# Ok all you mini breeders I need your help!



## sixshooterfarm (Oct 18, 2007)

Ok so here is my problem. I have a herd of about 35 goats. some bucks some babies and some adult does. Now we have a bigger barn for the girls...let me rephrase that, we have a shelter for the girls, it is a 8x8 littl wooden barn, they all fit in there really nice until we get some more buildings built. Here is my problem. ALL the shelters that I have for these animals are all nasty, and soupy mud mess!! I dont know what to do, my poor bucks were just covered in mud! I cant stand to see them this way. SO everyone, please show me the barn set ups that you guys have, and what kind of flooring. also who does free choice hay and who feeds "meals"? How much hay do you go through and how many goats do you have?


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

I just posted some photos in another thread but here are some more...




























I just have a dirt floor, but I have "built it up" so to speak, by adding some dirt to the low spots inside of the barn..
When we move we might buy my grandparents house which has a 150 by 90 horse barn. I (and my goaties) whould be in HEAVEN!!! Oh and my barn is 24 by 14 which houses my bucks and does.


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

Some outside photos...










This is the back of our barn...


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## sixshooterfarm (Oct 18, 2007)

Oh wow I wish I had that!!!! How much did it cost you guys to build??


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

I don't know, i would say 2,500 - 3,000 but you could probably build it cheaper.


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## sixshooterfarm (Oct 18, 2007)

Where did you get the money for that???? Geeez if I had that kind of money you better beleive I would have a barn like that lol!!


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

Well, my shelter is no where that nice - but I do feed free choice. I have 2 bucks, 4 wethers, 5 does ( 1 confirmed prego) and 5 day old doeling - and 2 llamas. 

I feed Orchard grass free choice (crappy hay - but they munch on it all day) and then at night I mix alfalfa grass hay with orchard grass. They do waste a bit of the orchard grass, but I am ok with that because it is not the best, and they use the excess as bedding.

Also I gove bread and a grain mix at night. Oh and hubby will get green limbs that have fallen when he is out getting wood and we give them that also for treats all the time.

Hope that helps.

There was a REAL nice feeder that someone had posted a couple weeks ago that her brother (I think it was) built her, and I have asked my hubby to build me one like that!!! So we will see!


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## HollowbeadRanch (Oct 5, 2007)

We have about 40 head of minis. We have a barn that I keep Does fixing to kid, Does with kids, and weanlings in and then we have shelters in every pasture. I feed one round roll of Bermuda hay to my goats in the pasture about once a month. We tear the first layer and roll it out flat, so that 1)they all can get to the hay to eat 2)they don't have to reach up to eat it (which I have heard can cause pink eye) and 3)they clean it up alot better that way as compared to leaving it round. We also keep about 600 square (mind you we use some of that for horses also and always have plenty left over but we would rather have plenty left than run short during the winter) bales of Bermuda that we keep in the barn that I use to feed anything I have put up in the barn. I feed the ones in the barn as much as they will eat without waisting it. We have two completely inclosed stalls in the barn which I use for Does on the verge of kidding, and we have 3 stalls that have lots attached to them that I use for Does with kids and weanlings. Each of those stalls can also be closed to that the goats cannot go outside of the stall if desired.

I hope this helps!! As for a feeder... this is an old pic of the one I use. My Hubby is a welder so he built this for me. When we switched to the minis we shortened the legs.


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## Sweet Gum Minis (Oct 6, 2007)

Ok, we have 18 does at this point in time and here's our doe barn...


















Inside...









We are finishing it. It started out as a 10x20 building. Now its 20x20 with the center part being my feed area and kidding stalls. We're going to be building another 10x20 lean-to off the other side very soon and a milk parlor off the back. So the main barn will be 20x30 and the milk parlor off the back. We'll be using the opposite side for stalls and kidding pens.

Here's the barn in the snow not too long ago...


















We are on a dry lot right now. Another project in the immediate plans is more fence run. After the goats are moved off this top pasture we will be seeding it while the goats eat the brush elsewhere.


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