# calf hut shelters



## chewie (Jul 26, 2008)

planning the move to our place in a few months and looking into shelters. i can get some of those poly dome calf huts or it would be easy to find some of those mini tin quonset huts too. our climate gets alot of wind, gets down to some terrible cold and up to some incredible high temps. in summer. what huts would be best? 

i plan for the in-milk gals to also have a stall in the barn to come into where the hay feeder will be, that is adjacent to their pen. the outside pens will only have the huts. (dry does and the buck/s)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I am also looking for some Chris. I want to put my kids in moveable pens in my yard. Well not moveable as in I am moving them around, but take down and put up after kids are sold and gone pens  A friend of mine has porta huts, the brand name, and another has the tin 1/2 round (dome) ones, I actually like the metal round ones better. Vicki


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

I have several Poly Dome calf huts. I used to house bucks and groups of doelings in them. 

They now work great for pigs. 

Sara


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## chewie (Jul 26, 2008)

i too want them moveable and its easier to clean them out if you can roll them away. 

this winter i was worried my 2 preggers were going to get frozen outside in a pen with only this tin hut. the milkers can be in the large machine shed. ha! those 2 preggers were much warmer cuddled together in that little hut than the milkers and doelings were in the barn! 

the dairy (cow) that i used to work on has several of the poly domes, real cheap. just wondering how they work vs. the tin huts?


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

I would go with the Poly Domes rather than the tin huts. They are much warmer for our harsh winters. They are also great in the summer.

Sara


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

BlissBerry said:


> I would go with the Poly Domes rather than the tin huts. They are much warmer for our harsh winters. They are also great in the summer.
> 
> Sara


 :yeahthat

If they are too warm in the summer, the goats just won't use them. But then our goats stay outside almost all summer and we only get about 5 or 6 days in the mid-90s. Saanens will go in for rain. Boers never go in unless there is food....


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## chewie (Jul 26, 2008)

super, i think i can get at least 6 if i want to, only need about 3. but wanna grab an extra for the price and how close they are to get. i am betting our dogs would like one too! thanks for the input.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

Chris, if you can get those cheap, get them all, you would be surprised but you never have enough housing for goats.. theres always room for more..
Barb


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## Bilrite Farms (Oct 26, 2007)

We also have been using the Poly-Dome huts for years. We've tried a couple different brands of the rectangular ones but they didn't hold up to either the goats or pigs like the Poly-Dome ones (they do work better for the mini-donks though). They work terrific for ease of cleaning - just lift them out of the way - and are easy to clean themselves too. They are easy for even one person to move around. In the past we used them for winter shelters here, and still are for the pigs - they love that they can move them around to where they want them - but we have stopped using them for the goats since our winters here are so terribly harsh, we feel that wood shelters just are a bit better for our bitter temps and severe winds (gusts were just 55 mph this last weekend).


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## Kaye White (Oct 25, 2007)

Like someone said...get all you can or can afford, you NEVER have enough pens!

One thing I would do if I were getting them from a dairy.... scrub those things good in and out, then spray with a mix of bleach and water, till dripping. Kills all the nasty bugs you really don't want on your new property.

I'm using the 300 gal. totes again this year for baby houses and six new baby pens in the hay barn...SINCE, I still don't have my chicken pen up and baby chicks are in my baby pens. UGH!
Kaye


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Kaye can you stand in them to put the lambar in? Vicki


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

Poly domes are great for putting litters of puppies in too. Bedded deep with straw they stay cozy warm, but have room to run around and tumble bumble over one another. Fresh in, and less clean up for the humans. Great for calves too. Yeah, I wish I had 6 more. Then I would get rid of our metal/wood shelters that are very difficult to move, if we ever do. 

We move these things simply by walking under them to the middle and then using our heads to lift them up with our hands for balance. Course this won't work for shorties. LOL (We are 5'7" or taller here.  )


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## [email protected] (Oct 26, 2007)

I think polly domes are better for our cold climate. They act like a greenhouse and are always warmer than the outside. The manufacturer is in MN, and we bought directly from them for about 200$ if I remember correctly. That can house 4 big goats or 6 or 8 small ones. Really nice housing for goats.


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## D Bar J Acres (Nov 5, 2007)

All our goats are housed in Poly Domes here in WI as well. Can't beat that kind of housing here in the cold. They get quite comfy in the sun and stay pretty warm into the night. They do heat up quite a bit in direct sun in the summer, so we always make sure we have large spindles or something out there for the goats to get into shade. I'd love a big fancy barn, but the huts are so much easier to clean and warmer than a big pole barn would be.


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2009)

D Bar J Acres said:


> I'd love a big fancy barn, but the huts are so much easier to clean and warmer than a big pole barn would be.


I beg to differ.

Nah, I'll take my big fancy _warm_ insulated barn over a calf hut any day. However, those calf huts work well enough when there are no other options. 

We kept ours well bedded and installed PVC strips over the door openings. The pigs sure stayed warm. 

Sara


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

I wanted to get those Kaye has for the babies but around here all I can find they want $120 a piece for so can't see paying that.


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## Kaye White (Oct 25, 2007)

No, you can't stand up in them. They're 3- 3 1/2 feet tall. Those plastic squares that I've seen along the road side to put trash in. Some have metal cages. But, they make cheap goat houses. About $30.
Kaye


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## Kaye White (Oct 25, 2007)

OUCH, Sondra! We sell them all day long for $30, with a pallet under them to keep them off the ground.

We've sold them for everything from dog houses, pig houses, water tanks for deer camps, a rancher cut four large holes-one in each side- and puts minerals in them, and one guy even broods baby chicks in them.
Kaye


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

yep right after you showed them to us I knew right where some are and went $125 just now searched again on Craigs list and there they are $95 and $100 Sure are proud of them down here.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

wheytogosaanens said:


> We move these things simply by walking under them to the middle and then using our heads to lift them up with our hands for balance. Course this won't work for shorties. LOL (We are 5'7" or taller here.  )


Well, fine Camille!  Here at our place, we're nearly all hobbits. My still-growing teenage son is now taller than the rest of us (I think he's 5'6" or so) but other than that, my DH is the tallest at a "whopping" 5'4". My nearly 18 y/o dd got a double whammy on the short genes and ended up at 4'9". She loves it though.


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## Patty13637 (Oct 26, 2007)

I also use the pol dome ones. we have gotten to minus 29 actual temp this year and winds to 60-70 mph and no one single cold kid . In this same weather I did have a goat or 2 cold in the barn . I am always on the look out for more hutches.

Kaye you are lucky those square containers are not cheap here either .

Patty


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## mill-valley (Feb 22, 2008)

We have several of the the rectangular ones, we paid $200 apeice used and $265 new (they are two different brands, the used ones are much sturdier.) They will flip over if not staked in a good wind. We use them for both calves and goats. One thing is if calves have used them...like Kaye said scrub really good. I use ammonia to scrub and then rinse really really good, let dry, then just before using spray with bleach water. The bleach will not kill cryptosporidia which can kill kids and calves carry in abundance...found that out the hard way :nooo.


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