# New Shelter vs. Barn addition?



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Alright guys n gals...

We've been debating for weeks on what to do. Originally I wanted to tear down a cattle panel shelter we have that has deteriorated badly this year due to crazy wet weather. I wanted to build a shedrow type shelter for the does in it's place. But what I want, and making it happen are two things as time is not on our side, and neither is the energy to get it done. Plus... I've had an issue with my arm that prevents me from doing a lot of physical work right now. 
Kidding season starts in 6 1/2 weeks.
I need stall space. We have 3 permanent stalls, and 1 side of the barn we can use as another. So I need 2 more stalls.
I originally wanted to put them in a new shelter.

BUT... what if we just revamp the cattle panel shelter and just build onto the front of the barn? Then in the spring or summer we can build a new shelter where the cattle panel shelter is at.

I'd love your opinions...

Old pic (view from my dinning room window!) Cattle Panel shelter is something like... 10-12' wide x 17-19' long. Sides are now completely rotted, but front/back are good - would have lasted had we painted it!!









However... we wouldn't be able to bring the front out past the fence due to the septic system layout. I want to say that would only give us about roughly 6-8' front current front to fence line.

Then figuring out the inside layout would be the issue. The only thing I could think of is cutting out the inside left wall and opening that left side up with the middle section of the barn - putting supports, and making some stalls.

Again old pic - I'm talking about opening up this wall where the halters are hung up. There are 3 stalls there - back door has been permanently closed off. 









This is what the frame looks like... we built this in 2010 









Years ago when we built onto the side. It's not wide enough to make 2-3 stalls in without tearing out that inner wall...

Quick idea in the pic below lol.

Ideally either way when we replace/rebuild the cattle panel shelter I want to move it about 5' over to the left away from the barn and may still make the new one run parallel to the fence, and put gravel in the entire area...
Because I'd wanted a couple of run out pens from stalls for moms/babies and for show goats. But with the picture below and revamping some other things I bet I can make it work... (sorry so confusing).

Anyway, I know you guys know the frustration of figuring things out. Unfortunately this is the only location we can build as our place is small, we have a creek that runs through it, so this is the only place we can do it.

So... new shelter, or would you just build on to the barn and worry about a new shelter as time/$$/my ability to help allows? Easiest route....


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If time and physical problems aren't on your side, I would add on for now. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

I understand. I just finished extending my birthing barn. It looks awful right now. I cover my wood panels with barn metal. So now old part is painted. New part is not. Can we say ugly? Right now..paint wont stick..its too cold. So come spring I can paint it. 
I work ..when I come home I gave 2 hours a night to building. It took 2 weeks. But it is now the size I need. So excuse the outward ugly appearance. 
But I just love the new size
































These pics are without the new floor...


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Very nice Moers Kinko Boers! Good way to reuse the wood and metal! We used OSB for the siding on our barn and the cattle panel shelter. For the most part it's held up very well, the barn just needs new paint. Sadly the side on the right - we never painted that OSB so now we have to replace it! I told my husband that would happen but he doesn't listen to me - same thing with the cattle panel shelter. If we'd have painted it, then it wouldn't be in such bad shape and be an eye sore.

For the new doe shelter, I wanted to build something like this parallel with the fence (the overhang posts would replace fence posts), but I'd want some kind of wall on the outside of the overhang to keep rain/snow from blowing in. It would be bigger/longer than the one in the pic and made a little differently definitely wouldn't be beautiful material, we're too poor for that lol










The more I think about it the more I think we should add on for now. We really need more space. Right now that front right part we just keep square or round bale of alfalfa in there, and buckets with grain (we keep grain in trashcans in the shed next to the house). But round bales my husband has to tear them open in order to get them in! So opening things up with bigger doors would be awesome. Plus the goat stand is in the trailer - no other place to put it and no place to work the goats if it's raining, especially in the summer when prepping for shows.

Look how awful the cattle panel shelter looks in this current pic background  The weather did it no good just in the past year.
We bought gravel to put down around the barn, but because the ground is soft this was as close as the truck could get. My husband had to replace one of the barn doors. We keep a round bale of hay in that ugly tarped cattle panel thing on the right, works great, makes it easy to pull for hay feeders or bedding. You can kind of see the tall Buck pen shelter we've been building behind the barn. Just need to get more pallets so we can pull boards to fill in the holes.









