Somebody must have taken them, as the linked item has been deleted by the person listing it.
It was a picture of a bunch of goats, maybe 20 or so in a suburban street and manicured lawns.
The listing stated: free goats come and get them, I am tired of the the "sumbitches" getting out and having to chase them down.
Fencing in goats is next to impossible.?ÿ There is a gold standard for determining the worthiness of a fence for keeping goat where you want them.?ÿ Fill a bucket with water.?ÿ Walk up to the fence.?ÿ Throw the water at the fence.?ÿ If any water gets through the fence, goats will get through it, also.?ÿ Repeat until no water gets through the fence.
I use to keep a herd of dairy goats in a former life. It was a hobby I picked up through osmosis from my oldest son's FFA project. And you are pretty much correct about a goat's ability to ignore through fences.
I originally started with just a 48" field fence...pfffft...I discovered if young goats can get their head through something, they can eventually get their whole body through it. A field fence with 6" stays looks like it would keep a goat from wandering...but it won't.
It got an overlay of chicken wire. Then it grew to about 72" in height because some goats are born with their pilot's license. After all the trouble and time, I still had one or two that could just literally climb up and over the fence at the corner posts. The corners got the chicken wire treatment. And I had enough hot wire running all over the place to electrocute a full grown human. Goats really dislike hot fences. The goat corral looked like Stalag 17.
I did have a couple of bucks that I used for breeding. Those fowl-smelling demon spawns had their own pen some distance from the fresh does. A buck's musk scent will ruin fresh milk...and anything else it come near. And if a buck can't touch it to make it stink, he lifts his rear leg and pisses a good half-chain distance to hit something he wants to make smell. The full grown bucks were usually too fat and lazy to try the Houdini thing with the fence, but they would stick their heads through anything. I had one that literally chewed a hole in wood siding just to get his head through. I had a couple of bucks that I tied 18" stakes across their horns to keep them from sticking their heads where they shouldn't. That seemed to work.
A good docile doe will usually stay put if you keep their bedding clean and make sure they have water and something to eat. It's the crazy little kids that always made it over (or through) the wall and all over the place. There's nothing like pulling in your drive only to have three kids come out of nowhere and jump on your hood....just the look at you through the windshield and blurt out a "baaaa.." .
The milk was wonderful and not too much trouble once you got in the habit of milking. And I always provided a "guest of honor" to the outdoor church BBQ... 😉
That brought back memories...
My parents, mom (88) dad (92) still have about 6 goats. They are incredibly hard to keep penned up. They snort, fart, jump on cars, and leave their turds where ever they go. When we were kids, we were invited to a skiing trip, with a youth group. We were supposed to "take care of the goats" first. This included CATCHING them, and chaining them out to browse. Did you know goats can sense excitement? And, that they can work against you? We missed the ski trip, because of them.
So, we tied them out "a little short". I threw the chain over a limb, pulled it up tight. The goat could touch the ground, but it was tight. This was how we discovered that they weren't invincible. The poor thing had expired when I went to retrieve it, that evening. I honestly had not expected this turn of events. We made up a tale about how "that goat musta jumped over the limb". We did not get in trouble, but my parents thought a wild animal was chasing them. It's kinda sad as I think back.... We really did not know that they could be made to expire that way. I was maybe 7-9 yrs old. My older brother also had some kind of mis-hap that day, with his goat. He tied the goat to a shrub. Then, climbed a young spindly pine tree. (Bull pine) then, swayed the top, till he pulled it to the ground, and tied that goat to the top, and let her go! He also discovered that goats could expire. We weren't members of PETA. We were young, and simply DID NOT KNOW that goats would expire this way. We could tell that they KNEW that they had ruined our ski trip, and we were just teaching them a lesson. We were both scared that our parents would figure out what we'd done. It was several years before we confessed. Our relationship with goats, up until that time, had shown them to be invincible, capricious, and we believed that they KNEW that they had ruined our ski trip. We were quite simply trying to share our misfortune.?ÿ
I still think back to that time in my life, and consider it incredible that we are still alive. We did so many stupid things. Bike jumps, and stuff. My brother fell out of a tree, chasing a rat, and broke both of his arms. Later, with his arms in casts, we would tie one of the big goats to our red wagon, and get pulled all over, wherever that crazy goat wanted to go. It was very Willy-nilly, as goats NEVER go where you want them to go. The wagon often would overturn. That was when the real fun started. Remember those casts? He'd hang onto the rope, still tied to the goat, and use the casts as skids, to protect his arms, and that goat would drag him all over the place. He would let go, when the goat went into a briar patch, or through a fence. It was sort of risky, because you had to let go, in an instant, before you were injured. And, things happened fast. I'm really glad that this did not get made more public, or others would have done it, and it would have provoked us to much more risky endeavors, and probably have gotten us killed.
