Material included here is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, the giving of medical advice. We love it when you share, but if you do, please link back to the original post. All content contained herein is copyrighted. The contents of this site are the property of Better Hens and Gardens. It’s my least favorite chore associated with kids and is one reason we’ve started to bring polled genetics into the Bramblestone Farm herd.

The box shown in the plan can be used for either standard or miniature breed goats. The disbudding process isn’t difficult, but’s it’s painful to the baby goat (kid) for the few seconds it takes to do it (so they certainly don’t want to hold still) and it can be difficult without a box like this to contain the kid. #5 – Aluminum Neckpiece – can be obtained from Caprine SupplyĪssembly of the box is fairly straightforward and the photo above shows how it should look when finished. Numbered Hardware Items (Locations Shown in Sketch) Here’s an easy to build goat disbudding box plan – the picture down below shows the finished box with Bramblestone Ruby inside serving as a model.īelly Board – 1 x 5 x 3 1/2 (#1 in Sketch) It keeps the kids relatively still during the process. My post on disbudding ( Disbudding Goats) describes how we originally learned to disbud goats, and for that process, a wooden “disbudding box” is an essential tool. It’s done by using a hot iron to cauterize the area around the horn bud so that blood can’t flow to the horns and make them grow. Goats generally can’t be shown in 4H or shows if they have hornsĭisbudding is generally done to kids when they are 3 – 10 days old, depending on when the horn buds break through the kid’s skull (bucks generally need to be done sooner than does).Horns can break, and a goat can bleed to death from a broken horn.Hornless goats are generally worth more because people prefer them.Horns can damage fences, barns, mangers, etc.Goats with horns can hurt each other when they “play” butt each other.Horns get stuck in things and can cause goats to injure themselves.

The reasons horns are considered detrimental are: So, the horns are typically removed when the kids are babies using a process called “disbudding”. Many people are surprised to learn that most goat kids (except the few that are naturally polled (hornless)) start growing horns a few days after they’re born but that most people don’t want their goats to have horns. But, many folks still utilize a disbudding box and need goat disbudding box plans, so we’ve kept the plans here for reference. We no longer use a disbudding box when removing horns from goat kids (See “ Disbudding Goats – A Newer Method“) and believe that the method we use today works much better.

Caprine supply disbudding box