# goat shelter ideas...?



## goat luver 101 (Jul 19, 2011)

My new herd sire is arriving very soon, and the buck pen is finished except for a shelter!! There is no shade in the pasture so they really need something...it needs to be big enough for a large whether and a large buck...I don't want to go out and spend a ton of money...does anybody have any ideas of a quick and easy shelter I could make???
Thanks!!
And just for fun this is a pic of Merlin, my new herdsire, as a kid


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Arch one or two cattle panels over and stake them down with T-posts..add a tarp. cost effective and movable : ) if you do two front to back it makes it plenty deep to get out of the weather and have a hay basket and feeder under it incase of rain..


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## goat luver 101 (Jul 19, 2011)

happybleats said:


> Arch one or two cattle panels over and stake them down with T-posts..add a tarp. cost effective and movable : ) if you do two front to back it makes it plenty deep to get out of the weather and have a hay basket and feeder under it incase of rain..


That's a really good idea!! I think I'll do that, thanks for the help


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I have done the beef panel idea, it works good. If you ever move it be careful those things are spring loaded lol. They have what I think is called dome houses, Its basically the same idea as the beef panel but you use pvc pipe. My wood houses are ready to kick the bucket so Im going to give that a try, but beef panels are also $26 here, and I dont see pvc pipe being any where near that.


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

happybleats said:


> Arch one or two cattle panels over and stake them down with T-posts..add a tarp. cost effective and movable : ) if you do two front to back it makes it plenty deep to get out of the weather and have a hay basket and feeder under it incase of rain..


My original shelter was one of those, worked GREAT except that one of my does was REALLLLLY athletic and figured out a way to climb on top and wrecked the tarp, lol. But for less athletic goats they work great, IMO. Just replace the tarp when it gets ratty and you are good to go.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

goat luver 101 said:


> That's a really good idea!! I think I'll do that, thanks for the help


Make sure you either have a LOT of support under it, or you position it so they can't climb it. I used one of these shelters when I first got my goats and if they weren't climbing it, they were sleeping on it. It ended up looking like a roller coaster out of some demented carnival!


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## goat luver 101 (Jul 19, 2011)

GoatCrazy said:


> Make sure you either have a LOT of support under it, or you position it so they can't climb it. I used one of these shelters when I first got my goats and if they weren't climbing it, they were sleeping on it. It ended up looking like a roller coaster out of some demented carnival!


Lol...these goats aren't much for climbing, but I'm going to try and position it in a corner so they can't get up either side.


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## goatylisa (Dec 29, 2012)

We have two that are going to be taken down soon. They look just like GoatCrazy's.. demented carnival ride, plus add the creepy, shredded camouflage tarp and it's just scary!


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## Brink4 (Apr 29, 2013)

I have seen people use the big old metal culverts that have been cut in half. you can usually get them from a state or any road work crew. May just have to ask around in your area.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

IMO I'd be leary about having the tarp down to the ground. Every tarp we've used on a shelter similar has been shredded by wethers/bucks.

Instead, I'd do something like this:









You can use pallets instead of the wood they are using. pallets are 'free'.
When using pallets, you just have to make sure you keep them up off the ground so they don't get wet all the time & rot.
My husband took some seasoned tree trunks <not too wide>, cut them into pieces, buried part of it in the ground and nailed the pallets onto the part sticking out of the ground.

This:


















You can put a post on each of the ends to help keep them steady, you can also frame it in on the front & back, especially if you get a lot of wintery/stormy/wet weather.
You can put OSB on the outside of the walls to keep the wind/weather out.
Or, just build the entire thing out of pallets, run a few 2x4's across the top to make a roof frame, and put some tin metal over it.

We are getting ready to build a shelter too. Actually we need 2 shelters. We'll be separating our buck in the next couple of months or so, and need a better shelter in the pen for him. We used pallets like in the pics above, then put some old plywood over the top and covered it with tarps. But again, the wethers wrecked havoc on the tarps and shredded them.

We 'might' make a cattle panel type shelter doing the instructions I gave above. But I won't have tarp down where goats can reach them anymore. Silly brats love to get into trouble lol


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Here's another one, this is similar to the one we have in the back pen.










You can put OSB on the sides, and metal roofing over the top, then you wouldn't have to worry about tarp.

BUT, I'd make it tall enough so no one can get hurt on tin metal.


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## NubianFan (Jun 3, 2013)

HoosierShadow! That is a great idea! you have inspired me!


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

We have a pallet shelter like that for the boys but we have concrete blocks we set it on to keep it off the ground. The top is old plywood with a cut up pool bottom on top, then covered with a tarp over the roof and three sidesfor now. Eventually I want to put a real roof/walls on it but for now it works!


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## enchantedgoats (Jun 2, 2013)

Brink4 said:


> I have seen people use the big old metal culverts that have been cut in half. you can usually get them from a state or any road work crew. May just have to ask around in your area.


 i like that idea and they would be more durable than a tarp!!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Also if you know someone you can get used billboard signs from! I'm telling you those things are AWESOME. I have a friend that got me one, we put folded it and put it on our trailer since it's open top. Works great! They are heavy and don't flap in the wind.

If you could get one of those and cut it down, then put grommets in it, then one canvas billboard sign could make the roof for a few small shelters <just use plywood or osb underneath>.

I need to see if I can get another one from my friend. We may stick with using round bales of hay and instead of going through a lot of work trying to get them into our barn <we have to break them down to get them through the doorway>, I may talk my husband into making something like a cattle panel shelter to put the roll bales in, but it may not happen any time soon. We have too many other things we have to do first. 
I wish we could just snap our fingers and make each project get done in one day lol


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