Help raising goats/sheep and chickens

[Bigdawg90]

Hey guys,

Haven’t been on a farm with goats and chickens since I was about 13-14. I’ve been helping a neighbor with his little goat pets and a couple roosters, but he doesn’t raise goats and chickens for meat, and he’s not a farmer or really experienced, he just kinda fell into it.

My wife and I have about 3/4 of an acre on our property we’ll be fencing to raise goats/sheep and chickens for meat and eggs.

I as wondering if anyone here raised goats and sheep for meat near Sand Springs. I’d like to help if you need it. I can come by and shovel poop for all I care, just want to learn from someone who actually does it, not online or in books. I also didn’t want to rely on 25 year old memories and needlessly lose some animals.

Everyone I know out here doesn’t raise their goats for meat, mainly dairy and pets. Also I don’t have anyone around that raises chickens for meat. I’d like to have egg layers and meat chickens. Plus I want to make sure my two kids learn humility and hard work through manual labor like I did.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

I do all that stuff. Unfortunately I’m not close to Sand Springs. Go for it! You’ll be fine and learn as you go.

Keep in mind, true meat chickens are a specific breed. Referred to as: Cornish cross, Cornish-X, Cornish rock, Cornish rock cross, etc… they don’t live very long, they grow very fast, and they have the large breasted carcass type that we are all used to from the grocery store. They are butchered young, so they are tender. Very easy to raise, start with a small batch of 10 or so at first. A small portable coop works great.

Egg layers are easy, pick whichever breed suits your fancy, build a predator proof coop, shut them in every night and there you go.

3/4 acre isn’t much room if you’re doing sheep. Unless you want to feed a lot of hay and grain. Generally with sheep it’s best to have several pastures sectioned off. Rotational grazing. You could probably keep a few sheep though, depending on your grass quality

I don’t have a whole lot of experience with goats. But as everyone will tell you, invest a lot of effort and money into your fencing! Definitely go with small square wire, tall height, etc..

 

[THAT Gurl]

@OK Corgi Rancher can you chat him up a little about goats??

Chickens are easy as long as you can control predators. Like @Ready_fire_aim says there are lots of breeds to choose from, depending on what you want/need.

You can't read too much about any of this stuff. That said the absolute best way to learn is hands on. Plenty of guys here who have forgotten more than I know about animal husbandry. I say start small, have a good vet and ask questions when you are stumped. Enjoy!!

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

I'll be happy to (try to) answer any questions you might have about goats. We're new goat owners so I'm no expert. But I can tell you what we did when we got ours last October. Our goats are strictly pets, maybe for breeding to sell a few babies.

We're about to start on our adventure with chickens, too. Don't have any yet.

@tynyphil is the goat guy to talk to, I think.

 

[Bigdawg90]

I do all that stuff. Unfortunately I’m not close to Sand Springs. Go for it! You’ll be fine and learn as you go.

Keep in mind, true meat chickens are a specific breed. Referred to as: Cornish cross, Cornish-X, Cornish rock, Cornish rock cross, etc… they don’t live very long, they grow very fast, and they have the large breasted carcass type that we are all used to from the grocery store. They are butchered young, so they are tender. Very easy to raise, start with a small batch of 10 or so at first. A small portable coop works great.

Egg layers are easy, pick whichever breed suits your fancy, build a predator proof coop, shut them in every night and there you go.

3/4 acre isn’t much room if you’re doing sheep. Unless you want to feed a lot of hay and grain. Generally with sheep it’s best to have several pastures sectioned off. Rotational grazing. You could probably keep a few sheep though, depending on your grass quality

I don’t have a whole lot of experience with goats. But as everyone will tell you, invest a lot of effort and money into your fencing! Definitely go with small square wire, tall height, etc..

We have about 2 acres, but there’s no way I’m driving that many posts out here. The rocks are insane. It’ll probably take me a couple days with a bobcat with the jackhammer attachment to get the posts in. Lol. Thought this community would be my next go to after my neighbors. Got a lot of people who keep pets.

I can’t have my wife go with me to those neighbors. As soon as she hangs out with a couple of those little nubian goats, that’s all we’ll have or those little fainting goats.

Everyone I know keeps saying to jump in so I guess I’ll just wade in to the deep end. Haha. I will certainly be asking a lot of questions

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

What type of fencing are you planning to run?

For sheep I really like high tensile field fence. Sold in 330ft rolls. Usually around $200-$250ish per roll. Two rolls gets a lot done! With good corner posts/H-posts and proper tension you can space out your line posts pretty far, reducing the number of line posts driven.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

We have about 2 acres, but there’s no way I’m driving that many posts out here. The rocks are insane. It’ll probably take me a couple days with a bobcat with the jackhammer attachment to get the posts in. Lol. Thought this community would be my next go to after my neighbors. Got a lot of people who keep pets.

I can’t have my wife go with me to those neighbors. As soon as she hangs out with a couple of those little nubian goats, that’s all we’ll have or those little fainting goats.

