My lil' farm

[Southern Wolf]

Here is a sketch I threw together on how I think I want my little farm laid out.

Well.. it better be the way I want it cause come Monday we are pouring concrete for the chicken bunker. To many varments around my place likes the taste of chicken and Im not sharing.

After I get the concrete poured for the chickens I will move the forms over and pour for the rabbits. Not sharing those either.

Currently the only thing constructed is my shop. It's a insulated, heated, and air conditioned place to tinker. It's an 8x12.

I will build a processing work station onto the side of it. Here I will have a table with running water, my bird plucker, and anything else I can think of that fits within the processing needs. It will have a covered top and I am thinking of doing slideable translucent wall panels. This way everything stays out of the weather, but I can still work with plenty of natural light even if its raining. If its not raining then I can slide the panels and give myself some breeze.

The Bunny Barn will be a 10x10. At this time Im not sure how many bunnies I can put in there, but I bet its more than I need.

The Chicken Coop will be a 10x10. I have read that I can put 20 birds in a 10x10 coop, plus they will have a 10x10 covered outdoor run.

Next year I hope to have the Turkey Townhouse built. It will have a 10x10 coop and a 10x14 run. I am looking at geting only 2 or 3 turkeys, hopefully this will be big enough for them.

Last to be built will be the nursery. My plans for this is to have a place to incubate and raise up the chicks (both chicken and turkey). It is currently slated as a 10x20 but I actually have room to put two smaller 10x10 buildings there if I change my mind on the size and want to add another critter to the mix. I may also set up a section in there to raise up some bunnies for the next generation.

Anyhow... what do ya think of my little farm

 

[Lucille]

I think you should keeps notes, it is a great project and once you are done you might could be a consultant for others trying to build similar buildings. I had some observations:
The entrances all face south, would there be any benefit so having the entrances all facing each other so that you would not have to move down and around when cleaning?
I don't know what your weather is like, will each building have to be air conditioned/heated? If so, would it save costs to have all the critters on one subdivided building?
Will each building have a food storage area or will you bring food daily to the critters?
For the turkeys, if you really love turkey an operation to house two turkeys is fine, but the cost per turkey will be astronomical if you actually have to pour concrete and build them a separate home. I realize that inflation is on the horizon and self sufficiency is a great idea, but a separate turkey house still seems like a big project for 2 turkeys.

 

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

I'm right with Lucille on her notes, especially the labor of hauling feed, water and checking daily, all doors pointed in would be a big time saver.

I'm terribly jealous of the processing room your planning. I do our butchering in the front yard, the plucker is on wheels so I can roll it to the driveway and I do the cutting on a glass top table on the porch. I have to pick and choose my processing days dependent on the weather. While I"m very jealous of the idea of a processing room, if I had to pay for that space to be built.....I wouldn't. I produce a LOT of chickens, I sell chicks in the spring and I raise up enough that last year I processed 35 roos & retired hens of my own on three different days and sold 30 pullets. That takes me a LOT of space. Mine free range the entire property and they easily use 3acres of it on a regular basis. your confinement area will require you feed 100% of their diet to them and the space will support your adult birds but I don't see where you will have space to raise your yourger chicks to processing size.

What I"m saying is, you may want to save your money on the processing room until you see if you really NEED it. I butcher a LOT of our meat, but I plan my butcher days so that the weather is agreeable, the fly's are minimal and I can get as many animals through in one day as I can. I have a friend that comes over and shares labor with me and we do her chickens too, you might look for someone who wants to work with you like that, Carol is great at watching Craigslist and scoring us free roosters and drakes from people who won't butcher their own meat and are tired of feeding all the extra males!

 

[Southern Wolf]

I think you should keeps notes, it is a great project and once you are done you might could be a consultant for others trying to build similar buildings. I had some observations:
The entrances all face south, would there be any benefit so having the entrances all facing each other so that you would not have to move down and around when cleaning?

Actually... all the entrances face west and I'll give that idea some thought... it wouldnt take much to flop a couple doors to the oposite wall.

I don't know what your weather is like, will each building have to be air conditioned/heated? If so, would it save costs to have all the critters on one subdivided building?

The only building that will most likely have heat and AC is the nursery.

Will each building have a food storage area or will you bring food daily to the critters?

I plan on having a container in each building for their food.

For the turkeys, if you really love turkey an operation to house two turkeys is fine, but the cost per turkey will be astronomical if you actually have to pour concrete and build them a separate home. I realize that inflation is on the horizon and self sufficiency is a great idea, but a separate turkey house still seems like a big project for 2 turkeys.

The concrete is just a footing/retaining wall for the building. Each building (exept nursery) will have a dirt floor. The problem is I dont have any flat ground.... all my land is on a hill side. Some sections steeper than others.

