We build a comfortable house for goats with our own hands. Spacious domestic goat stall Goat stall size

Goats are not demanding animals. They are adapted to any climatic conditions, but in winter they need a closed room.

For wintering goats need a goat's rue

Building Requirements

The goat house can be built based on the needs of the animal. Take into account the number of cattle and their gender differences. Females with children require more personal space per square meter than individuals without children. Humidity in the room should not exceed seventy degrees, and the temperature does not fall below six degrees. In a cold, damp room, the animal is prone to disease.

Build a room higher than two meters.

To make a goat's rue with your own hands, it is important to choose the right place. Elevated terrain is ideal, preventing dampness from melting snow and protected from drafts. The room is prepared from the calculations of dryness and warmth in it.

Next to the goat's rue there is always a pasture intended for grazing animals. The yard is located to the south of the building, bring windows to this side. In the cold season, the illumination of the room is maintained for eight hours.

If the smell of animals and goat milk causes rejection in you, then build a goat house with your own hands, based on the distance between their stalls and your house.

Scheme of the goat's rue and its dimensions

Dampness in the room is avoided if you build a goat's rue on the foundation. Or leave the floor of an earthen consistency, but build a room with a slope for drainage. In the direction of the drain, place a place where it will pour out, and change it in a timely manner.

Lay wooden boards on concrete floors. Cold comes from the concrete, which will harm the animal.

Cover the surface of the floor with straw or hay.

Construction

Build a room, preferably on an earthen floor, or clay concrete, covered with wooden boards. Replace damp boards with new ones in a timely manner. Lay five kilograms of hay or straw on top of the boards. Build goat beds that are located on a hill. Since animals prefer to sleep in such places, and not on the floor.

Choose the material of the walls based on the properties of heat retention. Give preference to wooden material.

Having built the walls of the goat’s house from the boards with your own hands, cover them with warm material and cover them with a second layer of boards. This will keep the heat in the goat house. Place window openings in such a way that goats cannot reach them. Check the walls for cracks, possible drafts.

The best material for goat's rue is wood.

Animals are often susceptible to disease in rooms with loose walls and cold floors. Each individual needs a separate stall. Keeping the animal's personal space reduces the risk of conflict between animals. The amount of milk yield is reduced in tightness. The stall should be two meters long and two meters wide. Make the front door a meter high and fasten it to the hinge. The roof of the stall is either covered with a grate or left free. A wooden bowl is attached to the front side of the stall, where hay is poured. The drinker is placed on another wall.

If feeding is carried out on the site, cover the feeder from precipitation. Raw food goats practically do not eat.

The pasture is selected based on the following requirements:

  1. Only goats are walking on it.
  2. The pasture should be wide enough.
  3. One individual should account for three square meters.
  4. Be sure to fence off meadows using high fences made of non-traumatic material.
  5. Set up pasture on high ground.

Making a room with your own hands is not difficult. It all depends on the climate in your area.

You can build it in the southern part with your own hands from lightweight material, significantly saving on costs.

But you need to make it with your own hands in the northern regions from a durable material that protects against drafts, dampness and keeps warm inside.

Building a goat shed with your own hands is quite simple. For this, it is not necessary to have construction skills. You can easily transform any room. The fact is that goats are very unpretentious animals. Even during the stall period, they can be content with a minimum of amenities. In this article, we will tell you how to properly equip a room for keeping goats.

Building a goat shed begins with choosing a location. Any elevation on your site is suitable for construction. The only condition is that the goat's rue must be located away from sources of pollution, such as drains or cesspools. The fact is that goats are very clean animals, so they can not tolerate the neighborhood with a garbage heap or a country toilet.

Important! The construction of the premises is best planned for mid-spring or early summer. This will give you enough time to build the building for the winter cold.

So, let's look at how best to make a goat shed with your own hands.

materials

It all depends on your financial capabilities and desires. You can use bricks, boards, logs. In other words, any building material that you have or can purchase.

