Freeholder
This too shall pass.
We have three little Nigerian Dwarf goats, two does who are probably both bred by now, and a young buckling (but plenty old enough to breed the does!). I'd been trying to figure out how I was going to confine the little stinkers and/or just keep them out of the garden. Came up with goat tractors, each about eight feet square. I'm not finished with them, but what I've done so far is bought some utility panels (like cattle panels but 4" square holes -- the larger holes in cattle panels will let little goats squirt through them, especially when they are still babies), and bent them in half. Then I take two panels and fasten them together in a square with carabiner clips. You could wire one corner up, and only use the carabiners on the other corner for a gate. Next I'll be adding small tarps over one corner so they have shelter from sun and rain (and in winter, I'll wrap a small tarp around that corner for wind protection).
These are relatively easy to move even for me, with my bad back, but I'm thinking about ways to make them slide more easily on the ground.
We are in an area with plenty of rain most of the time, and good soil, and most of the year one or two Nigerian Dwarf goats will have plenty of pasture for a day, or even two days, inside the 8' X 8' pen. When we are short on forage, I can either move them more often or bring a flake of hay to them. Right now I'm putting a water bucket inside the pen. This isn't ideal, as they will poop and pee in the water, but I don't want to cut holes in the panels (because it will make it hard to keep young kids in later); I'm thinking about how to make some kind of through--the-wire waterer (don't know if goats can use a nipple-valve or cup-style automatic waterer, but those are things I'll be looking into). Right now I'm giving them a little grain, and their mineral/salt, in a rubber feed dish. But I have one pen-mounted feeder that attaches to the wire with carabiner clips (included with the feeder) and plan to get several more of those. That way, there will be one less thing to pick up and move when I move each pen.
I may also try building a fold-down milking stand into the doe pens, so I don't have to take them anywhere to milk them. Issue with that will be my comfort when it's raining, or hot out. I don't want to add much more weight to the pens, but I do have several cattle panels, and might make an arched roof over one end of each of the doe pens, with a tarp on that, just for my own weather protection while doing chores. In addition to the extra weight, though, that might also be too much of a sail in high winds!
I will take some pictures after a bit and add them to this -- just wanted to mention it while I'm sitting here taking a break.
Kathleen
ETA: If you want to build something like this and need to buy new panels, get them as soon as you can. Prices are way up, and will probably go higher, and they are hard to find. The feed store had just gotten a stack of them in when I bought mine, and said they would be flying out the door. I had planned to only get six panels (for three pens), and decided to add two more panels so I could make four pens (I want one for a dedicated kid pen). If you are going to have bigger goats, cattle panels would probably work just fine. And, for bigger goats, you might have to move this size of pen more often, depending on your available forage. The eye of the master fatteneth his cattle -- in other words, watch your critters, and watch the forage, and adjust as necessary.
These are relatively easy to move even for me, with my bad back, but I'm thinking about ways to make them slide more easily on the ground.
We are in an area with plenty of rain most of the time, and good soil, and most of the year one or two Nigerian Dwarf goats will have plenty of pasture for a day, or even two days, inside the 8' X 8' pen. When we are short on forage, I can either move them more often or bring a flake of hay to them. Right now I'm putting a water bucket inside the pen. This isn't ideal, as they will poop and pee in the water, but I don't want to cut holes in the panels (because it will make it hard to keep young kids in later); I'm thinking about how to make some kind of through--the-wire waterer (don't know if goats can use a nipple-valve or cup-style automatic waterer, but those are things I'll be looking into). Right now I'm giving them a little grain, and their mineral/salt, in a rubber feed dish. But I have one pen-mounted feeder that attaches to the wire with carabiner clips (included with the feeder) and plan to get several more of those. That way, there will be one less thing to pick up and move when I move each pen.
I may also try building a fold-down milking stand into the doe pens, so I don't have to take them anywhere to milk them. Issue with that will be my comfort when it's raining, or hot out. I don't want to add much more weight to the pens, but I do have several cattle panels, and might make an arched roof over one end of each of the doe pens, with a tarp on that, just for my own weather protection while doing chores. In addition to the extra weight, though, that might also be too much of a sail in high winds!
I will take some pictures after a bit and add them to this -- just wanted to mention it while I'm sitting here taking a break.
Kathleen
ETA: If you want to build something like this and need to buy new panels, get them as soon as you can. Prices are way up, and will probably go higher, and they are hard to find. The feed store had just gotten a stack of them in when I bought mine, and said they would be flying out the door. I had planned to only get six panels (for three pens), and decided to add two more panels so I could make four pens (I want one for a dedicated kid pen). If you are going to have bigger goats, cattle panels would probably work just fine. And, for bigger goats, you might have to move this size of pen more often, depending on your available forage. The eye of the master fatteneth his cattle -- in other words, watch your critters, and watch the forage, and adjust as necessary.