# new to livestock!  Please tell me how you keep the barn clean



## jessica_1285 (Mar 5, 2012)

I recently moved to a little farmette! A dream come true  so anyway I have a 20 20 pen in the barn with 3 mini myotonic goats, a llama, and a Pb pig.Everything is going great however I cant figure out how others afford to keep the bedding clean lol. We use straw Bc its the cheapest.  I have been raking it out down to the dirt floor every other day then add a fresh bale.  It seems like a lot of wasted straw but its impossible to separate the clean from the dirty!  Am I over cleaning?  What do you guys do? I will Greatly appritiate any suggestions. Thanks


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 5, 2012)

"We don't take anything out of the barn until the spring, when we have one day of clean out. we just put fresh bedding on top, every few days.


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## Hillsvale (Mar 5, 2012)

we use shavings (mixed with the hay the sheep and goats refuse to eat) and in the layer hut spagnum (peat moss dried), we clean the various shelters completely at least every 2nd week... sooner if their are young kids or lamb on site.


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## jodief100 (Mar 5, 2012)

I am with 20kids.  We just layer new over old and clean it all out come spring. I don't even add anything, I just spread around the hay they spill every few days.


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## hcppam (Mar 5, 2012)

Glad you asked that.


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## currycomb (Mar 5, 2012)

personally, for cleaning everyday, shavings is actually cheaper, you can pick up the solid waste with a manure fork, and the wet spots too, then just cover the wet spots with older bedding, adding a bit of new shavings when it gets thin. straw is best to just cover it up and clean-out weekly, or monthly, or whenever you feel up to the job. depends how clean you want things. we are lucky around here. some sawmills close by, can get sawdust stuff for next to nothing. also have a place that brings in semi's full of kiln dried shavings. a little priceier, but drier and more absorbent. then there is the farm stores with their bagged bedding,really costly to start out with. some report good results from the pelleted bedding too.(i've never used it so cannot help out there).


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## aggieterpkatie (Mar 5, 2012)

Cleaning it out every day or every few days gets so expensive and IMO is a waste of time and money.  Just lay fresh bedding down when needed, and do a total clean out when it gets too deep or yucky.  And I can't imagine trying to clean out little goat berries from bedding!


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## jessica_1285 (Mar 5, 2012)

Thanks for the replies everyone! It sounds like as long as the top layer is clean and dry its ok to let it pile up for awhile? Does it smell really bad or will the waste kind of compost under there?


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## ksalvagno (Mar 5, 2012)

I clean out once a month. I put a thin layer of straw down and then the goats are great at spreading (i.e. wasting) hay over top of it. I just can't let it go more than that. I can't stand how thick it gets and I have to be able to clean it out with a pitch fork, shovel and wheelbarrow.  So keep that in mind. If you let it go for a year, do you have a way to bring a bobcat or something in to clean it out.


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## kricklewood (Mar 5, 2012)

I empty out the chicken coop hay and put it on the garden once every couple of weeks and take the spilled hay off the floor from the goat stall and give it to the chickens as it's still fairly clean.  Will do a major cleanout in Spring.


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 5, 2012)

ksalvagno said:
			
		

> I clean out once a month. I put a thin layer of straw down and then the goats are great at spreading (i.e. wasting) hay over top of it. I just can't let it go more than that. I can't stand how thick it gets and I have to be able to clean it out with a pitch fork, shovel and wheelbarrow.  So keep that in mind. If you let it go for a year, do you have a way to bring a bobcat or something in to clean it out.


that is a good point, we use a tractor and a manure spreader, but then again we have 20 plus goats in ours.


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## Cara Peachick (Mar 5, 2012)

With straw, I use a standard pitchfork (maybe 8-10 tine?) to throw straw against a wall in the corner.  As the pile grows, a lot of the goat berries roll down the sides and collect at the bottom.  I clean these out with a shovel and clean out any wet spots, then spread the straw back out.  This method doesn't make the straw perfectly clean, but it removes a lot of the berries.  I only do this every several weeks, and just do a through clean out as needed.  It doesn't get stinky if it isn't too wet (like if it's in a covered area) and when I do a thorough clean-out, I find that the layers have partially composted, so I can use it directly on some of my more hardy plants.    

