goat tent makeover!

Another thing that had to change when we got back from our trip was to separate the kids from the moms so I would actually get any milk! I got about a cup, maybe two for two goats per milking, which does add up, but is not really rewarding. With all those hardwood pallets I found recently (I am always on the look out for another project) I decided to go the wood way and make pallet dividers. I reused the old door from when the tent was a chicken tractor (the goats demolished the chicken wire, took them a couple weeks but man, they shredded the stuff) and now have a nice enclosure of 4 feet deep and 10 feet wide. And get about half a gallon of milk each morning with no milking needed at night (the kids take care of that...) - I should have done this months ago!

I mounted three feeding troughs (those cheap plastic mineral feeders), one for each goat (Spots the boer boy, Gazelle and Fuzzy Bear) and a water bucket and reused two of the three floor pallets to raise the floor to keep them dry at night. It is surprising how well it works!

And the best part? Since I am "handling" the girls, as in moving them about even though I don't touch them as they know where to go (they're smart, took them only a couple times to figure out the routine) they became so much more interactive! Especially Gazelle, who at first was as flighty as can be, is coming for snuggles :-)

Their different characters are also much more apparent, Spots DOES NOT SHARE, especially food, and he'll headbutt from feeder to feeder to try and claim them all... Gazelle just follows him around - it's like musical chairs, with a goat bleating with it's mouth full as accompaniment! Fuzzy Bear will try and eat once or twice, get butted and then decide the food isn't all that good and start eating the fresh hay... with her rear towards the others!

Gazelle is up for grabs, btw, we put her up for sale... Not really set up to take four goats through the winter! Though our goat barn is moving fast, last weekend the roof rafters went up with help of our goat buddy Michael, this week we plan to have the new metal roofing on as well. Wow...

Check the Picasa site for pictures at the Goat Barn Project.