We decided to take a chance with the goats. The place we are moving to is five acres. It has a perimeter fence, but it is just four-strand barbed wire - not something that would hold a goat. But like the chickens, the goats will not travel too far from what they consider home. So, we moved the goats without building a fence.
It's pretty easy to move goats. You open the trailer, shake the grain bucket, they jump in, you close the trailer, and you're done. It was a bit harder with Ares (our wether) this time. J will dictate the experience to me sometime soon and I will add it. Suffice it to say, it was not as simple as opening the trailer.
When the goats arrived at the new house, we made sure to feed them near the house, show them the water trough, again, near the house, and fill the hay feeder, yet again, near the house. Goats are social creatures and would be happiest hanging out with you in the house, so we knew that if they saw us around the house for the day, they would associate that as home. What we didn't know was how incredibly LOUD a herd of goats can be at night as they run the circuit around the house. Up onto the back deck - clack, clack, clack - down through the dry pond rocks - clank, clank, clank - up onto the front deck - clack, clack, clack - around the back of the house - maaa, maaa, maaa - and then back up onto the back deck. Intersperse this with the crazy tongue wagging call of a buck in rut - bleh-ah, bleh-ah, bleh-ah, sneeze - and the occassional goat head peeking in the bedroom window and you get the picture. By the morning, we were WISHING that the goats would run away. They have five acres to browse and explore and they spent the entire night within five feet of the house.
We will be building a goat pen as soon as we get settled into the house. But for now, we may just move their food and water a little further away from the house and hope that they settle into their new surroundings - or we might just have goat for dinner.
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