I cleaned a lot more often when I started.  I was used to working at horse stables where the stalls were cleaned well daily.  I found that it's just not necessary, at least for my taste.

When I have new kids, I do keep their stall quite clean for the first couple weeks.  Their milk poops and mom's post-birth discharge can make it nasty pretty quick in there


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## RPC (Mar 5, 2012)

I am like 20 I let it build up then I clean it out. I also only have a shovel, pitchfork, and wheelbarrow. A few weeks ago we cleaned 2 of the 4 pens and it was 40 loads but that was 4-5 months worth that we let build up. I am working on another pen and am about 1/3 done and have already dumped 6 loads. Its alot of work and I only have 2 hours of sun light when I get home from work.


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## GLENMAR (Mar 5, 2012)

Are all those animals in a 20x20 pen??? Maybe that is why it is hard to clean?


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## elevan (Mar 5, 2012)

Straw works best when it is chopped.  You can do this with a wood chipper and store the chopped straw in old feed bags until you need it.  It will also make a bale last 3-4 times longer.

We use a combination of straw and pine shavings here.  And we do the deep litter method that has already been described.  We also clean out by hand in the Spring.  It's hard work and takes a few days, but we have a fairly large barn.

Our chickens help to break down the waste and hasten the composting process while the bedding is still in the barn.  So come Spring we have a great "product" perfect for the garden.

_We have 11 goats and a llama in the area that I'm talking about._


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## redtailgal (Mar 6, 2012)

lol, We are super lazy  here.

We put the hay feeder in the sleeping area, and the goats spread their own bedding, the fresh clean stuff is always on top.  I do have an extra pile of straw in one corner that they sleep in.

We've started the process of cleaning it out now.  We are using the winters worth of wasted hay bedding as a "mattress" style mulch for the tomato garden.

It was our first year trying this but it has worked wonderful!


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## Queen Mum (Mar 6, 2012)

Clean?  People actually *KEEP* the barn clean?   I clean mine but it never stays that way.  

_*I have goats.*_ 

Five minutes after I pull out all the yucky stuff, lime the floor, put in more straw or chips or whatever, they feel it's too clean and go in and pee on the floor and poop all over the place.


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## hcppam (Mar 6, 2012)

redtailgal said:
			
		

> lol, We are super lazy  here.
> 
> We put the hay feeder in the sleeping area, and the goats spread their own bedding, the fresh clean stuff is always on top.  I do have an extra pile of straw in one corner that they sleep in.
> 
> ...


I like it!


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## mydakota (Mar 7, 2012)

I pick the wet, nastier spots out every couple of weeks, but only do a Down-To-The-Dirt cleaning once a year, right before the first kids are due. I keep it pretty clean through kidding, and then just worry about the top layer being clean and dry.  The kidding pen is bedded with straw, but all other enclosures are bedded with pine shavings.


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## Bunny-kids (Mar 8, 2012)

I actually had mine briefly on concrete. That's super-easy to clean but the goats need wood beds to get off the floor. I had good luck with hard-packed dirt for some time too. 

Right now I spread the wasted hay in their stalls and just add more weekly or so. With new kids it's starting to smell slightly for the first time. We're due ten days of rain too so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage that. I can't easily do a down to the dirt cleaning with all the goats in there with me. I may have to break down and buy a round bale of straw. At least I can compost it ...


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## Beekissed (Mar 8, 2012)

I'd section your pen off to keep the PB separate.  In the other pen I'd just add dry shavings every now and again after you place a scattering  of whole corn or oats down.  Just keep layering that mix until you turn your stock out to pasture...then I'd let that little PB in the bigger pen and let him plow through all that bedding rooting for all the fermented kernels. 

 He'll be fluffing, aerating, breaking down and all around working up your bedding.  When he is through it should be dry, fluffy and easy to remove and he should be fat as a tick and happy as a clam!  

