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Goat Tractor Shelter they wont kill in 5 minutes

Posts: 37

Location: SE Missouri, Zone 7a

posted 12 years ago

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So, the electric fencing worked out great and my two goats are now being moved around every other day to new brush. BUT they need a shelter in case it rains during the day or they are not close enough to a tree to have some shade. They go in the barn at night.
I have tried a couple of shelters but they generally try to stand on it and eat it within 5 minutes. Any ideas for a light, portable shelter that they wont destroy??
Thanks!

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R Scott

pollinator

Posts: 4009

Location: Kansas Zone 6a

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posted 12 years ago

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Drove past a place last week with these cool looking fiberglass lean-to's. It took the return trip to figure out what they were--the big air dams from the top of old semi trucks! The goats were climbing all over them and no visible damage.

I have used old plastic water tanks (found a few free ones because they leaked) and cut a door in the side and a couple drain holes in the floor. The 400-500 gallon ones are perfect for a couple goats and easy enough to move alone. They need to be tethered in bad winds, though. Even if you buy them new, they are cheaper than the "calf huts" that are the same size.

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Matthew Nistico

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Posts: 720

Location: Clemson, SC ("new" Zone 8a)

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posted 12 years ago

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@Katya - There is a small commercial goat dairy near to me, so I will be sure to take some photos for you next time I am there. Seems to me that they have some plastic pre-fab shelters scattered around, but I couldn't say from memory just exactly what they looked like.

More to come...

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Katya Barnheart

Posts: 37

Location: SE Missouri, Zone 7a

posted 12 years ago

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Thanks Matthew. I still haven't really found a solution. Right now I'm just putting them in the shade anyway, because it's so darn hot. I had an idea about a little dome made out of barn siding, but they might try to crush that too. They like to crush stuff

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Dave Bennett

Posts: 686

posted 12 years ago

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Katya Barnheart wrote:Thanks Matthew. I still haven't really found a solution. Right now I'm just putting them in the shade anyway, because it's so darn hot. I had an idea about a little dome made out of barn siding, but they might try to crush that too. They like to crush stuff

Hi Katya,
Something like this might work since they can be built small enough to be movable yet big enough for goats to find shade and shelter. I have not tried them yet but have built a version using 8ft. long 2x4 lumber to use as a storage building. They are definitely very sturdy structures and may be adaptable to use as an easily movable shelter.
Perhaps using 3ft. or 4ft. 2x4's would be light enough to move a structure such as this and you could use recycled lumber. I might suggest that because the frame struts are so short that recycling slats from pallets even 1/4in. plywood as sheathing could easily support the weight of even really rambunctious goats well over 100lbs each. These are very easy to build using the steel plates that come in a kit form for around $90.00. I bought a five of these kits a few years ago but have only actually put one together so far. Later this year I will be moving to some property where structures like these will become my goat and chicken shelters. The cool part is that if it becomes necessary to take them down entirely disassembly is the removal of screws for the sheathing and bolts for the framework. I intend to build small movable versions and a couple full size versions on permanent foundations.

frame.jpg

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Saybian Morgan

gardener

Posts: 582

Location: Lower Mainland British Columbia Canada Zone 8a/ Manchester Jamaica

posted 12 years ago

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calf hutch, google it....

Saybian Morgan

gardener

Posts: 582

Location: Lower Mainland British Columbia Canada Zone 8a/ Manchester Jamaica

posted 12 years ago

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a follow up now that im not typing from my phone.
Calf hutches are what your looking for, portable domes for shade and rain shelter, there thin walled and you can hop inside and lift it over your head if needs be.
I use them for the ducks, but they have multiple design's and can even come with a small fence so you can feed in if you have a fleet of calves or just one goat you want to keep in today.
In a fenced off situation I would just leave them open and hay it down with bedding, your manured and mulched garden or tree planting is ready to go when you move them to new pasture.

Calf-hutches.jpg

calf-hutch-1.jpg

ColdWeatherCalfRowLgWeb1.jpg

Jay Green

Posts: 587

posted 12 years ago

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Cattle panel hoop hut...easy to make, cheap to buy, lightweight to move, can either tarp it~goats would probably eat the tarp~or fiberglass panel it for shade. I've even seen them with deconstructed pallet wood placed on them like overlapping shingles...makes for a cute, indestructible hut.

Dave Bennett

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posted 12 years ago

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Here is a drawing of what a hutch could look like.

hutch_sketch.jpg

"When there is no life in the soil it is just dirt."
"MagicDave"

Lacia Lynne Bailey

Posts: 95

Location: Seattle, WA

posted 12 years ago

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I haven't found calf hutches at all either easy to move nor wind stable.

Depending on the size of your goats however, and how many you have, the largest size Dogloo might work. Mine adore them and pile in together even when there are more choices available. Cleaning is easy, just tip them up on the door side, whack the bottom a few times.

