A Quick Guide to Housing Sheep

[SheepGirl]

SheepGirl submitted a new resource:

Housing - Quick guide to housing sheep

Space

First things first—make sure you have enough space both in your barn and in your pasture/dry lot to accommodate the amount of sheep you want or have. The following chart will give you the minimum space requirements for different types of sheep in various environments.

View attachment 39

*Spaces such as catch pens, holding pens, etc.
Source: Midwestern Plan Service, Sheep Housing and Equipment...

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[SheepGirl]

SheepGirl updated Housing with a new update entry:

More Housing & Fencing Photos

A "Sheep Shack" - 8x8 shelter that is 4' tall. Made with 3.5 sheets of plywood for the walls, 2 sheets of plywood for the roof, and 13 2x4s. Easy to put together.

Two dry lot pens underneath my deck (which was their shelter). My deck is 16x24 and the pens underneath (including the deck) are 8x48 and 16x48. Pens made with 4' woven wire and T posts. Plastic step in posts were placed in between T posts because the wire wasn't tight enough...

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[Womwotai]

Thank you for sharing your housing ideas. Do you have any issues with the sheep rubbing against the shelters and destroying them? IME they rub pretty vigorously against anything they can (mine are hair sheep so perhaps they rub more than other breeds?) and I could just see them slowly destroying a shelter made of sheets of plywood.

 

[SheepGirl]

I believe hair sheep breeds do rub more than wool breeds. I haven't noticed much if any rubbing on their shelter. I mainly see my sheep rub up against the fence or the gate. The Sheep Shack is framed with 2x4s and then plywood is attached so it is pretty sturdy, even with my sheep that try to climb on it to get the buckets of grain i put on the roof. It is still holding up after 17 months.