Is this a thing?

[Genipher]

I disagree with sealing the concrete. We have an entire building that is concrete. In this building we have 3 kidding stalls... all 3 various sizes. A hallway and the whole one side is for baby and juvenile goats. Sealing it causes the urine to sit on top. Yes the concrete will absorb and there is odor. There will be either way. The building must be cleaned. Do not use sand!
Use shavings. We use fine to medium fine shavings. Thick enough the allow for good absorption. Depending on number of goats and weather will determine how often you will need to clean it out.
Our process is shovel out the shavings. In winter we cannot power wash ( we do have a drain) so we take a watering can filled with hot water and a bit of bleach. Using a mop we scrub. Then use a wet dry vac to vac up the water. Then with clean water and little bleach we mop (using a bucket and ringer). It will dry quickly as it is not sopping wet. Once dry replace bedding.
Warm weather we power wash so we can clean walls too (cinder block painted walls) . Again we still have to shop vac. We mop. Fan dry and replace shavings.

Years ago this building housed our goats when we were a small herd of like 9-10 goats. They were all adults and that was the threshhold- once we grew in numbers then yes, having a concrete floor and shavings didn't cut it - it was too much. So we built a barn. We still use this building for the young goats and kidding etc.
I think if your building is large enough 2 goats should do fine. Shop vac is a great thing to have!

Very clean. Very effective.
We just cleaned this side and the nubian baby loves to play in fresh shavings... we ran short so this is a bit thinner layer than usual. You can't see the whole side just the front part... but there are lots of juvenile kids in there and it stays pretty clean. Of course we have had so much rain that they have been in way more than usual... so it really needed cleaned. LOL
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This is one of the stalls. from earlier in kidding season.
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all the pictures!! I couldn't help but laugh at the goat with her face in the shavings!

Well, shoot. Now I don't know what to do. To seal or not to seal? That is the question! My lazy nature says that if I don't have to, to skip it... Saves time and money that way.

 

[Genipher]

Well, it is very difficult to translate printed words on a page...to "hands-on" action, because somethings just have to be "experienced" for there to be "true learning" taking place. However, there are certainly some things that are better planned for than others......depending on your setting there in Oregon....ya may have a few more predators than ya really are aware of and may need some secure housing in relationship to those predators. By having the goats and birds moving about....those predators will certainly take notice....from the air and on the ground.....this doesn't mean that they will be faced each day, but are a possibility. Your boundry fencing is not only there to keep your animals in, but also to keep predators out. We got our 3 goats basically as an experiment, and they have been our teachers on what owning goats is about.....they are looked at as pets, but they have served a purpose in training us for tending to more and what should be changed in order to accommodate those more. The only real problem we have here is there aren't any vets that treat goats, so there has been a large learning curve....but, thanks to BYH there are plenty that will chime in and help as much as they can if we have difficulties......

I just discovered our dog vet is also a goat vet. Apparently her family has a herd of goats. Lucky, eh?

 

[Southern by choice]

Yeah, that goat is a nut! She is a baby born in March. So silly!

Try unsealed and see how you like it or how well it works for you. If not then seal.

I don't like it sealed as the sealer causes everything to sit on top soiling your bedding faster and the smell is horrible. I'll stick with shop vac and bleach.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

With kids always use kiln dried shavings or sawdust.
There can be a fungus in non kiln dried that causes severe stunting in kids. A dairy goat herd local found out the hard way.

If you go with straw, be aware that due to no market for grain, some producer bale with grain heads intact. Landscapers do not care as sprouting grain helps nurse grass to grow. However used as bedding it draws mice.

On commercial cow dairy where I work, we use document shredder to process newspapers and bed calves. Works great! Have not tried it with goats yet due to shelters being too open to wind.

Look into peat moss as bedding. It is used in UK a lot and is way by far most absorbent and sweet smelling. I have used it a lot in my chicken house and had no odors with almost 50 birds. Cleaned out easy and composted well.

The Sweet PDZ will help with odors and allows for slow nitrogen release in composting. It is natural volcanic product that is non toxic. I like the granular form best. If you pick stalls daily to remove wet spots it goes a long way to keeping things livable. It is ammonia that burns lungsm

 

[Southern by choice]

Look into peat moss as bedding. It is used in UK a lot and is way by far most absorbent and sweet smelling. I have used it a lot in my chicken house and had no odors with almost 50 birds. Cleaned out easy and composted well

Very curious about this as our Leopard gecko got mites and it almost killed him after using it. I know mites can be in straw and hay but never heard of peat moss in bedding for goats.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

Oh yes! Forgot about mites! Yep that can happen. Since we quit raising wheat or oats I use the compressed chopped straw if I need it. Only use a few bales a year for bedding my dog and pot belly pig. The goats manage to waste enough hay to not need much bedding.