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These section is going to be sort of a grab bag of hints, how to's and that sort of thing. I hope you'll find something you can use! I'll be adding to this section every now and then, so be sure to check back once in a while.
HOW TO MAKE A SHOW COLLAR :
You can buy these wonderful collars and pay a pretty wonderful price for them.... or you can do like I did and make your own. Now this one I just clipped with a zip tie and I really recommend that you don't do that - it's very painful when it pinches my hand. Instead use a metal link, one of the little oval 'quick-links' or a small caribiner. Do NOT use keychain rings, they aren't strong enough.
OTHER EQUIPMENT : Lots of new folks ask me about feeding equipment....you can go to Tractor Supply or your local feed store and buy those sturdy plastic or rubber feed pans and water troughs, the cheapest usually run about $12 each. OR you can go to the garden dept. at Wal-Mart or Home Depot etc and get some sturdy plastic flower pot drip trays for less than half that price. I love them....they're light, low enough that the babies can get in there and eat, and very sturdy. I have some that are at least four years old. What I don't recommend using is the straight sided metal pans...they rust out very quickly. My favorite water trough comes from Wal-Mart, too....a kiddie wading pool! They hold enough water to last even a sizable herd several days to a week without a refill, the sides are low enough that our little goats can reach over and also low enough that a kid who's accidently knocked in is very unlikely to drown. I do like to keep a cinder block in them so anything that does fall in has something to climb out on. And the dogs just love them in hot weather! Granted, you have to replace them once every year or two but at $8 - $12 each it's not a big deal. You can buy replacements for about 10 years before you've spent the equivelant cost of a metal tank the same size. FENCING : Don't repeat DO NOT waste your money on regular woven field fence. The vertical wires are merely wrapped around the horizontal wires, so when a hungry goat reaches through the fence the vertical wire slides....hey, Mom! Look what I can do!....and you get to watch your clever little goat walk right through your fence. Personally, my favorite fence material is combo panel....the babies can't get through the bottom, neither can predators; bucks can't break it and installation is a one person job. Love the stuff. Don't love the price, though....they now have goat fence available by that name at Tractor Supply, and it's great stuff but also not cheap. Ditto chain link. Welded wire and chicken wire is simply too weak. The painful truth is that fencing is the biggest challenge there is with our little goats. The old joke about "if it'll hold water it MIGHT hold a goat but don't bet on it" is even more true with Nigerians. My best advice is don't try to save money on your fences - it'll cost you in the end. Go with the best you can afford, even if it means building a smaller pasture at first and enlarging it bit by bit. When you're picking out your materials, and checking the installation, ask yourself if a Chihuahua could get through it or under it....if the answer is yes then a baby Nigerian can too. And don't place anything near the fence that they can jump on top of, because they'll use it as a launching pad to jump over the fence. Trust me - been there, watched 'em do that! lol And don't be misled into thinking that because our goats are short you don't need a tall fence...on Dec. 17, 2009, a pack of coyotes jumped completely over a 4 foot fence without touching it and killed two of my does. I strongly advise the strongest fence you can afford, preferably with hot wire on the top. For the over-achievers reading this, my perfect fence would be 5 ft chain link with hot wire on top and also about 12 inches off the ground both on the inside and outside. I do very strongly advise putting up a small pen around your goat's sleeping quarters, wether it's a barn or an Igloo dog house, made out of Combo panel. Lock the goats up in that safe pen every night, and you'll sleep much better. I've gone out in the morning and found what the coyotes left....I don't ever want that to happen to you. My goats now get put inside the barn every night, period.
HOUSING : If fences are our nightmare, houses for our Nigerians are our joy....it doesn't take much to build a good, comfy house for our little goaties, and if you 'think outside the barn' you can really save yourself some construction costs! These are two of my favorite alternative housing methods I use for my bucks.
About five years ago a neighbor pulled in our drive and asked if we wanted some 'truck toppers' for our goats....they're the caps you see on top of semi trucks. Made of fiberglass, they're tough and light, and we have drug this one all over our property over the years. During the winter we'll wrap a tarp across the front of it to keep the rain and wind out. The bucks love to play king of the hill on it, too. The only problem is you've got to tie it down very, very firmly as it's light enough to go sailing if the wind hits the opening. Make sure yours faces AWAY from the prevailing winds.
built it. Actually this is one of his 'rejects' as he ran out of the metal strips he nailed across the roof to make them waterproof and just tacked on this folded up tarp instead. But it's big enough to hold several bucks, and the Andersons used them as kidding huts. I just wish I had a few more!
Of course, if you can build a "real" barn, or modify one already on your property, go for it. But if you're new to Nigerians, go talk to someone else and look at their barn before you start. Ask them what they'd do differently, what they love and most importantly what they hate about their barn. Eventually I'm going to build a new doe barn, and if I can sweet-talk my husband sweetly enough it's going to have the following features : 1) Cattle panels across one corner of the barn with heat lamps hung above it, creating a 'heat creep' for babies that moms can't get into. I've done this in my current barn and it works really well. 2) A seperate milking room - even if it's just a fenced off corner of the main barn. 3) A water faucet inside the milking room. 4) Electricity!!! 5) A storage cabinet in the milking room to hold a first aid/kidding kit, flashlight, a couple of leads and a pair of hoof trimmers.
HAY FEEDERS : The traditional hay rack, slanted in towards the bottom, is a lousy design and I don't know why it's been so popular for so many years. It puts the animals' eyes right under the falling bits of hay, and so drastically increases the risk of eye injury. In goats, this means pinkeye. Yes, goats are browsing animals and they naturally reach up, not down, for their food. But a much better design is a flat-fronted hay rack...my favorite one is a cattle panel wired to a wall, or to another panel if you want a two-sided feeder. Simply slide the hay in between the panels, where it's held flat so that there is much less risk of eye injury. |
I can't take credit for this little hut, as my friend Andy Anderson