Putting this over the gravel and in some other areas


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Add on.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thought I'd update. So we haven't started on the barn addition yet, but we decided to go through with my idea on making 3 kidding stalls on the left side of the barn. I want some kind of stall walls we can remove or put back as needed when we want to open the area back up. I've gotten lots of ideas for that.

This was yesterday as it's rainy and nasty today and no time to work on it.
Oh yeah... and then there is gravel!









Hubby cutting stall #1 doorframe in the wall. 









I call him Bob the builder, my son helping cut through pallet wall in the aisleway.






















































We'll frame in the doorways for roof support and put some posts in for the doors. We'll probably make doors very similar to the ones on the other stalls, but since this side will always house goats and we only use stalls during kidding or random times, the doors will get more use here, so they need to be made a bit stronger.

Anyway, thought I'd share an update. I can't wait for this to be done, so we can plan to add on to the front of the barn.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Looks great! Im sure you will ge very happy once its finished. I know your girls will.love it! How exciting..be teady by birthing time????:clever:


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! We should hopefully have the doors for the stalls done this weekend. The stall walls should hopefully not be too hard as we may buy a goat panel from TSC and cut it in half for the divider walls, and use 2x4 and some bolts to help hold them in place, and take them down when we want to open it back up. Someone always sleeps in that section.

When our does are about a week out from kidding, they'll stay in the stalls at night, and out during the day - so they get adjusted to 'their space', I can also watch and observe on camera. I can monitor how much they are eating and drinking too. 
Then after they kid, they get turn out time supervised until I can safely let moms and babies go into the front pen during the day - we had a hawk attempt to take a kid last spring! Plus there have been reports of the black headed buzzards attacking cattle/calves and even adult Boer goats! Crazy! But once we feel the kids are safe, they'll go out during the day and in at night. That's why I need the barn addition! So we can have a more open space for moms and babies to be together as I don't want everyone stuck in stalls every night as kids get older.
Once kids are weaned, mom's will go back to the doe pen, and babies will stay in the same routine - we found last year this made weaning so much easier, and happier babies (that's how they wean them on the horse farms around here why I never thought to do it sooner!).
Then we pull buck kids and put them in a pen behind the barn, and they have the right side of the barn that is nearly the same as the left where we're building stalls, it's just not as wide.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

Very nice! I wish I had two carpenters to help build around here."
Sounds like you've really thought the layout of everything out very well. We have hawks and owls here that have been known to go after kids so in my kid area I put avairy netting that you use to cover gardens up like a ceiling over the small pen so I feel safer when the kids are out playing away from mom. It works really well.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Love it.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Sounds like a great plan! Its always goid to stay one step ahead of all thise lovely goats..:neat:


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thank You! Yes, best to stay one step ahead. With increasing our herd size a bit, and knowing we would, I wish we would have done everything when the weather was nice, and well when we were having a 39 day record breaking drought with no rain! It started raining here yesterday afternoon and hasn't stopped. It's dark and at 4pm, it'll definitely be dark in about an hour, so we won't get anything more done today. Most likely we won't get to do much until my husband is off on Sunday. 
I'm still having wrist/arm issues, so I can't do anything strenuous where I need to put much muscle into it, so there is also that issue. But it's manageable, I just can't do anything like carry a full 2 gallon water bucket, shovel bedding, or lift heavy stuff. It is pretty lousy, but making the best out of it.
All that gravel was put in place by shovel and wheel barrow lol! We're not done, but ran out of gravel. We'll do another 1-2 loads to finish behind the barn, cattle panel shelter and the grassy/low area next to the cattle panel shelter (loafing area when weather is decent - I want to build an outside covered hay feeder later on).



GoofyGoat said:


> Very nice! I wish I had two carpenters to help build around here."
> Sounds like you've really thought the layout of everything out very well. We have hawks and owls here that have been known to go after kids so in my kid area I put avairy netting that you use to cover gardens up like a ceiling over the small pen so I feel safer when the kids are out playing away from mom. It works really well.


