Salatin style meat pen finished (PIC A Little Heavy)

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randyandmegs

randyandmegs

Songster
11 Years
Jan 1, 2009
127
0
119
Columbus NC
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Couldnt find plans anywhere on internet or books so I took my laptop to the barn and used the pictures to help build it.

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All material was 1 x 3 to make pen very light weight.

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Basic framework of all the sides. One 10' long the other 12'

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4 sides put together

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Bracing is the first key to making it sturdy

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Front view of framework

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Side view

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Very lightweight siding or roofing. Found this out after buying tin. THE H**E D***T carries this.

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Finished product

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Finished side view

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Front View

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Hope this helps anyone out. I sure could find any plans or detailed pictures of this anywhere. This is a close copy of the pen that Joel Salatin raises his Cornish X in. He has Pollyface farm in VA. He was the natural farmer on Food Inc the movie and is also in the new movie Fresh The Movie coming soon. Im not advertising for him but I whole heartly believe in his way of thinking about raising meat animals naturally. This is a 10 X 12 pen and holds around 100 birds.
 
I LOVE IT--

Someone in PHX has one like it for sale on CL...but the DH said no
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Instead I shall live vicariously through you... GREAT WORK!
 
I should have kept up with the cost to help out but I would say around 200. The tin was expensive when I could have used that white material for all of it.
 
I have a big fox problem, does this hold them out? Is it heavy enough to keep them away. Anyway to mod it, so they can walk out on there own during the day. Still thinking about what birds I want to try for meat the cornish X seems to be a bit gross to me, but they do sell

chris
 
I havent used it yet. The chicks just arrived today. We have our share of Skunks, Coons, Opossums and Coyote here. If I start having problems I will be putting an electric fence around mine. My charger is battery power. As far as letting the birds out, NO... This pen is made to be moved to a fresh patch of grass everyday. I dont have the dolly built yet to move it but you can find it by looking up Polyface farms or Joel Salatin pastured poultry. The dolly basically lifts up one side and you walk around and pull the other end to fresh grass. This cuts down feed cost by at least 30% as they get to eat all the grass, weeds and bugs they want. I got most all my ideas from Joel's book Pastured Poultry Profit$.
 
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Please make one just like it for me!
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But really, it's really really nice.
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And it will hold 100 birds? What dimensions would you need for just 25? Or 50? And where/how will you provide food/water?

Enjoy all the tasty chicken dinners you're going to get from your efforts!
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Thats a little over a square foot per bird. Joel suggests 90-100 birds. not more and not much less. I dont have the book in front of me to explain exactly why not less. I would assume you can ask on here for the square footage per meat bird for a smaller pen. I would think a smaller one would work just fine. I am using a trough type feeder and a bell waterer with a 5 gallon bucket of water feeding it. I do still need to paint the tin white with roofing paint to reflect the sun more.
 
Super looking.

Is that 1x4 lumber?

I made mine with 2x4's and a 2x6 base, It turned out fine but it is a tank.

I tried to make a dolly - the angles seems to be important to making it work- I am still working on it.

Just an fyi I have 50 birds in mine and they use about 7 to 8 gals. of water a day from week 4 on.
 

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