A Better Goat Feeder

My Goat Feeder

Our Pygora goats (Sam and Belle) are settling in to their new shed and the large fenced area we refer to as the 'pasture.'  I'm already dreaming of more goats and love the times each day I find to steal out to the pasture.  Most of the time I have the baby along and often a few other tag alongs, but occasionally I find time to head out by myself and simply sit, marvel, and soak in a little barnyard love.

There is still lots of fine tuning going on in their shed/barn, and I'm hoping to give a full tour soon, but for now I'm fairly excited about their new feeder. Lately I've been on a mission to build a new hay feeder.  I know I should have gotten the feeder ready before the goats arrived, but I felt like I needed to see them before I decided on the best system - completely illogical I know.  So it was time the goats stopped eating out of a cardboard box and got a real feeder.

 What I quickly discovered was that goats will not eat the hay that falls on the ground, and when they do eat, they knock a LOT of hay on the ground.  So the mission was to build a feeder that kept the hay from falling, kept the chickens from getting inside and pooping in the feed, and kept the goats heads from getting stuck.   So of course, I got the books out and jumped on the internet.

Check out a few of my favorite goat hay feeders here:

A Square Feeder from Goat World
 A Small Feeder Dallas Tyler Ranch (very similar to the one I built)
Great Outside feeder for a bunch of goats or sheep
An In and Out Hay Feeder from Swift Althea Simone Blackstock 

My final design was 2 feet wide, and one foot out from the wall with a hinged door on top to keep the hay in and the chickens out.  By keeping the bottom tray small, I'm hoping it will discourage the chickens from perching here.

For now the goats seems happy with their new feeder, I only wish I built it bigger since I can see more goats in our future! Have you built a hay feeder for your goats?

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