Taking care of some run-away goats

It all started while I was working with my electrician getting my workshop wired up for 240V. My foreman came over and said he needed to borrow the farm truck. He returned just a few minutes later with a bed full of goats. I guess some escaped from a local farm and were running around all over the road. He roped them, loaded them into the truck and brought them back to my homestead. And we started contacting neighbors to find out whose goats they were.

https://i.postimg.cc/W18qzhSn/PXL-20241113-130656486.jpg

Within an hour we found out whose they were. But they would not be able to pick them up the same day, so we needed to keep them overnight.

https://i.postimg.cc/G36Fn8ST/PXL-20241112-202408338.jpg

The problem was, we did not have a fully enclosed area for the goats. And not wanting them to step on and eat my garlic we could not just keep them in the third acre area with my plants.

https://i.postimg.cc/4xgpmCGJ/PXL-20241112-204454493.jpg

But I do have a 30' by 30' enclosure, it was built for ducks and chickens. But we have yet to purchase them.

https://i.postimg.cc/XYkd52N9/PXL-20241112-210251019.jpg

One small area of the fence was not finished, so before we could move the goats into this temporary home we needed to add more fencing and tie them all together. Using a 6x6 on the bottom and tied using steel wire along the edges it is holding strong.

https://i.postimg.cc/8PWhppqK/PXL-20241112-212545607.jpg

We have never had goats or taken care of them. But in the past we have feed some and they seem to like apple slices. So we brought some over for them to munch on along with water to drink.

https://i.postimg.cc/YS2gz1jZ/PXL-20241112-213002167.jpg

Once the hole was patched in the fence my foreman moved them into the enclosure.

https://i.postimg.cc/k5jS1Bb4/PXL-20241112-213153903.jpg

As the sun was going down we realized it was going to be below freezing tonight, and we were worried the dirt ground was not sufficient for them to stay warm. As much as we wanted to move them into the duck and chicken house for the night we worried it would not be enough space. So instead we brought out lots of old hay and piled it up for bedding.

https://i.postimg.cc/63yvDtrh/PXL-20241113-025135405.jpg

We came back one more time before we went to sleep, they were laying down but not on the bedding.

https://i.postimg.cc/LXw1SwvF/PXL-20241113-031638775.jpg

Was almost freezing around the time we went to sleep.

https://i.postimg.cc/BbF1npwL/PXL-20241113-124930625.jpg

The next morning it was under freezing, probably got down to around 29f.

https://i.postimg.cc/xjNm5jTf/PXL-20241113-130028197.jpg

So the first thing we did is go check on the goats and make sure they are okay.

https://i.postimg.cc/tC0xM0Yh/PXL-20241113-130420968.jpg

Hard to say if they used to bedding we put down, hopefully it was useful to them at night.

https://i.postimg.cc/bwp2qQ0r/PXL-20241113-130429186.jpg

We hung out with them for a bit, and two of the three warmed up to us quick. The male seemed to keep its distance but the two others liked us and came up to us.

https://i.postimg.cc/ZKrdkfdX/PXL-20241113-130547701.jpg

One of them would lick us and stay close to let us pet it. It has really soft fur, we are not exactly sure what kind of goats these are. I think Boer goats.

Soon the owner will show up and pick up their goats, but it was fun watching over them for a day. And maybe eventually we will get some of our own.