Everyone I know keeps saying to jump in so I guess I’ll just wade in to the deep end. Haha. I will certainly be asking a lot of questions

That's what we did. We bought 4. We already had a good, secure pen for them. 1 of ours was about 3 or 4 months old and 3 were only about 7 weeks old when we got them. They're very easy to care for and the expense is minimal. Lots of great information online. We're already giving them shots and basic care ourselves.

You can find recommendations from many online sources as to what's a good start in terms of meds and supplies to keep on hand. We have 20-ish acres so ours have a pretty unlimited food source and we make lots of hay in the summer...so feeding costs in the winter is minimal.

Like others have said, good fencing is a must. That's something we don't really have yet. We put up a temporary fence that's about 80'x70' that we can move around without a lot of brain damage. Ours are already very tame...just like little puppies...and they hand out right around the house. I have a few Corgis and when it's time to put the goats up they're a big help. My little girl rounds them right up into their pen/shelter area.

About fencing... We've already had a neighbor's dog attack our oldest goat and almost killed her. I left them outside their pen and unattended for just a few minutes...that's all it took. Fortunately she survived and the neighbor is a pretty stand-up guy and took care of the dog issue and the vet bill. I've had one other dog snooping around but a few shots over his head from the AR sent him hauling ass off the property. Having to shoot a dog is the last thing I want to do...but I don't want my goats (or me or my wife) hurt by roaming dogs. So I've come to grips with the fact that I'll do what I need to do next time stray dogs are on the property.

We really have a lot of fun with our goats. They will climb on EVERYTHING. If you want to keep something nice, keep it away from goats. They haven't been destructive like a lot of people told us they would be in terms of eating stuff...just climbing on everything. The hood of my car has scratches all over it from little goat paws...

As far as livestock, though, they're about as low maintenance as it gets. And they're just a hoot to watch and to play with.

Here's a picture of their shelter and pen area right after I built the little enclosure in the corner and before I put down a bunch of straw and pine shavings. It's secure enough to keep pretty much anything short of a bear out of it, I think. Once I put the straw and pine shavings in there and built a hay feeder for them it keeps them safe and also keeps them warm when it's cold. So far it works great:

 

[Timmy59]

We have about 2 acres, but there’s no way I’m driving that many posts out here. The rocks are insane. It’ll probably take me a couple days with a bobcat with the jackhammer attachment to get the posts in. Lol. Thought this community would be my next go to after my neighbors. Got a lot of people who keep pets.

I can’t have my wife go with me to those neighbors. As soon as she hangs out with a couple of those little nubian goats, that’s all we’ll have or those little fainting goats.

Everyone I know keeps saying to jump in so I guess I’ll just wade in to the deep end. Haha. I will certainly be asking a lot of questions

If your just getting back into critters, I'd highly suggest you don't put the pedal to the metal. Get chickens 1st, then after a spell with them, then see if you want to bite off more. They all take TIME. Lol. Oh let's not forget $$ lol. Chicken is the best for entry, eggs and protein. You'll darn sure want to own a chicken plucker. When or if you need chicks, I might could fix you up ..

 

[Timmy59]

Then if ya'll are pork eaters I'd snag a piglet. Pigs can be turned into pets up until they get shrink wrapped. 5-6 months and it puts a nice amount in the freezer or canned. If ya'll got that far along.

 

[Bigdawg90]

What type of fencing are you planning to run?

For sheep I really like high tensile field fence. Sold in 330ft rolls. Usually around $200-$250ish per roll. Two rolls gets a lot done! With good corner posts/H-posts and proper tension you can space out your line posts pretty far, reducing the number of line posts driven.

My wife champagne tastes, but she’s the coolest person I know so I try to build to her standards.

Line posts will either be rail road ties or 6x6 cedar. Corner posts will be taller with caps. They’ll be tied together by 2x4s or 2x6s. I’m thinking 2x4 square wire between the posts, but the high tensile field fence looks like a better deal. No problems with the big spaces at the top? I’m hoping 10 foot spacing between posts but it’ll all depend on the final layout. The posts and cross members will depend on what the local lumbar yard has, but I’ll try to put the posts a min of 24” down. That’ll be the challenge with the boulders around here.

If my wife has her way fence will be white with black wire like those hog wire decks, but unless she’s helping with the post holes that’s not happening. I built a couple decks like that and she loved it.

If your just getting back into critters, I'd highly suggest you don't put the pedal to the metal. Get chickens 1st, then after a spell with them, then see if you want to bite off more. They all take TIME. Lol. Oh let's not forget $$ lol. Chicken is the best for entry, eggs and protein. You'll darn sure want to own a chicken plucker. When or if you need chicks, I might could fix you up ..

That’s my feeling. Wife is an all or nothing type personality so she wants to cannonball into it. Lol

If we start with goats right off the bat I’ll probably start with little ones before moving into meat goats. We don’t do long vacations so we don’t mind the time commitment.

If I don’t find someone to work with and work through the learning curve I’ll probably start with chickens and 2 small goats and then see if I’m able to keep them all alive.