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| I am in ND so if I can do winter...you can do winter. I have pigs, goats, chickens and geese. Last winter I had everyone in a large unheated metal equipment shed. We started out with everyone in their own "pens" but by the end of the winter they had pushed over the metal fencing and were all sharing and no one was the worse for it. I had electricity but had to haul water. I used a combination of the heated 5 gallon buckets (my goats may not have liked it but they used them) and shorter pans for the pigs with tank deicers in them. I used house water so it wasn't heated but not ice cold either. I used deep straw for everyone and it is easy to buy in Mn/ND. Buying from the field is a good suggestion and I will try that next year. I go to Climax, Mn for my hay and straw. The hay I got this year is so much better and I have so much less loss. As I said, no heat and everyone was fine. The kids started coming in the middle of the last 2 blizzards of the year, so I tried to use a heat lamp but generally they didn't care. Pigs like to break up their own bales as it gives them something to fill their "rooting" needs. (I have just learned in my organic farming class that to be certified I will have to stop that as "twine" may not be organic.) Last year I fed too much grain/pellets but I am still learning. Last year, I didn't have a way to let them outside on a daily basis. The biggest problem that caused was overgrown hooves for the goats and boredom. This year, they can go out in the snow. My chickens had some "frozen" parts issues but as someone pointed out to me, geese swim in the winter so they do just fine. We had a number of 40 below nights and a general all around awful winter so I figure it can't be as bad as it was last year. Mary Ann
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mystnd (11/18/2009)
I am in ND so if I can do winter...you can do winter. I have pigs, goats, chickens and geese. Last winter I had everyone in a large unheated metal equipment shed.
What did you do with their manure over the winter?
What "parts" froze on the chickens, and did you lose any of them as a result?
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| Chickens get frost bite on their combs and waddles (sometimes). Invest in a tub of vaseline and put it on their combs and waddles to prevent frost bite. Need to pay attention to those who have extra large combs like in some of the leghorns. If you garden, you can use the green manure to heat up your seedling bed. They have specs for that in this month HF issue Nov/Dec. Down here when the weather gets cold we use a small cooper tubing to run water (shin) out of the cattle water troughs to keep them from freezing as well as to keep the water moving in the pipes, but this is Louisiana.
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| The manure just piled up. It helps with heating the barn for the winter and I just added more straw on top of it. C is right about the wattles and feet freezing. I don't think my chickens were friendly enough to let me put anything on them. I did lose a few but I had a lot of roosters and they were vicious to anything weaker. My chicken experience was a disaster (sadly) for the chickens. I will do it much better next time around. However, water that doesn't move and isn't heated...freezes in our part of the world. Mary Ann
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In my opinion, manure should never be considered an issue but rather an asset. Te USDA actually gives the manure on farms a value of 1.5 cents per cubic foot. It does not sound like much, but it really adds up...and I contend that manure has more value then that.
Manure is fertilizer and tests have shown that cow manure alone can provide all the nurishment growing grasses and plants need. Now other species like sheep have even more potent manure so it has added value as well since sheep manure comes in convenient pellets and doesn't burn plants and can be directly applied to soil.
While manure can be bagged up or sold in bulk, the truth is manure is organic matter and should be applied on farm whenever possible. Its going to build up your organic matter in your soil, lighten it and give it life. Considering that it amounts to making top soil, its in our best interest to get the application at its optimum levels. Of course there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing though, so you do have to be careful.
Liquid manure is better then solid manure because the water that separates out, keeps the nitrogen in the manure from being leached out. With solid manure, every day its exposed to the air and the nitrogen levels leach out so its not as potent as the liquid kind. Liquid manure also gives you a more even coverage in the fields.
All you really need to do to store solid manure over the winter is to have a spot that is not saturated with water. A concrete or asphalt pad is best so the manure does not leach out into the soil, but a gravel pad would also work too. In Maine, we are not allowed to spread manure from December 1st to March 15th due to the frozen ground, but Maine has the strictest regulations for manure applications. But then again, why would you want to spread on frozen ground anyway...it will only run off once the snow melts leaching the nutrients away.
