I will be getting my first Nigerian's (2 doelings)in a couple of months. I currently have 2 Nubian weathers, 21 chickens, 5 peacocks and a couple of pet (neutered) Rabbits. All are housed in horse stalls in a 50X60 pole ban. We close the barn every night around dusk. Our barnyard is about 1+ acres fenced with 5 ft. woven wire no climb horse fence. I have not lost an animal to a predator since we put the fence up 3 years ago. The people I bought my Nubians from keep their goats in an open pole barn--they never close the doors. I asked them about predator problems (we both live in rural Indiana Coyote central) They said that they never have coyote problems because they always keep a radio on in the barn...??? I have always thought I should keep the barn locked up at night... Does anyone else think that the radio is a reliable coyote deterant?
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I have thought about a llama or a donkey and my understanding is that they would be aggressive to dogs as well as to wild predators (makes sence that wild dogs or roudy domestic dogs will all be the same to them...) I have always been a "dog person", am active in dog sports (I own and run a small dog agility training center) and did not think that I could expect a donkey or llama to accept my canine buddies and still be agressive to wild canines. Seems like knowing the difference would be beyond what one should expect? My Border Collies accompany me (always one at a time to be safe) to the barn at chore time...that means going through the barnyard (potential donkey or llama territory) . One of the reasons I chose goats as my livestock is because with training they will coexist nicely with dogs(always supervised) and I love having a dog with me while I am doing chores. So far, my dogs have been fabulously respectful of my goats. I know I am rambling here...after reading all your replys I think I will continue to lock the barn up tight each evening and use a radio if I might be late one evening as an extra precaution. It is so wonderful to have this forum to get feedback from so many experienced Nigerian owners!! Thank you all!
I've only lost one goat kid to coyotes, and that was when I had electric fence, and he went through it. I have, however, lost at least a dozen lambs and two adults, because the sheep are in a less secure pasture.
Two and a half years ago, we bought four llamas to help our LGD. Packs of coyotes were attacking, and my LGD couldn't handle all of them. Our losses have been cut tremendously since we got the llamas. In fact, I have since bought two female llamas so I can raise my own replacements. I know they have stopped an attack against a ram and two attacks against setting turkey hens. And I know one of the llamas fought them off last fall, because he was bitten on his leg, but he was fine within a couple days. I LOVE my llamas.
We got a donkey a few years ago, and he never bonded with the sheep or goats. In fact, he killed a ewe -- trampled her -- so we put him in a perimeter area, and one day my bucks got out, and we saw the donkey galloping across the pasture with a buck's back leg in his mouth, dragging the buck along. Amazingly, the buck did not have any broken bones and was fine by morning.
I've thought about a donkey, but I've heard that sometimes they never get used to the farm dogs and will try to trample them too. I've heard that llamas will get used to the farm dogs.
Having said that, I've spoken to a local sheep farmer who said that he's seen coyotes go to one end of a field to lure the livestock guardian dogs & llama towards them while the rest of the pack snatches lambs from the other end of the field.
We lost one kid in the fall, but it was kind of indirectly coyote food. She was a new weaned doeling that the breeder ended up only being able to ship when I was out of town. My husband was caring for them and thought she was hiding in the barn one day and didn't think too much of it until she never turned up. He hadn't let any of the goats outside at that point so we can only assume she snuck out when he was doing chores and wasn't paying attention to the door and took off and became coyote fodder. If one of our farm dogs happened to get her they wouldn't have eaten her and we would have found her body. The dogs all like the kids though so I don't think they would have killed her anyways. So it wasn't exactly coyote hunting that got her. My husband felt terrible.
So have any of you actually lost adult goats or kids to coyotes?
Marin Waddell said:
Coyotes are annoyingly smart and my guess is they'd catch on to the radio thing pretty quickly if there weren't other deterrents (like good fences) in place. I had a coyote stalk me through my field once. He mimicked everything I did. At one point I even raised my arms above my head thinking that I'd try to make myself look tall and he (or possibly she) reared up on his hind legs to show he could do it too. It was freakin' scary. I was half a mile from the house, no one was home, and our closest neighbours are 3 miles away. Not that my little story has anything to do with your question, I just really hate coyotes. And I know we have a pack of 5-6 of them living close by.
