Kevin Gant

Hello Peter and thank you for making your way thru OKC last year.

I'm writing to see if there are any species than can break down Juniperus virginiana tree chips, also known in Oklahoma as the Eastern Red Cedar. Thanks so much and look forward to reading your book.

Kevin

So, you're looking for an Arched Cabin?

http://archedcabins.com/

Q. What is the height of an Arched Cabin?
A. The 14' wide Arched Cabin is about 12' tall, The 16' wide is about 14'6" Tall, the 20' wide is about 17'4" tall and the 24' is about 19' tall. All these heights are to the top of the ridge beam which is 4" thick.

A little internet sleuthing revealed the building is part of the Wormsloe Historic Site in Savannah, GA.

http://gastateparks.org/Wormsloe/gallery

Pictures 14-16


http://gastateparks.org/Wormsloe

I pasture pigs. i feed non-gmo organic feed. I also get spent beer grains. My brewer's grains are non-gmo, so that's a yippee!

I do feed it to them a little at a time. The rest goes into making kick ass compost with wood chips. Throw in some other stuff and the compost temperature stays at 160 f and cooks really good. The chickens love to nibble on it as well. My goats, not too much.

I've signed up as well... Kevin from Oklahoma.

Natalie McVander wrote:Are your pigs free ranging over the entire pasture every day, or are you rotational grazing them?
If you are rotational grazing them, the turf might be too rough for the chicken tractor to lay flat against the ground.
Pigs can be good watch dogs. It's possible predators (especially the horrid weasels and raccoons) will not get real close. Unless your particular pigs could care less. LOL

Pigs are rotationally grazed inside an electric netting. I over seed with forage crops a day or two before they leave the paddocks and then also fill in any wallows they've created.

Let me give a little bit more information and clarity.

I will be at the property everyday tending to animals. The land is 230 acres with a year round creek running running through it, which the coyotes use to travel from pasture to pasture. There is 1 great pyr and 1 rat terrier there that have so far proven to be good deterrents.

I have 10 pigs there now with more on the way. I'm there everyday feeding them and checking on the 2 goats. I'd like layers but won't be there in the dawn to let them out and won't be there at dusk to lock them in but am there in the afternoons for several hours.

So, it looks like my best option is to just have a low density hoop style pen that has their food/water. And probably moving them daily. Sounds like I should also have a bit of electric hot wire out the outside near the bottom to prevent anything from digging under.

The only thing I could think of initially would be a pen similar to how some people do pastured chickens like Darby Simpson's hoop as seen here.

I could do one pen with broilers but would like to have several others with layers. The hoop would have water and supplemental feed inside. The layers pen would most likely be stocked less densely than the broiler pen. I'm guessing 10 per pen but need to look up stocking rates for layers.

My situation is that my farm land is 45 minutes away. While there I spend up to 4 hours working on things and then come back home for the day.

I'd like to have a flock or two follow my pastured pork around. They seem to leave a lot of food behind which I believe the chickens could utilize.

What kind of poultry management should I go with? Should I just get a number of hoop style coops and run 10 chickens in each one moving them around each day within the paddock. Ideally, I'd like to be getting an egg crop from these birds as well.

What design would work best? What would the stocking density be? My paddocks are roughly 100 x 100 feet.

Thanks.

I'm in OKC but am raising pastured pork on leased land in Norman area. I've also got a buck goat and am looking to find him some Kiko girlfriends so we can start a breeding program this year with kidding to happen early next year.