Designing A Goat Shelter
 

So we're trying to decide what kind of goat shelter we want and can afford. In a perfect world we'd have a big huge barn, but you know...
I found this: http://www.amazon.com/Day-Only-Sale-...7526795&sr=1-5

In case it's not clear we'd just have to buy the wood - you're paying for all of the braces and wood cut list. We'd side/roof it with plywood or tin I guess.
Or should we skip that and build something like this?

We are going to breed the does and milk them, so I don't know if there's a better design that has stalls or a milking area or something?

Thanks for your advice and of course I love to see pictures! :-)

Link one didn't work. For just shelter (not milking or feed storage) your second link is great. I wouldn't bother with a door. They will rip the gutter off of the back edge, too. Ask me how I know. :)

I've built about half a dozen of these, plus a double wide model:
http://themodernhomestead.com/Blog/?p=85

This is the hoop house a friend helped me put up. Took us a couple hours. It has half a billboard tarp on the roof. I've added tin on the north and west sides and still need to do the east to block winter winds. The tin comes off in summer so they will be more comfortable in our heat.

The 1st link didn't work for me either. The 2nd link is great for a shelter but you'd need another spot or building for feed & milking.
I agree with Alice, they will rip the gutter down.

Our outbuilding for the goats are similar to your 2nd link & Alice's, some of ours have doors in them but we live where there is cold & snow. With our doors we have a door cut for the goat to go in & out in bad weather but the big door is actually closed & latched. Then when I want to clean I can open the big door. If it's summer or good weather then I open it all the way back to the side & hook it with a hook/eye type to keep it open.



Hoop houses are nice too, you use cattle panels & make a hoop securing them with T posts. Then a heavy duty tarp over the top.

If you went with a small, moveable shelter and an easily moveable pen, like in Alice's link, you could then take better advantage of your unfenced acreage that is full of good browse. Long as you have shelter somewhere, the garage or whatever, you could milk in there. It wouldn't take the girls very long to get into the routine and they'd follow you from pen to milking area. Just a thought. :)

Darn it - I should have checked my links before I posted!
Here it is:
http://www.ezframeup.com/shop/index....-shed-kit.html
The biggest one they sell kits for is 10x20

This is what we use. For goats you don't need the added chicken wire, so it's actually less expensive than building them to house chickens (which we also use them for).

You can also drive T-posts into the ground, bend a cattle panel over between them (2 posts on each side), and cover with tarps.

I found waterproof tarps at a decent price st an Army Surplus store....

We build shelters in each of our pastures out of recycled work and tin from a very old barn that we had to have taken down on our place. I do have a nice big horse barn that has been transitioned into my milking palor, so I am lucky there.

Hey Neighbor! So - how many goats? How big are your goats?

We don't have money for a real barn either, so for now - we have a couple options.

#1 - "the Queen dome" - Calf Polydome - available in Monroe, WA. - holds our two Kikos.
Advantages - No assembly required. Cozy warm and dry! (if kept clean). Super easy to move from place to place.
Short comings - $300 (but will last). A high wind will pick it up. No bottom - we put ours on a plywood sheets and cover with a tarp.

(Get a load of goof ball in the pic making herself comfy in her galvanized tub!)

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2566/queendome.jpg

#2 - the Chev Chalet - Holds our two Kinder boys.
Advantages - about $200, Not complicated to build, not the easiest to move, but we can relocate it if we wish. We added a hay feeder in the rear end so the hay stays dry.
Short Comings - they can't dance on it, but they have started to chew on it - could be remedied by a metal roof. A little harder to clean it, and the wood floor should be protected with a rubber at - so extra cost for that, but helps keep them cozy and dry.

http://imageshack.us/a/img685/1059/chalet3i.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/4639/chaletone.jpg


Here's a loafing area made from a cattle panel and a tarp. (if they take a notion to it, they can climb on it though! http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/9020/goathaven.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img205/7374/sunnonroof.jpg

As for the pictures you linked to - I'd go with option two - but skip the wheels (they look taxed) and the door unless there is a compelling reason to lock them in.

The best goat house I ever saw was in OH at a dairy.

It was just 6X6's sunk into the ground and then it had pre cut trusses on top to sort of make a picnic shelter.

Then around the bottom they had boards on the side maybe 6 or 8" up to contain the straw.

Then they had the thing plumbed with heated nipple waterers.

Around the outside attached to the uprights were stock panels.

