Housing for goats???

[momto5lilrascals2angels]

Does anyone use a dog kennel and dog house or do most of you have barns, fenced pastures etc.? We are going to be getting two goats and are wondering what everyone has as housing.

 

[cmjust0]

We house our various goats in an old livestock barn, in two three-sided sheds, and in an old stripping room of another old tobacco barn. Adults don't really need much...pretty much just a place to get in out of the wind and rain.

Kids need it a little nicer for the first few weeks, at least. The closer to you approximate a kid's housing to the proverbial "well ventilated and completely free of drafts" ideal, the better off you'll be.

I've no idea how to accomplish that, by the way.... Ventilation, by its very definition, means the replacement of foul air with fresh air.. A draft is a current of air in an enclosed space.. How you can replace the foul air with fresh air in an enclosed space without introducing a current of fresh air would seem to be physically impossible.

But try anyway. We all try anyway. You'll come to learn quickly that the occasional exercise in futility is just part of owning goats.

 

[goat lady]

Our goats are in a pen with field fence. Then they have a goat house as we call it. It has a bench in it for them to jump on, and a hay rack, salt, water etc. (goat needs) Then we have a 3 week old and a 5 week old that are bottle fed and starting on grain that we keep during the day in a dog kennel and we bring them in at night into our patio in a dog cage. The little ones can go threw the fence so that is why they are not with the older goats. They are not kids of our other goats. Hope it helps.

 

[Laney]

We have our goats in pasture. I'm in North Carolina so no severe winter. We built a "Quonset" hut for them to keep them out of the rain, they thought it was a great toy. They broke open the chicken coop and moved in.

So the chickens have been living outside all summer and some of the goats live in the chicken coop. Now some of the chickens live under the crushed quonset hut. (BTW our chickens are free range and we do not "free feed them")

We currently are building our goat barn. The skeleton is up and covered with tarp, floor is covered in straw. The goats and chickens think it's great.

We've used Stromberg Plates to build the chicken coop and the barn. It makes it cheaper and easier to build despite the odd shape when you're done.

Laney

 

[momto5lilrascals2angels]

We have our goats in pasture. I'm in North Carolina so no severe winter. We built a "Quonset" hut for them to keep them out of the rain, they thought it was a great toy. They broke open the chicken coop and moved in.

So the chickens have been living outside all summer and some of the goats live in the chicken coop. Now some of the chickens live under the crushed quonset hut. (BTW our chickens are free range and we do not "free feed them")

We currently are building our goat barn. The skeleton is up and covered with tarp, floor is covered in straw. The goats and chickens think it's great.

We've used Stromberg Plates to build the chicken coop and the barn. It makes it cheaper and easier to build despite the odd shape when you're done.

Laney

Stromberg Plates? What are those? I think we are going to go with a kennel and an oversize dog house for the winter and then come spring/summer we will work on fencing in the side yard and building something that the chickens and goats can share.

 

[onedozenphyllises]

We have an open-front pole barn that was already existing on the property. We framed in a wall down the middle and the goats occupy one side (we put solid gate across the front of their side). They have a door out the back to a large fenced yard. The yard is divided in two with fencing and a gate (for segregation purposes) and the side that does not have barn access does have a shade shelter that we built out of lumber and corrugated tin. It's sort of a "pup tent" shape, so they can't climb on it.