The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Buildings & planning => Topic started by: Chris H on July 02, 2012, 03:13:17 pm
-
Bringing in a 4 sheep and 2 goats to new land, whats the best/cheapest way of making housing/store for feed. I want them to be comfy and easy to care for, no neighbours and plenty of space.
Not much money, but willing to work :thumbsup:
-
Someone will be along soon to suggest straw bales with a tarpoline / roofing sheet for a roof..........
Without planning it needs to be mobile if not pre-erected eg a large ark. I have some big green plastic ones which I intend to move around paddocks. If straw bales can hammer in some fence posts to stabilise/support roof timbers i need be.
Re- feed. I keep mine in plastic bins with clip lids. can go outside, just make sure can't get knocked over, so maybe behind temp fence.
-
I have a shelter that my father made in one of the paddocks. Basically from those curved corrugated metal sheets that you can buy.
I would say galvanised bins - due to rodents.
-
Galvanised dustbins work well
-
No worries with planning, we have a croft and are allowed animal housing as part of the agreement. Looking forward to the straw bale ideas :farmer:
-
Agree with the galavanised dustbins. We are currently watching with interest as something is gnawing through the lid of our plastic bin with clip lid. We are waiting until it's almost in and then we are going to move the food.
I think it's a squizzer. Little bu88er
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think animal health specify metal bins for food anyway.......
-
SQ - We had one last remaining plastic bin. Rapidly being gnawed away by something and yes I think it was one of your friends. We moved all the food into the metal bins. Got home to find all the metal lids removed ??? . Okay , it had been blustery up here so a bit puzzled but blamed the wind. Except it kept happening. Guess what? ..... squirrels can take metal lids off bins. Really clever these Welsh squirrels. Hubbie tied the lids on with those elastic rope things. Squirrel bit through them. They are now held on with strong wire twisted around the side handles. ;D
-
Cripes!!!
We have ours bungeed down and I was busy responding with that suggestion before I had got to the end of your post.
I think it'll be fun to see who can outwit whom.
-
I can appreciate that feed can be stored in open to the air secure bins, but what about hay?
Any ideas on housing would be a help, we seem to have got stuck on bins :innocent:
-
HIya Chris we used straw bales/galvanised tin/tarp, for our pigs and a three sided version would be fine for sheep and goats (other than they might eat it in winter?) - I recon it would probably last a couple or three years - the main drawback is the limit in size without a timber substructure and the fact that we had to buy in straw (I think we had 25 bales which was about £50) - we had loads of 2 or 3' x 8 ' corrugated stuff and tarps. Staked them through with metal spikes. Pretty solid... but since then Ive been thinking about using tyres filled with earth for the next time (google earthship !) as we have loads of them. Not sure whether they would be viewed as more of a structure than strawbale... and in theory they are a waste and so potentially come under the waste transfer licencing scheme in this country(but apart from that!!! :innocent: ). They would make such a snuggy field shelter, but I think, again, you'd stuggle to scale up height and width wise (thinking of hay storage) without some timber substructure help. I'll try and dig out some pics.
-
We have to buy our hay in , 2 or 3 bales at a time, as we also lack storage space.
The corrugated tin shelter (curved sheets) works well and not expensive or difficult to make. All my girls can fit in there (2 sheets used).
-
I'm not impressed with straw bale structures - whatever you put on as a roof will blow away. Why not just bite the bullet and make a field shelter? For just a few sheep, four corner stobs with sarking for the sides and roof, tin on top of the roof sarking, one side open away from the prevailing wind. You could use planks recycled from pallets, but sarking is cheap. We have one of these little shelters (one not so little) in each of our paddocks.
If you go to our website www.scothebs.co.uk (http://www.scothebs.co.uk) , on the 'lambing' page there are a couple of the shelters visible. I think they look quite smart 8)
The big one was a bit of a mistake - long story - but we are going to make a loft in the apex of the roof so we can store a little hay up there (if it ever stops raining long enough to make any).
-
Hi Fleecewife,
Have taken a look at your website - your shelters are just what i was looking for, for my shetlands. Would you be able to tell me the rough sizes - how high and wide etc, many thanks
-
Hi Fleecewife,
Have taken a look at your website - your shelters are just what i was looking for, for my shetlands. Would you be able to tell me the rough sizes - how high and wide etc, many thanks
Of course. I'll go out and measure them in boot lengths - hope that's ok. The green one is made with smallish straining posts in the corners rather than stobs, but either will do.
-
that would be fantastic, thank you :)
-
Here we go (Imperial measures, hope that's ok):
The green one is -
5' 10" wide at the front
9' 6" long, front to back
3' 6" tall from ground to top of side walls,
5' 9" ground to apex at the front, plus the tin on top of that.
The sarking is 6" wide, with small gaps for ventilation (necessary for wet sheep)
The blue one is:
6' 10" wide at the front
5' 6" long, front to back
2' 10" tall at the back
3' tall at the front, with a single slope backwards.
Inside, there is a horizontal bar top and bottom to attach the sarking to. The green shelter has three roof trusses, one at each end and one midway. The blue one has a horizontal bar halfway back to support its roof. They have guttering to catch the rain and direct it into buckets for drinking water. You could though dig a trench all the way round and fill with gravel for drainage - the front gets a bit muddy in wet weather.
The actual measurements don't really matter - I think they were chosen to fit the materials to hand, but they give an idea of a size which is useable. The green one is easier to get into if anyone decides to lamb in there, but is quite deep so some sheep are sort of trapped at the very back. The blue one is wider at the front so less easy for any one sheep to block.
The rain comes from every point of the compass here, so we solved the problem of which way to have the shelters face, by making them all different. In the winter the sheep have access to all the grazing so they can choose which shelter to use. There is always someone who stands outside ::)
Snow will get in whatever you do, but at least they have shelter from the wind and the worst of the snow :sheep: :sheep: .
-
Brilliant, thank you so much. have printed your reply off for hubby so he can make a start on ours ;D
-
:thumbsup:
Oh and the measurements are in real feet and inches, not my boot length as I remembered to take a measuring tape :trophy:
-
:thumbsup: ;D