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11/25/07, 10:35 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: the flat land of Illinois
Posts: 4,652
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sleeping benches for goats? tell me about yours, please/
we will have only a few goats - cannot see ever having more than 6 at most, most likely 2-4. Just setting up our barn for them. Have heard about sleeping benches - but would love to know whether or not you use them for your goats and what you think about them. Pictures would be GREAT!
thanks so much,
Cathy
(we have 2 dairy goats at this time - can't say whether we'll include meat goats in the future)
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11/25/07, 11:26 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: North of Houston TX
Posts: 4,817
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Our woods pen is damp, no real sunlight comes through and the ground is pine straw, not very condusive for dry healthy feet. So we put up a 4X8 plywood bed, it is wrapped in 2x4's and braced. It is about 2 and 1/2 feet off the ground, so not only can they jump up on it to lay, but also they can go underneath it if they like. This pen is now the buck pen, and they always lay up on their bed. I do something similar in the doe pastures, with solid pallets so they can lay on them, and get their feet dry up in the sun, and not out in the damp grass. Even when not raining here, we have dew every morning due to our humidity. Vicki
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Vicki McGaugh
Nubian Soaps
North of Houston TX
www.etsy.com/shop/nubiansoaps
A 3 decade dairy goat farm homestead that is now a retail/wholesale soap company and construction business.
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11/25/07, 11:47 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 599
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Check out this link. These people obviously have ALOT more time than me, but it gives me something to aspire to when I win the lottery and can quit my jobs!
http://www.doubledurangofarm.com/id5.html
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11/25/07, 12:19 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 2,369
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Don't worry! You will have WAY more then 6 in a few years!
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11/25/07, 12:31 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: NO VA
Posts: 1,989
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We didn't do it intentionally, but the goats showed us how they prefer to be up off the ground to sleep. We're in the process of trying to design a better system for them to be up off the ground w/o wasting space or it being too high up. The easiest idea I had was to put some "legs" under pallets and a slab of plywood to top, maybe drilling some "drainage" holes in the plywood. But after looking at the posted site, I'm thinking we can take the pallets and just fill in the gaps with wood boards, put legs on them and call them beds. 
As for the posted site by jordan...lol my goaties would love that jungle-gym system they have going on. I guess I'm not too far off in the head thinking up what I did for our little goats.
Reese
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11/25/07, 01:11 PM
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My kids have hooves
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Central Virginia
Posts: 2,224
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Our bench/bed is exactly like Vicki's. We have it inside their stall. It's big enough for several goats to lie on, and right now it's bedded deeply underneath so they can snuggle under it at night. Since we have minis, ours is only about 21" high. It's low enough to trap heat and be quite cozy in winter. They love it. It also gives me a place to sit down when I feel like cuddling a goat. 
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Beth ~ Old Church, VA
3 Nigerian Dwarf goats, 4 cats, 3 Pekin ducks and 7 chickens. One very patient husband~
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11/25/07, 01:14 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: S.E. Iowa
Posts: 2,530
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I have 2 old water tanks that no longer hold water. Over on their side, the goats love to jump and play and lay on/ in these. Price is right too at a farm auction, usually $1.00. For the winter though, I will build something in the barn. That sounds like a great idea.
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11/25/07, 01:52 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: the flat land of Illinois
Posts: 4,652
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can the kids access a 30" sleeping bench? Do you build steps or a ramp for the kids? A pile something at one corner?
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11/25/07, 02:00 PM
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SarahJoy [loves her farm]
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Fairview, TN
Posts: 264
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My friend Teresa had sleeping benches but decided to get rid of them since her goats just sat there, literally, ALL DAY!
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SarahJoy :banana02:
1 Timothy 4:12 - Let no one make little of you because you are young, but be an example to the church in word, in behaviour, in love, in faith, in holy living.
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11/25/07, 02:09 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: North of Houston TX
Posts: 4,817
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No sleeping benches in with the kids, and you would need something for them to jump 30 inches. I have little tikes toys, two play houses with slides and the jungle jim. I spend the winter finding them at garage sales and flea markets cheap. Even 8 months old and bred they still lay up in them and run up and down the slides.
In the infant pens I use flight kennels, take them apart and put them upside down, they can go underneath or play ontop, they are light weight so they can't pile underneath and suffocate.