 

[Southern Wolf]

I'm right with Lucille on her notes, especially the labor of hauling feed, water and checking daily, all doors pointed in would be a big time saver.

It does make sense... I could just pull the trailer down the middle of the buildings and load it up. The reason the chickens and rabbits was facing west is because that is where the driveway is. These are going to be built right next to the driveway. Guess Im just a bit lazy. Probably need to get over that though

I'm terribly jealous of the processing room your planning. I do our butchering in the front yard, the plucker is on wheels so I can roll it to the driveway and I do the cutting on a glass top table on the porch. I have to pick and choose my processing days dependent on the weather. While I"m very jealous of the idea of a processing room, if I had to pay for that space to be built.....I wouldn't. I produce a LOT of chickens, I sell chicks in the spring and I raise up enough that last year I processed 35 roos & retired hens of my own on three different days and sold 30 pullets. That takes me a LOT of space. Mine free range the entire property and they easily use 3acres of it on a regular basis. your confinement area will require you feed 100% of their diet to them and the space will support your adult birds but I don't see where you will have space to raise your yourger chicks to processing size.

Originally I had planned on just having around 8 adult birds and then raising the grow ups for meat with the adults. HOWEVER it seems that every source I read says that the younger birds dont need the same food source as the laying hens because of the calcium. SO.... I have a new design layout and I'll post it at the end of this thread. It actually gives me two chicken houses and that will allow me to keep my meat birds seperate from my laying hens.

Honestly... I dont know how much I will end up producing for the butchering table. But I figured having a place to butcher the chickens, rabbits, and maybe turkeys would be a handy feature.

Because of my work schedule (and never knowing if Im gonna get mandated for overtime) I can't just let them free range. They coyotes and hawks would be well fed. I had a neighbor that let his free range... and he don't have anymore chickens.

What I"m saying is, you may want to save your money on the processing room until you see if you really NEED it. I butcher a LOT of our meat, but I plan my butcher days so that the weather is agreeable, the fly's are minimal and I can get as many animals through in one day as I can. I have a friend that comes over and shares labor with me and we do her chickens too, you might look for someone who wants to work with you like that, Carol is great at watching Craigslist and scoring us free roosters and drakes from people who won't butcher their own meat and are tired of feeding all the extra males!

Sadly I dont have any freinds that are into raising animals for food... I dont even currently know of anyone raising chickens.

Here is the newest version. We start getting ready to pour concrete tomarrow on one of the chicken houses

 

[Southern Wolf]

Version 3

 

[Lucille]

I don't know how the buildings are oriented to the hill that your land is on, but perhaps it might be good to have them arranged so that they do not dam water from rainfall.

 

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

OH YES, Lucille has a very good point. I had forgotten I had the same problem. I put the barn on a flat spot on a small hill. When it rained, the barn stopped the runoff water and flooded. My neighbor used his backhoe and dug a small trench around the uphill side of the barn, it causes the runoff water to pass to both sides of the barn rather than through it. It's not much of a trench, hardly noticeable, but it does the job.

 

[Southern Wolf]

thanks for the heads up. I'll have to look into that

 

[Southern Wolf]

Slight change in plans. We got the ground dug out and the forms put together for the footings and retaining wall. Then we realized there was no way to haul enough sand/gravel on our trailer (16' 5th wheel) to mix everything up in one pour. So I called the semi local concrete company to see what a load would cost to have them deliver it.

I cant justify another $500 on concrete for these birds. The load would be more than I needed because of the minimums required due to distance.... but even splitting it up between the bunnys and birds I still couldn't justify that cost on top of everything else I have already spent.

So now we are working on plan C. We put the dirt back into place and we are moving in another direction for the building. Hope to have some real progress by Monday night.

 

[Dennis Hultman]

Any update Kevin? I noticed that you quoted http://www.motherearthnews.com
in some of your posts in another thread.

It just so happens I have a stack of their magazines I picked up at swap-meet dated back to the seventies. They have some interesting plans for self sustaining homesteads. The layout of the barns and pens were very interesting. I will see if I can find them and scan them.

 

[Southern Wolf]

Yeah... I just recently found Mother Earth News... Im liking it so far. Im waiting for the next issue to come out... then I will decide if I want to get a subscription. I've also been reading Hobby Farms

Updates.... Im still working on the chicken house... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I am able to work on it the next two days then I should have birds in it by this weekend. The only thing they wont have is the laying boxes... but they are too young for them right now anyways.

Once I get it done... I'll post photos.

I may be nixing the idea of the larger animals (sheep and such) in order to become a bit more self sustaining. If I dont have the larger stuff.. then I can use that area to plant feed crops for the bunnies and birds. I may not be able to grow everything I need for them... but something beats nothing.