Walls

Goats tolerate frost well, but react poorly to drafts. Therefore, the walls of the goat shed are best made from boards or logs. Wooden walls are easy to caulk and are quite warm. If you decide to use brick for construction, remember that the walls will have to be sheathed with plywood panels from the inside.

doors

Should be wide enough to open outwards. First, it is required by fire safety regulations. Secondly, there will be sawdust, straw and waste products of your wards on the floor if the door opens inwards. This will cause you a lot of inconvenience.

Window

Windows are usually located 1.5 meters from the floor level. Goats are very mobile and active animals, therefore, even standing on their hind legs or jumping up, the goat should not reach the glass.

floors

A prerequisite is the presence of a solid floor. You can pour concrete or mortar, but it is immediately worth noting that these are very cold materials. Therefore, wooden shields will still have to be laid on a concrete base.

Clay floors are categorically not recommended, the fact is that a long stay on a soft surface can provoke diseases of the ligaments and tendons of animals. The best option is a wooden floor, located at an angle. This will allow the urine to drain freely.

Roof

The roof is usually covered with iron or slate. It is necessary to carefully adjust the roofing material so that there are no gaps. It is recommended to equip the goat shed with a gable roof, this will allow precipitation to drain to the ground.

The entrance to the goat house can be made double, that is, to equip a small vestibule. This will provide additional protection against drafts.

In front of the goat house, it is necessary to equip a small area for walking. Even in winter, goats should be outdoors.

Requirements for the premises

When building a room for goats with your own hands, it is necessary to take into account the mandatory requirements:

  • ceiling height should not be lower than 2 meters;
  • area per adult is not less than 4 square meters;
  • temperature regime: +6 degrees in winter and +18 in summer;
  • Be sure to have sawdust on the floor. The bedding layer should be about 40 centimeters;
  • ventilation is required. If it is absent, then it is necessary to regularly ventilate the room;
  • stalls for goats should be equipped away from the place where the females are kept. The fact is that males have a rather specific smell that can be transmitted to milk.

Advice. If you decide to keep two goats in one pen at once, then you need to select animals with a calm character and equal in physical strength.

Equipment layout

If you have already been raising livestock at home, then you will not have problems with the equipment of the premises. It is almost the same for any livestock. For beginners, a few tips on arranging equipment in a goat house should be given.

The stalls in which the goats will be kept should be tall and spacious. The area is approximately 1 by 2 meters. Height - 1.5 meters. Animals should feel spacious. It is not recommended to tie goats during stall keeping.

Feeders and drinkers are equipped directly in front of the stalls. It is recommended to put a wooden fence in front of the feeder, this is done so that the animals do not climb into the feed with their feet. Goats are very clean, even if they trample their own food, they will not eat it.

When arranging the roof, you can equip a small attic. There you can store hay in the winter.

As you can see, building a goat shed with your own hands is quite easy. The main thing is to show a little ingenuity and skill. Remember, just as you take care of your pets, they will thank you for their productivity!

Breeding goats is a difficult, responsible, but very interesting and rewarding activity. Success depends on many factors, including living conditions created for animals that allow them to satisfy the natural needs of the body.

In a properly equipped room, the health of the animal is preserved, the quality and quantity of milk increase, and strong offspring are born.

A well-built goat shed that meets many requirements can be built independently or converted from a suitable utility room.

Scheme of a barn for goats and a hayloft

When planning a barn, you need to consider the following points:

  1. It is necessary to decide how many goats are supposed to be bred, up to what age.
  2. It is better if a separate cage is provided for each animal.
  3. Living a male and female in the same room is not recommended due to the strong specific smell emanating from the goat. The smell is transferred to neighboring animals, food, water and milk.
  4. Requires an isolated stall for kids. In the absence of young animals, the site can be used as an insulator for sick animals.
  5. Organize a place for milking, paddock for walking.
  6. Provide full daylight, it is advisable to plan windows on the south wall of the barn.
  7. Provide ventilation to ventilate the room.

Barn layout example:


A building with an area of ​​35m2 is presented. The dimensions of the cage for a goat are 2.2x2.5 m, for goats - 1.4x2.2 m.

