out does every other goat I've ever owned.

4 foot high fences and gates?...... Not a problem. Clears them easily.
5 foot high stone wall? ..... A you can see, he hops atop and settles down to relax. Thus a five foot fence wouldn't deter him.
Electric hot wires?..... He takes the shock and keeps on climbing through.
Stock controlling dog? .....Ha. He made friends with it, so it no longer harasses him. He's not the least bit afraid of my dogs.

Economically the only thing I've come up with so far to keep him on the property is a tie out rope. Experimenting a little, I discovered other things that didn't work. Plus I've gotten suggestions that were not acceptable options. 

Suggestion 1- put up a 6 foot high fence. Not an option. A six foot high fence requires a variance for 
along the front of a property here. On the other sides it would require an expensive permit. And besides, six foot high fencing is quite expensive for 20 areas.

Suggestion 2- make a roofed over pen for him. Confining Bucky in a small pen would be possible. But I ask myself, why do I have Bucky? He's a pet who constantly reminds me to enjoy life, seek out new opportunities, have fun. Having him spend his life in a small pen does not fit his personality. And what's the sense of having a goat in a small pen? There's no purpose in it. He would just exist, with no joy, no purpose to eating and breathing each day. He wants so much to explore and try new things, which would be totally impossible in a small pen. As you can see, I'm not much for penning animals just for the sake of owning them. Bucky needs to live, not just exist. Heck, I'd be miserable myself in a studio apartment in down town New York. Some beings just want freedom.

Suggestion 3- tie Bucky to a tire that he could drag around with him. Well, I guess the person making that suggestion thought that the tire would stop Bucky from jumping the fence. Well, it didn't work. Bucky dragged the tire to the fence, then hopped the fence....Bucky on one side, tire in the other, fence bent down low between them. I fear that if he jumped the stone wall, he might hang himself, so the tire idea as been rejected. 

Suggestion 4- have Bucky wear a weighted collar. I suppose the idea was to keep Bucky from being able to jump high, but having a goat wear weights around its neck is not a good idea for health and humane issues. 

Suggestion 5- have Bucky wear hobbles. Unlike a horse which might feel impeded by hobbles, they won't stop a goat from jumping. This person also suggested having Bucky wear a canine anti-jumping harness, I don't know if that would keep him from being able to jump, but it isn't something he could wear without supervision, Being a goat, it wouldn't take him more than a few minutes to either have his horns caught up in the harness or have the harness straps wrapped around the nearest bush. 

Suggestion 6- use a hotwire. well, I've already done that. Unless the wire hits his face, he just takes the shock and jumps forward. He's careful to avoid letting the wire touch his face. Another trick he learned rather quickly was to hook the wire with a horn and yank. Once the wire is popped off the insulators, it shorts out. No shock. 

Until I can come up with another solution, for now I use a tie out rope. I've learned that if I tie him out on a 20 foot rope for a week, I can then let him roam for a week before he gets bored and hops the fence. So for now I tie him up then let him run loose on about a weekly rotating basis.