Goat housing question

[HoneyAndPowPow]

We are looking into getting some goats for milking purposes mainly. In my researching on this subject, I have decided that Kinders are the way to go for me. Having a hard time locating breeders in my area but that's another issue...

Question: I have two adjoining dog pens each 10 x 20 ft. with 6 ft tall fencing. Both sections have a large dog house inside suitable for, say, a dog the size of a Boxer. Can/will a goat sleep in such a thing? It would be great to repurpose these rather than starting from scratch. Any thoughts?

[bee_pipes]

We are looking into getting some goats for milking purposes mainly. In my researching on this subject, I have decided that Kinders are the way to go for me. Having a hard time locating breeders in my area but that's another issue...

Question: I have two adjoining dog pens each 10 x 20 ft. with 6 ft tall fencing. Both sections have a large dog house inside suitable for, say, a dog the size of a Boxer. Can/will a goat sleep in such a thing? It would be great to repurpose these rather than starting from scratch. Any thoughts?

Yeah, same here. I got sidetracked with other stuff this year and will have to wait till this winter to build accommodations for goats, so maybe next spring. Kathleen Sanderson wrote an excellent article on kinders in BHM, "Kinder goats, A small breed for milk and meat" (http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sanderson95.html) that pretty much had me sold on the breed, also. But I ran into the same problem. I found an excellent forum on goats and got a lot of questions answered there - http://thegoatspot.net/phpbb/index.php. A lot of folks with a lot of experience with goats. They answered a lot of questions for me about breeds, fencing and housing. Smaller goats looked like the way to go, and there are other breeds out there. Mini-nubians were also appealing, like kinders, because of the smaller size, but there is a lack of breeders in the area. Looks like we're going to go with standard nubians. We could keep two does without much trouble, and there are enough goat owners in the area with bucks to get them freshened without the hassle of keeping a buck.

We are looking at them for dairy and meat from the resulting kids. There are a lot of things we'd like to try producing on our own, like cheese and other dairy products, and with our layout goats would be the perfect solution. I guess your question about quarters has a lot to do with how you raise animals. One of the dog pens - 10x20 would be adequate for night-time quarters, and the adjoining pen could be used for milking and storage. But you'd want a fenced yard around the night quarters for the day. Storey's has a book on raising dairy goats that is a good read. They go into quarters, kidding, feed and nutrition, etc.

Best of luck to you - hope you have better luck with breeders in your area than I did.

Regards,
Pat

[HoneyAndPowPow]

Thanks for the link! :

I will be checking that out this evening. Just want to learn as much as I can beforehand so it's not such a cram session. I, too, became convinced that Kinders were for me after reading the same article you mentioned.

Thanks again!

[EarthMother]

kinder goats. They are hard to find but didn't that article also mention how to grow your own? I believe it was a registerd nubian with a smaller registered buck? Since they are so hard to find It might be a good investment. You could maybe buy the Does and find a buck to breed them.
And my husband uses heavy duty plastic to cover our fenced dog pen he has also built a roof of sorts out of corragated metal. Just make sure the roof has some slant so the water runs of good.

[Dobelo17]

Hi ,
I just sold my Boer meat goats and they loved to sleep in our dog kennel. Ours was 12 x 24 I think. we also
had a large dog house in it and they liked to sleep in there also. Two of my meat does would squeeze in
there and sleep together. THey kicked the dogs out
they also like to jump on top of the dog house. We have a lean-to roof over all of the kennel so they never tried to jump out of course boer aren't much for jumpers. ALso when the babies where playing the dog
house is very good for King on the mountain dogs didn't
much care for 3 of the little rats jumping on the dog house when they were trying to sleep though. Good luck with your goats they are so sweet and cute.

Becky

[goodwifefarm]

Kinder goats are awesome! They can be hard to find, but they are well worth the effort. Sweet, cute, good mothers, and the milk is to die for. Rich, creamy, and it makes the best homemade ice cream you've ever eaten! I'm in Illinois, so I know of a few breeders in Il, and Missouri. Check http://www.kindergoats.com/breeders.htm for a list of breeders. Good luck! and oh yeah, the main thing is to keep them dry and out of the muck. You don't want to be trying to milk a nasty dirty doe and goats don't like to get dirty anyway!