Coyotes are annoyingly smart and my guess is they'd catch on to the radio thing pretty quickly if there weren't other deterrents (like good fences) in place. I had a coyote stalk me through my field once. He mimicked everything I did. At one point I even raised my arms above my head thinking that I'd try to make myself look tall and he (or possibly she) reared up on his hind legs to show he could do it too. It was freakin' scary. I was half a mile from the house, no one was home, and our closest neighbours are 3 miles away. Not that my little story has anything to do with your question, I just really hate coyotes. And I know we have a pack of 5-6 of them living close by.
We also have lots of potential predators, but it seems like dogs are the worse for the goaties? My friends keep about 13 or 14 large breed rescue goats. They have an electric fence with the wire closer to the ground only a few inches apart in height. Wouldn't an electric fence be hard on goats? I know when I forget on my horse fence, it "wakes me up" real fast!
We have 12.6 acres, but haven't done the whole thing for goats, yet. We have a fenced pen with a small house that they're closed up in after dusk until sunrise. The fence is just the 1x2 gauge wire. The kidding pen will be in a pole barn horse stall. I let the does browse in the picketed front area (1/3 of an acre), and plan to put movable panels where I want them to browse in the day after the babies are big enough. DH made the panels with 2x4's and hardware cloth, or 1x2 wire centers. They were less expensive to make than buying "goat panels".
Considering all of the coyote problems we've had, I'd think someone would have told us about the radio thing by now, but no one has said anything about that. Maybe it depends on the coyotes in your area, but around here they are very brazen. They trapped my neighbor's dog against the house, and they've hunted in packs at our place so that they could get lambs when my LGD was in the pasture. Your fence sounds like the best protection.
Replies
I've only lost one goat kid to coyotes, and that was when I had electric fence, and he went through it. I have, however, lost at least a dozen lambs and two adults, because the sheep are in a less secure pasture.
Two and a half years ago, we bought four llamas to help our LGD. Packs of coyotes were attacking, and my LGD couldn't handle all of them. Our losses have been cut tremendously since we got the llamas. In fact, I have since bought two female llamas so I can raise my own replacements. I know they have stopped an attack against a ram and two attacks against setting turkey hens. And I know one of the llamas fought them off last fall, because he was bitten on his leg, but he was fine within a couple days. I LOVE my llamas.
We got a donkey a few years ago, and he never bonded with the sheep or goats. In fact, he killed a ewe -- trampled her -- so we put him in a perimeter area, and one day my bucks got out, and we saw the donkey galloping across the pasture with a buck's back leg in his mouth, dragging the buck along. Amazingly, the buck did not have any broken bones and was fine by morning.
I've thought about a donkey, but I've heard that sometimes they never get used to the farm dogs and will try to trample them too. I've heard that llamas will get used to the farm dogs.
Having said that, I've spoken to a local sheep farmer who said that he's seen coyotes go to one end of a field to lure the livestock guardian dogs & llama towards them while the rest of the pack snatches lambs from the other end of the field.
We lost one kid in the fall, but it was kind of indirectly coyote food. She was a new weaned doeling that the breeder ended up only being able to ship when I was out of town. My husband was caring for them and thought she was hiding in the barn one day and didn't think too much of it until she never turned up. He hadn't let any of the goats outside at that point so we can only assume she snuck out when he was doing chores and wasn't paying attention to the door and took off and became coyote fodder. If one of our farm dogs happened to get her they wouldn't have eaten her and we would have found her body. The dogs all like the kids though so I don't think they would have killed her anyways. So it wasn't exactly coyote hunting that got her. My husband felt terrible.
Marin Waddell said:
We also have lots of potential predators, but it seems like dogs are the worse for the goaties? My friends keep about 13 or 14 large breed rescue goats. They have an electric fence with the wire closer to the ground only a few inches apart in height. Wouldn't an electric fence be hard on goats? I know when I forget on my horse fence, it "wakes me up" real fast!
We have 12.6 acres, but haven't done the whole thing for goats, yet. We have a fenced pen with a small house that they're closed up in after dusk until sunrise. The fence is just the 1x2 gauge wire. The kidding pen will be in a pole barn horse stall. I let the does browse in the picketed front area (1/3 of an acre), and plan to put movable panels where I want them to browse in the day after the babies are big enough. DH made the panels with 2x4's and hardware cloth, or 1x2 wire centers. They were less expensive to make than buying "goat panels".