# How wide will a pregnant Lamancha get?



## guessa1 (Jun 11, 2014)

Okay, I'm sorry if this sounds like a dumb question! We are building our goat barn and trying to size out gates. Will a pregnant Lamancha be able to fit through a 2 ft wide door/gate opening? My husband is hoping to get away with 2 ft wide gates for 2 6x6' pens. Is this big enough? Sufficient? I would like to be able to use one of the pens at least as a kidding stall, so if 2' is not wide enough for her to get in or out, then maybe I'll do a 2' gate on one pen and make the other pen have a wider gate? 

What do you think? 

Sorry if this is not the best place to post this!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I always allow a size to get a wheel barrow in there for clean out. 2 feet is small.

It all depends on how many she is carrying as well.


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## guessa1 (Jun 11, 2014)

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking that too about the wheelbarrow, but I figure I can just bring it up to the door and shovel it in without actually bringing it into the stall.

These are our first 2 goats and they will be bred for the first time in the fall, so I have no experience with how big they'll get. 

He just made the first door 2', so I guess I will need to recommend the 2nd stall have a bigger door


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

Some pregnant does get really wide! It just depends on how many kids are in there and whether they hang wide or low. I agree that 2 feet is a little small.


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

You can building decent gates too that are wider, without having to pay for the more expensive ones. We have ones where the wire is trapped between two layers of 1x6 or 1x8, and that allows us to make them really tall. 

Parking a wheelbarrow at the too small opening? Bad idea when it comes down to practice. Goats will kneel down if they can access where you are working from the other side, and will try to push over/push around that wheelbarrow to get to you. You will WANT that wheelbarrow in there with that. Scratch that, to get efficient work done, you will NEED that wheelbarrow in there with you to keep you from wanting to throttle your goats. I deal with that any time I use the wheelbarrow to take stuff to our milk room. There is a lip at the ground, that makes it impossible to get the wheelbarrow in the milk room. I have to scare off goats to keep them from coming in the room with me.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

LOL, yep, whenever a wheel barrow is around, the goats try to get in it. And do manage to tip it over, unless you see it before it happens and tell them to go away.
They try to help, but it only makes a mess, bless them. :roll:
Having the wheel barrow right there beside you, is much easier on the back to, you don't have to go so far away, to throw it out the door, instead it is right there. :wink:


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## guessa1 (Jun 11, 2014)

Hahahah...yes I guess I should know better by now with the old wheelbarrow and goat tricks...  They've nudged past/through/under it a number of times when I've cleaned out the chicken coop. We have the same problem there too...door too small for a wheelbarrow  It does make things trickier.


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

guessa1 said:


> ... but I figure I can just bring it up to the door and shovel it in without actually bringing it into the stall.)


Ummm, you will probably wish you had made it big enough to get the wheelbarrow in there....
Congrats on the goats!


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Yeah, my husband thought the wheelbarrow would be a good place to store his fencing supplies like screws and staples about 3-4 weeks back. I think I should have been shooting a video about the "insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result" saying. Bree tipped it three times, and the third time, I watched him tackle her to the ground because she decided that she wanted to hold on to a screw like it was a cigarette dangling out of her mouth. I told him he needed to get the wheelbarrow out of there (a few choice words related to how he should have taken it out after the first tipping incident) but it took the screw incident to get him to do that. If it wasn't one goat, it was another wanting to get into it. Wheelbarrows and goats are not a match made in heaven.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Oh dear, LOL


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

One of my Lamancha does was pregnant with quads this past spring. My door openings are 4 feet wide. Her sides rubbed against the door frame on each side. As she got close to delivery, her sides actually had to be pushed in when she squeezed thru the door!

I'm not sure I could fit thru a 2' wide door opening!


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