Best Posts in Thread: Goats and chicken tractor

I have a small structure next to the nipa that we were using as a dirty kitchen area when we were building the house. I did not get around to tearing it down as it has a roof and I was storing some equipment there. Since my Belgian is in heat I decided to make it into a pen where I could put the Dalmatian when our girl was out in the yard.

I am against chaining or penning up a dog, but at the same time I do not want these 2 to have any more pups together if possible. I do want to keep them both intact for the future as they are papered dogs and some pure blood Belgian pups a year or so later would be interesting as well as letting the Dalmatian spread his seed with another Dalmatian blood line.

It was just tearing out the benches and table, some 2X4's for the top of the 4' high chicken wire (which I will finish tomorrow) a gate and it is a decent little area. Once things started coming together I got an idea about it being a good pen for a goat as well.

Our "subdivision" has not built up yet so it is mostly plants/grass everywhere; we have a neighbor with a couple goats and all they do is take them out in the morning, tie them up to feed all day and then bring them home in the evening. Pretty much no cost other than buying the goat, with vaccines and some minimal supplemental feed.

The first time I ate goat was the first time I visited the wife's family, I've had it a number of times since but am not a big fan. I can't see having more than two goats at a time and what the wife does with them is on her...I am only interested in the dung for the garden. I will start with one to see how much it can (produce?) from sunset to sunrise.

Another thing I have been thinking about is a chicken tractor (I do have some time on my hands at the moment so I may think too much), if not familiar ask our good friend Mr. Google, it is basically a mobile coop that you can move around each day. I have a pretty small area to work with so I was thinking 3 or 4 laying chickens. They can forage for bugs each day and it should not be too much extra feed to keep them going. The benefits would be some eggs as well as fertilizer. There are some pretty good design ideas out there and I still have a bunch of wood left over, so some split bamboo to buy and some wheels and it should be a fun weekend project.

Just a couple ideas I have and things to keep me occupied.

Shawn

 

Our neighbour had thesame problem here a few weeks ago, lost the lot.....and others around the place lost theirs as well..
Im betting it was some variation of bird flu , as they seemed to get very lethargic for a few days before dying. some even died during the night, and fell from the tree where they were roosting......

 

We don't get to the village as often as we should but the geese really do not like seeing me, I don't get nipped at but they really seem to take offense to seeing me. Once they get going even the ones that may happen to be swimming in the river come up to see what is going on. They eventually calm down if I ignore them.

I'm not sure if my dogs at the house or the geese at the village are the better alarm.

Shawn

 

There may be a large invisible predator of chickens here. My neighbor had a number of chicken and chicks that would roam about, not a problem until they decide to dig up my gardens. Recently I notice a severe drop in population. When I asked the neighbor she said almost all of her chicken died from illness very quickly. I am not sure what the issue was but it is something that should be of concern to those raising chickens as she is apparently not the only one in the neighborhood to be affected.
I am hoping the roosters that start crowing at 4:30 in the morning catch whatever it is the chickens are dying from.

 

When I think about doing something here the back home way, usually it just isn't going to work, (not cost effective, can't find the materials, etc.) But the moveable chicken coup made using bamboo and cheap wire has got me thinking, as the most likely predator here will probably be the resident dog, and if there's not problem there then why not.