BoboFarm's Journal

[Latestarter]

OH HELL no! This has been one heck of a wet spring! Luckily for me, "most" of the heaviest has been south and east of me. I'm in a quagmire none the less with what I've received. But it's nothing like the record rainfall amounts others east of me have seen so far this year. And I just posted in my journal that I NEED to get back to fencing but we're forecast for a solid week of more moisture.

 

[BoboFarm]

We were going to start fencing with such warm temps but we're still working on settling in the house. With no critters to worry about, fencing is going to have to wait. We're waiting on a guy to do a bunch of dirt work so we can get french drains in to get the water away from the house. He's so backed up though so we wait.

 

[Baymule]

Congrats on the major move that brought you such peace and happiness. Your children will love growing up there. What a beautiful view from your front door! Fencing and animals will all come in their own due time. We sure were happy to get our property closed in and fenced. We never let our dogs out unless we were with them, so I know what you mean there.

Study these threads and ask lots of questions so that when you put up fences, shelters and such, it will be what you want and what works best for you.

Again, congrats on your little homestead, may you have years of happiness and contentment there.

 

[BoboFarm]

Thank you, @Baymule! The kids are itching to get out and explore but now that winter has finally arrived I'm using the time to plan, plan, plan.

Speaking of planning, I've "drawn" up an idea for fencing. It's not exact but it gives us a general idea of what we'd like to do.

 

[Baymule]

How many rabbits do you plan on having? And what type housing will you have for them? A 3 sided shed with dirt floor? A building with wood floor? I had rabbits many years ago and housed the chickens with them. The chickens ate the feed the rabbits dropped, scratched under the pens, ate fly larva and kept the poo turned. The rabbits did get ear mites from the chickens, but I treated every rabbit monthly with mineral oil drops in their ears and it wasn't a problem.

I see that you have shelters up against the fence on the road. I would put them on an interior fence, just because people are stupid and if they can reach in to "pet" the animals, they will. It would also make it a little more difficult to steal your chickens or rabbits. For the pigs, put their shelter on the interior cross fence.

Simpleterrier posted his pig pen set up on my pig thread. We are about to build a permanent pig pen and it will be modeled after what he built.
He can feed and water his pigs without having to go in the pen with them. I like that idea, pigs can get ornery.

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/baymules-pigs-2017-2018.36803/page-5

 

[Latestarter]

I would recommend that you have the chicken/rabbitry OUTside the planned fencing and located in the corner by the buck pen and back property line. You'll be checking for eggs multiple times a day and you do NOT want to have to walk through the other animal pens to do this. It will get very old, very quick. Maybe in the NE corner so you'll have room for a run and still be able to free range the birds? Plan in advance for how you'll get a trailer in position to load up a couple of 300 pound pigs...

 

[Baymule]

Good point LS, loading those pigs up! Our first feeder pigs were in the garden all winter, we just backed the trailer in and fed them in it for a week. They loaded themselves. The second batch of feeder pigs, we shot and slaughtered them ourselves. Easy to load in small vacuum sealed packages. LOL LOL LOL The third ones, we made a small holding pen, lured them in and didn't feed them for a day. DH backed the trailer up, we used cow panels to make a loading chute and put smelly soured corn in the trailer. They loaded themselves.

Point being, put up a wide gate that you can drive a tractor through. Make sure it is accessible to a trailer. Since you will be going through the goat pasture to get to the pig pen, you will want a holding pen or small lot where you can close the goats up to keep them out of the way.

 

[Latestarter]

Or they can drive and back up to the hog pen through the BLM land. BLM is public access. They just have to plan for it in advance. And hope there's a BLM gate/access nearby...

 

[BoboFarm]

We plan on 4-6 rabbits, just enough to feed our family with extras to the dogs. They'll be in a concrete, completely enclosed and secured shed. I want colony style for the does with bucks separate (discussed in this thread: https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/keeping-meat-rabbits.37247/ ). The shed will be used for tools as well. It'll be 10'x20'. This can be located anywhere on the property. I just put it close to everyone to try to increase efficiency when doing chores.

I put the shelters up against the fence because the winds almost always come from the southwest, bottom left of the property. I wanted the front of the buildings to be sheltered from the wind so when I go out when it's windy (most of the time) I don't have to fight the wind to open or close doors. That's also why the goat barn is positioned the way it is. The goats will have a covered porch for shade and shelter from the elements. I wanted the chicken coop as far away from us as possible because DH is a light sleeper and any chicken noises (roosters) will be in the distance. I don't mind the walk out there when I do all of the chores, especially if I don't have to hear DH's crowing vs a rooster The pig shelter can be changed. I like that pen idea but we have to be able to completely secure the shelter at night to keep the piggies safe from predators. We're going to eventually start out with a couple of feeder American Guinea Hogs. We don't need a lifetime supply of pork in the freezer so AGH should suit us just fine. We will have access to that back pen with a trailer. When we have the dirt work done we'll have a path cleared to the corner of the property so we can get our trailer out there. We will also have gates to BLM.

There's a drainage ditch that's about 6ft wide between the proposed fence line and the road. We will be using electric added to the top and bottom of 2"x4" no climb fencing for all of the critter fencing. I had some concern about the rabbits and chickens on the fence line. Maybe I'll play with it some more.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[BoboFarm]

I have the goat barn plans saved on my work computer so I can post that tomorrow. It's also 10'x20' with a 5'x10' walled off section for bucks, a 10'x10' section for does and kids and a 5'x10' section for milking and storage.