Looking at getting goats and chickens

We had a goat we aptly named "Stinky".
That guy managed to get out of the 5' fenced garden area, and also one of those 6' high cyclone dog enclosures that had another foot of barbed wire around the top.
Had a couple others that kept getting out of the garden area (we weren't using it at the time, as they eat dang near ANYTHING) by using a bunny hutch as a springboard over the fence. We'd find 'em at the front door, wanting to come in.
My wife handled them all when they were babies, so they liked to follow her around the yard when she was out there.

 

I have had about 60 goats and I can tell you one thing, GOOD FENCES are your friend. I run 5 to 6 strand of electric high tensile. I keep it at about 7 or 8 kv. I would rather have full sized goats than smaller ones as they can fit through smaller holes, cracks, etc. Plus, they're easier to milk in my opinion. I have had all sorts of housing for them. If your only getting 2 you can get a big dog igloo and they'll be fine.

Chickens can run with the goats with no problem. Mine would perch on the goats. I raise about 200 to 300 meat chickens a year and keep 20 layers. My meaties stay in an electric net fence with a makeshift hut.

 

Here is my tentative plan for fencing. I had a buddy come over with his drone and do some aerial photography for me. That thing was freaking sweet!!!! Anyways, this is all hill side too. Square would be goat shed, rectangle along the fence would be chicken coop, red line is a gate. And just below that red line is a white line. That's an 8' 2x4 I threw out there for reference.

 

To paraphrase a posting I have seen before........I had to reply, because I could only push the like button once. This is awesome!

 

I've already figured out my fence footage and posts needed based on this! Saved me a ton of work.

 

How tall will it be? If it's under 6' it will become the escape route of choice for the goats.

A picture in my first post has the little goat hut I threw together. It was 4.5' high and located about 3' from the fence. Even though the metal roof was quite slippery, a couple of the goats eventually figured out that they could jump onto the roof and make a quick leap over the fence before they slid off.

 

Haha that is funny. I've read that they are little daredevils. Everything I've read says that for Pygmies you need a 4' fence.

 

We just shipped the last two goats two Saturdays ago. We have raised goats, meat and milk for the last 19 years. At one time we milked a string of 14 high production Nubians and had a milk business. Another time we had our meat goat herd up to 175 does. I just have one bit of advice about raising goats, any goats. DONT!!!! Use your time, energy and resources on something else.