We don't have a designated mom and baby turn out area otherwise I'd love to do the netting! Very good idea. After about a week to a week and a half we generally don't have to worry about the babies as much with the birds. But the attacks from the buzzards is bizarre and scary. My friend who works for the state vet office posted about it on FB to warn everyone to be watchful - full size Boer does killed, others seriously injured, it was awful! My son works for a guy who has cattle, and helps with them as needed, and last year the buzzards were after his cows when they were calving. I want to say he told me he lost calves and ran buzzards off another time or two.
Last year we made a makeshift pen in front of the barn for moms and babies with a small strand of wire fence. We may end up doing that again until they can start going into the front & side yard pen. I want to make a fenced walkway going to the front because no way I am trying to herd everyone through the back yard like I did last year lol! babies see the back porch and that's it, there is no hope getting them to the pen after that.

This is part of the front yard pen. We bought that shelter last summer from a neighbor who had to sadly sell his sheep. It won't house all moms and babies, but will help (especially weaning time). I plan on putting a long hay feeder in there that is safe for the babies.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Looks good...


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

The netting works great, I have Nigerians, so it takes them a few months before they're not raptor bait. I had a hawk kill a rooster and carry it off like it was nothing...that's when I started being proactive with my littles when not with moms and the herd. It is scary how aggressive they become when their normal food is limited by drought and other predators looking for meals because small animal populations grow by how much food is available.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

That sounds really nice. Just an idea. U use alot of cattle panels. So easy to put up and work with. But we both know babies can walk thru the openings. So i attach chicken wire when I have kidds. Then just take it off once they grow a little.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

GoofyGoat said:


> The netting works great, I have Nigerians, so it takes them a few months before they're not raptor bait. I had a hawk kill a rooster and carry it off like it was nothing...that's when I started being proactive with my littles when not with moms and the herd. It is scary how aggressive they become when their normal food is limited by drought and other predators looking for meals because small animal populations grow by how much food is available.


I don't blame you at all! Our Boer kids are generally in the 8-10lb. range at birth, with the random smaller kids, and they usually grow fairly well. The does are very protective if they see birds flying overhead, they group together, and make what sounds like barking and growling kind of noises. It's neat, although sometimes it's kind of funny, especially when I see them gathered, staring at the creek - neighbors cat lol. You'd think they'd seen the cat a thousand times and would be used to her. 
We've had goats since 2010, and last year was the first time we had an issue with a bird really trying to get one. we've had them circle and have been alarmed and put kids in the barn, but last year was a close call.



Moers kiko boars said:


> That sounds really nice. Just an idea. U use alot of cattle panels. So easy to put up and work with. But we both know babies can walk thru the openings. So i attach chicken wire when I have kidds. Then just take it off once they grow a little.


Oh yes, cattle panels are not good for kids (IMO of any age because they can get heads stuck as they age). We actually only use the cattle panels in our back yard so the dog has a fenced in area we can put her in if need be. We have a few running along the field fence on the property line in the buck pen because one of the bucks thinks it's entertaining to use his horns and tear holes in the fence. 
The way we did it last year worked out well, with the cattle panel on one side, and some regular old wire fence across the front. I'm planning to go look at some panels tomorrow possibly and see if there are any options with smaller holes. If not, we'll probably just get some t-posts before the girls kid, and use some field fencing and make a turn out pen.


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## JearDOE Ranch (Aug 23, 2018)

As someone who always feels like we're a month behind... do what you can. Wow though! You have gotten a lot done! I'm impressed!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

JearDOE Ranch said:


> As someone who always feels like we're a month behind... do what you can. Wow though! You have gotten a lot done! I'm impressed!


Thanks I appreciate it! I can't wait to get more done. Hopefully we can most of it done on Sunday. We got hay feeders from our neighbor who gave/sold us other stuff, so now we have 3 hay feeders - 1 for each stall, so that saves lots of time figuring out how to make portable hay feeders since we had to tear the big one off the wall.

This is how we have it set up right now. Does can go in/out during the day, and at night we lock 4 yearlings in here, 3 of which are due later in the month.










This side is something like 7x16.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

Wow, I can't believe how nice the Kidding area is getting.thats awesome! I went looking for hay feeders so I wouldn't have to build them and they were about $70. Each...out of my budget so building it is.
With your hand/wrist making things hard to accomplish you've all done great!
With it just being my daughter and myself and her in school full time and me working two jobs finding time is a bugger. And I go on baby watch Feb 12th ...yikes, running out of time


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

GoofyGoat said:


> Wow, I can't believe how nice the Kidding area is getting.thats awesome! I went looking for hay feeders so I wouldn't have to build them and they were about $70. Each...out of my budget so building it is.
> With your hand/wrist making things hard to accomplish you've all done great!
> With it just being my daughter and myself and her in school full time and me working two jobs finding time is a bugger. And I go on baby watch Feb 12th ...yikes, running out of time


Thanks! Yes, this wrist/arm issue drives me crazy. I can do a lot, but nothing that requires putting muscle into it. 
My husband works 6 days a week and after work we only get about 1 to 1 1/2 hours of daylight to work. So we try to do as much as we can when he has a day off - if it's not raining.
My son works and goes to college, and my daughter isn't home much during school - she has after school stuff, 4-H, etc. So I totally understand not having much help. I have the help, they just aren't here very much. First doe is due in 17 days.