As for a method, there are two methods you can use. Deep bedding where you just keep adding straw or hay to the manure that accumulates as the animals live in the barn over the winter, then in the Spring of the year you clean out the barn in one feel swoop. The other method is to change the bedding everyday. This is what I do only because I have the time to do it, and I would rather spend a few minutes cleaning out the barn then doing it once but taking all day to clean out tons of manure from a winters worth of accumulation. I also think the latter is more sanitary as there is no methane build up in the barn leading to potential pneumonia from my sheep, but either way is considered proper animal husbandry.
I have actually entertained the idea of selling my manure. I get plenty of manure from the dairy farm to ensure my fields get the fertilizer they need, so the sheep manure could provide an income. I am hoping next year to build a composting pad so that the weed seeds in the manure are burned off off during composting so I can sell a decent product. If I did not have access to the dairy farms manure though, I would never sell my manure...it is just too valuable as organic matter and fertilizer for my farm. I encourage others to look at their manure in the same way.
******
Tell a welfare recipient they must work and they call their congressman. Tell a farmer he can no longer work and he commits suicide. No wonder 1/2% of the population feeds the other 99-1/2%!!
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Hi,
Welcome to Hobby Farms.
I have never had pigs, but I have chickens and two goats.
With chickens you really only need a coop with fresh bedding (straw or shavings works great) that is dry all the time. They need fresh water and dry un moldy food. I live in CA so it doesn't get as cold here as MN but we lived there for 4 years and we kept chickens the whole time. They also need some kind of nest to lay their eggs in. A piece of wood leaned against the wall will work. They need someplace dark where they feel safe.
Goats I would use a mixture of straw and shavings, works great for us. They also need fresh water and dry un moldy food. Our goats drink out of a 3 - 4 gallon little dish, its about 4 - 5 inches high and not very big, but they drink out of it. They also need salt and minerals.
I hope this helps
Ariel Redmond
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Hi,
I forgot to tell you.
There are chickens that are especially cold hardy. Campines do very well in cold weather, and Buckeyes were developed in Ohio, so they are bred for cold winter production. I have also read that Buckeyes will help keep your barn mice free. Chanteclers are also cold hardy, bred in Canada. Brahmas are from Asia, they are very big and fluffy and have the same type of cold hardy comb that Buckeyes have. Plus Campines, Buckeyes, and Chanteclers are extremely rare breeds, so by having some you would be helping rare breeds.
Buckeyes and Brahmas are also good table birds, I am not sure about the others but most likely the same. If you are interested in culling excess cockerels for the table, these would be good choices.
I don't know hardly anything about ducks and geese, but I hope you find someone who does.
Some good books to read up on the subject are, Barnyard in your Backyard by Gail Damerow, The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour (Has a really good garden and pig info), and any of the Hobby Farms Pigs and Chicken books.
Hope this helps too.
Ariel Redmond
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how many locals have you talked to?
before talking about things in links and talking to we the people who don't live in your area, find out what works on your block.
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| Hi I live in central MN. Feed isn't a problem for you and neither is manure. If you don't have anywhere to go with the manure, I'm sure you have a neighbor that would come clean your shed in the spring for a reasonable price- maybe nothing if they get the poo. We have had chickens for the last couple years. They live in the back porch of the old house- no heat. We use a heated dog water bowl for them. They have straw to bed in but they roost instead. There were quite a vew frozen combs and a few lost some toes this last winter but they survived. I don't have goats but my cattle have stock tanks with deicers. I don't recommend the kind that float on top, get the ones that sit at the bottom of the tank. Our cattle like to pull the floaty ones out and chew on the cord. I use a piece of pvc plastic pipe to stick the eclectric cord through so the critters can't chew on it. Good Luck!!
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