Housing Goats w/Chickens, Horses

[Tropit]

I have wanted goats forever, but the coyotes that lived on an adjacent property have been a serious problem until now.  The neighbors cleared the property and the coyotes are gone now, so I think that I'll take the plunge.  I have a chicken yard that looks like Fort Knox with 8 ft. high fencing, plus a triple row of barbed wire along the top.  The birds have their own hen house and enclosed sun porch, but roam free in the yard during the day.  I'd like to introduce goats to the yard.  They could sleep there at night, in a shed, and move to a rough hillside to browse during the day.  Is there anything that I need to worry about housing goats with chickens?  What about mixing goats with horses? 

~ C.

[Dukesterct]

Not an expert by any means, in fact we got a couple of Saanens girls and a baby Saanen buck 5 weeks tomorrow, I modified my 3 side rabbit hutch(4x10) extended the front roof and built a floor out of 5/4x6 recycled PT decking, now the hutch  is 6x10.
The fence and posts are also recycled 6 foot high chain link that we once kept 25 chickens and 2 roosters.

We have had a bear in the back yard woods a couple of times and there's plenty of red fox, coons, coyotes etc. I suppose we've been lucky.........so far! maybe there's a small chance  they can smell the gun powder from my 22Mag 

Sounds like you have very safe set up. If your pets have proper and separate corrals they should be fine under the same roof.

[Tropit]

Well...I asked my goat milk lady if I could buy 2, or 3 kids from her and she said OK.  She has Alpines and La Manchas.  $200/kid.  What are the pros and cons of each breed?  I'm leaning towards the Alpines because they're a little smaller, good milkers and besides that, they're pretty cute.  She said that these kids were out of some rather young does, so they are a tad small for their age.  Is this bad?  Thanks for any help that you all can give me.

~C.

[littlemilkqueen]

I have chickens, and horses too. When I was getting my goats a few years ago I thought of chickens and goats and what I read was that it could be difficult because chickens can be really dirty and you dont want that around the milk. So many things in chicken droppings. My girl goats and the horses get along, although not penned up together. I let the girls out and they visit the horse (and the horse visits them when she is out), but not the boy goats interestingly! LOL I can also add that one day our buck got out and he went up to our larger horse (we have an almost grown horse and a 3 month old filly) and his horns got stuck around her leg! cut her a bit and freaked her out. My girls dont have horns. Just  thoughts about my experiences that may help you decide.

[rlatta]

We have lamanchas and nubians..tried an alpine once and hated the taste of the milk.
Maybe it was just those goats or it was how much we love our nubian and lamancha girls, but we don't even consider other breeds anymore.

[woodsman]

Chickens finding their way to my goats' hay rack, laying and setting eggs there and pooping all over the bales was the only problem we experienced having both chickens and goats. The way to prevent it was to completely enclose the hay rack, save the front part with slats spaced close enough so the chickens can't get through.

[Alice in TX/MO]

We have both Alpines and LaManchas.  Love them both, and both have great milk.  Bad tasting milk may mean a particular goat has mastitis.

My Alpines and LaManchas are about the same size.

BEFORE you jump off into this, learn about goat health.  It's absolutely essential that you buy goats that have documentation that shows they have been tested for and are free from CAE (Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis).

Also, it's all about teats and udders.  The udder must be 'well attached.' Look at the dam's udder.  Is it pendulous and hang loosely when viewed from the back?  NOT a good thing.  Teats need to be big enough to milk easily by hand.  Itty bitty teats will give you hand cramps and milk in your shoe.

Stunted kids may have had their guts damaged by coccidia and/or worms.  Ask about her coccidia prevention plan for kids and deworming practices.

Read about goats ..... a lot! 

Here's a good place to start:
http://fiascofarm.com/