A rational layout allows you to save on heating in the winter. The temperature in the room where the goats are located should not fall below + 7 ... + 8 0С.

In a properly built barn, the temperature at this level will be maintained at the expense of the animals themselves.

Requirements for the premises

Basic requirements for the premises for goats:

  1. Provide air ventilation, absence of drafts.
  2. In winter, the inside of the barn should be warm enough and not too damp, and in summer it should be cool. It is normal if the humidity in the barn does not exceed 80%. Dry air produces more dust, which carries bacteria and germs. This leads to the development of respiratory and pulmonary diseases in animals.
  3. Provide natural or artificial light to the goat house. In summer, enough light enters through the windows, in winter it is illuminated with electricity for 8 hours.
  4. Equip feeding facilities: nursery - for bulk food, hay, feeders - for concentrates and root crops. Provide water supply to each stall, install drinkers. The dishes are washed daily.
  5. Make special platforms for sleeping. "Sunbeds" are made 55 cm wide, installed at a height of 0.5 m from the floor. Goats that sleep on such structures are less likely to suffer from respiratory diseases.
  6. Make the height of the fences separating the stalls at least 1.5 m. Goats jump well.
  7. Walls must be disinfected periodically. They are coated with quicklime diluted in a certain amount of water (1 kg per 10 liters).

Next to the barn, it is necessary to equip a paddock - a place for walking animals. At a temperature of +12 0C and above, goats can feed in a paddock, in cooler weather - in a barn.

Before the onset of cold weather, cracks are closed in the barn, windows are closed, doors are insulated.

Dimensions

The following factors influence the area of ​​the goat's rue:

  • the number of animals;
  • breeding purpose.

Separate areas should be provided for different purposes:

  • periodic maintenance of young animals;
  • milking;
  • cases of animals.

The width of the passages is 0.8 m. The tightness negatively affects the milk yield, therefore 2 individuals cannot be kept in a cage whose dimensions are less than 2x2 m.

It is recommended to have not one, but two goats-producers. This guarantees the insemination of goats and the production of offspring. Males peacefully contact each other in the absence of females nearby. For 2 individuals, a cage is required 1.5-2 times larger.

For the joint maintenance of a goat with kids (after birth for several months), a stall with a larger area will be required - at least 2.5 m2.

materials


For the floor use:

  • metal sheets, roofing felt, flat slate;
  • wooden removable shields.

For the construction of walls are suitable:

  • foam concrete blocks;
  • lumber;
  • brick.

The roof should not leak; slate is used in its construction.

Materials are selected depending on the weather conditions of the region. In regions with a mild climate, goats, even in winter, feel good under a canopy or in light buildings. In the northern part of the Russian Federation, a capital building on a concrete foundation is required.

The structure for goats must meet the main requirement - to prevent the appearance of drafts.

What should be the floors in the goat shed?

In order to avoid the development of mastitis in goats, the floor at sub-zero temperatures must retain and transfer heat. A quickly drying, constantly wet floor contributes to rotting of the hooves.

Ensure the flow of urine - a task that is solved at the stage of floor construction.

Two options are possible:

  1. Make a floor with a slope towards the gutter (2 cm per meter).
  2. To build a lattice cover (for example, in the form of wooden removable shields), which rises 30-40 cm above the earthen or adobe surface, and specially equip a chute that accelerates the flow of liquid into the container.

The barn is cleaned several times a day. The container for collecting urine is released and washed. The slatted floor allows you to save on bedding, it is added rarely and in small volumes.

Plank or cement floors are considered not the best choice:

  • plank flooring provides warmth, but this material quickly rots, as a result, cracks appear in which hooves get stuck;
  • cement floor - cold, damp, thorough insulation with bedding is required.

The floor, lined with sheets of iron, roofing material, slate, on three sides is trying to be shaped like a trough so that urine flows in one direction.

Keeping goats on deep litter


Components used in the formation of the litter:

  • dry straw and leaves;
  • peat;
  • sawdust.

Really helps to keep the room warm, many goat breeders have opted for this option.

