easy overhead shelter for animals

[CindyOR]

Before winter hits I am trying to be proactive and try a different set up than I have in the past for feeding my livestock. I'd like to set up feeding stations in various areas on our property and let them eat from those stations instead of having them come to the barn for every meal. We're planning on building on to our barn in the next year or two, but have to save up for that. The feeding stations would have to have a roof on them, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on this project. There would be two animals eating from each feeding station at a time. The size of the livestock will be like a shetland pony, but mine have antlers (we raise reindeer).

Any one have a building plan for putting together something inexpensive that has a slanted steel roof, poles on each corner and wide enough to have a feed trough under it protected? I can add another metal sheet on one side to block rain if need be. I have in my mind what this should look like, but I'll be building it myself and it would be nice to have some sort of plan to follow.

CindyOR

Has anyone found an easy

[mylala]

There are some diagrams in the image gallery



http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...e-Shelter.aspx

[Patt]

This looks pretty simple:

http://www.gardengrapevine.com/DeerFeeder-PLANS.html

[CindyOR]

The DeerFeeder could be entertaining. The reindeer would pick that up with their antlers and just run around the field with it until it was destroyed. Then they would eat the parts they could pick off. They're kind of like goats that way. They have antlers most all year long and I can tell from the photo that they would just LOVE it if I built them this one.

The Baker style from the MEN article is kind of what I'm looking for, with the slanted roof, but hopefully something that doesn't require me to skin my own logs. I'm doing this by myself and want to build 3-4 of them, so keeping it simple and inexpensive, and buildable by one just regular person (I'm not Hilda of the Forest!) is what I'm looking for.

[beowoulf90]

If you have access to a few old farm wagons you could remove the flooring on one side between the wheels and install a feed box of what ever design you want and place a roof over the area you want.

It might even be possible with an old car with a large trunk..

I'm just thinking outside of the box here.. So don't take things to seriously, just throwing out ideas...

How about an old silage cart with a roof on it.. It would be like a street venders cart..

[Patt]

Bit of a rabbit trail but what do you do with reindeer?

We have a couple of sheds here like the Baker, easy to build we just sunk those big round fence posts with the front 2 higher then the back 2 and then built a simple 2 x 4 frame to go on top with metal roof panels tacked on top. We just took the roof off one that we are going to put on shorter posts for a pig shelter.

[Lloyd J.]

Are there any old steel granaries around that area? I was thinking of picking up some 14 foot (across) granaries, dismantling them and using two of the curved pieces in an arch. Depending on how tall the steel granary is, a person could get several of these arches and make a fairly long quonset or a couple of small ones. They'd be 7 feet high at the centre. Some of the damaged/old granaries can be had for next to nothing up here.

Lloyd

[motdaugrnds]

Cindy, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to build a lean-to by yourself. If I were doing it, I would make sure my studs/posts were at least 2 ft. deep and cemented in. (The worse thing in the world is to build something and have it fall down because of a weak frame.)

You've layed out the idea clear enough; just get yourself some 16p nails & some concrete to go with your building material and they shouldn't be able to take that off. (At the low end, just add a trough-like thingy and you're all set.)

[tamsam]

I put everything together with screws. It is so much easier to dismantle plus a lot stronger. Good luck and pictures please. Sam

[Callieslamb]

How about arching cattle panels over a feeder and covering it with a tarp?

[Kshobbit]

How about arching cattle panels over a feeder and covering it with a tarp?
That is what I have used after seeing an organic gardener friend build a greenhouse using the panels and clear plastic. I have goats and sometimes the bigger kids climb on top of the lower arched one with no damage done to either the goat or the shelter.

One of the very best inexpensive feeders I've ever seen was created by salvaging one of those old satellite dishes ( the HUGE ones) ..these folks stuck it into the ground on its own post, then wrapped some wide wire fencing around it in a tight circle..piled a bunch of hay inside the fencing..voila..a hay feeder covered by a huge metal "roof"..

[highlands]

Here's one method we use:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2010/07...-to-earth.html

Basically a ring of pallets and then arched cattle panel or the like. Add a tarp or plastic, etc for the winter.

[Alice In TX/MO]

One possible outcome:
Before -

After -

[motdaugrnds]

We've used those blue plastics too; and in a few years we had shredded blue strings all over the place. I do hope the blue tarps you are showing Alice are not made of plastic weave; or if they are, that they hold up better than ours did.

[Alice In TX/MO]

It's not in use anymore.

The tarp was obviously *not* the problem with that shelter.