sheep shelter

[KrisK]

One of my planning tasks is the construction of a sheep shelter. Given that I can build any size without a permit provided it's only 3 sided, I have a couple of questions. Should there be a 'floor' in this shelter or would a heavy bedding of hay be alright? If I do put a "floor" would packed gravel be okay or should I go with concrete? The shelter will be south facing inside the new fenced area. As an additional precaution for predator possibly getting into the fence, I thought of gating the 'entrance to the shelter so it's still open but not accessible. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

My dream sheep barn would have dirt floors, but enough room for my dream tractor to go in and scoop up muck periodically (whence it would be spread with my dream spreader cart on the fields).

 

I've actually had sheep on concrete before and didn't like it, though it's easier to keep clean. I still ended up putting really deep bedding on top of it.

 

I've seen tiles of stuff that allow muck to drop through, but I can't imagine that cleaning those would be an easy job. And then you'd still have to pick up the tiles to scoop the manure.

 

However, as cold as it is where you are, there might be other considerations. My sheep would only use a barn during driving rain and the occasional heavy snow or ice storm. Plus as shade during the summer.

[1sheepdoggal]

I too have had the most success with dirt floors, and covering it with deep straw bedding. But, I took the last one I built ( with the help of a few other fellas with tape measurers ) and built on to it a large corral with a gate, so that I could also use it to keep them in for lambing. I utilized a corner of the pasture, closest to the house and yard light and set one side of the shed up aginst the already exsisting fence and nailed it to the fence so they couldnt squeeze through it. And used the other portions of the already exsisting fence to make the side and end, so I only needed to close in one side, as the back of the shed provided for the back end and attached the gate to the other side of the shed. It worked well, and kept the moms and new born lambs warm and dry as well as gave them an area to run and play in before i turned them out on pasture. When I get one made out here, lumber is sitting on pallets right now, it worked so well for me, that I plan on using the same design again. Good luck. Darci

[NorthfieldNick]

My sheep shed has a concrete floor, and I wish I'd just leveled & packed the dirt. If the conrete is not bedded well, it turns into a MESS when the sheep are penned in the shed. Granted, I usually only lock the sheep in if they need to dry out before shearing, but it is still a disaster! Even when I bedded it with straw, they shoved the straw all over & the floor was a mess. It was so slick, I wiped out a coupld times (and got covered in poop.) When they pee on concrete, it pools & makes a mess. Even with the floor sloped to drain out the doors, the pee makes it slick. The only thing made easier with the concrete is cleaning out the lambing pens when I set them up. I still wish I'd just gone with dirt.

 

You might consider putting a door/gate on opposite sides of the shed. Mine has big double doors on both ends- it's so nice to be able to run sheep in one side into a pen, shear, worm, whatever, then shoot them out the other door.

[bcnewe2]

We used to have a dirt floor barn that we could carefully manage the not so dreamy tractor into and scrape it out maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I used a heavy bedding of straw back then. Getting rid of the deep bedding and manure was always a hassle cause the drive that lead into the barn was rock.

 

Now I have a lean to with 2 stall type enclosures. A drylot or almost round pen attatched. I've got it set up to use the tractor to scrape it out when I need to. Over the years I've come to not using a barn or shelter at all unless the sheep need shade or snow/storm relief. It's up to them to go in or not. I can pen them up if I have to but mainly use it for a catch pen when worming and the likes. I've put a new momma with lambs in it so the new momma could get used to being a mom without any issues. I don't use any bedding in the lean to now. The sheep hardly go in, so when it gets poo filled I just scrape it out with the tractor. We do spread D.E. to keep the flies away, that works wonderfully.

 

I always thought I wanted more in a barn or a lean to. But now I've gotten used to what I have and am just fine with it. Dirt floors and all. we scrape the manure out into the field and pretend that I'm spreding it with my wonderful manure spreader that I don't have. You can always tell where I spread it as that part of the field is always the greenest. If I had something like rock instead of dirt I don't know if I could get it into the fields without getting the rock out there too. If we used a lot of bedding it would kill what ever it laid on top. Just poop doesn't usually kill the grass as I can spread it out till it's thin enough.

 

So my vote is dirt!

 

Kristen

[Bill Fosher]

Packed gravel is the way to go. You will use less bedding becuase moisture can soak into the floor. Concrete floors are a maintenance problem as they always crack as the substrate freezes and thaws, and with heavy equipment rolling over it.

 

In my opinion, the best way to use a shed in a northern climate is to put the sheep in and lock them in until you take them out. If you let them wander in and out, you will bring lots of water in on their fleeces and use boucoup bedding, which costs boucoup bucks, at least around here. I would definitely have it set up so that you can shut them in for that reason, but there are many others such as shearing, predator protection ,etc., etc.

[1sheepdoggal]

Ah! Im glad you reminded me of that Bill. In my old one, Id forgotten, I had a wood gate made, and used it to enclose them in. It was heavy, and a lighter one would have been nice, so thanks for reminding me. Darci