The bedding consists of several layers:

  • first, peat is applied, which absorbs moisture well, or fern, which has a bactericidal effect;
  • then distribute the straw or sawdust.

Straw is added as needed, twice a week is enough in a warm barn.
During the winter, the thickness of the litter reaches 70-80 cm. If the barn has an earthen floor, then it can be deepened by 30-40 cm.

How big is a cage for one goat?

The size of the cage depends on the age of the goat and the presence of kids living nearby or in the neighboring stall:

  • the minimum area for one adult female is 1.5 m2;
  • the goat will need a little more - 2 m2;
  • kid from 6 months to 1 year - 1 m2;

In a room where 1-2 individuals live, it makes no sense to specially equip ventilation. The presence of a window on the wall will ensure sufficient air circulation.

stall design

The cage should include:

  • bed for sleeping;
  • everything necessary for the supply of food and water;
  • natural lighting, the window cannot be cut down above the sunbed;
  • a place (corner) to empty (goats don't do it where they eat).

Goats, if they are peaceful, can be kept in a group. The goat is always kept in a separate room. In the goat's cage, walls and high partitions are built from thick boards, carefully treated with resin.

The cracks are caulked. To remove a specific smell, ventilation is installed.


The best option is for each animal to have its own cage. If this is not possible, you need to protect a separate area for each goat.

Installation of nurseries and feeders

Each feeding stall must have:

  • a manger for hay;
  • feeders for feeding mash, concentrates, root crops.

The manger is built in the form of a lattice of slatted lumber or metal bars. The dimensions of the gaps in the grate are made within 15x15 - 10x10 cm, so that the animals can freely get tufts of hay. If the goats live in the same room, they build a long nursery.

Traps specially attached under the manger allow to reduce hay losses. The goat, pulling dry grass, drops part of it. If there are traps, hay falls into them. Here the food will not be trampled by hooves and will remain in a form suitable for consumption, the goat will finish it later.

To serve the mixer, small food, use any dishes, except for galvanized iron (zinc enters the body and destroys it). The dishes are placed on a special stand so that it is convenient for the animal to take food.

The goat's dishes left on the floor are turned over, the contents are under the hooves.


Drinking bowls, feeding stands, hay mangers are located nearby. It is necessary to ensure that the drinker is not empty. Food utensils are cleaned daily.

Organization of a paddock for walking

The paddock for walking is equipped next to the barn, from the side of the entrance. The size of the corral depends on the number of individuals, one accounts for at least 3-4 square meters.

The site is surrounded by a 130–150 cm high fence.

The fence is built from different materials:

  • boards;
  • wire.

In private households, wooden fencing is more often used. For farmers, it is more suitable, which is offered in mobile and stationary versions.

You can do it yourself if you wish. Goats in a week get used to the wire with electric current, do not approach it. Does not harm animals.

For convenience, wide gates are made, and a latch is used as a lock.

In the paddock, it is necessary to equip a nursery with canopies to protect the feed from precipitation. Hay is laid in them from the side of the street.

Lighting and ventilation

The room must have a source of natural light.

When organizing windows:

  • choose the south side of the building;
  • located at a height of 1.5 m from the floor;
  • take into account the optimal ratio of window area to room area - 1:15.

For example, in a 20 m2 goat house, windows with a total area of ​​1.5 m2 are cut through. In small sheds, a window is made in the door. In the barn, where it is planned to keep more than two goats, a special supply and exhaust ventilation should be equipped.

The simplest construction is the following:

  • a pipe is taken out of the barn roof;
  • install control valves on the pipe;
  • at a height of 0.3 m from the floor, a pair of holes is made.

A visor is attached to the upper edge of the pipe, which prevents the penetration of rain and snow. To reduce the outflow of warm air, in the cold season, the hole in the pipe is covered with dampers.

Conclusion

Breeding goats involves the arrangement of a special room. Before constructing a building, it is necessary to consider many issues related to the maintenance of animals.

A goat is a fairly stable and non-capricious animal, but it is important for it to provide conditions for sleeping, walking, and eating.

