# Fencing question for Newbie



## bee_pipes (Dec 4, 2007)

getchagoat (Julie) said:


> By stretched wire, do you mean woven wire? We use that on the perimeter, but still put one strand of electric on the inside as young goats can get their horns stuck.


Yeah, I think you'd call it woven wire. they call it cattle wire around here. It stretched really well. My wife and I just finished a fence to make a pen for two young pups we adopted. It was made from welded wire and didn't really stretch. You could pry it with the claw of a hammer to snug it up, but that was about it. I had read that about goats getting their heads caught, and the recommendation was to fortify it with electric fence.



getchagoat (Julie) said:


> We use goat panels to divide up the barn (smaller openings than cattle panels)...


We mill our own lumber, and I had hoped to outfit most of the shed with wood, reinforcing with metal as necessary, and resigning myself to the fact that some stuff will have to be replaced due to gnawing. The good news is that the lumber we mill is like steel. I know it won't hold up to constant gnawing, but will last longer than store-bought lumber.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/...tools;action=display;num=1180024329;start=5#5
and
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/barden104.html

We rebuilt a chicken house with the stuff, and after bending a handfull of nails, had to resort to drills and screws.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/...-building-tools;action=display;num=1173284529

There are some excellent ideas in this section, some more ambitious than I had in mind, but the shed Sara built really gave me some thoughts on keeping it simple. http://thegoatspot.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=936 I'm no carpenter, and like EnjoyTheRide said, all my stuff has it's own "tilt" to it (sometimes roller-coaster). I also have a tendancy to overcomplicate things, and if not for my wife I would have gotten into major trouble a long time ago. I have to go to her frequently to see if I'm getting carried away.

Like the chicken house, it has to be large enough for immediate storage. Surplus hay could be stored outside, under cover. Of course, room for milking and general work inside on foul weather days.



getchagoat (Julie) said:


> ... and use electric on the interior pastures. I do not recommend a solar panel. We tried that and had absolutely no luck.


That's bad news. We are on a fixed income, and there's no way I could get a line run that far from the house. I was hoping to roof the shed(s) with solar to take care of the electric in back. How long ago did you try? Do you remember how large the system was? Eventually we'd like to get off grid, so keeping electric usage down is important.



getchagoat (Julie) said:


> When/if you start to breed, you want to light up your buck if he tries to sneak back in with the does.


Breeding is an eventuality to keep the does fresh and for meat. I had figured the buck, if we can't find a local for service, would have separate accomodations with a whether for company. I had read having a buck with the doeas could give the milk an off taste.

No plans for commercial breeding or selling. Too much stuff going on with NAIS and such. I don't want to do anything that might attract gov't attention or put me under regulation.



getchagoat (Julie) said:


> As far as heights for the electric, start at 6" to keep small ones in. We did 6", 12", 18", 24", 36", and 48" at our other farm. But I think we only have 4 or 5 strands at this one. I'll check with Brad, my hubby. Make sure you get it grounded good. And get a fence tester to make sure all of it is working and to trouble shoot when it goes dead somewhere.


Thanks. I appreciate the advice. From reading product literature at TSC and the coop, I see there are some real tricks to electric fencing and tools to keep you from pulling your hair out.

Regards,
Pat


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## getchagoat (Julie) (Oct 5, 2007)

Sounds like you are doing great on your research. My husband has fenced over 2000 feet this summer at our new place. I have no idea what the number is up to, just remember passing that one.

If you put up wood to separate the barn, and you have a sick goat, they won't be able to see the other goats. They can get depressed if by themselves. Our kidding stalls at our last place were all wood, but the does like being by themselves usually when they kid. Just a thought. 

I'll have to ask hubby about the solar we tried.


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

My limited experience is that goaties (I have boers) like to scrape on press board, OSB, plywood but are less likely to work on solid wood- they will kind of half-heartedly rub their teeth on the treated fence posts but have yet to really try anything but the man made wood products- I think if they are not really bored and have good food, they pretty much leave wood alone especially a really hard wood.
Re: solar- I think most of the problems are with solar charged battery fence chargers- they do not seem to work very well and the batteries are very expensive to replace.
The only experience I have ever had with remote charging is that one time I had a difficult horse that kept swimming a river so the owner of the property put out a hot wire fence charged off a car battery- worked well for over a year- then fence was removed as horse didn't want to leave anymore.
I looked at your pics and think you do really well- that was a chicken palace.
btw- I used redwood fitches to make a floor for my horse's run in shed- I layer ther alternately sawn side up and down a couple of layers thick- 6 years larter, it's still goof with rubber mats over them.


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## bee_pipes (Dec 4, 2007)

enjoytheride said:


> ... really well- that was a chicken palace.


Thank-you. Tried to put a lot of thought into it. It has three rooms inside. One is for storage - we have a barrel the feed goes inside of, the center room for range poultry opens to an opent-top fenced pen, and a room that opens into a covered pen for young chicks and poults not ready to be turned onto the range. At least, that was the plan. Frame walls with doors covered with chicken wire separate the rooms so chickens can get used to each other when introducing new birds.








center/range room








nursery/restricted side

With the first clutch of guineas, we found that the chicken house was a dangerous place for newborn keets, so we fell back to a brooder box and keep newborns in the turkey hootch until they're ready to mix with the older birds.








brooder box








turkey hootch. House door closed to porch

Made a lot of mistakes on the chickenhouse and hootch - lessons learned for the next projects. My poor wife has bumped her head in that chicken house more than once - won't make that mistake on the goat shed.

Regards,
Pat


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## bee_pipes (Dec 4, 2007)

getchagoat (Julie) said:


> ...won't be able to see the other goats. They can get depressed if by themselves. Our kidding stalls at our last place were all wood, but the does like being by themselves usually when they kid. Just a thought.


Was thinking more along the line of slats - unless it was a space for kidding or to block an area - like food storage - where I didn't think they needed to see.

Regards,
Pat


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

I did forget one goatie habit that can be rough on fences- they do love to scratch themselves by leaning their side into it and walking the length pressing pretty hard. I can see where it might pop a board off if not thoroughly fastened. It also leaves twisted cotton swabs on the fence (on my gates especially.)


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## getchagoat (Julie) (Oct 5, 2007)

Make sure to put the slats close together, cause they will try to go through. Just their nature.


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## FarmGirl18 (Oct 5, 2007)

We've used a solar electric fence charger with alot of success. Rule of thumb with any charger is to get it bigger than you think you will need.


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## bee_pipes (Dec 4, 2007)

Anybody know anything about moveable electric fence or New Zeland fence? I have come across a couple of references to it, but noting going into detail explaining the difference between that and normal electric fencing. Nothing that names the parts or describes a complete system.

Regards,
Pat


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## lupinfarm (Aug 26, 2009)

*Re:*



enjoytheride said:


> I did forget one goatie habit that can be rough on fences- they do love to scratch themselves by leaning their side into it and walking the length pressing pretty hard. I can see where it might pop a board off if not thoroughly fastened. It also leaves twisted cotton swabs on the fence (on my gates especially.)


You can buy large scratchers from most horse tack shops, they're plastic with little nubs for horses that like to scratch on posts. I bought one for the goats, strapped it to a post, and they LOVE it.


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