DIY Small Goat Shelter

This small but adorable goat shelter is enough protection to keep your goats out of the weather but allows them the freedom to roam when the weather is good without you having to put them up and let them out! Perfect for your male goats since they don’t have babies and they don’t have to be milked! This small goat shed would be perfect for other small livestock that are out to pasture as well!

Now I will preface this with the fact that if you are building this for male goats, make sure you stake it to the ground! This is why you are getting Sketchup pictures instead of actual photos, you see, we were in such a hurry building because rain was on its way that day and I left the roof ridge uncut, so it stuck off the goat shed about 2 foot! I came outside the next day with my circular saw to cut the ridge and my saw died on me without even cutting any of it, and I knew I would come back out as soon as the battery was charged so I would stake it down then! Then I forgot about it, and fast forward 3 years later and they have demolished this poor little hut I made them!

If you have raised goats you are aware that they hit stuff with their heads, it is what they do! Well, they are fine if they don’t feel any give when they hit something, they move on, BUT if they feel it move, they will continuously hit it, until it is demolished! LOL! So they moved this all around their pen, rubbed their horns on the cedar to the point that they turned the cedar into legit toothpicks and now there are just stubs! They are crazy, my girls NEVER mistreat their home! Lol! So I will be updating this with real photos when I build another one… that will be staked down first thing!

It makes for the perfect shelter without being hard to build or costing a lot! My 3 male goats easily fit in this shed and they are big boys! But if you need more space, you can grab the free plans for the larger goat shed that matches this little one, you could build it without the gates and use it in the pasture as well! The small one looked just as cute as this just without the gates and smaller, obviously! Lol!

They both looked great together for a good long while, but not anymore! Lol!

This small goat shed has no floor in it, and although it is really open so you may worry about mud, as long as it is on ground slightly built up, it will be fine! ***Make sure and build up the area you are placing the goat shelter!!*** We keep a spare piece of plywood on hand and screw it over the front when we have really cold weather but that is usually only one week out of the year, being in south Texas we have to worry more about keeping them cool in the heat! This is open on the front and on the right side to make sure they can stay cool and get a great breeze while having shade!

small goat shelter white with cedar accent posts

Alright, let’s build a cute little goat shelter to place in the pasture!

Gathering Supplies to Build the Goat Shelter

The craziest part about this small goat shelter is that when I built it, it was during the height of the lumber gouging (lol) and it cost me the same to build the small goat shed as it did to build the large goat shed! Is that not insane? I built the large goat shed before lumber went up and it only cost 600 bucks, but then I built one less than half the size and without gates and doors for the same price!🫤 Luckily, I just priced out all the supplies since I have to build a new one, and it is coming out a little cheaper… I do still feel like it’s high, it is right around $400, but that is better than 600! Lol!

Make sure and look up all the materials in your local area though as the price can vary greatly!

If you are interested in other homesteading type projects, I have a few others for you!

Goat Feeders – Milk Stand – 8×8 Chicken Coop – Small Chicken Coop

**NOTE: Links below are AFFILIATE LINKS! Affiliate links are links that pay me a small commission, at no extra cost to you, should you make a purchase after clicking one! Shopping my links helps me keep bringing you this amazing content😉, so it is always appreciated! Thanks in advance for any purchases made from my links!🥰

Materials for the Goat Shelter:

4 – 2x4x8 pressure treated
22 – 2x4x8
4 – cedar 2x4x8 (you can save about 50 bucks by using pine and staining them)
2 – 1/2″ 4×8 sheets rated for exterior use
2 – 1x4x10
4 – 1x4x8
3 – 1x2x8
3 – 8ft steel roofing panels
1 – steel roof ridge
circular saw with regular blade and metal blade to cut the roof panels
miter saw – you can get by with only a circular saw but having a miter saw will make the angled rafter cuts easier!
3″ screws – I will be honest, these screws are the absolute BEST, I will drive 30 minutes out of my way to Home Depot to get them over any other brand! I am NOT sponsored by or provided anything free from them, they are simply a product that actually stands out for not stripping, every container comes with a bit (because I cannot ever find the bit I need at any given time…lol) and they are strong, never had one break or snap even with the goats pushing their home all over their pen!
1 1/2″ screws
4 – 90 degree angle brackets
12 – rafter brackets
steel roofing screws
Caulk
paint of your choice – I used Sherwin Williams Alabaster
sealer of your choice – I used Helmsman Spar Urethane

Cut List for the Goat Shelter:

4 – 2×4 @ 96″ (if you cut these down by a 1/2″ you will not need to purchase the 1x4x10s, you can grab 2 more 1x4x8s)
4 – 2×4 @ 65″
14 – 2×4 @ 45″
5 – 2×4 @ 48″ cedar
1 – 2×4 @ 66 1/4″ cedar
2 – 2×4 @ 44 1/8″ cedar
6 – 2×4 @ 15 1/2″ longest end – cedar – cut @ 45 degrees off square, ends not parallel
2 – 1×4 @ 96 1/2″
4 – 1×4 @ 41″
5 – 1×2 @ 41″
10 – 2×4 @ 47 1/2″ – cut @ 25.7 degrees off square, ends parallel
2 – 2×4 @ 74 3/4″ – cut @ 64.3 degrees off square, ends not parallel
16 – 2×4 @ 22 13/16″

Building the Small Goat Shelter

Building this small goat shelter is seriously so easy! It is amazing that a little cedar and paint can make it look so cute even though it is such a simple design!

