# What's on the floor of your barn/shed?



## firecattx (Nov 18, 2010)

I am interested in hearing how some of you keep your goat areas clean. I have 4 ND goats and 1 nubian and the poop is everywhere!! They have plenty of space but seem to always stay in one little section. They have a 3 sided loafing shed that is always full of poop. Other than sweep, rake etc. it up......what can I do? What do you put on the floor of your barn/shed? How often do you clean it out? I'm overrun with goat berries :help


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

I sweep and rake  If you do this a couple times a day it's quick. 

Straw is good bedding. In the winter, when I feed grass hay, what they waste is enough for bedding.


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## lorit (May 10, 2010)

gravel base - was there when we bought the place. then I like the cedar shavings and use a pretty thick layer of those and use like a super sized pooper scooper to clean up - but honestly lots of the berries settle to the bottom so I deep clean every couple of months. my girls are ONLY in the barn at night so it's not like they hang out all day in there. 

but come spring i am cleaning it back down to the gravel and bringing in a big load of sand. had that at the last place under my shavings and really liked how easy it was to clean. then i'd use much less shavings cuz they wouldnt need the cushioning to protect from gravel.


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## K-Ro (Nov 10, 2009)

I have concrete floors. Depends on the time of year, what type of bedding they get, if any. Cool/Cold like now they have hay put down for bedding (a lot is what they waste and falls on the floor), and right now we completely clean the barn out 2-4 times a week - the front area is swept daily. Once it gets really cold then it will stay and we will just add more bedding until it warms up and then we clean it all out and disinfect. When it's summer time and really hot, usually we do not put down bedding, that way the concrete is cooler for them to lay on IF they want to, usually they sleep outside then.


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

I have dirt floors and put layer of sawdust then straw and use a powdered mineral mix for gardens and use it on pee and poop spots and put another layer of straw and build this up. A couple times a year I clean it out and compost it for the garden. So I cycle the mineral powder through the bedding for odor control then to the garden.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Embrace the goat berries or you will go insane  I use a metal leaf rake to clean the sand filled stalls, try to do it once a week...and honestly it is usually something that falls on a helpers head or a kid or family member who needs money  Before it got cold I raked in lime, a really good amount and then put down straw, I did not fill the pens, that will be done before kidding time unless we have a really cold winter. 
When I fill the pens I will put shavings down first, then straw over the top...I run a pitchfork through the straw daily to 'fluff it up' it's actually something I will say to a helper "go fluff the barn' before customers come...this send berries down into the shavings, makes my winter barn appear spotless and keeps the moisture away from the goats. I will clean out really nasty corners etc...but don't clean the whole barn out until kidding is over end of March, then it's back to clean sand and shavings...then once summer is here, just sand raked every weekend


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I don't worry too much about the goat berries - it's the urine. Now that winter is here and we keep our goats in the barn at night, we have more of a concentrated mess. Their stalls get spot cleaned every couple of days. They are in rubber-matted horse stalls. We sprinkle some limestone, then bed with pine shavings (large not small or fine) then put straw on top of this. They tend to pee in the same spots so we pick those up with a pitch fork. We clean the barn stalls every 10 days to 2 weeks. We also use a doggie pooper scooper to pick up the berries. It works great if you get them before they scatter all over the pen.

Outside we do the same thing except their shelter will only get cleaned out maybe once a month. Maybe.


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## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

We have concrete floors in our current barn pen (hoping to build a goat barn next Spring/Summer), and we have dirt floors in there outdoor shed. Since it has been very cold, we bring them in at night to the barn. We use wood shavings as the bottom layer and top it off with straw. We use a manure fork to sift out the manure, and then keep adding bedding as needed. For their shed, we spot clean and continue to add bedding as needed. We'll deep clean it come spring. It makes great compost.


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## rebeccasminis (Aug 24, 2010)

My temporary "goat barn" is half of my husbands very expensive garage that has concrete floors. I have almost 6 inches of shavings then about 8 bales of straw and whatever hay they waste. I also give them a bale of straw a day because they like it, along with ll the hay they get, I throw in about three large scoop fulls of hay a day along with that bale of straw. This builds up but I will use it on the garden come spring. They have access to the outside during the day but we have almost 2 feet of snow and counting and they want nothing to do with it, at night they are closed up because we have coyotes that go after calves so goats would be no problem. Although it is a fully enclosed garage it isnt heated so it stays about 40 degrees up there. When I open the door they stick their heads out shake a little and go back in! It is 20 degrees outside and a blizzard so I imagine it isnt any fun  They accumulate a lot of poop but with enough hay and straw and ventilation it isnt bad at all, just warm and a bit goaty, my favorite place to be!


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Sand as most floors, the main barn has some wood floors.
Wood pellets go down first, then shavings, then straw. I normally clean out the doe barn once a week and the buck houses once a month. It is now winter and we do get cold so I add more straw, changing the doe barn once a month and the bucks wait til spring.
Summer time we just use wood shavings.
Tam


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

I rake my sheds out and haul the old spent hay that the girls drop out of the hay feeder and the goat berries down in back by the woods. Usually just do that every couple of weeks in the winter time. I only have the 2 goats. I don't bed down a thick mass of hay in the barn for the goats during the winter. We have sand (dirt) floors and I do put down hay for them, but when I sweep out the shed I will sweep out the barn too and put down fresh hay inside the barn in the winter time for them to lay in. Yeh, you can't be spotless. No sooner than you rake that shed out they have to run in there and pee and poop in it. You'll make yourself crazy trying to keep all the goat berries picked up. In the summer time I rake out the shed every weekend just about and when I get finished about once a month I will hook the water hose up to a hose end sprayer and use pinesol in it to spray down the shed and barn. I keep the gate locked until the ground dries out and then I let the goats back in. This really helps with flies in the summer time.


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

My goat houses all have dirt floors. When I clean them down to the dirt, I put down lime and then cover that with shavings. In winter, I put straw over the shavings. The smaller houses get totally cleaned about twice a year and the cabin about three times. The rest of the year, I rake the top and add more shavings/straw. Here, I like a bit of a manure pack for insulation in winter.


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

I had dirt (clay, poor drainage) and bedded that with shavings and waste hay on top. I recently got 20 tons of screenings (small pebble limestone gravel) and built up the floor of my barn. I love the way it drains. I don't use shavings now, just the waste hay. In the summer when it heats up and there will be smell if not cleaned out more frequently, I'll probably look at getting sand for over the top of the screenings and rake that. The screenings are great for drainage, but not for cleaning!


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