Chickens and goats?

[mirandalola]

I need to build a new coop for my glut of chicks (we have 8 chickens in a 64-sq-foot coop, but we have 55 chicks that will need a bigger coop soon!). Planning for the future, I know we'll be getting Nigerian dwarf goats within a year or two, and would like to save construction time for my dear husband who does all the building for me.

Help us design a structure that will house 50 (I know I have more than that but I plan on culling down to 50) chickens and 4 dwarf goats! I know they won't share the same living quarters but we can partition a building, I just want them to share a roof and possibly a "porch" (covered run for our rainy days).

I know goats need a drainable floor and weekly floor cleaning, but deep litter is working just fine for our current chickens. My husband is excited about the idea of building on a gravel foundation; how will this work with the chickens' deep litter? Should we only put gravel under the goat portion of the building and leave the chicken portion on dirt?

How high will the partition need to be between the goats and chickens?

Thanks!
Miranda in East Texas

 

[henny1129]

Alright, so first off, when I was doing some math I allowed each of the 55 chickens 4 square feet of space inside. This meant the the total square footage of the chickens area is 220 square feet. I found out that you could make the dimensions of the chickens area to be 12x18 feet.

There really isn't a special number of how much space goats need. Really, it's just a matter of going outside and making a few measurements and making a decision if that seems like enough room to house the amount of goats you have. Now, remember that Nigerians will need a little less space than, say, Boers. But of course goats don't mind when you give them extra space! I can measure my goats stall this morning and come up with an appropriate size for what your goats would need, if you like.

Honestly, I would not build on a gravel foundation. I would build on dirt. When we were building the goats stall on the barn (which had been built on gravel) we scraped out all the stones. Number 1-Stones are fun to sleep on, even if you have straw/shavings underneath you. Number 2-Stones will make cleaning harder because you will be scooping up stones on accident all the time. Number 3-Dirt drains better than stones. Number 4-Stones are dusty.
These were our main reasons that we took all the stones out of our goats stall.

The partition should probably be at least 3.5 to 4 feet high. I would be more worried about the chickens flying over it though and getting in the goats section than the goats escaping. The goats won't care if the chickens come over, but chicken poop is a lot grosser than goat poop, and the goats will then have to lay in it!

I do have a few questions for you though:
Do you want your goats for pets or for milking or for both? Are you going to be keeping a buck? Will there be an outdoor, uncovered area for the goats to explore?

 

[3riverschick]

Try going over to hathitrust digital library and click on full view. Then keyword search : Woods Open Air Poultry Houses: . That is Dr
prince t. Woods. A genius in poultry housing.the yard and coop are in one structure. Measured drawings for
Poultry housing for 15 to 500 fowl.
Check it out! I sold All three of my regular coops to make room for the woods coop going in this summer. No more heating coops. Best, Karen