# Buck Pen???



## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

I'm hoping we can see a few pics of buck pens or at least get a good description. We're hoping to keep two bucks on the property, and don't know what we will need.

I tried searching old threads, but didn't find anything.

TIA!


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## BrokenHalterFarm (Feb 16, 2010)

The buck pen we had here was made from cattle panels that you can get at tracter supply. I do not recall the size , but the bigger you can make a pen the better.
If I were to ever take in another buck , I would do things very different from what I did with my first one.
I would stick with the cattle panels but instead of T-posts I would use wood posts , three per panel and I would then put boards across the panels to add strength to it (three board fence basically)
I would add as hot of an electric fence on the inside and outside of it that I could.
But then again , I had a buck that could break out of a horse trailer so maybe my thoughts are a little extreme.


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

Build your pen like a fortress! and if you even think they will test a spot; they will find it. The electric line is the only way to save a fence from a mature or even young buck in rut and sometimes that doesn't work. I like Andrew's description and would follow it. A three sided shed facing south is the best shelter.


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## prairie nights (Jan 16, 2009)

We made a pen out of 16' cattle panels with 2" openings (not the usual 4"), it worked well for us. They bend the larger openings panels by sticking their head through and pushing with their weight. Our friends have a pen made of wooden fence posts with 2x6 boards across and lined with the 2x2 openings panels, it's bombproof. Unless you have Alpines, ha !


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Mar 2, 2009)

Ours is fenced with chain link. They share a fence line with the does. That fenceline is eight foot chainlink dog pen panels.


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

Our buck pen is made out of 8" top treated posts with 2x6 treated boards 5 boards high with cattle panels nailed over the top of the boards. There is a small barn inside the pen that has 2 sides to it. Sometimes if you have more than one buck one of them will be the dominate male and will keep the weaker one outside in the rain and weather. I also have a covered feed/hay barn next to the fence where I put their feed trough and hay manger on their side of the fence and I store their hay bales and feed on my side of the fence. I can go into the little storage barn area and feed them through the fence without having to go into their pen. I copied this feed barn design sort of from Vicki. It is nice not having to go in there with them during rutting season and also having their feed and hay right there, especialy when you are out trying to feed animals in rainy nasty weather. My advice is to build it strong and tall to begin with and there won't be any of this... ooops my buck got out and bred my 6 month old doelings. :biggrin


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

We built a new buck pen!! We used the landscape timbers from Home Depot or Lowes for posts, you can get them on sale for $1.97 ea. We have 6' high horse fencing, the 2" x 4" squares so they cant get their heads thru the holes. Then we put cattle panels on the outside to keep the boys from pushing the fence out and 2 strands of hot wire one about 2-1/2 feet high and the other about 6" from the top to keep them from jumping out.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

The best buck pen I ever had was not real big but it had a way for the bucks to jump from a small shelter to a larger one and they could lounge on the top of the larger one. They would jump and play all day long and were in great shape and content. They also had a "pier" that was only about six inches off the ground and they would run and walk on that.


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

tendermeadowsnigerians said:


> We built a new buck pen!! We used the landscape timbers from Home Depot or Lowes for posts, you can get them on sale for $1.97 ea. We have 6' high horse fencing, the 2" x 4" squares so they cant get their heads thru the holes. Then we put cattle panels on the outside to keep the boys from pushing the fence out and 2 strands of hot wire one about 2-1/2 feet high and the other about 6" from the top to keep them from jumping out.


 A few years ago I had a local lumber yard deliver several large bundles of landscape timbers. I hired a man to build fence for us and used at least 300 landscape timbers. Within about 5 years they were all rotted off at the ground. Don't know why. I thought that would be a smart thing to do because they were treated and they were cheap, but they just didn't last here. I hope you have better luck than I did.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Treated lumber is not what it used to be. They just dunk them in a solution or spray them.
They used to be pressure treated with the preservatives to drive them in to the interior of the lumber but that became too expensive and is no longer the process. We used to do cattle so we have pipe corrals 6 feet tall that no buck can challenge but the best wire and lumber one I saw was 2 cattle panels tall with sections of old electric poles for posts. WOW! It would have held a rhino!


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

Saanens: Cattle panels with T-posts. Saanens are pretty easy going and don't push on the fence or try to go over. 

Boers: Horse round pen. Boer bucks love to push on stuff/fencing. Just for the fun of it. Not aggressive, just like to push. They will trash a cattle panel fence in no time flat. We even tried the 2 X 6 reinforcement boards - snapped like twigs. The horse round pens are pretty much indestructible (plus they have a little give as they are just attached to themselves). One of our buck pens is lined on the outside with cattle panels for the younger Boer does that can squeeze under the round panels - sometimes they don't think being with the bucks is a good idea, LOL.

BTW, my DH builds pole barns and they use pressure treated poles - they are treated through and through. But not called landscape timbers. They do still make them - and make them right.


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

The buck pen is made from cattle panels/utility panels....housing a 2-3 yr old buck....panels are still holding up to him....of course he doesn't try to destroy them....he just stands up puts his front feet on the panels, looks over the top and watches the does....he doesn't try to get to them. Even when they are in heat!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Ours is cattle panels w/t-posts on 3 sides and horse fence on the 4th side (since that is the outside of the paddock and that's what the paddock is fenced with). The shelter is a three sided shed open to the south and the bulk of the shelter is outside of the pen. The roof of the shed is slanted and high at the side where the enter so that they cannot jump up on it. Attempted drawing below, not to scale. We put a feed door on the side of the shed so that we can feed them from the outside. There is a hay rack right under the door. 