I don't know what kind of hay feeders you'll need, but there are lots of ideas out there. In fact, there is one idea I really like using 5 gallon bucket and cutting round holes in it and using them for hay feeders! If you use YouTube, search for Clear Creek Farm Boer goats page and check out his videos. I saw his feeders at a show this summer and they worked great.
We've made them out of pallets too.

This is inside one of the permanent kidding stalls we built years ago. My husband built hay feeders that hold one flake of hay, and they work great. I'd recommend smaller holes though. They work great for our goats and have used them for about 5 years or so. We used to have pallet walls for dividers they worked great! But were harder to clean in between boards, and took up a little extra space. so we opted to redo them when the kids sold their 4-H wethers again about 5 years or so ago.
Those doors... we made those in 2011 lol.
The back stall went all the way across and was a large stall, so we have to put a front on it and a new door and it will be ready.


















I don't have a head count, but we've definitely kidded out well over 100 kids in these stalls over the years. This part of the barn we built in 2010.

When we had pallet walls years ago and the back door (filled in now)









The old pallet stalls - 2014









Before starting this project (the back stall door was plywood and is open so you can't see it - back stall was a creep feeder outside of kidding season or opened up into the back pen for weaning. Now that door is closed off, and we use the back pen for bucks.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

Yep, I LOVE pallets  Built my boys shed out of them and it's working great. Now to build a big barn for everyone and milking and kidding...(hey a girl can dream right LOL)
I'll check out that youtube channel Thanks!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Very nice.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

GoofyGoat said:


> Yep, I LOVE pallets  Built my boys shed out of them and it's working great. Now to build a big barn for everyone and milking and kidding...(hey a girl can dream right LOL)
> I'll check out that youtube channel Thanks!


That's great! I am one of those people that promote using pallets! They are great for building and projects! You could always build a big barn out of them!! If you google Pallet Barn you could probably get some great ideas and tips! I'd totally have done that if I knew we would need a bigger setup. When we built the original part of the barn we figured we'd only have about 4-5 goats at most. That thought didn't last long lol.

I just got home a few minutes ago from picking up some 55 gallon barrels, so I can now have a heating barrel for each stall. Most times I don't even need a heat lamp in them and babies can stay snug and warm in the barrel with bedding. Although some won't sleep in them and I don't plan to kid this many out at one time in the future, so I may have my husband help cut the holes in one of them, and do the other 2 if needed, otherwise we'll use the barrels for other projects - I'm thinking about possibly making hay feeders with them, but we'll see.

I found another picture of our barrels in the old pallet stalls they really did work awesome!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

(thumbup):up:


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Well with rain set in again for the day... I am back to working on the next step of updating our barn to better suit our needs, and realized I never updated with the stalls we built!

The panels we bought from my friend work great. They are firm (not loose chain link). our friend cut the ends so that they would fit for our needs. We put eyehook's in the wall on the side where the doors are at and used 2 headed snaps to snap them in place. The outside wall, my husband put scrap 2x4's on either side, and ran some wire to hold in place so we can remove whenever we want to take them down.

So we turned this: 









Into this:



















Please excuse the hanging placenta (lol) This is the middle stall. 









We used the OSB from the parts of the wall that we cut out, and some 1x4's we had laying around and made stall doors from them lol The hinges and latches were the only thing we had to buy.









NEXT VENTURE...
We are planning to redo the other side of the barn!

So these are our permanent stalls...


















I think we've decided we are going to do the same thing on the other side of the barn as we did with the new stalls we'll move these! - except we'll still have 3 permanent stalls (unless again I can get my husband to buy the panels from my friend!)we'll cut holes in those pallet walls to make doorways, then possibly open the middle of the barn up so it's like this:









And the stalls will be back here:









We'll have to fix this side first. We built that with basically scrap wood in 2011 and slapped some OSB on. We'll try to raise the pitch of the roof, add posts for support, and redo the wall so it's more like the other side of the barn where we just made the removeable stalls.

