# ? Kidding pen size



## Disco Paul (Oct 18, 2005)

Hi,
I have been getting a building ready to have kids in. Wondering what size to build the pens? I was looking at 8'X4". Also was wondering if it was ok to build a bigger pen and have more than 1 doe in it. Something around 12'X16'.
Thanks Paul


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Paul, a four by eight foot pen would work, depending on how long you planned on penning the animals up. I personally let my does have their kids anywhere they want, then transfer the doe and kids into a suitable pen. Honestly, if I was building it I would go larger so it could be used for other types of animals in the furture.  Also, just line a larger pen with square hay bales to make it smaller if necessary. I generally keep my does penned for three nights, during the day I let the doe and newborn kids periodically and begin meeting other herd members.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

How big are your goats? My kidding pens are 6 X 6 and 4' high, and that's plenty big enough for two goats (assuming they go out during the day) and plenty of room for two people to work on a goat that needs help. Plenty. You don't want two goats in the pen when one kids. The other goat could hurt it. Not all my goats like babies other than their own. I built mine out of 2x4 lumber, made square frames (6 X 4) with braces in the corners and a "butting rail" about 18" from the bottom. I cover it with livestock fencing nailed on with fence staples. Nail the fencing on before you add the butting rails. On the edges I screw in eye bolts 10" from the top and bottom, offset a little for each panel. I put two panels together with a 5' piece of rebar that's been bent over at the top. Slide the rebar into the eyehooks. This way, any panel can be a gate, or you can haul them all outside and make a big pen for the babies to run around in. They're cheap, store flat, and you can slap one together any time you need an emergency pen. They're tough enough to put boers in. I added the butting rails after discovering the following fact: Any two goats that spend ALL their time together in the same pasture will butt each other through a fence. I put the pens together in rows in my barn, using the wall as the back panel. I just screw eye hooks into the wall joists (mine are on 2' centers). It works great. I use 3' pieces of hogwire in one corner for a feeder. Hanging feed pans hang on the "butting rails" perfectly for minerals and grain. The entire thing was pretty cheap too.


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## mdharris68 (Sep 28, 2006)

Paul, We just built our kidding barn and used it for the first time 4 weeks ago. We made it with removable dividers every four feet to make six 4 x 8 pens. it turns out that we used 8 x 8 for the does and 4 x 8 for the kids. We would not of had adequate room in a 4 x 8 stall to pull kids like we did. Just our way of doing things here. hope it helps. Mark


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

I use something akin to the fence panels that are the heavy duty wire-called hog panels I think. However, I went to a fencing/pipe company and got the panels that have 4" by 4" squares. They have all kinds of heights...I think mine are 48". I just cut them to the lengths I want(with neighbor's big honkin' bolt cutters) then use the corkscrew connector thingamajiggety's from Hoeggers to make them into pens. They attach with double sided hookeyhoo's to eyebolts set in the wall so you need three. Then use a couple more hooks for your corner that will be your "gate". When done with kidding, just take em down and stack em flat. No building to do, just easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!


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## Disco Paul (Oct 18, 2005)

Thanks for all of the replies. I Think I will make them a little bigger. Forgot to tell you that they are Boers.
Paul


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## neehifarm (Nov 18, 2006)

In regards to putting more than one doe in a pen, I wouldn't advise it. As I Know with some level of certainty when my goats will kid, I seperate each doe from the herd a couple days before their due date. Each goat has an 8x8 stall (made of hog panels as the above posts). It is more than ample room for your needs. I DO recommend putting your soon-to-be mom in her own place, where she can SEE her buddies. it will reduce her stress from the seperation. 

I have heard a few stories about people putting two pregnant does together...however they told me that during the delivery of one of their goats...the soon to be mom swiped a kid or two, from the delivering mom. Raised it like her own....when her own kids were born, the mother did not accept her own kids...
Had to bottle feed 3 babies, because niether mom wanted them.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

[QUOTE
I have heard a few stories about people putting two pregnant does together...however they told me that during the delivery of one of their goats...the soon to be mom swiped a kid or two, from the delivering mom. Raised it like her own....when her own kids were born, the mother did not accept her own kids...
Had to bottle feed 3 babies, because niether mom wanted them.[/QUOTE]

Had two does in the barn kid within minutes of each other whilst I was teaching. Got home to three kids, two moms, and a left out baby. No one would tell, but the doe kid out of the bunch was IDENTICAL to the mom who didn't raise her, down to the stripe of white on her underchin. From a distance now, I can't tell them apart-their markings are absolutely identicaL. Needless to say, keep them separate!!!!!


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## Dee (May 12, 2002)

My shed is 10x20. I will separate it in half with a hog panel. One half is separated in half again and these two are used as my kidding pens. After the doe kids, I will leave Mom and kids together in the pen for a day or two (depending on if someone else needs to use the pen) to get to know each other. This has worked well for me. I have Boers.


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## KimM (Jun 17, 2005)

I have 8'x8' box stalls that I used for my miniature horses. I think they're the perfect size for kidding pens. If you need to assist a doe, there's plenty of room for even 2 people.


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## Caelma (Mar 7, 2005)

Jcran said:


> I use something akin to the fence panels that are the heavy duty wire-called hog panels I think. However, I went to a fencing/pipe company and got the panels that have 4" by 4" squares. They have all kinds of heights...I think mine are 48".


If they're what I'm thinking I use them too.
Mine are 50 or 52 inch high.
They come in 16 ft panels.
They're the same material/strength as hog / livestock
panels but have a 4 x 4 inch squares.

