Sheltering a Flock

Our first year with sheep was a good learning experience.


The sheep arrived on Halloween, we had or rather, my spouse had, spent time at Tractor Supply getting step in posts, polywire electric rope, fence battery and making the necessary calculations to provide the enclosure that would contain the sheep throughout the winter.

I contrived to devise a shelter which ( no laughing, and no...I am NOT blonde ) the sheep promptly ate within a week.

It was a hay bale construction and I thought since the hay used wasn't really of good quality, the sheep would turn their noses up at it in favor of the better quality hay offered. In my ignorance I didn't realize the sheep would eat everything, no selective bones in their bodies.

So, with impending snow, freezing temps and sheep who needed a shelter I took into account all the raw materials at hand and my lack of knowledge/skill with tools, and proceeded to create one experiment after another none of which stood longer than two days.

I even spent an entire day making blocks from wet snow, stacking them into a square ice house and while pleased with the effort and could see the possibilities, watched it slowly slide downhill because I failed to take into consideration the slight, almost imperceptable slant to the ground. Okay, scratch off ...ice house shelter.

What we settled on, and have used ever since are versions of "hoop houses". These consist very simply of cattle panels 16 ft in length, 4 ft in width, and EMT tubing covered with tarps. Done right, they provide waterproof and wind resistant shelters all winter long, though I do tend to fortify the base with hay bales. The floor is heavily bedded to create a manure pack which we remove with a skid steer in the spring.

They are inexpensive, easy to construct, offer shade protection in the summer time, and allow for relocating without much effort or time spent.

I'd much rather have a big old dairy barn to be sure. I'm a fan of having the right tools for any job, but since we didn't decide on a homestead with such a barn, and have no plans for building one, that's probably not going to happen.

Below is an early version of hoop house. The cattle panel is covered by a blue tarp. The white in the middle is a PVC pipe which is used to hold the roof up under the snow load. We no longer use wood shavings as bedding, but prefer straw or hay.