Okay goat people, help me (LOOK AT THIS!!!)

Also a lesson learned from YEARS of horses. Keeping "warm" to livestock is much more about having a place to go out of the wet and wind. They have studied stalled horses and animals and found they are always less healthy in the long run that animals provided with a good 3 sided run in shelter that allows them to get out of blazing sun, cold rain and the wind. :)
 
Thanks everyone, maybe we'll go with a larger shelter like unclejoe's and a platform type thing for them to climb on. If anyone has anymore pics that would really be helpful! I just want to be as prepared as possible. Thanks again! :thumbsup
 
I have goat envy!!! Lori your goat are is gorgeous. I with I had more flat land. :he

Uncle Joe I love the label on the goat shelter. Is that so they know it's for them? :)
did you split those logs yourself on the workshop/ animal run?


g
 
The Nigerian Dwarf Goat breeder down the road, has these "stairs to nowhere" in her goat pasture. All it is, is 5-6 stairs right in the middle of their pasture, they love climbing, playing, and sunbathing on them. Don't make anything "too" high, because they'll play king of the mountain and knock eachother off. LOL
 
The only real suggestion I would have about shelter is to make it high enough to be able to get into it to clean or take care of goaties without hitting your head. I have one that had too steep a sloping roof ( economized on lumber) and I have wacked my head a bazillion times on the low end rafters.
I prefer one that is just above my head- too tall and the goat body heat all goes too far up, too low and you have to bend over to get into it.
I use rubber mats as flooring as I live in a very damp climate- the mats allow me to use bedding without it getting wet.
But goats are pretty tough little things as long as they can get out of the mud and wet.
Your place is very pretty btw.

Unclejoe's siding looks like fitches to me- the side pieces that are cut off logs to square them up for milling. My horse shelters have redwood fitches as flooring. Such a useful "waste" product if you know anyone who has a portable mill.
 
TanksHill said:
I have goat envy!!! Lori your goat are is gorgeous. I with I had more flat land. :he

Uncle Joe I love the label on the goat shelter. Is that so they know it's for them? :)

I think it was BBH that asked that same question so I'll answer it the same way.
Yes. And so the horses don't think it's for them. :)

did you split those logs yourself on the workshop/ animal run?

I bring home whole logs and have a fellow bring his portable sawmill to cut them into lumber. "Those logs" are the scrap from the milling process. It's only 1/2" - 2" thick.
I was going to run it through the chipper one day just to clean things up around here but it seemed like such a waste I had to find a use for it. This is what I came up with. I don't have enough to do the whole thing yet but as I have more cut I'll finish it.

g
Click to expand...
I didn't do that right
 
Here is my coop/brooder/buck house with my new buck:

580_picture_029.jpg


There are two flaps on the sides that are hinged and can be latched open (up) and there is hardware cloth underneath on both sides. There are four removable roosts. There is a chicken-sized pop door in the back, and the whole thing is 4x4x8, and built with four sheets of plywood. No floor, but I put a rubber mat in for the goat, so that any run-off (not much here as we are on sand, but once the ground freezes, all bets are off) will not soak his bedding.

The bare t-posts you see are there so that I can quickly put up another line of fencing when it snows. I have a metal roof on my barn, and the snow comes off fast and hard and could injure or kill a goat who didn't know which way to run. Until then, the pen is as big as possible.

You can see how close together the houses are. My pasture is behind me, out of that picture.

I did water-seal the roof sheet of plywood. I used pressure treated 2x4's for the bottom frame. I used turnbuckles...or is it turnbuttons?....to hold the doors and flaps opened and closed. You can buy those in the area of the hardware store that has stuff to repair windows and screens. They are VERY cheap and work great.
 
Wow, I wanna be a goat and live there too! Thanks for posting that Lori!
 
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