Practical Farm Buildings: Plans and Suggestions

by Andrew Frederick Hunter

HOG HOUSES

(Adapted from Bulletin No. 109.
Illinois Experiment Station.)

Fig. 68—Individual
hog house.

Individual Houses.—Individual hog houses, or “cots,” as they are sometimes called, are built in many different ways. Some are built with four upright walls and a shed roof, each of which (the walls and roof) being a separate piece can easily be taken down and replaced, making the moving of these small houses to another location an easy matter. Others are built with two sides sloping in towards the top so as to form the roof, as shown in Fig. 68. These are built on skids and when necessary can be moved as a whole by being drawn by a horse. They are built in several different styles: some have a window in the front end above the door, while all may have a small door in the rear end, near the apex, for ventilating purposes. These houses are built in different sizes; indeed, there are about as many different forms of cots as there are individuals using them.

The arguments in favor of this type of house for swine are that each sow at farrowing time may be kept alone and away from all disturbance; that each litter of pigs may be kept and fed by itself, consequently there will not be too large a number of pigs in a common lot; that these houses may be placed at the farther end of the feed lot, thus compelling the sow and pigs to take exercise, especially in winter, when they come to the feed trough at the front end of the lot; that the danger of spreading disease among a herd is at a minimum; and in case the place occupied by the cot becomes unsanitary it may be removed to a clean location.

Large Houses.—Individual hog houses have certain advantages in their favor, and large houses, if properly planned and built, have many points of advantage; among them being good sanitation, serviceability, safety in farrowing, ease in handling hogs, and large pastures involving little expense for fences. In order to be sanitary a hog house should admit the direct rays of the sun to the floor of all the pens and exclude cold drafts in winter, be dry, free from dust, well ventilated, and exclude the hot sun during the summer.

Fig. 69—Large hog house.

The illustrations show a hog house built with this purpose in view. The building is one hundred and twenty feet long by thirty feet wide, and has an eight-foot alley running lengthwise through the middle, between the two rows of pens. It stands lengthwise east and west with the windows on the south side, the windows being so placed that at noon of the shortest day of the year, the rays of sunlight passing through the upper part will fall upon the floor of the south side pen on the opposite side from the window. This allows the total amount of light coming through the window at this season of the year and at this time of the day to fall upon the floor within the pen; consequently, during the latter winter months, there will be a maximum amount of sunlight on the floor of the pen; the window in the upper part of the building performs the same function for the pen on the north side of the alley. By this arrangement of windows there is possible a maximum amount of sunlight on the floor of the pens in winter, which will serve to warm the interior of the house, and especially the beds, during the latter months of winter, thus making it possible to have pigs farrowed very early in the season. Sunlight not only warms and dries the building, but destroys disease germs, thus making the building both warm and sanitary.

The upper window, which throws light into the pen on the north side is long, and this necessitates a flat roof for the part of the building south of the alley, which must necessarily be covered with some material, such as Paroid Roofing, that will shed water at a slight pitch. Dryness should be secured by thorough drainage, freedom from dust by sprinkling with water, and the direct sunlight should be prevented from entering the pens during the hot part of the summer days; this is done by the manner of constructing the building—the lower window is shaded by the eaves and the rays passing through the upper windows fall upon the floor of the alley.

In order to be most serviceable a hog house should be constructed so that it can be used every day in the year. In order to be an economizer of labor the house should be planned so that the largest amount of work may be performed with the smallest amount of labor, which, with the present scarcity of labor, is a very important factor. Farrowing pens should be supplied with fenders, which prevent the sows crushing the pigs, and should be built so the attendant may lend assistance, if necessary, with both convenience and safety. By having all the hogs under one roof handling becomes simpler, and in case of bad weather much more convenient.

Fig. 70—Ground plan.

The alley through the middle of the building is eight feet wide; this permits driving through the building with a wagon, which allows the bedding to be hauled directly to the pens, and the manure to be loaded on the wagon directly from the pens and hauled to the fields. The pens are ten feet wide and eleven feet deep. Each pen has a slide door opening to the outside, and a door opening to the alley; the latter is hung so that when it is opened it will turn the pigs towards the front end of the house, for weighing, etc. It also permits changing pigs from one pen to another, and gives easy access to the attendant. The trough is placed on the side of the pen next the alley, and a swinging panel above the trough, shown in the illustration of the interior, makes feeding a very easy and convenient operation. The “fender” is shown in the ground plan, and consists of a two-inch iron pipe placed on posts of the same set in concrete in the floor. This fender should be placed eight or nine inches above the floor and about six inches from the wall, it is to prevent the sows crushing the pigs at farrowing time; the sow will necessarily make her bed in this corner as the other three corners are occupied, two of them by doors and the other the feed trough.

There is a four-inch drain tile laid from each pen to the main lines on either side, which are placed on the outside of the pens, leading off down the ravine. The tile opens up through the floor of the pens by means of a perforated iron disk, which is laid in the bell-end of a length of sewer pipe. The floor is made to slope toward the drain so that it can be flushed with water.

All the gates and partitions of the interior are made of wire netting panels. Wire is better than lumber for this purpose, for several reasons. They are no obstruction to light, the rays of light coming through the windows are not cut off from reaching the floor, where they are most needed; they keep the floor and bedding warm and disinfected. In case the hog house should become infected with disease germs it can be flushed out and disinfected much more easily and thoroughly. Wire partitions allow the hogs always to be in sight of each other and of the attendant. By this means the sows, when they are shut up to farrow, will not become estranged from one another, and will not be so likely to fight after returning to a common pasture.

Fig. 71—Large hog house—interior.

A hog house built and operated according to the above outlined plan makes it possible to perform a maximum amount of work with a minimum amount of labor, and to put the pigs on the market at seasons of the year that are out of the ordinary; it can be expected that pigs thus marketed will sell for higher prices than those that are marketed along with the general supply.

The Question of Space.—A question which most frequently comes to the front is: “How much room is required for a horse, cow, hen, etc.?” and there is no one question about which there is greater difference of opinion. A good size of horse stall is four feet wide by nine feet long, and a good size of cow stall is three feet wide by five feet long; of course these dimensions taking no account of gutter-space at rear of stalls for catching the manure. Another good dairyman will tell us that he wants his cow stalls four feet wide, and will present strong arguments in favor of the greater amount of room; it is obvious that twenty-five per cent. increase of width of stalls decidedly increases the space-cost per cow. The best testimony, however, is in favor of being liberal in space, as, for example, is said about the sheep sheds: “Crowding is most injurious when it results from restricted room at the feeding rack and when it occurs through narrow doors. A breeding ewe weighing one hundred and fifty pounds will require fully one and one-quarter feet of space at the fodder rack.”

The same suggestion applies to floor space per hen. It has been demonstrated that it is unprofitable to crowd fowls too much, and well known writers have urged that ten square feet of floor space be given to each bird; in practice, however, very much less space per bird gives good results in health of flocks and average egg-product. In the scratching-shed plan of house, on pages 18 and 19, the floor space is recommended as seven and one-fifth square feet per bird with twenty-five fowls of the American varieties per pen, and six square feet each with thirty birds of one of the Mediterranean varieties per pen. In the Gowell Poultry Farm house, on pages 16 and 17, four square feet of floor space is allotted to each bird, and it is the plan there to keep the birds wholly confined to the pens for the five cold months. These illustrations show that there is wide range in actual practice, but we believe it is wise to allow at least five to six square feet of floor space to each fowl.