lucky p, that's a great site, thanks for sharing it! gottabug, your product, whatever it is (no info on your site as to what it IS), seems to be for humans, not goats...? shellybabe, you might try the Adams Flea and Tick mist with IGR (Insect Growth Regulator). They also make a shampoo. It's a pyrethrin-based products with other ingredients as well. I'd ask your vet his opinion as the whether it is safe for milk goats. I use this product on my chickens with no ill effects. I used to use Sevin. The Adams, though, is less messy than Sevin and you can better spray the animal enclosures with it, too. It gets down in the nooks and crannies better than Sevin, in my opinion. If you use the Adams, make SURE to get the kind with IGR (the bottle, unfortunately, is IDENTICAL to the one without except for the letters, 'IGR' after the name). The IGR kills insects AND hatching eggs for three months--you get lots of bang for your buck, and you don't need to reapply it within days to get the hatching eggs--the IGR takes care of it! The Adams IS very expensive, but readily available in feed stores and the like. It's marketed for dogs and cats. You can look it up online to find out more about it, Valley Vet Supply is online and they have it. Velvet ~:>

Years ago,I had free range chickens and the neighbors dog got loose and killed most of them.I keep mine in a coop in the winter with an attached run that has a top and roof.A neighbor lost all their chickens to dogs that climbed over the fence.In the summer,they go in two chicken tractors.I started out with a chicken tractor but it is cold here and it is really hard to take care of the chickens when their water freezes up almost immediately.I use deep litter in my coop(shredded leaves) and even began using leaves in their yard when it got so muddy earlier this spring.I only clean out my house 2-3 times a year depending on how bad I want their fertility on my garden.I have Ameracaunas(Easter Eggers)from a local hatchery and some I raised and some banties who love to raise chicks.I had some Rhode Island Red mixes I think ,who were nice too.I decided years ago that leghorns were way too flighty for me.I looked at a zillion pictures of chicken tractors before we built them.The first one is heavy to move but the chickens are safe from predators in it.Everything likes to eat or kill chickens(dogs,possums,skunks,racoons,foxes.etc.)Posy_Pet

Hold them as much as possible, when putting out food, go in and pet them, if they squirm away your not holding them enough. Sit in their pen as much as you can stand it at this age. When they get older you won't need to do this since they will already be used to you. This is the critical age where they figure out if they are part of your heard or you are just an outsider who feeds them and goes away. This is especially serious when your child want to touch them and they feel the little one is an outsider and they need to 'protect' themselves. The first time they try to even playfully butt you, be very very stern and say NO point with your finger and maybe even touch their nose saying NO. Horns and human children are the worst thing ever. Its too late to disbud them but you need to be careful to train your child as much as these goats. I have all horned goats, my pygmy is the worst to use them on outsiders, dogs, or even a little bush he finds annoying. His horns are his way of communicating. Not with me or hubby but with strangers, family members, outside dogs etc. Please educate yourself on the dangers of horns and buy Carolyn Eddy's Practical Goatpacking book. I know you won't be goatpacking but you can learn so much of how to train your goat, how many words they can learn and the discipline it takes to create a well loved pet. You can train goats to do much more then they will show you lol

Maybe this will help with the chicken poop. It is a summary of how to use Lacto bacilli to get the chicken poop deomposing in the chicken house, help eliminate some odor, and help your chickens' health. This is summarized from the Gil Carandong paper on the link above, with an alteration. 1. Get or make some plain yogurt--doesn't matter whether it is fat free or full fat or inbetween. Make sure it has live cultures. (Dannon and Stoneyfield do). NO flavors. (This is the alternative to gathering LB from the air..) 2. Put a sieve over a bowl and line the sieve with a coffee filter. 3. Pour yogurt into sieve and let the whey drain out. Depending on how long you let it drain, you will end up with more whey/stiffer "yo-cheese" product (which you can eat or feed to chickens) or less whey/firmer yogurt product that resembles Greek yogurt. Eat it yourself of feed to the chickens (and goats) if you don't like yogurt. (If you use a quart of yogurt and let it drain a couple of days in the fridge you will end up with close to 2 cups of whey.) 2. Two options with the whey. Store the pure whey in the fridge or mix 1:1 with unsulphured molasses to keep at room temp without it going anerobic. 3. If using pure whey, mix 1.2t per 2 gallons unchlorinated water (like in a typical 2 gal pump sprayer). If using the molasses/whey mix, mix 2.4 (2.5 for ease) in two gal sprayer. Spray the chicken house floor...how often? I would do as much as possible at first to really get the LB bacteria working in there. You can also use this same mixture for the chickens' water. It will be like natural antibiotic, good for their digestion according to the paper. It is supposed to be particularly effective against Salmonella and E coli. Refer back to that Janong article to look how they are HANDLING the chicken litter from the house. They also use it in piggerys to eliminate odor. As for the pile of straw... a. Perhaps you can screen it off with some split bamboo fencing (not too pricey) or another alternative...free wooden pallets? http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sawyer69.html or, if you need taller, this one: http://summerville-novascotia.com/PalletWoodShed/ But, if you add the right stuff to the straw pile (as mentioned above) you will have some incredible compost...and the straw pile will continually be shrinking.. Thank you Luckygal and RJ over on the other thread for coming up with the "one step" method of dealing with the LB... Here is a link that might be useful: split bamboo fence