Inside was divided up into pens with stock panels.

On the sides they had hooks so in winter or bad weather you could enclose the whole thing with tarps.

You could remove the side stock panels and clean the whole thing out with a tractor bucket.

Not a goat person yet, but the first one looks like an awful lot of money for just brackets.... If you buy the 2 x 2's they are almost as expensive as 2 x 4's, and the frame wouldn't stand up to much pressure. I like the 2nd idea much better, and you don't have to cover with plywood, but can cover it with what ever is least expensive locally: corrugated sheet metal, locally sawed rough lumber, etc.

Somewhere on HT, I think it is over at the Homesteading Questions forum, there is a link to a university site that shows how to make all kinds of sheds.

Just went out and snapped a picture of ours. It has the chicken wire and door because it was one of our chicken coops originally, but we moved it into the goat pasture and closer to the house where I can keep an eye on the goats. We bed it down deep with hay, and they all five lay down in there and have plenty of room. We also hang two hay bags inside for them, and hang a dish for minerals on the inside as well.

The only advantage on the bracket kit is that you get the plans and exactly the right brackets. Saves time and brain power. :) Those brackets aren't cheap when bought individually.

My friend has one like that but closed in with plywood on the ends and covered with clear plastic for her kid raising pen.

We have pallets as the sides and then one of those tarp car cover things ( just half the length) (just the top though not the legs) sitting on the pallets. Its tall enough to walk in, and have a feeder plus room for 7 goats to sleep. The entire thing is covered with a tarp from Costco. The old tarps get used around the bottom where the new tarp doesnt cover.

The tarp from Costco is replaced yearly and thats the only cost.

We live out on the prairie so it survives the wind and keeps the goats warm.

When I had just the 2 goats, I built this;
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/IMAG0214.jpg
2 sheets of OSB, a 4x2&1/2' piece of wire, I think all of 6 2x4s, 4 little squares of recycled roofing tin, 2 hinges, not quite a pound of screws, 2/3s of a gallon of green paint. And a scrap piece of siding for the door. It just happened to fit. Oh, and the latch, which was later replaced with an old seat belt cut out of a junk car.
Most of that was scrounged, most of the 2x4s were cut into 2x2s. I think the whole thing cost less then $50. We worked it out and if we bought everything brand new and beefed up the framing and painted the inside and made it for sale, the materials would cost $130 with materials left over.

Please note, the framing doesn't need to be beefed up. People seem to go nuts framing out itty bitty structures (and if we wanted to sell a shed, it would make people happy to see more framing). This is 4x6 and the OSB is plenty rigid that the framing was just to have something to screw into. This little shed is 3 years old now, and has held goats, piglets, chickens and whatever else I needed it to. I drilled holes in the sides and made rope handles and drag it all over the place, lift this side, move it 10 inches, go to the other side, move it 10 inches - it's sturdy enough to hold up to it, and have the horse itch her bottom on it.

To milk, I would lock the wether out and milk the doe right in there. I'd sit on the floor and she'd eat her grain.

I've built 2 more, one modified for chickens and one for pigs on the same plan.

With more goats, and to streamline chores, I'll soon be building a modified plan of this;
http://ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/barn-greenhouse
We're going to make it 12x16 instead of 10x12 and use recycled pool siding instead of greenhouse panels for the roof, and a few other adjustments. With some jacks and a a trailer, it will be movable. Inside will be some individual stalls, a kidding pen and a chicken coop area, along with a closet-sized area to hold a trashcan full of feed and a medicine cabinet.

I'm excited to start building. We think that again using scrounged materials, we can do it for less then $500.

This is our hoop shelter

looking in the doorway

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...1/100_0259.jpg

The outside

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...1/100_0258.jpg

Geniuses. Geniuses all of you! I LOVED seeing the pictures of your shelters. So many ideas, it really feels do-able.

LFRJ - where in Washington are you? I'm in the Gig Harbor area...

We have a 10 x 12 feed shed we just built that is part hoop house. I don't have a picture of this so will try to describe it. Once it stops raining, I will get some pictures.

It has 4 foot sides. The front and back are 6 feet with doors in both front and back. The front also has a window (plywood) on each side of the door that can be propped open for air flow. For the top we used pvc pipe to make a hoop and covered with a tarp.

Hubby is now talking about building a proper barn for the horses so this just might become my goat milk parlor. Actually, I might just keep a corner of this for a milk stand right now. Later, the rest could be converted to an area to house the babies at night once I start milking.

