All of you guys with goats, I'd love to see photos of your set-up with goat houses, sacrifice paddocks, goat barns, etc.
We are literally backyard goat owners, so our setup is really simple and small. Our goats have the run of our backyard during the day and are shut up on one side of the house at night. Here is a picture of their house: The pillowcase was only out there the first couple nights we had them and we have now blocked off the openings on the bottom and sides to keep kids from squeezing in there. We also added a board across the bottom front to keep the bedding from falling out. We just built a little goat play area for the kids, but I don't have a picture of that yet. The only other goat thing we have is the milking stand I built:
My first thought when I saw the kid in the corner: Is that a bunny mid-hop or a dog mid-squat? not...enough...sleep.
I built the stand off the plans on www.fiascofarm.com . I just modified it a bit to fit my mini girls since their measurments for the headstall are for standard LaManchas.
You asked so here's my goat set ups right now. We are adding a shed and specific goat area this spring, it's started - just not finished yet. My Nigerian Dwarfs are in my chicken run until we get the new area finished. This is as cheap a goat house as you can get. It's 2 old shed doors with a board screwed on top and placed up against a dog igloo doghouse. They love it and it keeps them toasty warm. Here's their playground: My milk goats are temporarily in one of my barn stalls. I made a tunnel out of straw bales going into the stall to help keep wind and snow out of the inside stall. Here is the inside of that stall. I used old doors and wood to put between the stalls to keep the wind from blowing in there as well. Just a note... the straw bales didn't work well... the goats rubbed on them, chewed on them and played with them until they were pulled out of the strings and just good for bedding. I'm using just wood now... they haven't been able to destroy it... yet.
