Plans for a Small Barn

Image Gallery

The idea for this "Have-More" Plan came to us at a party—our own "barn warming" party.

When our small "concentrated barn" was finished, we thought it deserved a celebration. And so we invited all the neighbors and our friends to come and see it. We had planned and built our small barn to house not only our milk goats and their kids, but a couple of sheep, 25-30 laying hens, a battery brooder that would produce 30 broilers a month, a six compartment rabbit hutch, a squab loft, plus storage space for grain, straw and baled hay. Yet the size of the barn was only 16 x 30 feet, as large as a fair-sized living-room.

Of course, Carolyn and I—and Jackie—thought our small barn a thrilling place, but when we discovered how interested our guests were in all the animals and the compact, efficient layouts we had worked out for them, we saw that perhaps many people would be interested in the idea of a family producing a large part of its food in spare time on a small amount of land. Eventually, with the prodding of two friends at the party who are in the publishing business, we got this "Have-More" Plan written.

Now after producing about 75% of our family's food for four years, we realize there are three main fundamentals which set a productive country home apart from the ordinary "house in the country." First, the layout of the grounds should be planned for efficient working of the land. Second, a "Harvest Room," or a large kitchen, carefully planned for the processing of food, as well as the preparation, is needed to make the wife's part enjoyable. Third, an efficient small barn is a necessity: A homesteader's livestock can account for 40% to 50% of a family's food.

"Slightly Crazy!"

When we planned our barn we had almost nothing to go by. We wrote to all the barn equipment people, the lumber companies, the state and federal departments of agriculture, asking if they had small barn plans to house goats or a cow, laying chickens, rabbits, sheep, ducks, a pig, pigeons and geese. Some of the answers indicated that the specialists thought we were slightly crazy. Some wrote of small commercial barns that we might adapt.

Well, we finally ended up with somewhere around $15 worth of miscellaneous plans. None of them suitable for what we had in mind, however. So we set about designing our own barn. It was quite a job. We got the most efficient layout for poultry from one place, the best arrangement and style of goat stalls came from study and visits to a number of goat keepers and goat dairies. The broiler battery we bought for around $30 and the rabbit hutch for $20; both are of wire, sanitary and efficient.