Choosing an open animal shelter

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Jeff Rash, marketing director, Priefert

Once the weather warms up in the spring, we kick the sheep and goats out of the barn and into the pasture. For shelter, we use an outdoor hut with a metal roof that has a fenced area around it. We keep the goats there, or the rams, or the ewe lambs, depending on the season.

This shelter isn't fancy, and most don't need to be. It all depends on your needs. Jeff Rash is the marketing director of a company that makes open animal shelters, and says a shelter can be as basic as four poles and a roof, simply to keep the rain off the animals and provide some shade.

"You can make a corral out of that for feeding or animal separation," Rash says. "You can actually put panels around that and still have a complete, open air 12' x 12' facility, or whatever you decide. You can link them together so you can make them 12' x 12', 12' x 24', or 12' x 36'."

You could also put three solid sides around it with a sloping roof and plywood along the interior walls for extra strength. Three-quarter-inch plywood is recommended if you have a horse and he likes to kick walls. Good materials for the outside include powder-coated steel and tin. You don't want anything that will rust.