shelter ideas

[FairWillow]

Hi there! My husband and I are getting a couple of goats in a few weeks. We are starting out with two, a buckling and a wether probably. We will put these two fellas in the same yard with our 5 chickens. Yard is 36x36. We plan to fence in a couple of acres and build a small barn for them and future goats but couldn't wait any longer. Everything I have read says that chickens and and goats do ok together as long as the goats can't get to the chick food. We shall see We are still trying to figure out what sort of shelter to build, however. Looking for a simple design that wont hurt our wallets too badly. We mainly just need something to keep them out of the elements for now. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[Ruus]

http://fairhopefarm.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/building-simple-sheep-shelters/

This was designed for sheep, but it'll work for goats too. It's about the cheapest/easiest to build small ruminant shelter I've seen. Yay for your new goats!

 

[FairWillow]

Thank you I showed this to my husband and we are thinking of going with this for now. probably all we would need would be the tarp since we have everything else around here.

 

[OneFineAcre]

This is pretty simple. Costs about $150 in material and I can build in a day. Only need my wife to help when something needs to be held up to nail.

We face open end S-SW since the cold winter wind comes from N-NE

I can get away with the low slope and my 2x4 roof stringers laying flat because I don't have to worry too much about snow load.

 

[FairWillow]

Thank you I like this one too. I'll share with the hubs. It is really up to him since he will be doing most of the work Not sure if we would need the angled roof or not. Some winters we gets multiple big snows and others there is nothing. I know one thing though we are super excited. We are already thinking of names and we haven't brought them home yet!

 

[rinksgi]

We are currently using an old shed we already had, but I need to build another one. My advice, something thrown up will work, temporarily, however, our temporary seems to stretch on for awhile. I have in mind a goat house, complete with a couple of stalls for kidding and a common area. When and if you build a shelter that you plan to enter, build it tall enough so you don't have to duck. Whacking your head on boards when you forget is no fun!