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What do you do with these animals in the winter to keep them from freezing to death? I can only imagine that even a well built barn would get cold as hell in the winter months. Do you heat the barns? Or do you find breads that can handle the cold winters?
Sorry if these questions are stupid. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to this topic.
What do you do with these animals in the winter to keep them from freezing to death? I can only imagine that even a well built barn would get cold as hell in the winter months. Do you heat the barns? Or do you find breads that can handle the cold winters?
Sorry if these questions are stupid. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to this topic.
Barns are self-insulating... the winter's worth of hay and straw and other feed, along with the animals' own body heat. The only worry about cold would be animals kept outside with no access to the barn. If it's cold enough, their breath would freeze over their nostrils.
But leaving one's animals outside in frigid temps would be beyond stupid.
Last edited by proulxfamily; 10-24-2010 at 08:43 PM..
Barns are self-insulating... the winter's worth of hay and straw and other feed, along with the animals' own body heat. The only worry about cold would be animals kept outside with no access to the barn. If it's cold enough, their breath would freeze over their nostrils.
But leaving one's animals outside in frigid temps would be beyond stupid.
So basically people design their barns to use the hay and straw to insulate the place for them? No heat just insulation? I ask because we use to have a small barn when I lived with my uncle in northern AZ. Even with the mild winters (compared to CNY) that place was cold as hell.
I'm asking because I was looking at land up there and then I was thinking about the nightmare it would be to keep the growth down. Then I thought of goats. Then I thought of frozen goat lawn gnomes in the winter lol. So yeah it's just a random thought that I figured I'd ask about.
Hey man, there are goat breeds that can live outside in the coldest climates. There are goats living outside all over north central Asia and it's as cold as it gets there. Deep snow or freezing rain is much worse for them. I had a couple of goats here in Canada and they had an old chicken coop to live in and I never saw them cold.
Hey man, there are goat breeds that can live outside in the coldest climates. There are goats living outside all over north central Asia and it's as cold as it gets there. Deep snow or freezing rain is much worse for them. I had a couple of goats here in Canada and they had an old chicken coop to live in and I never saw them cold.
What kind of goats did you have? Goats are funny as hell. I want some that will head but the dog and the kids. lol
Well I just had regular old mongrel goats. If you want goats that are really good in the cold get Angora goats. Their fleese is worth some money too. They will eat down a field of rose bushes, thistles, burdocks or whatever noxious weeds there happens to be. Look them up on goggle. they are amazing critters. Oh, by the way any billy goat will butt but it's not funny and can really injure you. I didn't even keep a billy but used my neighbour's old billy to service my nannys.
Ha ha I'm really laughing at myself here. When I read my post over I had said that, "I used my neighbour's to serve my nannys". That just didn't sound right somehow.
So basically people design their barns to use the hay and straw to insulate the place for them? No heat just insulation? I ask because we use to have a small barn when I lived with my uncle in northern AZ. Even with the mild winters (compared to CNY) that place was cold as hell.
I'm asking because I was looking at land up there and then I was thinking about the nightmare it would be to keep the growth down. Then I thought of goats. Then I thought of frozen goat lawn gnomes in the winter lol. So yeah it's just a random thought that I figured I'd ask about.
I don't think people design animal barns much at all. There seem to be pretty much two kinds... commercial and non-commercial. And most of the non-commercial ones have been standing for at least a century. lol - I don't think there's much design to it. The animals have their pens/stalls and your stack every nook and cranny with bales of hay/straw that you can. The barns are downright toasty.
Maybe you had too little straw/hay and/or not enough animals? A neighbor's barn was where we'd always run into to get warm and play with the kitties and play hide-and-seek in the loft.
On the issue of your wanting to keep down growth, you can just bush hog your land every year and outside of that, only mow the YARD space you'd like. My parents' house is on a 20-acre parcel and that's what they do. Of course, they definitely have more "mowed" area by sheer virtue of moving the horses between different fields. lol - I'm pretty sure horses are more expensive and more work than a riding mower though.
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