[langdon]

we are putting milly and molly into a new shed, we are thinking of painting the
wall's with lime wash, is this safe to do, we have used in the chicken house and it seem's
fine.I am just concerned that they might try to nibble it.
Also while I'm on, i read in a goat book that goat's hate harsh weather and prefare shelter,
well our's are allway's out in this horrible wet and Windy weather that we allway's
seem to have here, would be interesting to know what your goat's are like when it come's
to wind and rain!

[little blue]

Yes, they'll probably eat it!
And they dislike draughts, aledgedly (so why do ours keep eating holes in their shed??!!) but will tolerate some wet, ours didint mind coming out when it snowed, think they were frightened of missing something!
As long as shelter is provided, and its warm and dry inside then I'm sure they'll be fine.

Which goat book do you have?  Just being nosey, we have a couple and I took one out the library again (Kids guide to showing your goat... great pictures, I borrowed it before we'd even decided if we could get goats!)

We have a billy coming on loan tomorrow, by the name of Caesar...

[langdon]

it's not a goat book as such, it is an old edition of a smallholder's manual-very helpfull.
I got another up to date smallholder's book givong advice for diff livestock and it say's
the same. Maybe they got diff goat's than we all have! some breed that we never heared of before!
The only real book iv'e got is for  (teach yourself- keeping pig's) exc book.
so you think it might be best to avoid the lime wash then?

[ballingall]

As long as they have good shelter they'll like to get outside.

I know one person who has a lime wash in her goat shed (they have fantastic outbuildings, old pig pens, loft stores, bit old stone sheds- I envy it) and don't think its caused great problems.

[Roxy]

My Anglo Nubians hate to be shut in.  They live all year round in an open fronted shelter, with the llama.  Come and go as they please.  Have seen them out in heavy rain, grazing quite happily.  Obviously they do have the choice to go in if they want to.  Most nights they go and eat their rack of hay in the shelter, but have seen them out on summer nights enjoying grazing when there are no flies around.

The other goats stay in most of the winter months, and seem to prefer this.