Goat housing, pictures anyone?

[craftymama86]

My husband and I are buying 3 pygmy goats in the morning and I hate to admit it but we don't have any housing for them (YET). We do have materials but could easily buy more if needed. What I need to know though is how much space would they need to be comfortable and happy? Pics would be great!

 

[craftymama86]

Did I post this in the wrong subject? I'm glad to see people are looking at my post but I would love to receive some replies.

 

[Chirpy]

Well, depending on how much money you want to spend on their housing you could build a really nice shed with a people door on one side with a divider inside so you can keep their hay/feed in the same place but so they can't reach it. That makes it much easier to feed them... especially in inclement weather. Then, the other side of the divider is the goat side. They will have their own 'goat size' door facing away from the prevailing winds/weather. Make sure you allow an easy in/our for a wheelbarrow or whatever you are going to use to muck the area.

They should have several square feet per goat; although if they are good buddies they will probably pile up on each other ... you still want to have the space available. So, having said all that I'm thinking an 10x10 with a 3x10 person side and the rest for the goats. Now - that would be nice! You could even go bigger for when you get more goats.

If they don't all get along then you need to make sure that they all someplace to get in out of the weather without being shoved outside by someone else.

Or, you can go with something far more simple and smaller. An extra large dog house (think Saint Bernard) that just allows them enough room to get totally out of the weather and have space to lay down next to each other.

Their housing needs to be dry and draft free.

My Nigerians have a extra large Igloo doghouse with two, old shed doors side by side (standing on end) forming a tunnel and a piece of plywood across the top of them to top off that tunnel; that extends out from the doghouse itself.

Have fun.

 

[craftymama86]

The first idea would be AWESOME.... but.. we don't have THAT much in materials, lol. So I'm looking for something a bit more basic and smaller. Maybe one day we can change that..

We're getting a mother goat and her baby and a buck who fathered the baby.

Whatever we build I want it to be big enough for when the baby is full grown also..

Thank you!

 

[mogolady]

We have an actual barn for our breeding does, but our bucks have Port-A-that they use all year long and do fine. They are just the ones that are lik 8x6 or something. Some people build little A-frame huts out of scrap wood.

We also built a hoop house for our girls for the summer pasture. We built it out of cattle panels arched over, supported and staked with T-post and covered with a billboard tarp that we purchased off the internet. It works really well and has held up great through some really strong winds. We built it in about 4 hours, its portable and all items are reusable if we decide to do something different.

I was a little worried because to be quite honest, I like things to look neat but it doesn't look bad at all. We purchased the white tarp and put print side down so really it just looks like a couple of the big round hay bales that they wrap in the white platic wrap.

For the money we spent, I love it!

 

[chandasue]

Depends on your climate. If you're in a warm part of the county you can probably just make a 3 sided lean-to type shelter. Think very large dog house--something light enough to lift and clean out but heavy enough not to blow away during a storm. We went a little crazy and built a 10x20 shed for 2 nigerian dwarfs (that's expanded to 4 dairy goats, I think if I'd have made it smaller it would have helped me resist getting anymore goats). It's divided in half so there's storage for feed and milk stand. AND we live in MN so they spend a good deal of the year inside despite opening the door to let them out. So keep that in mind if you live somewhere with nasty winters that they'll spend a lot of time inside. Typically I've read that mini's need 15 sq ft of indoor space/goat, and more for cold climates.

Edit: You could get a calf hut or calf dome since time is of the essence if you can find a dealer nearby.

 

[Chirpy]

chandasue had an excellent point that I didn't mention. If you live in a cold climate where they will spend hours inside every day or many days they definitely need more space than a doghouse. Where I live, in Colorado, there are very few days that my goats don't go outside (like 3 or 4 a year) for most of the day.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

I have a calf hut for the goats to use. brand new, it was around $350.

However, they also have access to the overhang of our barn and since they get along with our horses, they often time spend time in the horse's stalls.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but since you are getting a buck, you will need 2 very seperate housing quarters and very strong fence for the buck as you may want to control when the doe is exposed to him.

 

[Kaitie09]

This is the whole thing. It is a 10'16 that is spit into 3 sections.

The left is the goats side, the middle is storage, and the right is our chickens

This is the back of it. The goats deck is 5 ft off the ground, with a ramp along the shed. They tend to jump off at about 4 feet though.
Also, we are planning on putting lattice and woven wire on the bottom so they will have access under the shed in case they do not want to sleep inside in the summer.

 

[L&L Ranch]

well for housing i just use truck camper shells in other words a camper shell for a truck sitting on cender blocks i would suggest 1 every 4 goats just take the door off or they will break it and leave the windows open