Goat shelter

[TXMissy]

I am curious what kind of shelters you have for your goats. I want my goats to be able to get out of the rain. I went into the shelter and more of it was wet than not. I feel HORRIBLE! This is what I have for them. Don't judge me, I am learning. It was an old chicken pen 8×8 or 10x10, that I planned on using for the goats to take shelter in. It was free and I figured I could make it work. And I still might...I need help figuring out how to keep the rain out while still giving them air. My husband thinks I am going over board. He says..what would they do in the wild? I dunno..find a cave? I am more concerned for the winter. I don't want them wet and cold. Anyway, I would love to hear any ideas you have. Should I tarp it all except the entry? Maybe that would be best.
Thanks ya'll

 

[animalmom]

Between you, me and the proverbial fencepost, those tarps are not going to last long in the Texas sun. Now, your chicken run is a good place to start. It looks solid and too tall for the boys to jump on the top, so that is a good choice. One of the members, how is in TN puts some type of paint on his tarps, but I think he starts out with canvas tarps. @Mike CHS is the fellow. He does sheep.

Yeah, the boys are not going to like getting wet and in Texas you do have the problem of keeping the air flow going and keeping the weather out. We enclose 3 sides, and the roof and position the shelter so the back faces most of our incoming weather (did that make sense?). We started out building cabanas out of plywood with a metal roof. Ours are short and the goats get on top during nice weather. I don't think I'm suggesting using plywood to cover the top and sides as in today's prices that would be rather expensive.

As an alternative you might want to look into plastic roofing... This is what we use on some goat tunnels (gunnels) we built.

Suntuf 26 in. x 8 ft. Corrugated Polycarbonate Roof Panel in Solar Gray 101929 - The Home Depot

Make use of this Suntuf Solar Gray Polycarbonate Corrugated Roof Panel to cover decks and carports usage. Easy to install.

www.homedepot.com

It holds up well to the weather, can be translucent, reflects UV, and is not nearly as heavy as plywood to work with. You would want to be creative in attaching it to your wire frame. The goats rub on it and the corners tend to eventually crack off, but that doesn't seem to impair overall function. We also used these panels to put a roof on the dog kennel.

Just some thoughts. You don't need to do all sides, just three sides and the top.

 

[animalmom]

Gates open into the pen! They are going to stand on the gate regardless of the direction it swings, if the gate opens into the pen and they stand on it they are keeping it shut. If the gate swing the other way and they stand on it they could open the gate.

 

[TXMissy]

Between you, me and the proverbial fencepost, those tarps are not going to last long in the Texas sun. Now, your chicken run is a good place to start. It looks solid and too tall for the boys to jump on the top, so that is a good choice. One of the members, how is in TN puts some type of paint on his tarps, but I think he starts out with canvas tarps. @Mike CHS is the fellow. He does sheep.

Yeah, the boys are not going to like getting wet and in Texas you do have the problem of keeping the air flow going and keeping the weather out. We enclose 3 sides, and the roof and position the shelter so the back faces most of our incoming weather (did that make sense?). We started out building cabanas out of plywood with a metal roof. Ours are short and the goats get on top during nice weather. I don't think I'm suggesting using plywood to cover the top and sides as in today's prices that would be rather expensive.

As an alternative you might want to look into plastic roofing... This is what we use on some goat tunnels (gunnels) we built.

Suntuf 26 in. x 8 ft. Corrugated Polycarbonate Roof Panel in Solar Gray 101929 - The Home Depot

Make use of this Suntuf Solar Gray Polycarbonate Corrugated Roof Panel to cover decks and carports usage. Easy to install.

www.homedepot.com

It holds up well to the weather, can be translucent, reflects UV, and is not nearly as heavy as plywood to work with. You would want to be creative in attaching it to your wire frame. The goats rub on it and the corners tend to eventually crack off, but that doesn't seem to impair overall function. We also used these panels to put a roof on the dog kennel.

Just some thoughts. You don't need to do all sides, just three sides and the top.

Okay, thank you. The gate is actually on the fence, not the pen. We fenced off an area for them where the pen is so they can have their own space. The pen itself has no gate. We will make sure the gate swings in, instead of out when we open it.

 

[Alaskan]

If you could just put a big roof over that, and 2 walls for winter to block winds and such.

For my goats they had a barn.

 

[TXMissy]

Yeah... I thought this would work well but the issue is rain. I am wondering how to strap wood to it without water getting in. I am not sure how to cover it with putting holes in the wood and strapping it to the wire. The sides are easier to figure out than the roof. Texas gets lots of rain in the fall and winter.. well more so than any other time. So... if I can figure out how to cover the roof ... i might just start over and build one out of plywood and 2x4s

 

[BarnOwl]

We have an old barn but we decided we wanted to keep the goats closer to the house, at least until they are older. We were using tarps and dog houses for a couple of weeks, but found this "goat shelter" on FB marketplace for a reasonable price. If we hadn't found this shelter, we were going to get a porta-hut or calf-hut type structure from one of the farmer co-ops in the area.

 

[TXMissy]

We have an old barn but we decided we wanted to keep the goats closer to the house, at least until they are older. We were using tarps and dog houses for a couple of weeks, but found this "goat shelter" on FB marketplace for a reasonable price. If we hadn't found this shelter, we were going to get a porta-hut or calf-hut type structure from one of the farmer co-ops in the area.

View attachment 87384

That is nice! I think we are going to build something like this.

 

[TXMissy]

We have an old barn but we decided we wanted to keep the goats closer to the house, at least until they are older. We were using tarps and dog houses for a couple of weeks, but found this "goat shelter" on FB marketplace for a reasonable price. If we hadn't found this shelter, we were going to get a porta-hut or calf-hut type structure from one of the farmer co-ops in the area.

View attachment 87384

This is awesome. Do you know the dimensions ? My husband and I decide to make a shelter for them.

 

[BarnOwl]

It's working out well so far. The metal gets hot in the sun so would probably be better positioned in the shade. They only need to go in at night and when it's raining so I'm not too worried about it at the moment. It's 6 ft wide and 8 ft long. I am lacking carpentry skills, but it looks like it'd be fairly simple to build. If I remember correctly, the guy who built it said that Lowes even cut the metal for him.