Who would have guessed that we crafted a chicken coop more appealing to goats than chickens. Most likely the climb onto a bale of hay and concrete block in order to access the chicken-sized coop opening appeals to the very basic nature of these climbers. Being the dwarves that they are, they happen also to fit very nicely through the tiny door. We've spent the first several days with the new kids kicking them out of the coop. To divert their attention, we've constructed a goat playground from bales of hay, a garden cart and a couple of saw horses and plywood left over from constructing the goat shed. Lots of running and jumping and kicking and twisting from atop the plywood platform. They can balance on their two front feet better than any trapeze artist I know. OK well yes, I don't know any, but if I did...
One lovely bonus is their love of the blackberry infested overgrown quince bush. They like succulent new blackberry shoots and leaves over almost anything you can forage for them. They like dandelion leaves over flowers. They like chicken scratch over ANYTHING!
Since chicken feed has too much calcium for goats we thought better of allowing them to gorge themselves on it. Geniuses that we think we are, we hid the chicken food under the coop where there was room only for small fowl. Wrong again... these two darlings got down on their knees in order to shimmy underneath to dine with the flock. Bottom line, goats are intelligent creatures who can easily outwit their unwitting new family.
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