This side is also the outside of the paddock
-------|-----------------fence------------------|------------------fence continues...
|-----| |
N | shed | S
| |
|-----| |
|_____________________________|


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## Epona142 (Sep 2, 2009)

I have Nigis, and believe it or not, four strands of hotwire close together and powered by a BIG MEAN charger keeps them in lol


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## Pam V (Jan 3, 2009)

We were fine with cattle panels...until we used the outside of a fence line and didn't notice that the hay and snow were building up on the corner...then I had to lute three Pygora's cause the Alpine buck morphed in there the day after the Pygora does were in heat and I had moved the Pygora buck in with them. Seemed like such a nice wy to tell when the girls were ready...at the time, anyway.
We have had success with regular cattle panels. But last year we went to get more and the guy at the site showed us a cheeper pannel. Said everyone that bought them likes them. Well..... Yes the cheeper one has shown its worth. That Pygora has them looking like they have been run into with a tractor! Definately will not be purchasing any more of them for a buck pen. We ended up doubling up one side.
Our buck pen has two doors and a divider in it so they can each have a side but still heat it up and is put inthe center. Its on skids so we can drag it out to the summer pasture and back to the smaller winter pen. Even though none have been up there I still don't want to take a chance and have an escapee.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

We used t-posts and cattle panels and never had a problem until this year when we had 2 breeding pens 20 feet apart and the LM decided he wanted the Alpine's girls and went over his fence like no-bodies business, once 5 times in a night. He never got in with the alpines but he fought with the alpine buck through the fence. Once returned to his pen, away from the girls he has shown no inclinations to scale fences OR fight with the alpine who is sharing a fence line with him and I honestly anticipate no further issues. I feel like one buck breakout out of some 6-12 bucks over 6 plus years is a pretty good reference for the long t-posts, deeply sunk and the panels. That said, when we rebuild their pen this spring, I am considering making the investment of utility panels. Much more expensive but since I want this to be fort knox and intend for it to be permanent it is likely worth the investment.


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## BrokenHalterFarm (Feb 16, 2010)

The buck that gave me the most trouble was a boer/nubian , around 200lbs. He could pick a round pen panel no problem haha
I entertained the idea of breeding for meat for quite awhile but rescueing just kinda happened and he got put on the back burner , just in case.
I finally sucked it up and castrated him. He's still wrecking fences , but he at least isnt getting anything pregnant!

The only fence that ever contained him was the vmesh horse fence (a place he was boarded at) and a 6 strand high tensile fence which oddly enough wasnt hot. Put it was taught so he couldnt even try wiggling out.


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

wheytogosaanens said:


> Saanens: Cattle panels with T-posts. Saanens are pretty easy going and don't push on the fence or try to go over.


Not all Saanen bucks, I found out why Kickadee KHG Abraham was so Cheap! He's more like the boer bucks, however Most of my saanen bucks are easy going on fences.


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## Twillingate Farm (Oct 26, 2007)

SherrieC said:


> wheytogosaanens said:
> 
> 
> > Saanens: Cattle panels with T-posts. Saanens are pretty easy going and don't push on the fence or try to go over.
> ...


So, Sherrie, are Boer bucks more difficult to contain than most? Is it because of their weight and brute force or can they jump out? I say that because my Toggs can jump out of a cattle panel containment with a hot wire on the top.


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## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

Thanks for all the input. We wanted to be sure we had a good idea of what to build before we started. I'd rather do it right the first time.

My Saanen is MUCH easier on our fences than our Alpine. The Alpine is just much nosier and has to see everything that is going on around the barnyard.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Allan, horns are the hardest to contain, they use them like giant pry bars, or simply butt over and over your posts into submission or put their horns in the net fencing and twist their head until they break a hole into it. Why I always leased a boer buck. Vicki


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

:biggrin, The big boys pen is 36 feet x 42 feet, fencing is made of 2x4's, railroad ties, T-posts, cattle panels, chain link and posts that "were" buried, and privacy fencing. With just two boys in there it is perfect. I have holes to fill from them diggin in the summer but no other problems from them. 
Tam


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## Twillingate Farm (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks Vicki... I don't usually have horned animals but it's a little bit late in Nelson's case. His horns seem to be very close and curved back and then out so I don't foresee him getting caught in electric fencing especially where he's fence smart. What I make his containment area out of is another story however...
I'm keeping an eye out in Craigs list and our statewide Farmers Market bulletin for some chainlink dog kennel panels. If I can gather enough panels that are 5 to 6 feet high, I'll put up a portable area consisting of perhaps 18' x 18' and then place a hot wire at the top and up about a foot or two to temper his attitude. If I can't find those at a decent price, I'll do it with cattle panels. I just ordered a calf hutch for his shelter within the confinement area.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Also watch your Big Nickels, Price Shoppers, and other local papers. I watch the lumber, supplies, free, and livestock sections. There are folks that will sell you good solid RR Ties for $3.00 a piece. Stuff like that may not look all that pretty but guess what...the boys don't care! :lol. I am currently on a search for the big broom rolls from the city cleaners :biggrin.
Tam


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