Housing and Shelter for Goats
One of the biggest questions we get asked when people want us to come look at their goat enclosures and set ups is “do my goats have enough space?”. This is a difficult question to have one set answer to, because it’s extremely different based on individual herds. For example, my herd is 12 strong, and all but two of them are related Nigerian dwarf goats. They’re small, love to cuddle, and don’t take up a tremendous amount of space. My two larger boys need more room to stretch out, but overall, my goats don’t need acres and acres of room to run around on. That being said, you do want to make sure that you have at least ten square feet of space per goat for sleeping. This allows them to have space to stretch out during warmer months, and it’ll lessen the amount of odor build up from their droppings and urine.
Goats love to play. It’s so fun to watch them run and jump and get zoomies, so absolutely make sure you have room and secured fencing (talking a minimum of 6 feet high if you want to have any hope of keeping them contained) for them to get all their energy out and have a lot of fun. Goats tend to get bored easily, and a bored goat is a naughty goat. Give them playground equiptment (make sure it’s not so high that if they jump off they’d get gurt), climbing options, natural wood and brush to give them some mental stimulation, and toys if they seem interested. Our goats have a slide, a giant tree truck to jump all over, and three different areas where we can rotate them around to stimulate their minds and bodies. For whatever reason, one of their favorite places is our fire pit. I don’t know if it’s the residual warmth, the smell, or they just feel cozy in it, but no matter what we do we cannot keep them out of it when we let them in the yard!
Of course, make sure all enclosures are safe for year round use. You want a minimum of a three sided structure that is off the ground a few inches (helps keep rodents and snakes away), has no draft, and has plenty of ventilation for summer months. We have two separate structures. The first is a 5’x8” elevated mini barn that has a front porch, a dutch door, a window, and rubber mats inside. It’s elevated enough that the goats also can easily get underneath it, and prefer sleeping under it in the summer months on the cooler ground. We also have a 10’x10’ attached metal structure with a weather resistant tarp covering that we keep their hay feeder in so it stays dry year round. While our goats now eat off a round bale during the day, they have access to 24/7 hay in that second enclosure and they love to make little nests out of the hay they drop.
You’re going to need to clean fairly often with goats (and sheep). We rake out our nighttime goat enclosure every day before putting the goats to bed. We are very blessed we have the ability to have an extremely secured night area and then two more daytime areas for the goats to rotate around. As I’ve said in Facebook posts, goats are extremely wasteful animals. They only want the best of the best pieces of their hay, so there’s always a lot to clean up. They also poop a lot. Like, a LOT. So we rake that up daily and add it to the manure pile after the chickens have had a chance to get any bugs out of the old poop and any dropped hay. For whatever reason, our horses are obsessed with the dropped goat hay, and they will pace back and forth for it at their gate. Because of this, we ultimately don’t waste a lot of hay, which is amazing for cost savings!
As your goats grow, you might need a larger enclosure, or may need to enlarge your shelter. Every herd is unique and so long as they have plenty of room to play, get some energy out, and have their food and water safe from the elements and other animals, they’ll tend to be pretty happy animals!
