Goat shelter ideas?

[TheGoldenFarm5]

Hi!
So I am planning on getting my very first goat kids in August. We have a old house that had a run down, rotting fence, that we have been fixing up. We fixed the actual fence, so all we have left to do is to build the shelter, and cut down the seemingly thousands of rhododendrons in and around the feild. We even have our livestock gaurdian dog ready for the new arrivals!
Here is a ROUGH sketch of what I was thinking about designing the shelter to look like. Any other ideas?

So, I included a small closet area to store feed, hay, and cleaning materials. The over hang area is so the goats can stand outside and eat the hay in all types of weather. I was even thinking about making steps up to the roof of the shelter, so they can climb up on top of they want to.
We have a couple Air B&Bs, so the shelter has to look really nice.
Does anyone have any suggestions, questions, comments, or concerns? I am absolutely open to any and all of these. Thank you!
I am really new to goats, but I’m excited to start this adventure.

 

[Latestarter]

OK, please understand I'm not being critical, just pointing out some things for your benefit.

How many goats? What breed? (size matters) Have you factored in goat math? It's a REAL THING! A 3x4 foot closet is not going to hold everything you have detailed. Keep in mind, the average entry door in your house is 3' wide. A small square bale of hay is 18"x18"x3-4' long. Your drawing isn't to scale, so difficult to "imagine" things actual size. The indicated 4' side of the closet is shorter than the indicated 3' wall. It will make it far easier to see what you've got to work with if you draw to scale. Like one small block = 6" for example. A 4' deep overhang will provide some shelter, but if a standard sized goat, their butt will be hanging out in the breeze so to speak while eating hay where you've indicated.

Hope you'll let us know how you and things proceed!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Build bigger than you think you will need, saves adding on later....

 

[TheGoldenFarm5]

Thanks!
3 is the max I want to put in the field, so no matter how badly I want more, 3 will be the absolute max. I am planning on starting with 2 goats though. I am getting angora goats from the animal fiber farm I work at.
Yes, I know the drawing is very bad, and not to scale - Im sorry about that. I was just doing a basic sketch to get my thoughts out on paper, and as I was creating this post, I thought it might help add a visual about what I was talking about. I can start working on one that’s a bit better. Would a 7X8 inside work ok? With that, I could make the closet a bit bigger, and the overhang.
Or, if needed, I could make the long side 13 or 14 feet, and make both the closet and overhang a bit bigger. Also, I could make the side of the closet that is 3 feet into a 4 foot side. That would make the closet either 5x4’ or 4X4’, the overhang would be 5x5’ or 4x5’, depending on how long I make that wall. The inside would be 8X8’.
Another idea is to get rid of the closet completely and either store that stuff somewhere else (ex: the garage up the hill from the goat yard) have it in the corner of the inside of the shelter, or build a separate shed.
Honestly even the overhang is optional to take out of the design, and I could build a hay feeder somewhere else that has a little roof on it to keep them and the hay dry. Or, put the hay feeder inside.
(Design is definitely not my forte, so if anyone has any recommendations about how it could work better, please, please let me know)

 

[Mike CHS]

Don't worry about the design comments since nobody has any ill will when commenting here. Think about how much that you have to store and go from there. It seems that whatever you design, it is never enough.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

If you are building out of wood, think about standard wood legnths, less cutting and wasre of material, ventlation is also very important, we bought a metal hip style roof carport, we closed in the sides as we wanted it to be for us, have two openings to walkin and out of goat area and a half door for us to enter....but we don't get the harsher weather that you can get, they do need a draft free area to get inti also....they will stay in there in lousy weather...better to have extra space than struggling with too small a area..... 16 x12 8x12 ???
We just built a chicken house out of wood pallets that some were free and some we paid $1.50 for, then covered outside with wood sheathing and painted it., has metal roof...just have fun with it ...

 

[Latestarter]

Imagine yourself and 1 or 2 friends (unless you like being close to an enemy) spending time together, like overnight, in your master bathroom... or your walk in closet... trying to lay down and sleep... stretching and trying to move around... you can outline an area on your floor, or in the yard, and actually walk inside it to see what it will be like. An 8x8 interior will be tight for 2 goats, but should be OK as long as they're only in it during bad weather and overnight. If they will be in there, confined for any long period, it will be claustrophobic for them. With 3 in there, it would be not so good. If you add a 4' deep overhang outside of that and leave that wall open (or mostly open... like 6 feet of it) you've effectively given them a 12x8 area and room to move/stretch/etc. plus plenty of fresh air. Still no room for a closet, but enough for the 3 goats. Just a thought.

I have my hay and feed in an outbldg, 40' away from the entrance gate to the goat pasture. It's a good 150' walk to their shelter (16'x24') inside their night pen, inside the pasture. So when weather's bad, they wait inside for me to carry their food in to them. pellets and hay. Other than that I feed them outside in the pasture in feed bowls on the ground. This is outside their night pen, but inside the pasture. If you look through some of the journals on the site you'll see pictures that many folks have posted of their set ups.

Will the structure be a raised floor or dirt? You'll need to think about cleaning and removing poop and bedding. Hay feeders and goats, make a lot of dropped hay (waste/mess), so if you feed inside, add that to the poop and bedding. Slope of the land matters as well... they're gonna pee inside also. will it have someplace to go? or form a mud puddle inside?

 

[B&B Happy goats]

This is the inside of ours before i finished painting, lol

 

[B&B Happy goats]

If you have the tables for them to get up on. Most poo ends up on floor , and you use less hay or straw for bedding...( our floor is dirt with 3 inchs of sand) ...., and they have out side toys to play on also....to the left of the low table is a kidding pen , ours is 12 x21, six goats are currently in there. I have had more.

 

[Rammy]

OK, please understand I'm not being critical, just pointing out some things for your benefit.

How many goats? What breed? (size matters) Have you factored in goat math? It's a REAL THING! A 3x4 foot closet is not going to hold everything you have detailed. Keep in mind, the average entry door in your house is 3' wide. A small square bale of hay is 18"x18"x3-4' long. Your drawing isn't to scale, so difficult to "imagine" things actual size. The indicated 4' side of the closet is shorter than the indicated 3' wall. It will make it far easier to see what you've got to work with if you draw to scale. Like one small block = 6" for example. A 4' deep overhang will provide some shelter, but if a standard sized goat, their butt will be hanging out in the breeze so to speak while eating hay where you've indicated.

Hope you'll let us know how you and things proceed!

@Latestarter why dont you post a link or pictures of your goat shack you just built to show them what you did? Its big and sturdy and more than big enough for all your goaties.