Neighbours' goats smell!

[MonicaJF76]

Hi all,

Our new next door neighbours keep a lot of animals. Mainly chickens, birds, rodents etc but they also have a couple of goats. We get a really strong animal smell in the garden, particularly on hot days which has stopped us sitting outside. We want to stay on the good side of our neighbours so trying to figure out what is causing the smell and look at solutions before bringing it up.

We think the goats are causing the smell...anyone with experience of goats, would you agree? Is it their pee or poo and is there anything you could suggest that could reduce it? I can see plenty of poo un their run but from a quick google that doesnt seem unusual.

Any advice would be massively appreciated! Thanks, Monica :)

There may be a covenant or restriction on keeping that sort of animal in a domestic garden in your local area, so maybe get in touch with the council. And yes, goats do whiff.

It's the goat themselves.

There are restrictions on farm animals being kept places, I think.

Goats aren’t that bad in my experience. Could you be smelling ferrets?

Is there an alternative side of the house they could be moved to? We kept chickens but they were at the furthest point from ndn.

Any of those animals will smell to a point, but if it's that potent that it is stopping you using your garden, it's more likely to be ferrets. They stink.

Bucks (male goats) can smell really horrendous but in my opinion females dont smell that bad, just the usual musky animal smell but nothing worse than some dogs imo. I assume they're both females?

Ime it’s the actual goats….not their wee or poo. Male goats especially smell quite goaty. I’m presuming they have a fairly large garden if they can keep goats rather than a suburban semi? But yes, check covenants, etc.

a billy goat will absolutely honk unless they are castrated.
female and castrated male goats have a certain goaty smell, but not very strong ime.

are your neighbours tending to them properly? mucking out? etc

agree with pp about checking covenants about keeping life stock. maybe even look at defra regarding reeuirements to register them.
goats are classed as life stock and not pets.

Do they have a house the animals live in? If so it will have bedding on the floor to sleep on and they toilet on. They should remove the spikes stuff and replace. Is there a used pile of straw and poo, a muck heap? That will totally honk. Especially in summer.

I am so off goats right now... Just been in holiday and were chased by a huge Billy goat! Was quite terrified!!

Some (entire) male goats piss on their own heads to attract the ladeez, so yes, that would reek.

Tell us more about where it is, a garden or a farm /small holding?

I don’t think you can keep livestock within a certain distance of residential property without a licence? Do they have one? Talk to your council?

Thanks everyone for the replies, really helpful. It's a normal suburban semi but the garden is bigger than average - definitely not acres of land though!

The goats do have a house so I imagine it's probably the muck in there we can smell. There is definitely poo all around the outdoor bit of their run but I'm not sure whether that's normal? I'll try and check about the dung heap and local regulations too.

Definitely no ferrets (for now!!)

If anyone has had goats, is there anything you can do to stop the bedding/muck smelling? Clean out more frequently/ use different bedding etc? Thanks for your tips

more information on keeping goats
pygmygoatclub.org.uk/general-information/2013-09-11-15-42-25/current-legal-requirements

defra and/or environmental health might be able to help.

@TheSpottedZebra

Some (entire) male goats piss on their own heads to attract the ladeez, so yes, that would reek.

Tell us more about where it is, a garden or a farm /small holding?

How??!!!

Yeah - I briefly looked into goats in a moment of complete madness. You definitely cannot keep them in a garden without some kind of special official permission. I expect your current problems are part of the reason for this. Second the advice to speak to either the council or defra and see if they're actually allowed to be there.

Here you go, Mere

@MonicaJF76

If anyone has had goats, is there anything you can do to stop the bedding/muck smelling? Clean out more frequently/ use different bedding etc? Thanks for your tips

If they're male goats, to be kept as pets they will probaby have been castrated. This rid of the smell a bit. But they also have glands which secrete a stinky substance. Or they are entire males with will REEK, or they are females (do they milk them?), which will smell less.

So basically, is the smell pissy or shitty or musky?

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

As long as they are tagged, you just need to register as keeping them, you don't need permission though, you simply inform the authorities (it's to do with livestock movements)

Ah, interesting - it sounded more onerous when I was casually googling which goes to show my lack of proper research skills

@MonicaJF76

Hi all,

Our new next door neighbours keep a lot of animals. Mainly chickens, birds, rodents etc but they also have a couple of goats. We get a really strong animal smell in the garden, particularly on hot days which has stopped us sitting outside. We want to stay on the good side of our neighbours so trying to figure out what is causing the smell and look at solutions before bringing it up.

We think the goats are causing the smell...anyone with experience of goats, would you agree? Is it their pee or poo and is there anything you could suggest that could reduce it? I can see plenty of poo un their run but from a quick google that doesnt seem unusual.

Any advice would be massively appreciated! Thanks, Monica :)

Anything with hooves comes under defra and I would call them

[quote TheSpottedZebra]Here you go, Mere [/quote]

Goats stink! We walk past a field where a few live on the school run and it always whiffs and they are in a huge space!

Hi op. We have nine goats and they don't smell, especially not in the way you're describing. Our hen house and ducks smell a lot more than the goats. Their poo is small pellets and hardly smells at all, whereas ducks and hens poo releases a lot of ammonia and is really pungent if allowed to build up.

Unless they have a billy in which case it will really smell.

On the regulations side, goats are fine in backyards as long as you have a CPH number which they will most likely have so they aren't doing anything wrong on that front.

I'd assume poultry was the cause of the smell and work on that basis. You can get pine and lavender scented bedding bales which cover poultry smells really well which you could recommend to them.