# Pygmies in the chicken coop? What to do?



## Trip Trap Mountain

I have changed the coop door 3 times now... it is as small as I can make it. My 1 year pygmies can still fit through!! And next year we will have curious kids. 

How can I goat proof the chicken door??

For now I am just keeping the chicken feeder out of the coop and only letting the hens have it at night while the coop door is shut. They are not going to like that for long tho.


----------



## Robynlynn

I've had this problem with my golden retriever and a naughty lamancha wether!
they are a bit bigger than your pygmies....I put a cinder block in front of my 10X10 square door so the chickens could go to the side of it but the bigger critters could not. 
How about nailing a board across the door length wise(assuming you have a small square opening) So they only have 5 inches or so on each side the chickens could squeeze through but not the bigger goats.
As far as the pygmy kids go.....its hard to keep them in fencing when they are so small i don't know about your chicken house??? could you raise the door so they have to fly up a ways to get in???
Good Luck.....hopefully someone will offer a solution that works for you!


----------



## iddybit acres

I closed off the bottom entrance i had and made one up higher and made a ladder out of twig's for the chicken's to climb up!


----------



## glenolam

I read somewhere where the person built a 3-ish sided box that fit inside the coop door (it was about 1ft x1ft or 2ftx2ft). 

Picture a shoe box inside the coop door with the open top of the shoe box pointing up. The chickens would get to the top of the box, jump in, then jump out the other side into the hen house.

The goats couldn't do that because they couldn't wrangle their bodies that way.

You may have to play with that idea a bit, but they said it worked like a charm.


----------



## Trip Trap Mountain

glenolam said:


> I read somewhere where the person built a 3-ish sided box that fit inside the coop door (it was about 1ft x1ft or 2ftx2ft).
> 
> Picture a shoe box inside the coop door with the open top of the shoe box pointing up. The chickens would get to the top of the box, jump in, then jump out the other side into the hen house.
> 
> The goats couldn't do that because they couldn't wrangle their bodies that way.
> 
> You may have to play with that idea a bit, but they said it worked like a charm.


oh, yes, that might work better than the things i had been thinking of. worth a shot and would be pretty easy to build... thanks.


----------



## glenolam

Glad I could help! I'd imagine you would want one side sticking out further than the other, I'm thinking for the box to stick _inside_ more than outside so the goats can't get in the little space to get up and into the hen house....or maybe it should be the other way so they can attempt to get in, but find they can't wriggle through...hmmm...


----------



## Trip Trap Mountain

posted some pictures of our barnyard on the blog today. the 3rd one down is a shot of the chicken door. still brainstorming. will keep coming back to this post with progress.

http://triptrapmountainhomestead.weebly ... -blog.html


----------



## KW Farms

What I would do is completely close off that hole and cut out a hole higher up on the coop so the chickens will have to hop up to get in while the goats can't quite get up high enough to squeeze in. You could also use something as a perch so they can rest up by the hole and figure out it's there. :thumb:


----------



## Calico Patch Farm

We had the same problem once so we completely redid it and put the opening higher up. The birds didn't mind flying up to get out and it worked like a gem. Good luck!


----------



## naturalgoats

kW's suggestion sounds great to me. maybe a series of perches to a small entrance high off the ground...


----------



## Trip Trap Mountain

Finally back on after forgetting my password!

We used glenolam's idea and it seems to be working so far. If they are still gettingin they are sneaking and doing it when I'm not watching. I posted some pictures on our blog if you wanna check it out. 

http://triptrapmountainhomestead.weebly ... -blog.html


----------



## freedomstarfarm

:thumb: That looks great! Glad its working!


----------



## Steph

We bowed a cattle combo panel around our chicken coop door to keep the goats out.


----------

