# Goat house design...opinions please!



## minifarm (Aug 28, 2012)

So...this is what I am wanting to build. (The shed it is butting up against is the chicken coop/ feed storage.)

The goat house should be 8ft long and 5.5ft deep for a grand total of 44sq feet. That should be enough space, right? I am  _planning_ *clears throat* on keeping *2* Nigerian dwarf does for milk. So I would need enough space for them and their little ones. They will have the yard to play in during the day. 

The shortest part of the structure should be about 5ft tall and the tallest part about 6ft tall. I am hoping this will give me enough room to clean it without back pain. lol

I was planning on  having one half-door and having the other side be a half wall. Behind the half wall attached to the shortest wall will be where the feeder will be. The top of the goat house will be open to allow air to circulate hopefully without being drafty.

So, what do you think? I am open to suggestions to improve it! Newbie here! 

Edit to add... Crud. the picture is sideways! Does anyone know how to fix that?


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## Alice Acres (Aug 28, 2012)

I'm hoping you live somewhere warm? Because that design wouldn't work here in MN! Would need to be more enclosed, and also more roof pitch for snow.

Also, unless you are going to be dedicated to scraping it out really often, that ceiling height will be rapidly cramping as the base builds up. 
Floor - dirt or cement?

Good use of tying it into the existing building though.


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## SheepGirl (Aug 28, 2012)

A sheep needs 12 sq ft of barn space and a lamb needs 6-8 sq ft of barn space...I assume goats would be similar. So if both does have twins, you're looking at four kids (up to 32 sq ft) plus two adults (24 sq ft) for a total of 56 sq ft. And that's just for the goats. Where are you going to milk? Are you going to bring in your stand to the barn everyday two times a day or will you bring your does somewhere else? Where are you going to put hay and feed? What about supplies and equipment?

I think you need to expand a bit!


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## minifarm (Aug 28, 2012)

Thank you so much! I would rather troubleshoot in the planning stage than after I have it all built!

_"I think you need to expand a bit! lol"_
LOL! No expanding! Not yet anyway... Also, do dwarfs need a little less space than standard sized sheep or goats? I was kind of operating with that assumption, but I don't know if that's right. 

The floors will be dirt. Milking will be taking place elsewhere, either in the front of the adjacent shed/coop, or in the garage. I have the space in the shed but I am concerned about dust. The garage, however, is large and clean. Since it's my backyard nothing is too far away and with only 2 does I don't think it would be too much of a hassle to milk them away from their goat house.

I didn't think about the bedding piling up. Hmm... 

Storage will be in the shed/coop. We have a loft space to store hay and plenty of space for aluminum trashcans to store goat feed. If we need additional space I think the garage will work for that too.

We don't normally get a lot of snow here, in central IN. Four to six inches would be a really good snowfall. Would metal roofing help the snow to slide off better than shingles?

What if I made removable panels above the door and half wall for the winter? So in the summer than could be removed for ventilation and in the winter they could be replaced to help keep it warm? We were also talking about removable window panels on the side.


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## SheepGirl (Aug 28, 2012)

The figures given are for sheep weighing 150-200 lbs (and lambs 30-110 lbs), so you may be able to get by with less space.

If you have dirt floors, you don't need bedding. At my neighbor's farm where my sheep used to live, the barn was dirt (except for the pen in the cinder block barn they had access to; it was bedded with straw). The only issue with the dirt floor I saw was that it got dusty when you tried to catch sheep or herd them into pens. In the winter, I wouldn't get rid of your ventilation by putting up a removable panel...being in a warm, enclosed barn with dust and no or little ventilation will make your goats cough and potentially you will have issues with pneumonia. Your goats will grow winter coats, and their body heat will warm up the little space which will keep them warm enough.

My neighbor has metal roofing on their barn and I don't ever recall seeing snow on it, except when it would slide off


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## Alice Acres (Aug 28, 2012)

Roof - yes, metal would probably do fine. Just have to watch for ice dam formation that would possibly back it all up.

We have a dirt floor and use grass hay as bedding.


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## lilhill (Aug 29, 2012)

Your design should be adequate for two Nigerian Dwarf goats.  We have several penned areas with shelters in each one.  The main barn, of course, is larger, but the shelters in the other pens are three-sided, about 8' long by 6' deep and 5-1/2" feet high.  Just make sure that there are no drafts and good ventilation.  The goats in those shelters do quite well in the cold winters here when they have a nice, thick bedding of straw to hunker down in.  Now, the big question I have is ... you have to breed those does to have kids to have milk.    So, are you going to keep the kids or sell them?  What about the buck ... taking your girls to a buck somewhere off your property or housing a buck, which will be another building, fencing, etc.  My suggestion to anyone in the building stages consider building it bigger than needed, because just keeping "one or two does" never ends up that way.  You always want more and will be continuously building to accommodate.   You can look on my website in the "Around the farm" section and get an idea of the different shelters used here.


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## Catahoula (Aug 29, 2012)

Even getting couple wethers and they have ways to multiply too. I have a 10x10 for two Boer wethers and their food and water. We will be adding a 12x14 covered area for them. The food and water will move out from the original shelter. When we get bad weather, I would be glad they have some extra room to stretch and play. Don't forget storage. You'd never get enough. Stocking up on hay and their feed take room. Straw takes more room than wood shavings. Even minerals will need a spot. Even if you don't intent to keep the kids, you still have to keep them for a few months before they are weaned and sold. You don't have to use up ALL the space but having the extra space will come in handy.


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## Pearce Pastures (Aug 29, 2012)

Just another though from my experience...make the door swing INTO the enclosure.  Normally, a door would swing outward but when trying to contain goats, inward works better for getting in and back out without having escapees.


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## lilhill (Aug 29, 2012)

Pearce Pastures said:
			
		

> Just another though from my experience...make the door swing INTO the enclosure.  Normally, a door would swing outward but when trying to contain goats, inward works better for getting in and back out without having escapees.


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## vermillionoaks (Aug 29, 2012)

Our four does (Nigerians) are in a 8X12 split in half. (So two goats in each 8X6 section).  It is easily manageable as long as they have a nice sized "run" to go outside.  We don't get snow over here so I'm not sure how it would work as winter housing. Also, I have a sleeping bench the whole way along the shortest side with "pop-out" doors underneath (they are hinged on the top opening outside so I can just unlatch them and use the pitch fork to push them open) so I just push out the dirty bedding and then deal with it outside the house.  Also, the sleeping bench gives more room for temporary kids (our does usually sleep on the benches while our kids slept under the benches or under the hay feeder trough)  It does look like you have that beam going across the door at 5' tall. Might be something you hit your head on every time! I'm not sure how cramped it would be head room wise because mine is about 8' tall at the highest and a little over 6' at the lowest.  I hope you figure out something you like.  Goats are so much fun!  Good luck.


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## minifarm (Aug 30, 2012)

I would have never thought to make the door swing inward, but since you mentioned it, it makes perfect sense!  Thank you!

I am planning on selling the kids.  We live in a neighborhood (with very nice neighbors who like to get eggs from us) so we can't go too crazy. We are planning on staying here until our oldest daughter graduates from high school. (She is a freshman now.) Then we will be moving somewhere with more space to expand.

As far as a buck is concerned, we want to be able to take our does somewhere to be bred, because the bucks seem a little...well...off putting for a neighborhood situation. I think we will be wanting good quality registered Nigerian dwarf does too. Since I want to make sure we have quality animals and are breeding for quality as best as we can. I think it will be easier to find homes for the kids if they come from good stock.


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