Barn Renovations

Girls barn

Last year, I needed to built a quick pen inside the girls barn to put Abby & Maddie in while I weaned them.  I jerry rigged up a small stall with a double size pallet and a flimsy gate that I made.

With the upcoming births of three of my does, we really needed a birthing stall.  Thankfully Jamie is super handy and went to work on it as soon as I explained what I wanted.

Inside of barn before

As you can see above, the pallet stall is to the left and the previous owners had a trough bolted to the wall and 2 hay feeders.  This set up just wasn't working.  The stall was way too small for birthing.  The girls fought over the hay feeders because they were too small and the trough was nice for the girls to lay on but it caught all the old hay and just made it very heavy for removal.

After about 10 minutes of demolition, we have this.

Empty Barn

Now with everything removed, we had a clean slate to work with.  The barns measurements are 12 feet by 16 feet.  Very good size with more than enough room for the 5 girls, 1 baby boy and 1 dog that live there currently.

One thing I love about Jamie is I can explain something that I want to him and he can take that description and make it come alive AND its always turns out to exactly what I wanted.

So now that we have an empty barn Jamie started by framing the walls for the stall.

First wall framed

Jamie decided on doing only a 1/2 wall on part of the wall and then a taller part which is stabilized by a beam in the ceiling's framing.

Stall completely framed

Above you can see the other wall framing placed. There is a space left for Jamie to add a gate.

New stall with the half walls up

After the framing was all done, Jamie put up plywood for the walls. In the picture above the stall is done for now. The stall measures 6 feet by 6 feet which is a perfect size. In the next couple of weeks Jamie will add a gate to be able to keep the goat/goats in the stall if I need too.  Jamie will be making me a gate with fencing so you will be able to see into the stall from the outside.  This is mainly for the goats.  That way if I ever need to separate anyone, they can go into the stall but the goats can still see each other.

New stall with feeder

Next a hay feeder needed to be added since we took the old ones down.  This design works perfect. It's high enough for the big goats and low enough for the babies to reach.

Here are some pictures of the goats using their new feeder

Everyone using the new feeder

Everyone finding a place to have some hay

Everyone trying to find a spot to eat

The new feeder is working great.  There of course is some jostling around and some head butting, but everyone eventually finds a spot to eat.

There is still a few things that need to be done. For the stall we need to get the gate made and put up.  Also we are going to attach a wall of cattle panel on the inside of the stall so I can easily hang a water bucket, a feed bucket and a heat lamp when needed.

Jamie also still needs to replace some 2x4's along the roof line of the barn and Jamie is going to add gutters for better water flow when it rains.

Also this past winter, the goats got bored and decided to chew a significant size hole in the wall, so big that they can fit their head through it.  Jamie will be getting some barn board to fix that.

The very last thing is to have Jamie build what is called a kid box.  The box is for all the babies to go into and cuddle to be able to stay warm.  Also the box will be big enough for the bigger goats to fit in if they would like and strong enough if the goats would like to lay on it also.

Future corner for the baby box

That is about it for the renovations.  I love what Jamie did to the barn and so don't the girls.  The barn functions much better this way.

I also have some ideas for the outside where my milking area is but that will have to wait awhile.