Depending on your climate, inexpensive wooden goat shelters are all you need for adequate protection from the outdoor elements.
When we first purchased goats we were VERY unprepared. We went to an auction with the intent of purchasing alpacas and came home with goats and rabbits. Let this be your warning to not attend animal auctions if you are like us. Ha!
We quickly needed some shelters and didn’t want to spend a lot of money as we were planning to built a small goat barn in the near future.
As is common to country living, plans change. The goat shelters that we built 5 years ago are the some ones we use today. In fact, they moved with us when we purchased a new acreage 2 years ago, and have overall served us well for our small herd.
Here’s what we did….
The Framing
My husband salvaged some wood planks from a granary on his brothers property that was scheduled to be demolished Taking into account the wood we had, we designed two goat shelters in different styles. The first was more like a large dog house, and the second was more like a lean to (above).
We used 2×4 lumber to frame up the goat shelters and covered them with the salvaged wood.
Size and Capacity
Both of the shelters are about 4 feet tall with openings about 20 inches wide. The “doghouse” is a little smaller at 3×4 feet. The “lean to” is a little larger at 3×5 feet.
We had Nigerian Dwarf goats at the time of construction and now have Mini-Nubians. Both breeds have been well sized for these shelters, but capacity is less for the larger breed.
We typically have 2-3 goats in the pen with the smaller shelter (often the two males or a few babies being weaned) and 3-4 in the larger shelter pen (or two nannies with their babies).
The Roof
For the roof, we also covered the rafters with a layer of wood before adding some scrap corugated sheet metal that we found laying under some pine trees on our land. (The previous owner left us many “treasures” and junk to clean up.)
We made the decision to leave the wood raw and did not paint or seal it. We know it will decay over time, but we liked the look of them the way they were and we have very little in them. Like I said earlier, these were meant originally to be a more “temporary” option. After 5 years they are still in very good condition.
Climate
We live in Iowa where the temperatures are consistently below freezing, and often drop below zero in the mid-winter months.
Since the bottoms of the shelters are open to the ground, we fill them with a nice hefty layer of bedding (hay or straw) in the coldest months. We also have our holding pens in a well sheltered area between a machine shed, a hill, and layers of evergreen trees for protection from wind.
Future Ambitions for Goat Shelters
While the dream would be to have a barn with indoor space for our goats, especially during the winter months, these shelters have served us well.
Note: We do bring the nannies into kidding pens inside the machine shed shortly before their due dates. The new kids are given heat lamps and extra protection in the shed for several weeks before we put them outside in these shelters.
Leave a Reply