# Designing a small goat barn...



## seachick (May 22, 2019)

Hi folks! We are getting 2 Nigerian Dwarf doelings this week. We have temporary summer housing for them and will be building a small barn for them this summer. I'm hoping to get some feedback on the design from you experienced goat owners 

We are space-constrained. A 12 x 16 building is about max. We live in the suburbs on a bit less than an acre. We will never have more than 2-3 goats, except in spring before kids get sold. We live in Maine, with cold & snowy winters. I will milk for family use. This structure is about 20 feet from the house.

This is a gable-roofed building with a steep 12/12 pitch roof. There is a chicken coop is a separate attached smaller building (tighly weatherstripped to keep dust out of the goat area). The goat barn has a 12 x 10 hayloft above the stall area, and is open to the rafters on the 6 feet over the doors/storage/coop access/milking area, with a skylight.

In this plan, a 6x8 stall is always available at all times, and has the goat door to the paddock. Two other stall areas, with removable panels, are available for other uses. In August those two will have hay in them. We'll use the hay in stall B first, so that for winter our 2 goats will have the whole 6 x 12 area available. Then we'll use the hay in stall C, freeing that up for kidding in the spring. We'll use the hay in the loft last.

I know it's not ideal to have my milking stand and grain storage in the main open barn, but we're really space-constrained here so we need to make some compromises. Hopefully I've made the right ones? As far as quarantine, we would need to use a separate building- likely the garage- in that case.

Thoughts? Maybe I should make stalls A and B 5 feet wide, allowing stall C to be 5 x 4?


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## Baymule (May 22, 2019)

Wow. I am impressed. Nice barn plans, I like it.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 22, 2019)

This goat owner thinks your plan is great !  Years ago (1977) i milked in my barn, with cows, pigs, chickens and goats....took milk inside, filtered and it was fine.....that was in N.H. .....Here in florida I milk outside....


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## B&B Happy goats (May 22, 2019)

Love the outside covered area !


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## seachick (May 26, 2019)

Thank you folks!!! Can I ask another question? We're doing a wood floor in the building (linoleum over it in the stall areas). Should we just do 3/4" OSB plywood, or should we do boards? 

Aesthetically, I'd prefer to see boards, but is seems like plywood would be easier to sweep up and keep clean? What do you guys think? 

(P.S. I got my two doelings this week!!!!!)


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## Baymule (May 26, 2019)

They will pee on the floor, I sure wouldn't use OSB for the floor.


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## bethh (May 29, 2019)

We are pretty inexperienced but here are pics of the goat house we built this past weekend.  We are going to add linoleum to the floor and wire.  When it gets cold we will add weather proofing.  We will add on as needed.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 29, 2019)

bethh said:


> We are pretty inexperienced but here are pics of the goat house we built this past weekend.  We are going to add linoleum to the floor and wire.  When it gets cold we will add weather proofing.  We will add on as needed.
> View attachment 62565 View attachment 62566 View attachment 62567



The absolute best thing (i have found) to use for the floor is sand, it drains awesome, and easy to change out..wood floors will rot from the urin and you will have to put something down to soak it up...and it will stink of urin....
And in colder weather just put some hay down to bed on.....if you can build them some outside benchs  to lay and play on , you also get to sit on it with them ...


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## Rezchamp (May 29, 2019)

Wow, nice one. The Goat Hilton.
My goat barn was a few random pieces of plywood nailed(with salvaged nails straightened by tapping with a 20oz framing hammer against a rock) on to some random lengths of salvaged 2x4's. 
It measured 4'x10 @5&1/2' high. The door was merely a piece of cotton canvas. The 20 chickens and the 4 geese stayed in there with the 3 goats (a Dwarf Angora doe, a Nigerian Dwarf Buck and their doeling 6 month old kid). A 60 watt light bulb and their combined body heat kept the straw covered dirt "floor" toasty enough I got eggs all winter. Although I live where we routinely get -30*C with 4 days to a week long stretches of -40* no eggs froze, no birds froze, no goats froze. We did have 1 fatality though. One of the nest boxes apparently seemed like a good climbing facility to the goats and it tipped over. Of course I did eventually build a better one that was a tad bigger. ....and insulated. ....and safer. ...and seperate from the birds. Ironically the first set of triplets we ever got out of any of our goats were born in the improved "goat house". 
Sorry for the side trip. 
Getting kind of back on track....compared my first "goat house" yours is very, very nice. 
I think it would actually provide a decent shelter to humans in certain situations.
. In case my emoticons don't show up the first one is s big smile and the second one is a "thumbs up".


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## animalmom (May 29, 2019)

Your goat house does look nice.  Two hooves up!!  I like the repurposed pallets.  I also agree with @B&B Happy goats regarding the flooring... as in not using linoleum.  I use pallets in my goat pens to give the goaties a way to walk around without getting in the mud (something we have had a lot of this spring).  I put pallets inside all the shelters so they are not laying on the dirt/mud.  The wee darlings have figured out how to get from one shelter to another to the third and then to the gate without setting hoof on the ground.


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## Baymule (May 29, 2019)

I have sheep. I do not have a wood floor. It strikes me as rather absurd to put a wood floor under goats for them to pee and poop on. Not to hurt anybody's feelings, but I just have an eye problem with a wood floor, as in I don't SEE me doing that! I deep litter the sheep barn and dig it out when I need poop for the garden. Right now they have a round bale, so they are making their own deep litter. LOL 

A solid floor in a goat or sheep barn, to me, is just more work to keep it clean that I don't need. I can understand the need for cleanliness if milking, but not a floor in the whole barn.


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## bethh (May 29, 2019)

I had suggested dirt floor but hubby decided on the pallets and I wanted to add linoleum.  How does a dirt floor fair when you have lots of rain.  We haven't had any for awhile but during the winter and spring we had plenty of nonstop days.  I'll be the first to admit, I have lots to learn. @Baymule


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## Baymule (May 29, 2019)

My barn stays dry and it only has one side. It is a 20'x24' lean to roof off the side of a portable building. On bad blowing storms, it may blow in a couple of feet, but it is never wet all over. Water off the roof drains away.


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## seachick (Jun 12, 2019)

It's going up! I am so excited


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## animalmom (Jun 12, 2019)

You must be thrilled!  Beautiful land you have and I'm sure the goaties will help keep the underbrush cleaned up!


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