Posted by Nat on January 07, 2001 at 20:01:45:
In Reply to: Shelter!!!! posted by Aaron Maunumaki on January 07, 2001 at 19:07:17:
Ever think about using a large dog house or a calf hutch? I have many friends that have sucess using large dog houses for dairy goats, or even those nice calf hutches. The goats fit in nice, and if you deeply bed them, and face them so wind hits the backside it should be a comfy cottage for them. The nice fencing I'd recomend is just to get a few cow pannels - welded wire pannels... different people call them different things. I suppose you could get away with the shorter hog pannels since you have little goats but this fence will be durable, and pretty easy to set up. As for freezing water - I'd go with those nice heated flat back buckets. You can hide the cord well, although I'd recomend running it through pvc pipe to prevent shocks. Using a tub with heaters that can come out, is just an invite for trouble as goats will have that heater out of the tub in minutes, and eat through the cord. I am just about sick of beating buckets every day now, and am going to get a nice heated bucket this week. If you don't want to spend the cash right now, I'd at least recomend those rubber fortiflex buckets. They take alot of abuse by hammers, ect to get ice out, and always bounce back.
Just wanted to throw some ideas out
-Nat
Nat's Little Bit Farm
dreaming of frost free days ahead!
(and no more snow please :-)