# Are boer goats escapers?



## MisFit Ranch (Apr 1, 2021)

ive heard Boer goats (the breed as a whole) like to jump fences a lot, I’d love to add some Boer does to my herd to breed, but I can’t have goats escaping due to neighborhood dogs that like to attack goats. Are they bad about jumping fences? I have five foot fences with hot wire across the top , I’ve just heard the breed are big time escapers 😂


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

I’ve never heard of boers being jumpers. We have raised nearly 300 boers, and they respect their 4 foot fence reasonably. I’d be more worried about them taking the fence down lol.


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## MisFit Ranch (Apr 1, 2021)

CountyLineAcres said:


> I’ve never heard of boers being jumpers. We have raised nearly 300 boers, and they respect their 4 foot fence reasonably. I’d be more worried about them taking the fence down lol.


It may have just been a tall tale then, I can’t remember where I heard it from 🤔 Now I just want to get Boers more, darn! I can never decide on a breed that I want to settle on and start breeding first it was Nigerian dwarfs then my heart fell for Fainters i guess I can alway breed them all! 😂


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

MisFit Ranch said:


> It may have just been a tall tale then, I can’t remember where I heard it from  Now I just want to get Boers more, darn! I can never decide on a breed that I want to settle on and start breeding first it was Nigerian dwarfs then my heart fell for Fainters i guess I can alway breed them all!


You definitely could! Now those little Nigerians Dwarfs can be sneaky from what I hear. I’ve seen a few scale a fence lol.


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## MisFit Ranch (Apr 1, 2021)

CountyLineAcres said:


> You definitely could! Now those little Nigerians Dwarfs can be sneaky from what I hear. I’ve seen a few scale a fence lol.


Yup! I’ve had some problems with one of my Nigerian dwarf x Myotonic does jumping through a gate like this, she’ll jump straight through the slot at the top when I separate for feeding time! But to be honest I think everyone else is to lazy and/or too fat to attempt! 😂


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

MisFit Ranch said:


> Yup! I’ve had some problems with one of my Nigerian dwarf x Myotonic does jumping through a gate like this, she’ll jump straight through the slot at the top when I separate for feeding time! But to be honest I think everyone else is to lazy and/or too fat to attempt!
> View attachment 209399


If it makes you feel better, no 150lb boer doe is jumping through that


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## Rockland Ridge Ranch (Aug 6, 2020)

One of our Boer does can jump a 5 foot fence if she is motivated enough. The first night we had her, she jumped out of her 5 foot tall pen and went on a hike through the woods. Thankfully she came back the next morning when I went out shaking a bucket of feed. After that, she stayed in a 6' tall dog kennel until she became bonded with her new herd. But she still jumped the 5' fence whenever we separated her from the rest of the herd for whatever reason. Until we put a strand of hotwire on top. She hasn't tried it since.

Our new buck just tries to bulldoze his way out. We have him in a pipe corral while quarantining and he is NOT HAPPY. I found his corral moved about 3 feet over one morning. Now I have cinder blocks stacked around the outside.

80% of owning goats is trying to keep them where you want them.


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## Boers4ever (Jun 28, 2020)

I don’t have any problems with them going over. I think they’re to heavy for that. No, mine like to either shove the fence out of the way or dig a hole to go under! 
The picture is of a yearling trying desperately to get to the buckling next door. Had to lute her not long after. 

Edit: if anyone is seeing a meme about teddy bears please ignore! My phone did something really weird!


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## Tanya (Mar 31, 2020)

Ok. So. Boer goats escaping are not myths. It is the male that will jump a fence to be near an heat female or a female digging her way out.... But they are not known to just escape because they want to. A goat is generally lazy. They have to be motivated.

Now a ND is a whole different goat. My little Gizmo has literally climbed a chain link fence for fun. He tried to jump said fence from 2 meters away off of a fallen tree...


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I know that a Boer buck can jump lower fences as suggested.

Raising the fences and hotlines help keep them back.


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## friesian49 (Jul 2, 2018)

I'm not laughing at the question, I'm laughing at my two fatties jumping over their fence! Although now that I cut back on their grain, I think they look a tad slimmer. I think they are just uncoordinated, they have hard enough times walking on logs in the woods without falling. All you hear on a video of them is me saying be careful and get down! As others said, they could take it down by throwing their whole body against it to scratch an itch! I have a strand of electric that I had on in the beginning, they each got shocked once or twice and they've respected the fence from that point on.

But now as I think about it, I think Echo got stuck on the bottom Dutch door when I had it closed and she wanted out. That was when she was under 6 months or so. So yeah, maybe if they are younger and want to be out bad enough and the fence has a give to it or isn't that tall, they could do it, or get stuck halfways! Good luck!


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

My boers dont jump. They will look intensely for any loose place in the fence. Or if they can lift the fence & go under. My Tennessee meat goat will clear a 5 ft fence. The Spanish I sold will jump fences and they are crazy. The myotonics are the easiest on all fences , and easiest to keep in. The Savanna x boers, will attempt to push a fence down.


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## MisFit Ranch (Apr 1, 2021)

Moers kiko boars said:


> My boers dont jump. They will look intensely for any loose place in the fence. Or if they can lift the fence & go under. My Tennessee meat goat will clear a 5 ft fence. The Spanish I sold will jump fences and they are crazy. The myotonics are the easiest on all fences , and easiest to keep in. The Savanna x boers, will attempt to push a fence down.


😂 That clears it up i think I’ll just stick with my Myotonic’s then! 😂


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Jumpers are far and in between.

May be that one in a million etc.


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## weisacres (Aug 27, 2020)

Okay, so I have a Boer x ND. Alice is a total fence jumper. If I want to keep her in she goes to one of the pens with a 6 ft fence. She's come close to jumping out of that one but not yet. I have noticed now that she's 1 year old and gaining weight and size there are fewer attempts at fence jumping. 😂


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## friesian49 (Jul 2, 2018)

So my neighbor brought 2 young Boers home and staked them out. The one got loose and I put him in the pen and as soon as my back was turned, he jumped out. So they can escape, he was a determined little one. I was never so happy to have my nice big fence!!!


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