This is my first winter with my goats and am wondering what's too cold for them? My does I am not worried about so much, they are in the bottom of this old house on our property and the walls are literally 18 inches thick concrete. It stays fairly warm and cool in the summer. Its my boys I am worried about. They are locked up at night and have complete protection from the elements. Under the roof is vented, but snow and rain cannot get into their home. It does get pretty cold though. Does anyone provide heat lamps for their bucks or do you just add extra straw? My husband keeps telling me "they are goats", but they are my babies so I worry about them... Thanks
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We live in the Ozark mountains and it got down to zero last winter. Several of our bucks and wethers are in a barn where the big door is always open so the horses can get in out of the weather. We've been lucky enough to pick up several free large dog houses off Craigslist...they aren't pretty, but they give our boys a place to go in and snuggle. I don't put straw inside those and I make sure I sweep them out regularly. Two of our other boys have a little 5x5 goat house all to themselves. Since that sits outside I do put straw in it for them and I clean out and replace the straw regularly.
I just blogged about this on my Homegrown and Handmade site, and someone responded that she wishes she'd grow a coat of cashmere every winter! LOL -- me too!
Melissa Johnson said:
Not to imply that goats dont need special care and housing - but my Dad and I were talking about such things, he was funny - he said "that's why the good Lord gave them coats" - )
Amy Bell said:
I will whisper that I do use a heat lamp for my does. And it doesnt get 15 anything here in Eugene, maybe close every few years - but I have it attached to a metal hook that you put a closet pole on pointed at the area where they lay - and then wrapped and tied with cord. They can't reach it and unless someone actually untied it and undid the clasp - it will stay where it is. But I would never do it if they could reach it - or with just having it "clasped" .
I did knit wool sweaters for kids last year - unfortunately, they didnt fit anything but my miniature weiner dog and every time I put it on him - I find it in the yard. -( So, he's been 86'd from the sweater......
I am so glad you mentioned that about the bucks! I did that once years ago, and YEP, never again! I can't imagine why they think they need to rub their head on them -- other than they just think they need to rub their head on everything. They are so much hairier than the does, I'm sure they are even more capable of keeping themselves warm.
Amy Bell said:
I remember Monday night. Our doe decided to have her kids then. Yeah it was -15 below here in Cheyenne WY. The inside of our metal barn had ice on it. Needless to say the kids are under heat lamps, we just make sure they are chained to the fence by the cord. My husband has made a couple of warming huts out of plastic dog houses. There is a housing for the heat lamp fixed to the top, the goats love it when its cold. I will never put out heat lamps for the bucks again. They rub them with their heads and almost started a fire a couple of years ago, so they go without. I've never lost any to the cold, even in that metal barn.
Thanks Deborah! Yes our property is pretty cool. We bought this property 4 years ago and it was in shambles. My husband thought I was CRAZY!! It took 2 1/2 years of us doing all the work to get the house done. The house itself has a lot of history. The original house was built in 1900 then only after a few years the house caught fire and burned. The foundation was still good so they bought a track home from an old mining town about 45 minutes away. In 1960 they added onto the house. They added the kitchen and our kids bedrooms. When we bought the house the owner before "tried" to remodel and did a horrible job. We came in and gutted the entire house and started over. New wiring, plumbing etc. The previous owner had also turned the field into a land fill. So needless to say we took 7, 30 yards of trash, 10 truck loads of scrap metal and not to mention the numerous truck loads to the dump. In the field is the 2 store house that we are now using for our "barn". It needs a lot of work that we are slowly starting to do. It's a pretty neat old house. Since it was the general store, also in the field is a place where I am assuming they stored horses and there is a really tore up building that was once a cow milking stall. The stall is still in there, but the building collapsed. We just haven't been able to get it out of there yet. Needless to say the property still needs a lot of work, but it's getting there. We recently found out that off our kitchen is a concrete building, we thought it was an incinerator, but this lady came over and told us its an old bread making oven. I can't remember the name she gave it. Pretty cool!!
When it gets that cold here, I think our furnace runs non-stop too. Brrrr!!!!! Your "barn" sounds so cool! I would love that -- being a big history nut.
I was thinking you had to be in Canada an talking celsius because when it's -15 here, the water buckets are solid blocks of ice by morning. We have to have enough buckets to swap them out. We put them upside down in the sun so the block of ice falls out when the sun warms up the bucket. By the end of a cold snap, there are lots of round blocks of ice outside the barn. It starts to look pretty funny!
I live in Colorado, and no that was Fahrenheit!! I think my furnace ran all night. The joys of living in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. The other great thing about Colorado is how quickly the snow and cold can go away. The sun is out and already melting the snow this morning. Still pretty chilly out, but the sun just warms everything. The place we are using for our barn right now is a 2 story old house. The house was once the general store and trading center for our little town, then the top later became a brothel for the town and was the last brothel in our area. Now we call it the goat brothel!! LOL We are eventually only going to have the bottom of this house for the milking parlor and the mommy house. The bottom of this house has a very thick foundation that has at least 16 inch thick concrete walls. Even with me having ventilation it stays fairly warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We are in the process of restoring another old barn that was used to keep cattle and horses. We are going to make this the permanent doe house. Hoping it doesn't get that cold tonight. The bucks water was frozen solid. I had to get another bucket because I couldn't even break the ice to give them warm water this am.
-15 last night! Is that Celsius? Where are you located?
Your barn sounds a lot warmer than mine if the water was barely frozen at -15.
Deborah
Janel Rickey said:
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