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

[Beekissed]

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.

 

[chubbydog811]

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.

 

[Bunny-kids]

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.

 

[jessica_1285]

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!

 

[landis1659]

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