Small dairy cattle spend most of the warm period grazing, but in winter there is a need for a comfortable room. You can build a goat shed with your own hands, this is a simple process. For self-construction of a goat's rue, it is enough to stock up on the necessary material and consistently carry out all stages of construction.

Basic requirements for the premises

Before you start building a barn, carefully consider all the details that will contribute to the comfort of the animals and make it easier for the breeder to care for them. A do-it-yourself goat shed should have the following characteristics:

  1. Temperature. With any negative indicators in the barn, the thermometer should not fall below 5 ° - this is the minimum indicator, it is best if it is around 10 °. During the summer heat, the temperature should not be higher than 18 °.
  2. Humidity. Goats do not like dampness, so the humidity should not exceed 75%. The floor should also not be wet, this condition is ensured by regular cleaning in the summer.
  3. Ventilation. Particular attention must be paid to air circulation. This type of livestock loves ventilated rooms, but at the same time there should be no draft in them.
  4. Space. The area of ​​​​the barn depends on the number of livestock, goats love space, because they are distinguished by mobility. If in the future it is planned to increase the herd, then this fact must be taken into account. The ceiling is made not lower than 2 m and not higher than 2.5 meters. A female with offspring should account for 2.5 m 2, for one adult goat - 1.5 m 2, for each head of young animals - 0.8 m 2.
  5. Place for youngsters. Kids should be kept separately, special stalls are equipped for them.
  6. Lighting. The entire light period in the barn should be light enough, this is especially important for the normal development of young animals.

Compliance with all these conditions will contribute to the maximum profitability of goat breeding. With the proper level of comfort, milk yield and the number of offspring increase.

Stages of building a barn

The goat house is being built quite quickly. The whole process can be divided into several stages, the sequential implementation of which guarantees a positive result.

Choice of materials and place for construction

It is best to build a goat house in an elevated and dry place, this will ensure that there is no dampness in the room. When placing a barn, an exit to an open pen should be arranged so that the animals can walk on warm autumn and winter days. It should be located on the south side, the windows and facade should also face south.

It is not worth saving in the matter of choosing a material, especially since the goat's rue will not require a large consumption of them. When building a goat shed with your own hands, it is best to:

  • adobe;
  • wood;
  • brick;
  • clay components.

Despite such a wide list, wood is best suited, brick will not provide proper heat and dryness.

Foundation

Pay special attention to laying the foundation. Here, the main criterion is solidity, a reliable high base of the barn will ensure the dryness of the room in all weather conditions.

On a goat barn, a support-columnar foundation is usually laid. Its construction takes place in several stages:

  1. Markup. A place is planned corresponding to the area and size of the goat's rue.
  2. Removal of the top layer of the earth.
  3. Recesses for supports. The support pillars are made square 40:40 cm, deepening them by 20 cm. The distance between them is from 1.5 to 2 m.
  4. Pillow tab. The place for each support is covered with a layer of sand and gravel, the total height of the two layers should be about 20 cm. Each layer is carefully rammed.
  5. Laying out pillars. Concrete is poured over each pillow, on which foundation blocks are laid in two layers (in the absence of such, you can use red brick). Details of pillars-supports are fastened with cement mortar.
  6. Plastering of supports and processing them with bituminous waterproofing.

The higher the foundation is laid, the greater will be the distance between the floor of the goat’s rue and the ground level.

This type of foundation is suitable for the construction of a wooden shed, a brick will require laying a strip base with a recess of at least 50 cm into the ground. This is due to the severity of the building material.

Walls

The thermal insulation of the room depends on the quality of the walls; for a goat’s rue, it is best to make them from a thick wooden beam. For maximum insulation, the barn is sheathed with internal walls at a distance of about 15 cm from the main ones. This gap is filled with insulation, which is suitable for:

  • sand;
  • expanded clay.

Brick walls provide less thermal insulation than wood. In addition, they can get damp, so they need to be sheathed with plywood on the inside. Outside, to protect against dampness, the barn is upholstered with tarpaulin or roofing felt. If the walls are log, then the cracks are sure to caulk.