I'm excited and anxious to get started on this. I don't need stalls so much right now, I actually want to open it up more so our does and babies can start running together and can make it easier for a creep feeder.

Sorry to ramble. Just wanted to share my ideas, and especially if it might help other DIY peeps who don't have a fortune to spend on making a barn.

We will probably do this before we add onto the front of the barn. We're in a very rainy/wet weather pattern so the front of the barn addition will have to wait.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Looks great!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Love it.  :goodjob:


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

New improvements are always exciting! Good luck


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! I'm anxious to get started. I want to open things up so we can put does together and get these little 3 week old munchies a creep feeder lol. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do it. So many scenarios.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

So this is what we did Sunday afternoon. Tore out the back of the middle stall to connect it with the backside of the barn. That pallet wall was built in 2010.



























So now we have the front stall as a creep feeder, and our herd queen is in the back stall. Small holes in back stall and front stall so babies can go in and out.

That old hay feeder tossed on the floor was made from a pallet and scrap wood back in 2012 lol 









It's had some wear for sure (A big project we'll be working on soon is to finally work on that outside wall - it was built out of scrap wood in 2011, we used this side for bucks. We'll raise the roof a bit, put in posts, and replace the OSB on the outside)









My husband repurposed that old hay feeder and some scrap wood lol! This is a temporary hay feeder until we eventually get the wall redone. Does approve and works great so far! We have 3 does staying in here. I only wanted 2, but can't put the 3rd one with anyone else she's a bully.




































I don't really want to do much more with the creep feeder stall. Eventually when these guys are weaned this stall and the back stall will be used for does kidding in May - bucks will go in the area above, and does would go on the other side with the removeable panels.

Slowly coming along. Not sure if we'll work on that outside wall first, or add on to the front part of the barn next.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

Wow! Y'all got a lot done! Looking good


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks! I can't wait to get this project done, but knowing my husband it will take forever lol!!!
We still haven't completely finished the buck shelter and we started it nearly a year ago! It is made out of pallets - big and nice! But need to get pallets to finish filling in gaps, and get it painted. We ran out of pallets for him to take boards off of and he's being picky about what pallets to use so I am afraid I'll bring home the wrong kind. We really need to get on the ball though and get the shelter completed.
Then fencing....need to work on some of the fencing. Never ending projects lol


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

HoosierShadow said:


> Never ending projects lol


Isn't that the truth!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:nod:


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Figure I'd add to this thread...

A video I took of our current setup. I took the panels down that separated the left side, and put up a temporary wall - pallet and piece of cattle panel so the front of that area is a creep feeder.
Today I started tying the creep feeder doors open on both sides of our little barn so the babies can go anywhere they want and they are loving it! 
When I came home this afternoon I went out to peek at them and opened the top part of the barn door, and said 'Where's my babies?' and suddenly nearly all of them came running yelling for me lol 
The babies in the first part of the video can go out through an opening in the back of the stall - any babies resting/sleeping had already played hard


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Very nice! It looks so roomy & clean! You all did a Fantastic job! And the kids have really grown! Looking good!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:inlove:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice job!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thank You! It works out really well right now. I can't wait to do more work and add onto the front of the barn. It would definitely be nice to finally get my goat stand and a few misc. items out of the trailer and store them in the barn. I want to work on making some decent pens in the trailer as well. Nothing fancy, but need something better than what we had been doing. 

Projects are never ending with goats aren't they? Whew. Still need to finish the buck shelter, and that really needs to be the next priority so it's completed.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

It looks great! Do you have wooden floors, or is the hoof sounds babies on the over turned buckets? You have really fixed it up in a workable way for everyone...Nice design work!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

GoofyGoat said:


> It looks great! Do you have wooden floors, or is the hoof sounds babies on the over turned buckets? You have really fixed it up in a workable way for everyone...Nice design work!


Thank You! We actually have stall mats down in the entire barn! We were given the mats from a farm that was replacing all of their stall mats probably 2-3 years ago. 
Some of the sounds could be babies playing on the plastic upside down horse tub feeders too lol

One day we will get things done. It seems like we can't get caught up! I tried today, but didn't happen. Tomorrow is a new day lol.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Well... we're at it again lol! 
Working on the barn little at a time. We just started weaning babies, so hopefully we can work on it a little more. But... we have 2 does due to kid soon.