You can thank Salatin for that idea...I've actually held the manure pack in his barn in my hands~it had no odor, it was fluffy and looked like really good mulch after his pigaerators had finished with the whole winter's manure pack.  You can apply that directly on your garden from the pen because it will have composted during all that packing, binding with carbonaceous materials and then the aeration.


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## chubbydog811 (Mar 8, 2012)

I clean once a week for the goats that are penned inside a 10x12 stall for the winter (2 goats per stall) and I clean the run-in sheds every other week or so (3-6 head per run-in). I can't stand letting the stalls get piled up - I'm a horse owner, and am used to cleaning stalls every day...I also noticed the stalls get extremely stinky if they are left longer than a week. In the summer when they get turned out on pasture during the day, I only have to clean inside stalls every other week. Horse boarders usually don't appreciate smelling nasty goat and sheep smells when they are working their horses.
The goats get bedded with a 1/2 bag of shavings in the stalls every time they are stripped, the sheep get bedded with scrap hay, and the run-ins don't get bedded at all.  

I have a bad shoulder, so if I let it get piled more than 4" deep, it is incredibly painful to get cleaning finished.


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## Bunny-kids (Mar 8, 2012)

Beekissed said:
			
		

> I'd section your pen off to keep the PB separate.  In the other pen I'd just add dry shavings every now and again after you place a scattering  of whole corn or oats down.  Just keep layering that mix until you turn your stock out to pasture...then I'd let that little PB in the bigger pen and let him plow through all that bedding rooting for all the fermented kernels.
> 
> He'll be fluffing, aerating, breaking down and all around working up your bedding.  When he is through it should be dry, fluffy and easy to remove and he should be fat as a tick and happy as a clam!
> 
> You can thank Salatin for that idea...I've actually held the manure pack in his barn in my hands~it had no odor, it was fluffy and looked like really good mulch after his pigaerators had finished with the whole winter's manure pack.  You can apply that directly on your garden from the pen because it will have composted during all that packing, binding with carbonaceous materials and then the aeration.


What an awesome idea! 

Darn, my current barn-ette actually needs expanding within the next couple of years. I don't have a pig, but I'm almost tempted by this idea. I just *might* have to consider this.


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## jessica_1285 (Mar 8, 2012)

Wow!  Thanks so much for all the great ideas everyone  I think I will spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying my critters.  I feel like a weight has been lifted lol.  I will still keep it clean of course, I was just trying to keep it perfect. This is such a great community, I know I will learn so much from all of you!


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## landis1659 (Mar 9, 2012)

I too  clean my little barn out every morning.  But my goats share there little 2 room barn with about 20 hens.  Last year someone told me to just leave the hay pile up in their stalls and keep adding fresh hay as needed so I tried that, I had cleaned the whole barn out about 2 weeks before my new kids were due so everything was pretty fresh and when my girls started labor I put fresh hay on top of what was there for only the 2 weeks.  Well 2 days after one of my kids were born she came down with what I thought was pink eye after treating her for all most 2 weeks I had to take her to a vet, he said it was bacterial infection in the eye.  He told me probably from the bedding not being clean enough.  So now I went back to cleaning out my barn everyday again.  He told me that since I have wood floors in my barn that there was no where for the urine to go and the it stays trapped in the wood.  He said leaving the hay to pile up on a dirt floor would be OK but not on wood or concrete.  I  use a dogs pooper scooper on the berries from the goats that works pretty good and I use a small childs plastic rake to sweep the wet or soiled hay from urine and chicken poop.  There is a special lime based powder made for barns that I also sprinkle around on the floor that doesn't hurt the animals but keeps the odors and bacteria down.  Other than that I power wash the whole barn every 3 months with a little bleach since then I haven't had anymore problems.  But again my barn is only 2 12X12 rooms that hold 5 goats and 20 hens, if I had a large barn it might not be such an issue.  So it only takes me 10 min. every morning to clean.  Better than having sick animals.  Good luck with your new livestock.

Pepper


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