Abe Connally

Posts: 1502

Location: Chihuahua Desert

posted 12 years ago

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just put some electric fence around the sides and back of the shelter so they can't get on it.

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Dave Bennett

Posts: 686

posted 12 years ago

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Dave Bennett wrote:Here is a drawing of what a hutch could look like.

I forgot to mention that building hutches like these using 2x2 lumber would still maintain sufficient strength and make them light enough to move regularly.

hutch_sketch.jpg

"When there is no life in the soil it is just dirt."
"MagicDave"

David Mcgowan Hicks

Posts: 33

posted 12 years ago

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some sort of plywood a-frame on bicycle wheels (like a rickshaw setup you can move by hand.) seems to be the best idea to me. simple, sturdy, easy to move, difficult to climb on. I dont have goats, so I dont know if they would gnaw on the wheels, but it would be easy enough to make them detachable.

jake la

Posts: 3

posted 12 years ago

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Not sure if it was said, But what about cinder block goat home with a drain in the center, You could wash it out really easy and no eating of that

Chris Kott

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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posted 11 years ago

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Yeah, but aren't cinder blocks a bit heavy to move all by yourself?

I like the idea of a moveable shelter. I think that if you designed one to work like one of those garbage bins, with the wheels on the same side of the handles that you pull towards you, but with long handles, the weight of the structure would be limited only by the length and material structure of your handles, and of course the wheels and axle. Also, if the floor were open, there will be no cleanup, unlike the cinder block or cement or any other bloody immobile thing.

I've also heard of people with goats having success with the invisible fencing product, the radio-transmitter-linked shock collars. Apparently, the shock required to deter them is much less with the collar from the fence, and the deterrent effect is greater.

-CK

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Greta Fields

Posts: 218

posted 11 years ago

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Can you use one of those four-sided dog pens? You could not move them daily, but you could use them in place as a shelter, and not have to take the goats back to the barn nightly. If you put a top on them, the coyotes can't jump in or climb in.
I am new to goats, so if this is a stupid idea, let me know (: )
QUESTION:
I am considering getting goats to clear about 14 acres, hillside, pasture and woods. Is this a good idea, and how many goats do I need to clear thick brush like this???

S Carreg

Posts: 260

Location: De Cymru (West Wales, UK)

posted 11 years ago

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I can't find it online but saw in a book a cool idea for making a geodesic dome using stiff polypipe (HDPE) plumbing pipe, 28mm, cutting it into the right lengths (some were 16" and some a bit longer, from memory, but I could be wrong), then you hold the end of the pipe over a blowtorch or heat source just for a moment to soften it, and then flatten it between two pieces of wood. This gives you a strong, short tube with two flat ends, then you drill holes through the ends, and this allows you to bolt all the pieces together into a dome. The design was for a shade dome (aussie permie project), but no reason you couldn't cover it with something waterproof. The structure is really solid and strong, but also very lightweight. and very cheap to make, depending on what you cover it with.

Chris Kott

pollinator

Posts: 3847

Location: Marmora, Ontario

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posted 11 years ago

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I like the idea of using humanure to grow structural bamboo. You could use that to make the same geodesic structure, as well as a variety of other useful applications. You heat treat bamboo with flame from what I have seen, but I like the idea of using something so naturally designed for strength in so many configurations, and making it grow faster by fertilising with that which you can't use on your food crops.

-CK

Betty Yin

Posts: 14

posted 11 years ago

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We have turned old truck caps into 3 sided shelters.
Take 2 x 4s and build 3 walls, about 30" high, matching the size of the truck cap, leaving the flap part of the cap with no wall. Screw the walls together, and top with the truck cap, screwing that to the top of the walls.
We sided ours with unused galvanized siding leftover from the chicken coop.
If you want to move it often, put it on skids and it can be pulled with a tractor easily. Less often, or with no tractor, it can be disassembled and moved that way.
We have also used them as kidding jugs, attaching a cattle panel to the open side with eye hooks and carabiner clips, or as a creep feeder for kids, with a small entry cut into a cattle panel or plywood, attached the same way.
Ours have been in service over 5 years, with does, bucks and kids, and no damage.
If I can figure out how to add pictures, I will.

Greta Fields

Posts: 218

posted 11 years ago

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Christ Kott has a great idea...did you all see that?
Bamboo is fantastic for building, it is incredibly strong. However, so is "river cane", which is a bamboo like plant growing in the southeast. Cherokee used river cane to make frames for their houses, and it grew everywhere back then. It is trying to grow back along the banks of the Kentucky River, but people often get rid of it.
I love it. I use it to stake plants, build trellises etc.
They grow the real bamboo up at Pine Mountain Settlement School, and it is 3-4 inches in diameter!!! It is considered "invasive" in Kentucky, however, so I will stick with river cane for now. The river cane will also get big, I think, but most of it I see is small. It likes light shade, but it's always winding along the banks of the river in full sun now..

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