Small Paddock for livestock ready to be harvested

What are people's thoughts on size and materials for a quick paddock to keep livestock in until it is time for harvesting?

Something to keep them safe and comfortable away from the rest of the flock/herd or at a remote location where they will be harvested later in the day or evening?

Jeff Bosch wrote:What are people's thoughts on size and materials for a quick paddock to keep livestock in until it is time for harvesting?

Something to keep them safe and comfortable away from the rest of the flock/herd or at a remote location where they will be harvested later in the day or evening?

What variety of livestock are we talking?  Small ruminants or pigs?  A cattle panel square (held together with caribiners, zip ties, or other options) is large enough not to be stressful but small enough for a couple people to catch them without too much chasing.

For larger livestock like cattle I'd imagine something like a gate corral is the trick.  For smaller livestock like poultry, I'd normally use something like a dog crate to keep them confined.  

Currently thinking for lambs, ducks, and chickens.

But other animals depending on the situation.

Jeff Bosch wrote:Currently thinking for lambs, ducks, and chickens.

But other animals depending on the situation.

If that's the case, I'd grab 4 cattle panels (which really are such a good idea to have anyway in case you need to confine a sheep for any other reason), plus they store flat, work as trellises, shelter supports, etc.  10/10

A dog crate is great to transport small animals when they're babies (pigs, sheep, goats), and is also perfect for confining chickens and goats.

For a small number of birds, we use the metal mesh dog crates. I set them on top of a ladder, and that way the poop falls through, rather than the birds sitting in it.
Normally, I grab the birds at "duckie bedtime" and process them early in the morning. It's best they don't get too thirsty, but that their crops are empty. Chickens can overheat quickly if there's no shade or poor air circulation. However, I find if I leave them on grass or dirt, they'll fill their crops even if I've removed feed.

However, it they're going to the abattoir, I have not choice but to leave them on the grass and we load them into a modified trailer first thing in the morning. Luckily the abattoir is a short trip away. Provincial Regulations require us to use a licensed facility if we're selling to the permies.

If you have the capital go with what laurel said.The cattle panels work great.Some t-posts or logs for posts.If your in a pinch use pallets.You can also construct one out of logs.chicken wire.alittle chicken tractor with some round lumber and chicken wire can work well.Be around and on the look out for predators.best of luck.

When I'm getting ready for chicken slaughter day I'll typically use my electric poultry netting to constrict them to relatively small space.  You can have it hot, or not, the couple that usually escape if its not hot haven't been that big of a deal to catch.  Granted I often have quite a crowd, so there's usually someone taking a break that can chase them down if necessary.  And not energizing the fence makes life nicer for the people interacting with the fence.

What can help a lot for chickens (and I'd assume ducks too) is to have a "chute" that you herd them into.  I made a rectangle that was maybe 3-4' wide and about 8' long with welded livestock panels or no-climb fence for the long sides, covered in a tarp, and a fence gate for the short sides.  The tarp is very helpful especially with welded livestock panels as the openings are too big to contain the birds on their own.  Plus having a visual barrier helps keep the birds calm.  Having a kid inside the chute to hand birds to whoever is running the dispatch station works pretty well as long as said kid knows how to handle them.  A couple/three kids to herd 10-15 birds at a time from the main area made with the poultry netting into the chute keeps things from getting too crowded, but also keeps things moving along.

For lambs, a square or triangle of the welded livestock panels (depending on how many you're wanting to corrale) inside the main paddock for the rest of the herd, secured with decently beefy zip ties at each corner, allows the lamb to still be close to the other sheep if it's just the one you'll be butchering until you're ready to do it.  Note that you'll definitely want to set a T-post at the corners (and/or use fixed fencing for one or two sides) as otherwise the lambs will just push the panels around the paddock.  For lambs you'd need to skip the tarp covering.  They would need to be able to see their flock mates in order to remain calm.  Remember that sheep fear separation from their flock far more than death itself.  You can cut the lambs throat in full view of the other sheep without problem.  With goats you would want to shield the remaining ones from view of the actual kill as they're smart enough to remember you doing that.  But sheep generally don't care.