I am trying to decide which kind of fencing would be the safest and most cost efficient for my dwarf nigerian goats. I want them to be safe from coyotes. I first planned on getting cyclone fencing but I have read that it can have the potential for leg injuries. Would the goat fence with electric wires near the bottom and near the top work better?
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Thanks for the thoughts on my electric fence. I have since reworked it to be 6 wires, the lowest is 6" off the ground-- so it goes 6" - 5" - 5" - 6" - 10" - 12" ending up at 44" and I have room for one more at the top. They will all be hot and the 4th one up is right at shoulder height of the adults. The babies won't try to go under the 6" one at the bottom, since it will be hot. Don't think even my cat will try to go under it! Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. As an aside note: a friend of mine has pygmy goats and a BEAR jumped right over his 4' fence, grabbed a baby and jumped back over!!! Then he came back a week later and got another one! :( I'm hoping the high HOT wire fence will deter them from mine!! We do have a lot of bears here in the mountains but the old black bear that comes through here has decided he doesn't like my dog, so I haven't seen him in a while.
Margaret Langley said:
Great discussion here! I only want to add that any fence has the potential for a broken leg if you have a determined goat. I had a la mancha buckling break a leg jumping over a livestock panel. If their leg slips through the fence while they're jumping, and they fall backwards, odds are not in their favor.
And we had one very silly little buckling that had to get stuck in a combo livestock panel several times before he finally accepted the fact that he was too big to go through it any longer!
There are good reasons to use chain link: permanent, rare (if ever) repairs, heavier wire so it is highly unlikely to ever cut them, correctly installed it is lifetime durable, no animal (except baby chicks) will go through it, difficult to remove
There are reasons to not use it: not mobile, very expensive, difficult to remove
With chain link, the decision has to be made up front if twisted ends go at the top (to not cut) or at the bottom (easier for critters to push under it as they will not encounter sharp edges)
Chain link can be used for temporary fencing but it is quite expensive for that. You will see it around construction sites all the time with the posts set in concrete pads. If you were to have semi-permanent areas to fence and *really* wanted it, you could put sleeves in the ground and use longer line and corner posts to set in the sleeves and have sections made for that purpose (like the construction fences). Personally, that would be far more work than I wanted to go into it in addition to being very heavy (and expensive). You can do the same thing with cattle panels and have them be truly mobile and cut them in whatever lengths you want.
I love the chain link but it was *already* here on the exterior fenceline and that it is on concrete stem walls is even better. Still, I have one that is on a wall (not level ground on both sides). The goats are on the high side. When they rub against one of the sections, it moves out away from the stem wall because the bottom "hold-back" wire is broken - they have not discovered they could just walk out there if one of them held it open. After I saw it, I put cattle panels in front of it so no escapes and glad they are *not* ants or they would have escaped!
Margaret Langley said:
ok, gotcha! I missed it because of the "cyclone", I remember now thinking at the time that I didn't know what that was. Not use to that name! Well, I can see leg injuries from it IF you had goats that were persist about wanting to try to climb it, but that could potentially happen with any fence if you had a goat like that! I do feel that basically it is probably the safest most durable thing one could use. However it would most likely be to costly for most people with acreage! And of course totally inappropriate if someone did not want it in a permanent location!
In Polly's original post, she said, "... I first planned on getting cyclone fencing but I have read that it can have the potential for leg injuries." which is why I said that about the chain link, I just cannot imagine, after having watched my, that it would be a problem. And you are so right about the size for babies - it was a total shock to Ginger when she could no longer get through the bottom of the cattle panel, and hilarious as well!
Rachel Whetzel said:
Glenna, did I miss something here that I am just not seeing were someone said there was a problem with chainlink? If so, I want to know, because I would assume it is about as safe as it gets and of course just as expensive.
Glenna Rose said:
Julia, I am not familiar with this therefor cannot picture it but it sounds like something that you can feel sure is sufficient for your circumstances. That said, the only other thought I would have is to say that you want to consider not only height, but with these little ones remember that anywhere you may have kids, they can get out of the SMALLEST areas. It would not be hard at all if there are strands not far from the ground to find that kids have rolled around and ended up on the other side or smaller predators have snuck underneath! The kids also seem to be very adapt at getting over things that are only about a foot off the ground. So just keep that in mind.
Julia Stephens said:
I live in town and have chain link (Cyclone is a brand name) fencing on concrete stem walls around the exterior of my yard. That has worked very well for their fence so I'm not sure why it might be a problem; I just don't see it. They do like to rub against it for scratching and even climb up on it and lean against it to reach browse and have never had a foot caught. For interior (and extending past the chain link) I used cattle panels and line them with 2x4 lawn fencing, mostly because that is what I had. Both of these work very well for me and keep people from putting their hands through while being able to enjoy watching them. For one of my fence extensions by my driveway, I fastened one end of a cattle panel to the chain link post and have the other between the end of the garage and a full 50-gallon barrel of water. They will *not* push that over! The barrel is *outside* the fence or they might find their way up onto it and over the top. It's not permanent but as good as. And, if determined, they can get over even a 6-foot high chain-link fence; Summer did nearly a year ago, and all that was on her side was an electrical spool which is now under their shelter and *not* by the fence. Inside, I have naively put 2x4 fencing around my raspberries to keep them out while I let them roam free before I plant my garden. They love being out there with me and stay fairly close to me.
Just my 2 cents here, I am, as we speak putting in my fencing for my goats I'm picking up next month. I have a LOT of coyotes here and they are out there howling every night. I'm putting 5-wire electric fence around the entire perimeter (4 feet high) and between the girls and boys, 5 foot regular fencing (welded wire) with an electric line on the inside of the buck's area to keep them from the girls. There are a lot of farms out here and these electric fences seem to work to protect the livestock from predators plus it's pretty inexpensive by comparison. I have a backup generator for my property but if I didn't, the solar chargers work great too. Also, I will put the goats up after dark until morning. From everything I've read, the goats find out pretty quick where their boundaries are and stay away from the wire fence. Any thoughts on this, ya'll?
We use hog panel with Chicken fencing over it. The hog panel is about 4 feet tall and works fine for the mature goats, but for the pens that have kids we have the chicken fencing so the kids don't get out through the holes. =) For portable fencing we use a 10 foot tall chain link dog kennel and move it around the yard. It holds 4-6 does at a time.
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