The Poultry Keeper

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

Has anybody ever done this before? It seems to me to be a really cheap option (if you dont have to look at the caravan that is!)

Any thoughts?

james419 · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject:

They did it on Jimmy's farm - made nesting boxes etc - the only problem they seemed to have was that the chools went underneath at night rather than inside and safety - you may need to make sure that they cannot get underneath - just a thought

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

Thats interesting. Thanks for that.

I could do it, but its that biting the bullet thing all over again. I procrastinated about ordering my hen house for about 6 weeks before I finally did it... its another big commitment to rent some land and start up on a big (well big for me anyway) scale.

Caravan seems the cheapest and most portable option!

... Do caravans need to be serviced to be road worthy? Ive never known anyone thats owned one before.

JC · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 1099 Location: Sussex

Sounds like an easy option, it wouldn't be hard converting it into a chicken shed. Wouldn't there be lots of spaces for red mite? just a thought, gl in your ventures, another option is just buy a massive shed, then convert it?

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1443 Location: Leicestershire

CP · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:27 am Post subject:

Didn't milkmaid have a converted caravan?
I would agree with Itsy & JustChickens though about using a shed instead. Unless you can get a caravan for nothing (try Freecycle) then it may actually be cheaper to have a shed - & easier to convert I would've thought. Wink

Not very portable though. Rolling Eyes

but will you need to move it that much?

Kitsune · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 1406 Location: Manchester

I know in our 'playhouse' caravan as a kid it got a lot of damp and mould in there - but with good ventilation that should be able to be resolved.

I recon the chickens would love it, could leave all teh framework for the interior in and they'd have loads of choice for roosts! lol

greentree · Joined: 08 Jun 2007 Posts: 175 Location: Wicklow - Ireland

I'd say it would be much cheaper to make an axel and wheels for a garden shed - or even put it on a trailer!

A

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7366 Location: isle of lewis

no its a feedstore

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1443 Location: Leicestershire

The multiple quoting always impresses me. . . .

Well I have to confess I did everso slightly have this image of you hawking round the country selling eggs from a bashed up old caravan Laughing

But no seriously, it would need to be roadworthy for getting it there (not so much a problem) but removing it after x years? You could just burn a shed, can't do that with a caravan. I know what you're saying about dismantling a second hand shed, but if you can tow a caravan then you can tow a car carrying trailer and you would easily get a dismantled shed on one of those. All towns have somebody hireing trailers. . . . I just don't think a caravan is an easy option that's all. . . . you will still need fairly level ground for it, and to even consider making an axle to tow a shed, don't even go there. . . . the man with the field next door to mine once towed an unroadworthy caravan to his field, he got prosecuted by the police for having an unroadworthy vehicle on the road and by the council for damaging the road! And I can't imagine for one moment that a shed on a home made axle is going to be in the least bit roadworthy - or safe.

At the weekend just slip to your local diy place and see how much a new small garden shed is and how much for delivery.

A piece of land such as you are talking about is usually rented by the year, it won't be leased, you get grass keeping sales in the spring - but thats for 6 months grazing, you don't want that, you need a paddock to rent, but if you're competing with horses it will be expensive, but you won't be kicked off unless you do something drastically wrong, once you started renting it, you'd be there till you'd had enough and wanted to get out. Well that's usually what it's like anyway.

And then you've got the problem of foxes. . . .

Itsybitsy

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7366 Location: isle of lewis

also are you thinking of hybrid layers are you going to cull after 18 months ,there is the disposal of the manure which is not easy now days ,and any that die ,
shed would be the way i'd go ,as soon as you start getting bigger there is the problem of trading standards which means you must have a feed store with sealed bins to keep your food in ,and they can inspect
in winter there is a lot to feed with not a lot of eggs to show for it Wink

and the foxes Wink

Sparklepeeps · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 1960 Location: Cheshire

This is all interesting food for thought!

Burning a shed when I had done with it is a smashing idea, I never thought of that one!

Milkmaid... I didnt know about HAVING to buy proper food storage boxes, do you know at what point you are required to do it all 'properly' (I was gonna use a few galvanised bins). I wouldnyt dream of going over 49 hens as that would keep me under the DEFRA radar, does that also keep me under the 'proper bin' radar as well?

Chicken poo... I was gonna have a few compost areas set up, and when well rotted spread it on the land? (am I being nieave?)

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7366 Location: isle of lewis

my proper bins are black plastic bins ,that have clip on lids with a food scoop for each bin Wink

,if there is a problem or not animal health are legally allowed to look if you have any livestock on the place
keep the recepts ,tax and ni remember

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1443 Location: Leicestershire

It makes sense to have vermin proof food bins for however small your operation is. I've got a proper old fashioned galvanised one with lid that I inherited and also the blue plastics from dairies are very useful now they are non returnable, I saw one end off and upturn it - not vermin proof as such I will agree, but I doubt if a mouse or rat could climb the sides, get in and then out again.

If you were planning on composting your chicken muck then you could bag it and sell it when it was broken down enough, I wouldn't put it back on the land they were running on. But realistically if you kept to under 50 birds then there won't be a huge amount, it's not like you'd have shed loads. I think (?) I've got about 35, in two huts, I bed them on wood shavings and muck them out every 2 - 3 weeks, it comes to 2 wheelbarrow loads and then it goes down when it gets on the heap (as well as scratched through by certain small creatures Laughing

)

Itsybitsy