This is great - thanks for posting everyone. I am having a similar dilemma myself - perhaps someone can simplify the jargon and tell me if what I can imagine, is in fact possible.... a system which does not require mucking out!
Background: We have 2 x Golden Guernseys and 1 x Kinder. Up until recently, the two Guernseys were in a small paddock with a concrete floored shed and lots of climbing apparatus, while our Kinder was at a friends who has a little more space. I seem to spend my whole life mucking out, as the moment the fresh bedding goes down, they like to pee on it. Like our initial poster here, I find that this quickly becomes matted and too heavy to lift. The deep bed idea seems awful unhygienic to me, especially on the concrete. After a few days they start coming out with grubby knees, so its clearly not nice and dry for them for long. Am I missing something??
Anyway, because of this, I have bitten the bullet and given them a much much larger space within some woodland - its hilly, lots to eat and interest them etc, so they're very happy, and I now have space to bring our beloved Kinder back home
. I also gave them 3 new shelters made out of those large green Balmoral oil tanks (ones that had only been used for water though). I cut a door in each, and cut the bottoms out thinking that they would naturally drain and be snug, being just on the soil. They have not been using them for long enough to see if this works, and they still prefer the original shed anyway.... grrrr.
So, my question is (got there eventually!) - if they have a dry space such as one of my tanks, and they are located on soil, on a slightly sloping hill, will they be snug enough, without bedding, and will this thus reduce / stop mucking out?
If this fails, I plan to build a field shelter with four-fold symmetry, of the design used for bus shelters on the Western Isles! They are basically two walls which form a cross when viewed from above, with a circular roof on. This will give relief from wind from any direction, but the changing wind direction should also air the open fronted sections out well enough to reduce any need to muck out. Wishful thinking?
Sorry if this is all tried / tested / common methods, but everyone I know sticks to the shovel and barrow method!
Thanks!