Goats need ADULT supervision. We learned that goats are not real good role models for kids. So, if you think your kids need a cute little goat, don't assume that they will stay small, and watch out.... I don't think the goats were very good role models for us!
Nate
Y'all must've been some of those kids that were a bit "slow" if you did not realize that hanging a animal would result in the death of that animal.
Slow indeed.?ÿ
So how far off the ground was the goat that your brother killed when he tied to the bent pine tree??ÿ
@paden cash
From the way you folks are describing them it sounds as if they require concertina wire fencing.?ÿ
Foul smelling demon spawn. Now that is funny.
One of my daughters has two dogs. One is a Jack Russell/rat terrier. It must be half goat. It has never met a fence that could not be conquered. Incredible skills, including flying.
I never saw what he did. He only described it. WERE Kinda slow? Whataya mean? I'm still kinda slow.
We were involved in many a thing, that fully displayed that we weren't stupid. We were VERY smart. Just in a "different" sort of way. We did many things, that were fully insane, and a little genius. Things that were obvious to others, we're not obvious to us. Things that were not obvious to others, we're very obvious to us.
It serves nicely as a surveyor. Maybe not so good as a normal person.
We were chronic cobblers. Still are.?ÿ
We were insane, in ways others weren't. And, we did not care either. It was "fun".?ÿ
Somewhere our definition of fun got meddled with. Not sure when, or where.
Wingsuit flying looks like fun to me.
N
Ps, the reason I know we were "smart", is mom said so.
?ÿ
You know that sometimes mother's will lie to their children, like when they tell you they "love you" or "you're so smart". Those are known as "little white lies" and are used instead of the truth to make their children feel special.
A common joke from years ago: "my mother said she loves me but I doubt her sincerity".
@justasurveyor,
I'm trying to agree with you.,but you are kinda slow on the uptake!
😉
N
My wife raised a goat from just days old once. It was the cutest thing.... until it was almost half grown. It ate the seats on two four-wheelers, ate the wires under my truck that went to the towing lights, climbed on any car that happened to be there. Daughter named her "Moo". No clue.... We ended up talking some friends into taking her. They tried to give her back a couple weeks later.... after she ate a huge portion of their vinyl siding. My Father in law had the hottest electric fence I ever felt. That kept his goats and pigs in as long as it worked. "Fixing" the electric fence usually involved getting shocked a few times. Once got me standing in water. Ouch. Had to pull a few goats off the fence because it would immobilize them. That fence killed several possums and at least one black snake.?ÿ
This stuff is so darned funny. I had no idea and always thought the stories about goats were exaggerated like most fish stories are.
Do they really eat vinyl siding, wires and seat covers, I mean truly eat the stuff?
We had a lamb when I was a boy and it was a useless creature but we never experienced any of the things y'all describe. At least with our cows and pigs they could be contained rather easily.?ÿ
A goat that has been bottle fed will make a preacher cuss. We used them to clear some land years ago. Problem was, it grew back thicker than ever with all the fertilizer they left. No exaggeration on my part. I don't know if they ingested all that stuff, but they chewed it til it was gone. We had a steer goat named butch that pulled the kids in a wagon. He would take off through the woods with them in tow... to get to his favorite plant, poison oak. And birdseed.... like catnip to him. He and the wife fought over the bird feeders....?ÿ
What's the problem with bottle fed goats?
Too tame. A full grown goat should not jump in ones lap, but a bottle fed one will. And try to get in the house to get to "mama"....
Most anything that is bottle fed becomes a problem later in life. Especially male critters when they start maturing. Doesn't matter if it's a goat or a buffalo. Watch out!
