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We built our buck house with mostly scrap wood that we found around the property.
We still had to buy some supplies - mostly the plywood/CDX for the walls, concrete piers, and metal roof -
so the total materials cost was $300 (during the lumber price hike of Hurricane Katrina).
There is an 8x8' room built by setting down concrete piers, setting old 4x4's in them and nailing plywood on it's side to the uprights.
Of course there is 2x4 framing but you get the idea.
Oh, and yes, the lower side is quite low (5 feet) but since I'm the only one who cleans out the buck house and I'm only 5'4", it's not too much of a problem.
There is a small door to shut the pen - good for locking up the other boys when working with one of them on the stand outside.
It is so frustrating trying to get anything done with loose goats climbing all over you for kisses and scratches when you are trying to do hooves!
There is a 6x8' patio on the front. The goats love to look out on the landscape during the day.
In Oregon it is often rainy, so without a patio, they all end up standing in the doorway together.
For fiber goats that is bad news - a sure way to felt a nice fleece having them all crammed together.
A painted corrugated metal roof was put over the pen/patio to finish.
If the weather is terribly nasty, we nail a tarp over the southfacing patio wall to keep out the wind.
Notice the cinder blocks (on their side so no catching hooves) that line the rim of the patio.
That keeps all the hay that gets pulled out of the manger from scattering out into the yard.
There is nothing worse than slipping on frozen hay in the morning! And, it makes cleanup much easier...which is something that needs to be done now - Yikes! look at all that wasted hay!
Also, there is a sleeping deck on the outside southfacing wall for sun bathing - a favorite pastime for the livestock here in Oregon but you won't catch the humans doing it.
And, electrical spools for playing king of the mountain. We affectionately call our buck pen the "play pen" since they seem to spend all day romping like a bunch of kids.
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The interior of the buck house. Notice the ventilation space at the top of all walls.
That is very important to allow any ammonia fumes to escape and therefore prevent pnuemonia.
There are Fortiflex mineral feeders on the left side to hold free choice loose goat salt, kelp meal and baking soda.
We usually have a straw bale in there. That allows them a cozy spot to snuggle behind if it's windy.
It's also a nice place for the buck to use as his "throne". Wethers sleep on the floor.
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Here's the manger - designed for 4 goats. The hay is pulled through the fence material.
The wood at the upper half keeps hay from raining down on valuable fleeces.
There is a handy pop-up top that allows you to fill the manger from outside the pen.
Oh, the blur off to the left? That would be our buck Vespucci who is quite amorous with his constant kisses.
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In Oregon, we get very muddy walkways. In late Winter, everything is MUD. Then again, it's quite muddy in Spring...oh, and in Fall too.
So, for all goatie walkways, every year we put down a generous layer of sand, followed by a generous layer of bark chips.
Then, we lay down thin-split basalt stepping stones for the path.
The goats hate mud as much as we do and will always walk on the stones instead of the earth when it's wet out.
This is a great way to help prevent hoof-rot (along with monthly aggressive hoof trimming).
When I think of it, I spray the stones with bleach solution then hose them off to keep them sanitary.
The goats tend to stand on them for periods of time...and you know that wherever they stand you have goat-berries.
(sorry for the dizzying camera angle - I was being attacked by a very silly toddler and way-too-excited puppy at the time - ain't life great?)
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