Cool ND site, nothing prettier than a well kept place. Looks like someone husband GARA about her goats Vicki
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Vicki McGaugh
Nubian Soaps
North of Houston TX
www.etsy.com/shop/nubiansoaps
A 3 decade dairy goat farm homestead that is now a retail/wholesale soap company and construction business.
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11/25/07, 04:33 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: SW WA
Posts: 10,357
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Wow, those pics in the link were great! I'm inspired to build some playgrounds and sleeping benches, both. I know goats like to sleep "up", but haven't done it here yet. I could build some of these things pretty easily, I think. I do use crates and kennels for the kids to cuddle in, though.
BTW, what's GARA? Haven't heard that one before.
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11/25/07, 04:51 PM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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Our goats have a large wooden spool, courtesy of the telephone company, and a dogloo dog house. Plus a metal water trough, about 4' x 2', turned upside down.
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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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11/25/07, 05:22 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Central Oregon
Posts: 423
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Wonderful site! I've been inspired, much to the dismay of my husband!
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11/25/07, 05:40 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York
Posts: 3,891
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Jordan, that site is awesome!!
Yep, I read the OP and said to myself "My original plan was to have three goats......". Hmm, I went wrong somewhere along the way.
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I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.
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11/25/07, 07:36 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: NW OR
Posts: 2,314
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Free pallets set up on cinder blocks (so only about 6" off the ground) with an old piece of carpet or stall mat thrown on top. They get pretty nasty and so I can just toss 'em on the burn pile in the spring and make new ones, and hose off the stall mats when they get ugly. My kids, right down to the youngest, play (and sleep) on a variety of old wire spools (the wooden kind) I get free from the local electric co-op. I used to have the plastic toys in there, but they'd hop up and slide on the plastic and sometimes off the other side. I was afraid they'd hurt themselves, they can get traction on wood.
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11/25/07, 07:49 PM
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Dutch Highlands Farm
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Along the Stillaquamish, Washington
Posts: 1,642
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I'll have to get a picture, but what I have for my goats is an old steel door attached with hinges to the wall at 30inches. Then I put eye bolts at the front corners of the door and on the wall, connected with a chain. I let the door down (and chase the goats out) when I push hay bales down from the loft. I put a 14inch high wooden box in for the kid to use to jump onto the shelf. He first slept in a rubber trough to be off the floor. Now at 4 weeks he can jump the 30inches no problem.
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If angels existed, they'd probably be considered big game. (Don Swain)
Home schooling.........not just for scary religious people anymore. Buffy
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11/25/07, 10:54 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 115
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I have a whole collection of wooden spools. My goats normally sleep up high on them. We have a small barn, but they all sleep outside on the spools unless it rains. I got them free from the cable company and made pyramids with them
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11/26/07, 06:42 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: NO VA
Posts: 1,989
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by farm mom
Wonderful site! I've been inspired, much to the dismay of my husband!
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I hear ya, dh said, "ohhhhh nooooooo" when I said I have another project for his honey-do-list. I just don't understand his response. 
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12/31/08, 08:23 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Loganville,GA
Posts: 7
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hey, hey, husband does NOT build here at Double Durango! (not giving him credit!)...he is in the garage...I am outside with the goats and my hammer...lol..my kids have kidded me and said I could build my own coffin, dig the hole for it and then they would bury me with my hammer when I go...I think they are kinda mean! : (
thank goodness my goats appreciate me! Dianne www.doubledurangofarm.com
by the way, Lois, Talisman says hi from Georgia!
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01/01/09, 12:51 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 599
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Quote:
Originally Posted by doubledurango
hey, hey, husband does NOT build here at Double Durango! (not giving him credit!)...he is in the garage...I am outside with the goats and my hammer...lol..my kids have kidded me and said I could build my own coffin, dig the hole for it and then they would bury me with my hammer when I go...I think they are kinda mean! : (
thank goodness my goats appreciate me! Dianne www.doubledurangofarm.com
by the way, Lois, Talisman says hi from Georgia! |
Your kids ARE mean! So I think you should travel north (to Wisconsin to be exact) for the summer to get away from them!!!!
Tell Talisman that I really, really miss him!
Lois
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