Hi Farmgirls- I am in the planning stages for building a small all purpose shed that will not only house my goats (currently 5 nigerian dwarfs), but feed and other storage items. I'm looking for any ideas you may have-maybe you've done something similar. I'm thinking a 3-sided area on one side for a field shelter, with a pass through area from the shed for feed. I'd like a small area where the goats could be contained inside if I'm concerned about predator, bad weather, or kidding. Our county size limit without a permit is 200SF, so I'm planning on staying within that size. I'd like to have a seperate area for storing hay and grain, plus some garden supplies. I am very aware that the goats need to be kept away from the grain at all costs and will probably add locked bins to be extra safe.
I'd really appreciate any ideas you have or letting me know anything that has worked (or hasn't worked) for you. When putting up my chicken coop one of the best pieces of advice I received was to use linoleum for easy-clean flooring. It turned out to be one of the best ideas ever for easy chicken keeping.
I do not like my open ended small shed/barn. It has a large stall and then an open side. I feel they allow too much cold. I would really do an all enclsed with a small access door for the goats. I am going to do these changes to the small one this yeasr. Look at my blog for pics later. Our one "big" barn was originally just a roof. We enclosed it and added stall walls with feed access doors. I like this barn better. I hope you get some great ideas from some of these other creative ladies.
Nancy, if you are storing feed in the same place as goats, you will need like a bank vault door with all kinds of locks and bells and whistles! A goat can just about break into anything if they want it bad enough. And if they did get in and eat feed, they will eat til it just about kills them. So make sure you have a very good door on the feed area. And very good barrels with locked lids on the feed bins. Just my 2 cents.
sherry
bend in the high desert
oregon
USA
3775 Posts
Posted - Feb 28 2011 : 06:37:38 AM
angie and kris are right about feed. we store ours separately from barn. we found an old fire hose metal bin. it holds 4 garbage cans full. the cans have lids then the bin lid is super heavy and has lock. 3 times this past year they were out making pigs of their goatie selves. m so now i have bloat medicine all the time. i am a HUGE preacher teacher about having a first aid kit. it has helped me SOOOO many times. as time has passed i have added to it. i have a minor one in milk room and a suitcase larger one in house. some meds cant freeze. i barely got iodine out of my gallon yesterday. it was in milk room and froze. so when our goat kidded yesterday it was too fast needed the kit for sure. hope it helps ya. i learned yesterday i have no where near enough blankets and now i need kid goat sweaters. maybe sweat pant legs. i do not sew.lol happy days sherrye
the learn as we go silk purse farm farm girl #1014
Ideas for building a small barn/shed
Posted - Feb 26 2011 : 3:28:13 PM
