# Goats and Chickens



## MylieD (Sep 16, 2013)

The goats have been breaking into the chicken yard quicker than we can fix it and eating the feed. We had chickens first, so didn't use the strongest fencing around their area. We have an outer fence too, so yeah, the set up worked before goats. The fencing is pretty much destroyed. I'm mainly wondering if there's any way to keep the goats out of the food? It's a pvc feeder. Maybe some fencing over top? Or a contraption someone knows about that chickens can use but goats can't? We don't have the money to rebuild the fence with stronger material right now. Thanks!


----------



## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

This is a really tough one to solve! I've been working on "goat-proof" chicken feeders on and off for a few years now! 

The best ones work like a creep feeder with a small door/hole that only the chickens can fit through in to a box/stall/separate area with their food. Unfortunately as the roosters grew I had the increase the hole size and then yearling goats started getting in. It is AMAZING what a small hole goats will fit through to reach chicken feed.

I have used a tube gate as the blockade with moderate success - the chicken pass over the second tube and the goats can't quite make it. I've also used one of the metal cages that go around those big chemical/water totes - it's like a cube of overlapping metal?

Basically everything working against full-size adults but as soon as kids & yearlings come in to play the chickens are hungry...


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Hotwire.


----------



## MylieD (Sep 16, 2013)

Yeah, the kids are the biggest pain. I'll figure it out after the holiday. We have too much going on. Also, now one chicken has decided it's a good idea to hop the fence and walk the driveway. They are all being a pain.


----------



## Greybird (May 14, 2014)

A chicken can fit through a surprisingly small hole!
It might help, depending on your situation, to install some solid wood panels with chicken-sized holes in them and to use smaller mesh wire for the rest of your enclosures.

I have found that the perfect sized hole for my chickens is a 6" circle. I just trace around one of those plastic lids from a large coffee can, but you can make a pattern in a lot of ways. I then cut out the hole with a jigsaw. I locate the hole about 3" above the floor or ground since that seems to help the chickens to figure out what they need to do. All they have to do is see food on the other side and they will go for it.
My Silkies hop through the holes without even slowing down, but even my big, fat Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds pass through them without difficulty.
Now, a Brahma or a large Cornish Cross might not fit, and all of my standard-sized chickens are hens so I don't know if a standard rooster could make it, but the hole could always be made a tiny bit bigger for extra-big chickens. I have to keep mine at 6" because a lot of my heritage turkeys hens can squeeze through a 7" hole. (You have to see it to believe it!) The turkeys are my biggest concern since they will eat ALL of the chicken's food if they get to it.
My goats don't know that chicken food exists ... yet. (I'm sure the day will come ...)

Unfortunately, I think that smaller kids and goats could fit through a 6" hole almost as well as the chickens do if they really wanted to. A solid barrier of some sort, like maybe a concrete block, located 7 or 8 inches inside of the hole would require making a sharp turn, and that would make things harder for a longer-bodied animal like a goat.


----------



## Niginewbie (Oct 28, 2013)

We keep the chicken feed in the chicken coop. The chickens go in through a 'chubby kitty' door. We had to add a wooden box to the inside of the kitty door so the goats can't get it. The chicken have to hop into the coop and then go up and over the box. The chickens can easily do this while the goats can't bend their body that way. I found the idea on another website and it has worked really well for us.


----------



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

I have the opposite problem. My chickens found out that goat food is WAY tastier than chicken feed. Now each goat has at least 3 chickens around it as they're trying to eat. :lol: Whomever is on the stand gets the added benefit of only having to fend off ONE chicken, who perches herself on the beam by the headgate and sticks her head in the bucket every chance she gets.


----------



## kanis (Jul 3, 2014)

We were going to open up our chicken coop area to the goat pasture. This certainly gives me something to think about!


----------



## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Goat proof chicken feeder. 
Build a sturdy box as long as you need it and 2 feet wide. It only needs to be a bout a foot and a half tall. The bracing and solid top are strong enough for a goat to play on.
Measure your sides and build frames about 4 feet long or what ever you need to cover the sides of your box and have them easy to handle.
Cover frames with a good wire with 2 x 4 inch squares. Attach wire covered frames to box with hinges at the bottom and good fasteners at the top. 
Inside box place 2 lengths of old rain gutter or 6" PVC sliced lengthwise into troughs. one on each of the long sides. 
Fill troughs with chicken food and close the frames.

The chickens can stick their heads through to eat. The goats can only try to stick their tongues through.


----------