At the same stage, window and door openings are laid. The windows are made square, with a minimum height of 1.5 m from the floor, so that the goats cannot break the glass in the frames. It is desirable to make them openable. At the same time, for every 20 m 2 of the floor there should be 1 m 2 of windows. Doors are laid with a threshold no more than 15-17 cm high.

Roof

To ensure dryness in the goat's rue, a gable roof is covered. It is best to cover it with slate or iron, carefully fitting sheets of roofing material to each other. The absence of gaps in the roof is the main requirement for its manufacture.

It is also desirable to equip the corral in front of the barn with a canopy. This will protect animals when walking outdoors from rain and baking rays of the sun.

floors

Usually, a wooden floor is laid in the goat's house, although concrete or clay is quite acceptable. By winter, it can be insulated with straw, sawdust or uneaten hay.

To drain the liquid, a slope is made (about 2 cm per meter). Along two opposite walls along the slope of the floor, gutters are made to drain liquid manure. It is desirable that its collection is located as far as possible from the walls of the barn.

The step by step layout of the floor is as follows:

  • lags are installed;
  • windproof insulation is laid (this material is fixed with boards),
    insulation is laid between the lags;
  • boards are built up on the logs (section 50:150);
  • waterproof plywood is sewn onto the extended boards.

This option of the floor will be ideal for the goat's rue in terms of dryness and warmth.

Internal finishing works

Depending on the material chosen for the walls, the type of finishing work is selected.

Double wooden walls do not require additional interior decoration. It is enough to insulate them in time before winter.

If the goat house is built of brick, then the walls are sheathed with waterproof plywood from the inside. This measure will keep warm and protect the room from dampness.

At the same stage, doors are inserted into the openings. Fire safety requires them to open outwards. It is also important to consider the need for their warming for the winter.

The ceiling of the room should not let air through, so it is coated with clay and, if possible, covered with moss.

The room is whitewashed, for this one part of quicklime is dissolved in 5 parts of water.

Stall

Goats do not like to restrict themselves in movement, so it is necessary to equip the goat house with separate stalls in which animals will be kept without a leash. The size of such "apartments" should ideally be approximately 2: 1.7 m.

The front wall of the stall is its own door. Its height is 1.2 meters. A feeder can be attached to the door to distribute feed without breaking into the stall.

For queens with kids, the stall area is made a little larger, 1.2 m 2 - during lambing in spring, 2 m 2 - in winter. Males must be isolated from the herd with a high partition. The area for it is made at least 2 m 2.

Young animals require less space. Young females will feel comfortable in an area up to 0.8 m 2. Males up to a year are given about 1 m 2 of the room.

Shelves

Goats love to sleep on dry, elevated wooden decks. Such shelves are nailed to the walls at a height of about half a meter. They can be assembled from boards with your own hands. They can be insulated for the winter.

The width of such a bed for goats is 60 cm, the length is at least 80 cm per animal. This area will provide comfort and reduce the likelihood of injury.

Lighting

Lighting can be divided into 2 types: artificial and natural.

A short daylight hours must be additionally illuminated by electricity. At the same time, the light bulb is hung under the very ceiling so that jumping goats do not break it.

In summer, there is enough natural light. For this, sufficiently wide windows are made under the ceiling. The total area of ​​the windows should be in proportion to the floor area of ​​1:20.

Ventilation

For air circulation, the goat shed is equipped with supply and exhaust pipes. It is quite easy to do it yourself. To do this, you need 2 pipes with a diameter of 140 mm. This stage is carried out when laying the roof. The first pipe (inlet) descends from the roof, which ends just above the floor (about 20 cm), while there should not be a strong elevation above the roof. The second pipe (exhaust) is installed almost at the ceiling 5-10 cm from it, while its outer part is located as high as possible. Such a ventilation device is the simplest.

With a large area, the barn is equipped with supply and exhaust electrical installations. In the most affordable version, they are two air ducts with fans of different directions.

Heating

In a temperate climate, the goat's rue does not need additional heating, provided that the walls and doors are properly insulated during its construction. For harsh climatic conditions, it is worth considering a way to warm up the room.