Just got a pic from my doorway. We could have made it taller. The pipes come down within about 2 feet of the ground. It is plenty tall enough for me inside, though. You can see the square hole cut in the door. We put the latch on the inside so that is so I can reach through and unlatch it.

You can also see my little hoop coop to the side. That is where I raise baby chicks. The goats have been using it and playing on it so I need to fix the back and fence it where the goats can't get to it before the next batch of chicks. :)

People near me own a goat farm and they made buck pen shelters out of recycled panels of wooden stockade fencing - the type people put around their backyards.

A little late to the party but no, I wouldn't do the kit on your first link. All it is is plastic braces and some instructions. You're better off finding some plans elsewhere and using metal braces for the price they want.

My little goat barn I built while on vacation back in 1999/ tin roof and the framing lumber is the only thing I had to purchase. I got all the old siding from a old barn that was falling down from a neighbor, it was free for the taking. Probably cost me a total of 300.00 dollars for the tin roof and framing lumber. I enjoyed building it..During the winter months I nail on a sheet of ply wood to the large opening in the front and drape a small tarp for the smaller opening on the front to use as a door. The barn faces east

That's what I made my DD for a milking 'barn', because she was always worried about milking in the rain, even though it never rained. We are currently upgrading, hopefully will be done before the first girl is fresh. Make the sides steep, and the goats won't act goaty and climb them.

I also braved the extreme cold a week or so ago and threw together a quickie shed similar to what Alice linked to. They go together almost as fast as the hoop houses, if you don't care about looks and your hands are numb. I was driving to work one day and saw 2 of my yearlings standing out in the elements because the only other shelter apparently was not big enough for the group. It was all about function. Now they all crowd in the new shelter. And I am officially a goat owning hillbilly, based on the looks of things.

momagoat61 - that is gorgeous!!

We're in Duvall. There are a couple other goat forum posters in our area. And you STILL haven't told us what type of goats you have (or are dreaming about). Harder for us to enable without the details you know!

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2566/queendome.jpg

That little goat in the tub is just too cute!!!! :) :)

LFRJ - I think we're leaning toward 1 nubian and one of another breed so we get to experience different personalities and milk. Goats don't mind goats of another breed, right. So if we had 1 nubian and 1 alpine they'd theoretically get along?
And yes, OMG to the goat in the bucket!

momagoat61 - I forgot to ask what dimensions your shelter was.

should add a lamancha

Hi first post here on these forums. What is the round milky plastic looking dome home called in that post? Thanks!

Calf hut :)

Looks similar to what I have, but mine are just fertilizer tanks. They work great for small shelters for kids and bucks. Just cut a hole in the side, cut the bottom off, voila!

I think it is about 14x12, might be 14 x14, its raining out right now. I want to think I purchased the tin and it was 12 foot sections, so probably it's a 14 x12

Momagoat, I like that shelter, and I may be making one very much like it in the near future.
WildIdeas - here's more on the Polydome's. They're designed for calves being weaned. The idea is that the animal stays warmer (greenhouse effect). Work well for goats too - and they can't dance or chew on them. Well, it would be a tough plug to chew on. I think goat people like them also because they move so easy - they can follow your goats if you rotate them.

I think you have to find a distributor for them. but maybe they ship. I like ours real well, for our wet country though, we had to improvise a bottom.
http://www.polydome.com/calf_nursery.html

I have seen them a lot on Craigs List here...But if I got a used one I would be sure to bleach it down really good before letting my goats use it :)

Thanks! That site is fun to shop at. :)

The only thing I can add to the many good posts is....

Make it stout if it's made of wood. 1/2" plywood not 3/8
Triple 2x4 for the corners. doubles for the top and bottom.
They will push on the walls, they will chew on the corners.


Here is mine. Cost about 100 bucks for plywood. Tho I used left over steel roofing materials and logs for beams. It's 16 x 12. It has a back section (half) That is enclosed with just a door way(no door). This is where they sleep. The front half is a covered area for feeding, watering ect.

http://images57.fotki.com/v1418/phot...snow011-vi.jpg

that beam that looks bent in the front. it's the way the tree grew.


One other thing. Be tempted to make the roof low, it will keep drafts to a min.. They are short. But make sure you can still get in and clean.

This is exactly what I am dreaming to do this spring.
By stock panel you meant heavy steel panels or heavy duty welded wire panels? I am thinking of the second one.