I use a home made wooden kidding box 8 x 8 ft and have the panels coming
on each side to make a 8 wide by 16 long run off of it so doe and kids can go in and out at will. These are for my Nigerians.
I seperate my doe's a week before they're due but have them side by side
with other doe's so the don't feel isolated.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

If you're going to use hog panels (which do work fine), be sure to get ones tall enough that your does don't hop them. They work okay for my lamanchas, but my bigger does go right over the ones I have. I think the taller ones are called cattle panels around here.


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## Disco Paul (Oct 18, 2005)

I have 48" cattle panels on hand. I'm gonna try and get 1-8X8 and 3-7X8 buildt this weekend. I like all of your idea's leaning towards having them bigger than 4X8. Doc i'm gonna put something together like you were talking about. My original plan was to put in posts. I had planned on using eye boldts on the walls. I sure like getting all the input.
Thanks Paul


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## KimM (Jun 17, 2005)

Those are called combination panels (at TSC). They have the small spaces at the bottom like a hog panel but tall like a cattle panel. 
They also have goat panels that are 20' x 48" (?) and 4" x 4" openings throughout. They're very strong panels. I'm going to buy a couple and cut them down into smaller panels to make temporary pens and dividers. I better hurry up too, my does start kidding next week! 




DocM said:


> If you're going to use hog panels (which do work fine), be sure to get ones tall enough that your does don't hop them. They work okay for my lamanchas, but my bigger does go right over the ones I have. I think the taller ones are called cattle panels around here.


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## GoldenWood Farm (May 31, 2003)

My kidding pens are going to be 4'X5' and will be all cattle panel. I plan on attaching part of it to the barn wall and then zip tie everything else together (zip ties work WONDERS with cattle panel!).

I plan on having 4 this year....I am going to also install 2 barn cams (one per two pens trained on the 2 pens...then I will have two baby moniters one per 2 pens). The barncams I have is color and can zoom in 4X so that is a blessing. So thats going to be my setup this year. We shall see how it works.

I am always leary of having does together while kidding. Have done it before on accident (didn't think the doe would go so early so didn't lock her up ect.). Never had a problem but these girls had a pretty big pen to be in. Also not the whole herd with them. I have what I call the maternity/yearling pen. All pregnent does go in that pen around the last 2 weeks they are due. I also have doe kids I kept back from that earlier kidding year in there until they are old enough to go with the big girls. So the does have room to get away if needed and I am always there during delivery if they are in a big pen so I can keep other girls away.

I really prefer to keep my does seperate so they have less to worry about when kidding. I have a mother/daughter team that always kids within a day or two of each other but even they don't get to be together. I just don't trust them to not do something stupid.

Oh I forgot to say. I ONLY put my does in the kidding pens if they look about ready to kid. Or if it is close to their due date they go in the pen during the night time or when I am gone for a long time otherwise they stay out and I check them. It helps keep the pens cleaner and have less poop and what not in them for me.

MotherClucker


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

A couple of my goats know they can chew on a zip tie and break it. One of my goats can undo bungee cords too... I swear, they watch me while I'm working. Now I make them go outside whenever I'm working on some new "goat proofing" idea.


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## Disco Paul (Oct 18, 2005)

Hey Doc,
I'm going to make a modified form of your plan. I drive truck and had a customer of mine give me some upright supports for pallet racking that were dinged up. I'm going to mount the panels onto pieces that I will cut out of the supports. I was looking at rebar at a home improvement store that I was delivering to. Looked at 3/8" and 1/2". I was going to use 3/8". Is that what you are using?
Paul


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## annie716 (Oct 4, 2006)

Be careful with the 4x4 panels if you have horned goats, we've had to cut 2 of our boers out of a panel so we switched everything to the 2x2 goat panels, they're 5 or 6 dollars more but worth it. After reading all this I guess we we've been real lucky, last year we had one pen for our 2 does about 10 x 36 (our trial w/goats) this year we divided that and had the teen & preteen does in one side and 2 big boer girls in the other side. The both kidded there one at 10:30 am and the other at 1:30 am, next morning. When the first one started the other moved to the opposite corner and gave her space, then the one with kids did the same and kept her kids there too. They were all 6 together for about 3 wks then we opened the pen back up with the teens so they could go outside if they wanted. The only time they seemed to bother was if the others tried to nurse from the wrong mom, then they would gently butt away. Our other pen with the 25 is large but I'm a little worried about little ones getting trampled there if they kid with the whole group. I guess I'll prob find out as most were bred when we bought them so we have no definite dates!


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## Disco Paul (Oct 18, 2005)

Hey,
Doc been making panels. Yesterday went to the store and bought the rod.
Works good.
Thanks Paul


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## Bobbih (8 mo ago)

Disco Paul said:


> Hey,
> Doc been making panels. Yesterday went to the store and bought the rod.
> Works good.
> Thanks Paul


Old threads that still have great information… 

my only addition is 2x4 squares with TSC horse panels.


https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/horse-fence-panel-5-ft-x-16-ft-3610375?store=2313&cid=Shopping-Google-LOB-Local_Feed&utm_medium=Google&utm_source=Shopping&utm_campaign=LOB&utm_content=Local_Feed&gbraid=0AAAAAD3fmFOGoOBbGSxIev-FiwL0AINA1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1tGUBhDXARIsAIJx01lDYa6SRZaQPaa0PfiPS7KznzaXMzCzmdKIaNJYzIn2JOiSYyRW6VsaAsMREALw_wcB


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