Mobile layer housing design search
- Thread starter Ozarko
- Start date
That's true. 
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- Thread starter
- #13
- Mar 26, 2014
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Yes, he says it is for added strength and extra roosting space.The roosts run the length of the house over each truss.
Still haven't watched the you tube....but I was studying Salatins vs the greenmachines version, and I actually think the latter is a better design in that the egg boxes are at the sides instead of in the middle. It looks like on Salatins you have to enter the house to retrieve the eggs?
Personally, if I were going to modify and use this truss design I think I'd have the nest boxes down the outsides. Just my take on it....after I watch his video I may rethink it some more.....
Personally, if I were going to modify and use this truss design I think I'd have the nest boxes down the outsides. Just my take on it....after I watch his video I may rethink it some more.....
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But yes, the main advantage seems to be the multitude of roosts and flex strength! And it holds a lot of birds!
And I think the reason they're aren't any plans per se is because you have to build around the chassis. Find your chassis first, then figure by proportion.
And I think the reason they're aren't any plans per se is because you have to build around the chassis. Find your chassis first, then figure by proportion.
Since I was just looking at it again.....I thought I'd add these 2 pictures from http://greenmachinefarm.com/blog/page/2/
Also I like his ramp system to let the birds in and out. I do not like the wire he used for it....
FYI on his website, you have to scroll down past the other entries to get to his build pages......
Also I like his ramp system to let the birds in and out. I do not like the wire he used for it....
FYI on his website, you have to scroll down past the other entries to get to his build pages......
- Thread starter
- #17
- Mar 26, 2014
- 20
- 2
- 67
Salatin's isn't built on a chassis. He has it on some kind of skids. Unfortunately for me, I just don't have the requisite skills to figure out a design that would fit and hold together. I can, however, follow existing plans rather well.
I kind of like the outside boxes, too, but I know that on a rainy day I would like the ones inside.
He and the host are able to stand up inside on the catwalk just fine.
I know the 29 minute length of the video seems daunting, but he's actually done talking about this structure by 11:15. With starting at 4:28, this section is only about 7 minutes long.
I kind of like the outside boxes, too, but I know that on a rainy day I would like the ones inside.
I know the 29 minute length of the video seems daunting, but he's actually done talking about this structure by 11:15. With starting at 4:28, this section is only about 7 minutes long.
I was actually able to watch this last night. Yes Salatin uses what he calls "rails" for skids, could be wood or metal, I thought I got a glimpse of metal when I froze the video, but I'm not sure.
I couldn't find anything about why he likes those particular nest boxes, but collecting eggs by hand from 1200 hens is very inefficient to say the least. Maybe it's what he had left over, maybe he pays the interns to do that, but that's a lot of eggs, every day.
I had some time and Googled some other APPPA growers, and just pastured poultry in general. The one thing they all seemed to have in common was the roll out nest boxes, and even some small conveyor belts for their egg collection.
Probably in the not too distant future someone will do a redesign on this, but so far greenmachinesfarm is the best. IMO. The skids allowed Salatins to be a lot higher, but as that was greenmachinesfarm first go at it, who knows, someone could build an even better mousetrap soon!
There was one pastured poultry farm, here it is.......http://learningandyearning.com/morning-chores that hired another company to build all their eggmobiles. They had solar panels on theirs too.
If I were designing a version of this, I think I would put the nest boxes under slightly shorter eves down both sides, maybe with plastic freezer door type curtains hanging down to keep out the rain etc. but I'd still use a chassis. You can compensate for the height off the ground of the wheels with this design I think, but you can't easily retrofit a skid type to a wheeled type. I admire what Salatins done with his farming and outreach, but I don't necessarily think he's a great engineer.
Other than buying a plan from Salatin, or making friends with someone who good at translating dimensions from pictures to paper.....idk what else to suggest, cardboard mock up? If you get the ratio you want you're going to be able to work with lumber dimensions. If you can follow plans but doubt your engineering skills, try it on a small scale. Keep in mind also that these types of structures are too big to just transport from one farm down the highway without an oversize permit. It's the transportation that's costly, not the permit.
Just my 2 cents worth.
I couldn't find anything about why he likes those particular nest boxes, but collecting eggs by hand from 1200 hens is very inefficient to say the least. Maybe it's what he had left over, maybe he pays the interns to do that, but that's a lot of eggs, every day.
I had some time and Googled some other APPPA growers, and just pastured poultry in general. The one thing they all seemed to have in common was the roll out nest boxes, and even some small conveyor belts for their egg collection.
Probably in the not too distant future someone will do a redesign on this, but so far greenmachinesfarm is the best. IMO. The skids allowed Salatins to be a lot higher, but as that was greenmachinesfarm first go at it, who knows, someone could build an even better mousetrap soon!