Stove heating is not suitable for goat's rue for fire safety reasons. The exception is steam heating if the water heating stove is located in an additional stone outbuilding.

It is ideal to heat the goat's rue with gas. But bringing such heating is not cheap.

If you carefully think through all the stages of building a goat's rue with your own hands, there should be no difficulties. Basically, this room is not much different from the construction of similar structures. For successful work, it is desirable to draw up a plan and make a calculation of materials and the necessary fasteners.

Goats, as in nature, like to live in small herds, at least from two or three animals. At the same time, they observe a clear behavioral hierarchy, so goats in small numbers can be kept in one barn without partitions. However, one partition across the room should still be made - at normal times, there will be a main corral behind the partition, and besides, the animals will not be able to interfere with you when cleaning or feeding.

In winter and spring, the partition will divide the barn into two pens - there will be small kids in the inner one, and adults should be tied behind the partition if you don’t want the kids to suck out milk when it’s time for them to switch to an adult way of eating.

The door to the barn should be located as far as possible from the immediate habitat of the animals. The maintenance of one or two goats does not require much space - the barn does not have to be large and high, and in this case they often use the premises that already exist, adapting them for animals. However, if you plan to keep more than two individuals, then it is best to build a separate barn according to all the rules of goat breeding.

How to build a goat shed with your own hands - strictly according to Feng Shui!

When it comes to keeping a goat population of more than 3-4 individuals, it is best to build a separate room in compliance with all the rules. As with any construction of this kind, you need to start with choosing the right place, taking into account not only the size of the barn itself, but also the place for walking the goats in autumn and winter. Walking goats in the fresh air should be at least 3-4 hours a day in normal weather and 1-2 hours in frost - animals will get sick less and give more milk.

The site is best designed so that it is located on the south side, respectively, and the doors will also be from the south. You can build a room from a variety of materials, ranging from wooden boards to bricks - it all depends on the availability of certain options. The main thing is that the temperature in the room does not fall below +6 ° C in winter, and in summer it does not exceed, if possible, +20 ° C at night, since goats should be outside during the day at this time of the year. If you live in a cold region, where the temperature is much lower in winter, it is extremely necessary at least with sawdust, and even better, equip a brick stove inside. For one individual, 1.5-2 m 2 should be allocated.

A barn needs to be built with a height of no more than 2.5 meters - in a low barn it will be much more difficult to provide the necessary one, and in a higher one it is much more difficult to maintain heat in the winter. Having at least a small attic is welcome - there you can store material for bedding or feed. A barn without an attic will have to be additionally insulated from the side of the roof.

Hard floors and sleeping shelves - what do goats love?

Particular attention should be paid to the floor - a soft earthen base is excluded, something solid is needed, at best a wooden floor, at worst - concrete. It must be remembered that the wild ancestors of goats jumped over the mountains, and the structure of their body is not intended for soft coverings, moreover, they negatively affect their tendons. With a wooden floor, it will be easier for you to clean the barn yourself, because it is warm and does not require a lot of bedding. The concrete floor should be covered with a large amount of hay or sawdust. The minus of a wooden floor is its fragility, while the concrete floor is colder, but you can combine the pluses and lay wooden shields on the concrete floor.

In any case, do not forget that the floor must be sloped, and it is important to provide drains for liquid waste around the perimeter. Drains should be removed as far as possible from the barn. Make the doors to the barn convenient for you so that you can easily go inside with a bunch of hay. It is very important to make the doors open outward - in case of a fire or other dangerous situation, the animals will not be able to block their exit.

Goats sleep lying down, only they will be uncomfortable on the floor, and the wool will be dirty and untidy in this case. But they very easily adapt to sleep on dry wooden shelves, which you can arrange along the walls of the barn at a height of about half a meter. Windows should be located on the south side, at such a height that animals cannot break the glass. Equip the feeders so that you do not have to go into the corral. The fence around the patio for walking should be made at least 1.5 meters. In the yard, you can also equip feeders protected from precipitation.

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