# Leaving goats outside unattended



## louandotis (Aug 12, 2013)

Hello,

I have two 8 month old wethers. We have coyotes in our neighborhood, some have left tracks in between my house and my pen as recently as last week. I have a 4 ft high no climb fence around the pen, and will be putting up an electric fence. 

As of right now, when I or my wife are not home the boys are locked in their house. They have an 8x10 foot house about ten feet tall. When we're home and the sun is up, they are outside. 

Do people leave goats outside at this age in this type of environment when they are not home?

I've seen a coyote about a foot from the goat pen, just watching once and had to run it off, so I'm pretty sketched out by the coyotes at this point, was just wondering what others in the same situation are doing. 

Thanks!


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## GreenMountainNigerians (Jul 3, 2013)

Nope. We live on a forested acreage surrounded by more forest. Have coyotes day and night and black bear ,cougar and Bobcats within 50 yards of the house and barn. My goats are locked up at night and when we aren't home. And both barns are close to the house. So far so good. No losses but we are diligent!


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## GoatCrazy86 (Oct 7, 2013)

My two are out all day & get locked up at night. They are out all day while I am at work and I haven't had any problems **knock on wood**


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## ariella42 (May 22, 2014)

Mine are also out all day and get locked up at night. We've been doing it that way since our first two were month-old bottle babies. Of course, we've never seen any coyotes or bears out during the day where we are and no one near us has dogs that are not fenced in.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

Mine were only locked up in the snow storms like today, but we heard a coyote den about 50 yards from the fence, so I will start locking them up at night. (knock on wood) in 14 years we have never had a attack other them my own dog. We had a huge coyote about 5 feet from the barn door several years ago and my other dog ran it off and chased it who knows were. We just new that mean that she was lunch for them but she came back all proud of herself that she chased them off. I never saw another one until now. to be honest I have not seen them lately but you can sure hear them.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I never ever close my goats inside a building - we don't even have doors on our barn! They just come & go as they please in & out of the building and in to their winter/dry-lot area. We have 4' wire fence, no electric. Very active coyotes in the area. No guardian animals. BUT mine are full size boers. And I keep newborn kids in the barn in wire kidding pen for about 3 days. How much do your little guys weigh?

Coyotes don't love to get in to places where they may be trapped but that is no guarantee. I did see a post by a woman on a Facebook goat group the other day - coyotes were hanging around her pens in spring when trying to feed pups, so she started leaving dry dog food out for them!!! Peace offering! ha! Probably the worst idea ever.


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## louandotis (Aug 12, 2013)

Not sure how much they weigh, have been meaning to do that, here's a pic of the bigger one, about 4 ft tall standing up, they're Nigerian dwarf goats. His brother is a little smaller.


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## caprinelivin (Mar 6, 2014)

ours come and go as they please but we have a large coral that they stay in overnight and we also have guardians. We have coyotes, migrating bears (did not know they did that til I moved here!), bobcats, eagles, cougars, and wild hogs all caught on camera, but we have been very blessed so far with no losses to animals! If we did not have our guardians, I would be very nervous...


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## Peggy1689 (Oct 17, 2014)

Our goats are safe in high pens. We have a bad problem with coyotes, and my brother lost 6 kids to coyotes last summer. The coyotes just brazenly left the kids' clawed bodies by the side of the trail to his mail box! He got a coyote trap, but he did not catch one coyote!!! 
Everyone says that the traps don't work. So he brought the surviving kids over to my pens.......


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## louandotis (Aug 12, 2013)

Peggy1689 said:


> Our goats are safe in high pens. We have a bad problem with coyotes, and my brother lost 6 kids to coyotes last summer. The coyotes just brazenly left the kids' clawed bodies by the side of the trail to his mail box! He got a coyote trap, but he did not catch one coyote!!!
> Everyone says that the traps don't work. So he brought the surviving kids over to my pens.......


How high are your pens?


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

The ideal way to keep yotes away is to have a property fence line that keeps them away from their pens and night time loafing area. This wont keep the yotes out if they want to dig under neath but without being able to put eyes on the goats, its unlikely they will try to get past the perimeter fence. The more fences you have between predators and your goats, the less likely they will dig under them to get to em. Here there are 2-3 fences between our goats and where yotes could be. The only time we have ever had one come under the outer fence was to dig up a freshly buried goat that had died in the middle of summer and had got to stinking a little bit before we had our first chance to deal with it. Even at 3 feet down, the yote smelt it and dug down to it.


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## MustBeeKiddin (Dec 21, 2014)

We have a lot of coyote pressure, have spotted a bobcat on our trail cam just on the property line, and have seen signs of black bear very close.
Our goats are behind net fencing with a big electric charge and a 7-strand smooth wire fence with a bigger electric charge.

They do not have a barn (but do have shelter).