We want to plan for a better stall setup. I think we'll keep this stall intact and remove/redo that back wall - currently has been used as a creep feeder since we moved the mama out of it.
This will be a stall for the first pregnant doe.









Middle stall opens up into the backside of the barn - was a bigger area for 3 mom's.
I'm thinking that back corner on the right we'll make that into a stall for the 2nd pregnant doe.








It doesn't look longer than the 1st stall, but using my rope it is actually longer. Plus we can just use that stall door which has held back a 300lb.+ buck since 2nd doe due is a door butter.


















Then the rest of it can be for the 4 doe and wether kids that we've just weaned.









My husband started to tear out the back wall on the last stall last night 









My thought is to make 4 stalls...Keep the back stall like it is, and make a removeable wall/panel to divide it and this area into 2 kidding stalls for future:








Then the other 2 stalls I mentioned for the pregnant does....

hard to explain, but OMG you guys, you have no idea how much of a headache I've had trying to figure this out so that it works for kidding season AND weaning/summer show season.

The last picture leads out to a little night time pen that will be for doe kids, and day time pen for moms with new babies.









I can take the panels off of the fenceline to use in the barn - actually these are old sliding stall doors from horse stalls that a friend gave me lol! They are heavy, and strong.

We're tearing out this outside wall and replacing it which is why the hay feeder looks so 'crappy' because my husband put it up temporarily until we could work on the wall. I think we'll start on that project today, replace a little at a time...









So... green rope would mark where I would put 2 stalls...









The other side of the barn is currently set up like this. The large area will be for the 3 buck kids we just weaned.









It leads out to a decent sized pen for 3 kids - goes all the way around the buck pen.


















Anyway... I knew you guys would understand my excitement at hopefully figuring out how to do stalls and barn repairs that will come. We are on a tight budget for this stuff, so it's nice to make little improvements.

I'm planning to get some paint this weekend, and as soon as I get a few dry days I'll start painting the parts of the barn that we're not working on and the buck shelter - well what is finished. Still have one side not completed yet.

It's not much, but... it's ours and fun to have little projects to work on.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

That will be great when you are done!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

:great:


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

I like your ideas! :clever:It is hard to be on a budget,(embarrassed) multi functional, (doh)seasonal, strong and work! Whew!(headsmash) Thats a mouthful and no physical work required!(punch)
Sounds great..cant wait to see what it looks like!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks I appreciate it  It's definitely a lot of work! It looks so much bigger now lol










My husband was digging holes by those existing posts so he could put in new posts next to those to better support the roof - posts are in place, we just need to level them and mix cement to put down in the hole. We ran out of time/daylight. 
So basically I think for now we'll keep those original stalls where they are, and work with them as needed. 
We're going to finish knocking down that pallet on the left (holding up the door right now lol), then probably put a panel up to combine that stall with this green roped area to make a big stall for the 2 pregnant girls, then when the first doe due (5/3) is closer, we'll separate the stalls and the does. For now, they are happier if they can stick together.









Then when we don't need that other stall (where green rope is at) we can remove panel and open it back up. 
The stalls are between 6-7' long and about 5' wide.

I'm excited to get most of this done. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but maybe we can get the door off of that pallet and a post inserted to hang it on so we can get the pregnant girls moved. I've been so stressed about keeping the bucklings with the little girls.


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## lada823 (Apr 2, 2018)

It looks great. Barn improvements are never ending. No matter what you do it will need adjusted in the future. At least that's my experience.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

lada823 said:


> It looks great. Barn improvements are never ending. No matter what you do it will need adjusted in the future. At least that's my experience.


Thanks! I agree, there is always something to upgrade. We built this thing out of pallets and scrap wood back in 2010-2011. We planned to have like...5 goats and that's it. We have 10 does, 2 bucks and 8 babies right now lol! Of course only babies and 2 pregnant mom's are staying in the barn. 
Always needing to adjust things is why I want to switch to using some kind of removeable panels like the ones we currently have outside as a pen (stall doors lol). Over the years we honestly haven't used the stalls much at all outside of kidding season, because of the setup. But opening it up should make it much better and gives me more options. We have lots of stall options that's for sure lol.


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