[Dwyerpekin]

Im going to build my kennels this spring. I cant afford concrete so i was wondering what oppinions u all had about lime, or is dirt ok since im putting a roof overhead?

 

[RKW]

What dimensions are you thinking of building?

 

[FB]

Im gonna have concrete pens someday but lots of beagles have been raised on dirt. I dont know about straight lime. Seems like that might burn their feet.

 

[Jeff Gammon]

Look at chain yankin kennel in texas I believe you can find his website, he has some blackcreek dogs. I may be wrong but I think he had down pea gravel or chat in his kennel under roof

 

[RKW]

I'm like Jeff if your not using concrete put pea gravel down. It will help you keep it cleaner too. I would also place wire on top of the ground beneath the pea gravel to prevent a lot of digging.

 

[Crofford]

I used a product called screenings it is basically the fine materal screened off at a rock crusher similar to donafil.I set up concrete blocks around the pen to keep it from washing out then mixed in a little bit of lime and soaked it over and over till it set up hard.It has worked really good for me been using it for 6 years.

 

[Jeff Gammon]

Crofford please post a pic. of how your kennel floors turned out if you get a chance. Very interesting idea you had. Thanks for sharing

 

[lined up kennels]

When I built mine it was cheaper to build a deck out of salt treated lumber. I framed it with 2/4s blocked it up and put 1/4 rough decking planks on top. Works great looks great, and cleans real good.

 

[Hobo Joe]

I use granite dust, getting 25 tons delivered today for 200 dollars, 100 for 25 tons and 100 for delivery, i spread it out a few inches thick and wet it down with a hose, packs good and you can skim off the top layer when cleaning with a shovel

 

[deltadog]

From experience stay away from pea gravel.... Go with wash gravel. I can buy it here for a little over 20.00/ton.
I clean my pens with a scooper and the pea gravel tends to stick all in the poo. Wash gravel is big enough and heavy enough to save.

Other alternatives other than wash gravel would be concrete. No in betweens in my opinion.

 

[Bglenut]

If you can't use concrete then I would use Wash Gravel. Deltadog is right about the Pea Gravel - to small.

I have Concrete pens and Gravel/dirt pens.

The 3 Concrete pens are 6x10 each.

The Gravel pens are 15x40 with the gravel being under the roof and dirt/gravel being open to the sun.

 

[RHowell]

Bglenut can you post some pictures of your kennels?

 

[Bglenut]

Yeah I will try to get a few this weekend.

They are nothing special - The gravel/dirt pen are over 20 years old and need to be torn down and start over.

The concrete pens are only about 7 years old.

 

[woodleaf]

I used to have ground pens with a lime base and I loved them! I laid some old cattle panels on the ground to keep them from digging and put several inches of lime down. The pens were bigger, like 10 by 20, and there was no daily maintanence. Every now and then I would ad a little lime but not to often. I have concrete pens now and wish I had my old pens back. There is a lot more work with concrete if you want to keep the from smelling bad.

 

[RHowell]

I was wondering exactly what type of lime that you are using to make the bottom of your pen? Is it the same type that people use in fertilizer buggies? Powdered lime? Thanks.

 

[woodleaf]

I was wondering exactly what type of lime that you are using to make the bottom of your pen? Is it the same type that people use in fertilizer buggies? Powdered lime? Thanks.

I used regular field lime like we use on the farm. Its cheap and available. After its there for a while it gets pretty hard and they won't dig too much either. If the pen is big enough, the crap will disapear naturally.