There was one pastured poultry farm, here it is.......http://learningandyearning.com/morning-chores that hired another company to build all their eggmobiles. They had solar panels on theirs too.
If I were designing a version of this, I think I would put the nest boxes under slightly shorter eves down both sides, maybe with plastic freezer door type curtains hanging down to keep out the rain etc. but I'd still use a chassis. You can compensate for the height off the ground of the wheels with this design I think, but you can't easily retrofit a skid type to a wheeled type. I admire what Salatins done with his farming and outreach, but I don't necessarily think he's a great engineer.
Other than buying a plan from Salatin, or making friends with someone who good at translating dimensions from pictures to paper.....idk what else to suggest, cardboard mock up? If you get the ratio you want you're going to be able to work with lumber dimensions. If you can follow plans but doubt your engineering skills, try it on a small scale. Keep in mind also that these types of structures are too big to just transport from one farm down the highway without an oversize permit. It's the transportation that's costly, not the permit.
Just my 2 cents worth.
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- Thread starter
- #19
- Mar 26, 2014
- 20
- 2
- 67
I really like the nesting box, egg retrieval design of Daniel O'Brien's Chicken Caravan. The Caravans are made in Australia, and he has put a lot of thought into the design; and I think he has a great product. It's geared, however, towards the larger pastured egg producer (due to the expense) rather than a backyard producer.
You're not is Australia, are you? There is a guy there who made this scissor truss "eggmobile", actually he made two. And he WAS going to make a tutorial video, but I would guess he's had second thoughts as its been a year since he mentioned it and it's not mentioned again....here's a decent shot of the truss tho, enough for a good engineer to translate into a size to start with at least....
Taranaki.
If you don't mind my asking.....What are you looking for exactly? How many birds, how much land to cover? Would you be practicing the mob grazing rotation of cattle then chickens and/or other animals as well? Do you have any help or would it mostly be just yourself doing all the work? Do you have the property?
I ran across the chicken caravan's in my research, I guess their ok, I didn't particularly like them but what does that matter? ( I guess I didn't see their nest box design, I'll go back and look again)...... I see their largest holds up to 500 birds.....the x-wing scissor truss of Salatins holds 1200. Are you thinking you want to go that big, or is it the airy design you like?
I was finally able to see all of the landing perches fold up so Salatin can close off the boxes every night....but I still think I would have put them on the sides with a outermost rollout under the eves and slightly changed the lower "wing" to an expanded metal base to access the front as necessary. It's not that big a change, but he has scads of interns to collect eggs.......
I don't like pvc perches or landing boards either, but I wonder how much extra this was?
That's a whole lot of eggs to handle every day, I think jumping in and out of the M.Falcon 3 times a day to collect from the nests would get old in a hurry...and get a little rain slicked steps thrown in and I can see inadvertently teaching a whole lot a chickens that eggs are yummy!
I could also see modifying Salatins just a hair so the conveyor belt idea could be incorporated. The farm boys have a solar panel on each of theirs to power its use.
This has been a fascinating foray into the world of, what is the word I want, Biointensive Farming? The X-Wing is a great design other than the nest boxes, and it wouldn't be too hard to figure out the dimensions if that guy is say about 5' 8" tall.......add in the rollout nest boxes...and wow what an operation! :cd
Taranaki.
If you don't mind my asking.....What are you looking for exactly? How many birds, how much land to cover? Would you be practicing the mob grazing rotation of cattle then chickens and/or other animals as well? Do you have any help or would it mostly be just yourself doing all the work? Do you have the property?
I ran across the chicken caravan's in my research, I guess their ok, I didn't particularly like them but what does that matter? ( I guess I didn't see their nest box design, I'll go back and look again)...... I see their largest holds up to 500 birds.....the x-wing scissor truss of Salatins holds 1200. Are you thinking you want to go that big, or is it the airy design you like?
I was finally able to see all of the landing perches fold up so Salatin can close off the boxes every night....but I still think I would have put them on the sides with a outermost rollout under the eves and slightly changed the lower "wing" to an expanded metal base to access the front as necessary. It's not that big a change, but he has scads of interns to collect eggs.......
I don't like pvc perches or landing boards either, but I wonder how much extra this was?
That's a whole lot of eggs to handle every day, I think jumping in and out of the M.Falcon 3 times a day to collect from the nests would get old in a hurry...and get a little rain slicked steps thrown in and I can see inadvertently teaching a whole lot a chickens that eggs are yummy!
I could also see modifying Salatins just a hair so the conveyor belt idea could be incorporated. The farm boys have a solar panel on each of theirs to power its use.
This has been a fascinating foray into the world of, what is the word I want, Biointensive Farming? The X-Wing is a great design other than the nest boxes, and it wouldn't be too hard to figure out the dimensions if that guy is say about 5' 8" tall.......add in the rollout nest boxes...and wow what an operation! :cd
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