Framing the Goat Shelter

Start building the goat shelter by building the frame for the back wall! You will need 2 – 2×4 @ 96″ and 5 – 2×4 @ 45″. I spaced them 22 1/8″ apart! I used the 3″ screws instead of nails down through the top and bottom 2x4s into the studs. Now I know that framing is done with nails so that they bend with shifting but this is such a small structure, I felt comfortable using screws! Plus I have used screws on my chicken coop and large goat shed and they both have not had any issues!

Next, build the side walls!

Left side wall is built using 2 – 2×4 @ 65″ and 4 – 2×4 @ 45″. They are spaced different on purpose! This will allow the brad nails for the trim boards to go into the studs later on!

The right side wall is going to be wide open so it will be different than the left side wall! Using 2 – 2×4 @ 65″ and 2 – 2×4 @ 45″.

Attach the two side wall frames to the back wall frame! I just screwed through the 3 1/2″ face (green and orange boards) of the 2×4 into the thin side of the back wall 2×4! Hope that makes sense! ***I painted my frames before putting them together, next time I build one, I will paint the bottom of the bottom 2×4 and maybe 6 inches up from the ground, but the sprayer can get the rest so much faster! Lol! If you don’t have a sprayer and don’t want to buy one, then paint the frames now before putting them together!

putting the walls together on the small goat house

attaching the right wall frame to the back wall frame

Now we will build and add the front frame!

The front frame is 2 – 2×4 @ 96″ with 3 – 2×4 @ 45″ evenly spaced.

Attach this front frame to the other three walls that are already connected! You will screw from the right and left walls into the front frame!

front wall added to the frame of the small goat shed

Adding Plywood to the Goat Shelter

Attach the back wall plywood, I use the 1 1/2″ screws to attach the plywood and just screw it into the studs!

attaching the back wall plywood to the goat shed frame

Add the plywood to the right wall!

adding the plywood to the right wall of the goat shelter

Adding the Trim

Next you will want to add the trim to the goat shelter! Make sure and caulk all trim so you don’t have to worry the edges of the plywood getting water near them and rotting! Pretend that you don’t see any cedar boards in the picture below! Lol! You should not have cedar on your goat shed yet! I brad nailed the trim into place!

I painted the outside at this point to keep from having to taping everything off! I should have painted inside and outside, it would have been smarter and I think the plan was to come back out and paint it but it never happened! Lol! I painted the outside with my paint sprayer which made for only about 10 minutes worth of spraying! The HomeRight paint sprayer (affiliate link) is WORTH EVERY PENNY! Lol!

Back wall trim – Again, disregard the cedar on the left of this pic, you will not have cedar on yours yet!

Left Wall Trim

Adding Cedar to the Front and Right Side

Now that we have the frame built, the plywood and trim on, and the whole thing painted whatever color you want, we can add the cedar!

Add the cedar to the right side first!

I screwed the 2×4 @ 48″ cedar boards into place from the white 2x4s on the backside of the cedar ones! I screwed straight through the front of the 2×4 @ 66 1/4″ top board. The screws can be slightly sunk to where you don’t even see them! And the angled boards in the corners are cut at 15 1/2″ long, both ends are cut at 45 degrees off square, ends not parallel and screwed into place though the underside (1 1/2″ side)! Looking at the picture below, you would shoot screws through where the lines that drop to show 15 1/2″ are, just at an angle to where the screws will go into the top board and side board!

cedar wood added to the right side of the goat shed

Now add the cedar to the front using the same method as on the right side!

adding the cedar boards to the front of the goat shelter

Make sure and seal your cedar unless you are okay with it graying within the year!

Adding Roof to the Goat Shelter

Last thing to do is get a roof built for this goat shelter!

First you will build the two end rafters! They will be slightly different than the others simply because they will have a bottom board! I used pocket holes to join the top two boards but you really don’t have to, you can use screws at an angle! But if you would like to use pocket holes, you drill them at 1 1/2″ depth and use 2 1/2″ pocket hole screws to attach, you can easily just use the same 3″ screws that you used building the rest of the goat shelter!

The bottom board is just screwed into place with two screws on each end at an angle!

This rafter is attached to the frame of the goat shelter with 90 degree angle brackets! You can sort of see this in this photo of my chicken coop, look at the far left side of this photo and half of the angle bracket is shown! The other rafters will be attached just as these are in the main part of the photo using hurricane straps!

Goat shed roof rafters - actual picture of chicken coop rafters but they are built the same!

The other rafters will all be built like this! Same measurements and angles on the side boards but will have a small board across the middle, this just gives the goats a little extra head room while still stabilizing the rafter!

You will need three of these rafters and attach them to the goat shelter with these brackets as shown above!

Then add middle braces between the rafters, this not only stabilizes the roof but also gives plenty of areas to attach the steel roof panels to no matter where the seams hit! I used pocket holes on these boards, but you can stagger them to wear you can screw them from the side of the rafter if you would rather!

middle braces for the roof rafters on the DIY goat shelter

small goat shelter showing the middle braces of the roof rafters

Once you have the middle braces in place, you can add the steel roof panels! I cut them down to size with a circular saw using a metal blade at 48″. Using the screws they make for steel roof panels, screw it into place!