Content of the article:
The rapid growth of pigs, their lack of feedability and active weight gain predetermined the popularity of animals among owners of small farmsteads. You can make a pigsty for 2 heads in just a few days. You can keep pigs in a barn throughout the year.
Before starting to work, a novice breeder will need:
- an accurate design calculation taking into account all communications and dimensions;
- drawing, designed to meet the requirements for places of animals;
- suitable plot for the pigsty.
How to start preparing for the construction of a pigsty? Where is it better to place it, and how to determine the future size of the building?
Basic requirements for the construction of the pigsty
For pigs, which, unlike goats, cows and sheep do not graze, you need housing with an aviary. Animals spend in the pigsty up to 75% of the time. Walking for animals arrange next to the house, so its strength, convenience and safety should be given maximum attention.
The size and layout of the pigsty depends on the purpose of the breeding. For a pair of piglets for fattening, for example, less space is needed than for boar and uterus, which are populated for offspring.
The choice of the future construction site is carried out with the expectation that the structure:
- should be dry and warm;
- was protected from piercing winds;
- had nearby free space for the organization of walking.
If a pigsty erected with its own hands on 2 heads turns out to be in a lowland, where flood, thawed or rainwater accumulates, it threatens with frequent animal diseases, a decrease in growth intensity, and death of the young.
house Therefore, the construction site of the pigsty should be flat and located on the dais. Well, if the building is hidden from the wind by wild or cultural plantings. This circumstance will allow not to worry about the health of the population in autumn and winter, as well as save on heating the pigsty.
Standards area for placing animals in the self-built pigsty
The dimensions of the future structure depend on how many and what animals will be placed in the self-built pigsty.
While the depth of the machines in the pigsty is most often 2.5-3.0 meters: the
- boars are kept alone in machines of 8 square meters;
- to uterus, starting from the fourth month of gestation, provide pens of 6–10 meters in area;
- piglets for fattening, depending on age, contain 1–6 individuals in the machine.
Each animal should have from 0.6 to 2.0 meters of area.
When planning, passages with a minimum width of 1.5–2.0 meters are required for feeding and manure removal from the pigsty. It is good if sows with offspring are removed from the cold walls, where little pigs will be threatened by drafts.
The height of flat ceilings in the pigsty should be at least 2.2 meters. If the beams are open, to the top point can not be more than 2.6 meters. With the roof warmed, the ceiling height at the wall is 1.6–1.8 meters.
Because of the mass of nuances with which the construction of the barn is associated, before building a pigsty, it is important to know exactly which animals in it will settle. For example, in a self-made pigsty for 2 heads, sows and a boar, they set up a separate unit for keeping the offspring of such a pair. The area of the pen depends on the number of piglets and their age.
How to build a pigsty with your own hands?
To ensure the durability of the structure and its long-term operation, a monolithic foundation is laid under the pigsty. Pre under it make a pillow out of sand. The construction is isolated from moisture by using ruberoid or another material.
Floors in the premises where pigs are kept are best done in bulk. Concreted surface does not absorb odors and feces, it is easy to clean and much more durable than wood.
Immediately at the design stage and fill the floor, it is necessary to provide for the presence of a slope from the machine tools of animals to the canal for manure removal in the pigsty. In this case, the droppings of animals and urine by gravity release the machines, facilitate their cleaning, reducing the risk of developing infectious diseases of pigs.
In addition to solid concrete floors in the pigsty, today more and more often used lattice or slotted slabs, under which equip plums and sumps. The tree will not withstand sufficiently intense moisture and corrosive effects of manure. Therefore, even with a small number of pigs, they try not to use this material not only for the floor in the pigsty, but also for the partitions between the machines.
The walls of pig houses must successfully withstand not only bad weather, but moisture, as well as rodents, often seeking to get inside the premises for livestock. It is best to use bricks or small blocks for supporting structures. Frame structures, although comfortable, prefabricated and inexpensive, as a pigsty do not meet expectations. Internal partitions in a pigsty arranged in house conditions, as on a photo, do from a brick, blocks or metal lattices.
When building a pigsty for 2 heads or more animals, you must provide windows. Natural lighting is extremely important for growth and health, both for adults and for piglets.
For the cold season, when there is not enough heat and light, artificial lighting is provided, and for piglets, zone heating is arranged using infrared lamps.
To solve these problems, at the design and construction stage, the pigsty is electrified. Lamps are mounted at a safe distance from pigs and are protected by non-fearful blows with lattice covers.
At the same time, the ventilation of the pigsty is established. It is planned with the expectation that the air inside the premises, without the draft effect, constantly circulates. Fresh air must come from the outside, and stale air and odors from feeders, machine tools and channels for manure removal in the pigsty should go to the limits of the room. 
Roofing, windows and doors should be insulated, walls should be insulated outside. Inside they make waterproofing, plaster and whitewash the walls.
When all exterior work is completed, proceed to the equipment of the pigsty. Inside the machines, lay clean disinfected pallets, at a distance from the drain channels set up feeders, install drinkers. Separately prepare walking areas, access to which should be from each branch of the pigsty.