We currently do not live on our farm, but commute daily. We walk perimeter of our fence near goats daily and have seen no signs of anything trying to dig under.


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## cajunmom (Apr 29, 2013)

We have had major coyote problems here. We've had them jump a 5ft fence around our chicken coop until we put up a hot wire. We are building our pens so that they can all be put up at night. I don't want to take any chances.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I lock mine up at night.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I lock mine up at night....


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

We have a major coyote problem. This is what I have discovered.
Fences. I have seen coyotes do a standing broad jump over a five foot high fence clearing it by 16 inches. Electric fence they will jump just as easy.
Putting your goats in the barn works great but I have seen coyotes hunting in my fields every hour of the day. So if you turn your goats out of the darn they are a risk of an attack.
So here are your options to protect your goats as I see it.
Build a barn with a slated floor and never let your goats out. a confinement system also naturally prevents intestanel worms.
Or you can get gardian animals the best guardian I have found are dogs. With dogs you don't have to worry about closing the barn door at night.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

We haven't had an attack - I have heard coyotes and we are backed to woods. Our neighbor says he saw one on our property line.

Only one of my pens have a barn door that closes. I'd like to have one for all, but that's not up to me.

The does have the pen with the latching door, so that the kids will be protected. They are locked in at night. When kids are born they are only let out when we are watching. Hawks are a threat to the kids here; they circle as soon as they know kids have been born. Until they are big enough to not be tempting to hawks, they are not let out unattended.

Our buck's pen is right up to our horses, we have a neighbor's dogs penned nearby, and at night they are shut into a smaller pen with coyote deterrent lights and the big barn light shining into their pen. So far, no issues...


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## Summersun (Apr 24, 2014)

I went to get a goat yesterday and the lady said that they also have coyote problems. So their pens are double fenced. They have fences that are way over 6 ft tall and then 4 ft tall pens/fencing inside of that fence. So it creates a runway between the tall fence and the pens and she can use the runway as a pen or just to get from pen to pen.


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## janecb (Sep 23, 2014)

We have a coyote and mountain lion problem... We lost 15 goats one night, so we got guard donkeys. We have 6 foot no climb fences, maybe a little taller on the side next to the forest. Since getting the donkeys, we haven't had a single problem with either predator. Everyone stays out at night except for little babies. A technique we used while waiting for the guard donkeys was leaving a radio on 24/7 down at the main barn.


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## Riverside Fainters (Feb 6, 2013)

We had coyotes at the farm, Izzy only went out after dawn and came in before dusk. She was never out without someone home either. When we moved we are now near a river (less than 1/4 mile) and have coyotes and foxes. The girls get penned up at night in their shed, but my buck has access to come and go from the lean when ever.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I totally feel like New England coyotes are not as fierce as the coyotes out west!!! Maybe they have more food here... I never heard about coyote attacks like that here. Before we had our new barn & pastures, I would literally let my does out unfenced to browse the property and on weekends when we were home all the time they got to stay out for the night - they would sleep in the gravel driveway/soft sand!

Maybe I should use more precaution! Their new barn & pastures are further from the house and in March we'll have kids up there...


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## WillowGem (Aug 3, 2011)

My boys are loose in their pen all day but get locked up at night, usually around dusk. I've heard coyotes around here but have yet to see them. Of course I am constantly worried about it... but I think they stear clear of our property because our dogs (not LGD's) are outside patrolling "their" yard.

It does seem like there are more coyote problems out Western way, SalteyLove.


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## Peggy1689 (Oct 17, 2014)

*goat pens*

Our pens are about 10 feet high fencing in the goat shelter/barn. The panels were intended as dog/pet pens and were expensive, but our goats are safe! The head nanny tried digging a hole under one pen panel but didn't get far with that!


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

Ever since I lost all my goats to a fire, I will not lock them in a building unless I am home. 

I have Coyotes and loose dogs all around my place. I have my goats in a cattle panel and chain link fence with electric fence along the tops and inside at nose level. 

I also have a pack of sled dogs who howl when they see or hear the coyotes, which scares them off.

I have 2 Great Pyrenees that bark when I let them out at night, plus all the dogs mark along the fence lines.


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

We're deep woods and have coyote, cougar, and the neighbor's curs (mongrel 1/2 pit bull dogs that never leave his property! Yeah, right.) Also bobcat and wolf. Depending on the season (of predator migration, not necessarily the calendar) we either lock the goats in their respective stalls (ground to roof gates) or simply in their pens. The 2 LGD's are with them constantly (sometimes even in the stalls with them.) So far we've lost a few chickens, but no goats...for which I'm very grateful.

We can generally tell which predator is around by the different responses of the dogs. Howling means coyotes. Angry almost hysterical barking (mainly from our bitch), accompanied by racing around the pen and charging the fence means the neighbor's dogs. Raging barking means one of the big cats.


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