New Storage and Snake Room!

Well, I was inspired by someone elses post of their new construction, and since I just finished our new storage room, I thought I would post up some new pics. This also happens to be why I haven't had as much time to spend on BP.net (every free second goes into this new construction, as I need it done soon). The goal is to have it done by October before we leave to go to the Chicago Show. We have some big grow ups in small ARS tubs that need to move into CB-70s, but we are out of room in the old building. Also, once we get the new building done, we are going to build a walk-in incubator in the old building. The plan is for the old building to house babies and yearlings, and the new building to house the adults.

First up are pics of the new storage room. This is goign to house three pallets (one for rodent food, one for rodent shavings and one for snake bedding). The first pic is looking at the back wall from the doorway. Also seen are the exhaust fan and the light. Some of the plumbing can be seen on the left.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/sroom1.jpg
This is a pic of the left wall. Along this wall is where the pallets will go. Also, the plumbing can be seen. The plumbing for the snake room is stubbed off right now with the valves that lead to nothing. The wall that can be seen, is the back of the rodent room, and the plumbing going into the wall is for the rodent room. The bid pipe at the bottom is the drain for the rodent room sink.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/sroom2.jpg

This is a pic facing the door. On the top right is the intake fan. The two fans will hopefully keep the air moving and help keep the humidity down for the rodent food. Also, both switches are pictured, the door and the sub panel that will power the snake room and the ne air conditioners for the snake room and rodent room.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/sroom3.jpg

Here are pics of the new snake room. I will begin doing framing later this afternoon. If you look out the bright opening to the right, you can see the current snake building in the distance. That is the door for the snake room leaning against the back wall. The cement for the two new rooms was the first thing that was completed, and was done at the end of April.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/nsroom1.jpg

This is the last pic I have for now. It is looking toward the storage room. That is the other side of the storage room wall, that is common between the snake room and storage room. The total new room when done should be about 28' x 12'. This will more than double our current snake footage.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/nsroom2.jpg

Thanks for looking, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away. I will post some updated pics as progress is made.

Wow very nice Tim!

My wife and I are going to be in the market for a new home soon, and I have been keeping an eye on areas where I could build a similar 'snake shed.' :)

Very cool! Look forward to seeing the progress! :salute:

Nice Tim!!!

Can't wait for more pics!

Holy crapola Tim, How big is your property?....It looks awesome! Good luck with it!

Looks good for a drunken carpenter! Just picking, Tim. Maybe I'll come see it in person one day.

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Originally Posted by Jerhart

Wow very nice Tim!

My wife and I are going to be in the market for a new home soon, and I have been keeping an eye on areas where I could build a similar 'snake shed.' :)

Very cool! Look forward to seeing the progress! :salute:

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Thanks Joshua. Let me know when you get to building something, and I'll give you any tips I can.

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

Nice Tim!!!

Can't wait for more pics!

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Thanks Jon. Hopefully there will be alot of progress in the next 3 to 4 weeks. I really only get to work on this on Sundays, so progress has been slow.

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Originally Posted by monk90222

Holy crapola Tim, How big is your property?....It looks awesome! Good luck with it!

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Thanks Charlie. We own 7 acres, so I have plenty of room to build as many buildings as I would like. Actually, however, I would like to stop building all of these small rooms, and would prefer to build a 1200 sq. ft. 2 story metal building. I just can't get all the money together before I run out opf space. I think this is the last small room I build though. From here I will limit the collection until I can build one big building to move everything into. A man can always dream, right?

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Originally Posted by Jason Bowden

Looks good for a drunken carpenter! Just picking, Tim. Maybe I'll come see it in person one day.

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Thanks Jason. Let me know if you are ever in the area.

A 2 story metal building is a real dream but lot of work :) (may be less than multiple small rooms :D).


Damn, you are lucky in the south of the states to been able to build those stuff. Here with winter, it's totally impossible without big and big isolation etc.... But heat is not a concern at all. Well actually, it is cause it's can get too warm in the summer. But usually only for a few days so not a real concern.

Well good luck and keep us updated please :)

Rock ON TIM!!!!!

That's absolutely the best reason EVER to pop open a cold one! :D Seriously... congrats on the new building! I'm still threatening to come and visit! But maybe I'll wait till your done with all the labor! ;)

I really wish I could pull this off, but my electric bill is approaching 400$ a month, and the outside temps in winter and summer are 20 to 130 degrees...
So I am very limited to what I can house. I swear if i didnt have a good job, i'd sell my house and leave cali....wanna sell me an Acre? LOL

wow nice...my rodent building is soon getting a revamp. I doubt you have to deal with heating issues like we do in the north but I wondered, don't you worry about outside pests getting into your food and bedding when you let it on pallets?

I put mine inside bags and then inside plastic 55 gallon barrels. I actually store my bedding barrels outside year round without issue. I can normally fit 150 lbs with room to spare of mazuri 6f in each barrel (I keep 4food/6 bedding)

Thanks for all of the comments and compliments everyone. This is yet another project that takes a while to complete, but it is always worthwhile when it is finished.

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

wow nice...my rodent building is soon getting a revamp. I doubt you have to deal with heating issues like we do in the north but I wondered, don't you worry about outside pests getting into your food and bedding when you let it on pallets?

I put mine inside bags and then inside plastic 55 gallon barrels. I actually store my bedding barrels outside year round without issue. I can normally fit 150 lbs with room to spare of mazuri 6f in each barrel (I keep 4food/6 bedding)

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It is always a concern that outside rodents get to the food. However, I have spent alot of time trying my best to ensure that there are no routes of entry for them to get in. As for storing food in bins, I would love to do that, but we order about 1200 lbs of rodent food every 6 weeks, and we are ramping up the colony soon, which may equate to an additional 50lbs a week needed. I would have barrels stacked up everywhere. It is much more space efficient to stack it like it is delivered, on a pallet.

Tim what you need Is a fork lift :D 1200LBs of rat food..good GOD man..the room looks great.. I know you were needing extra room..
Naa look like the room is really taking shape.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Thanks for all of the comments and compliments everyone. This is yet another project that takes a while to complete, but it is always worthwhile when it is finished.



It is always a concern that outside rodents get to the food. However, I have spent alot of time trying my best to ensure that there are no routes of entry for them to get in. As for storing food in bins, I would love to do that, but we order about 1200 lbs of rodent food every 6 weeks, and we are ramping up the colony soon, which may equate to an additional 50lbs a week needed. I would have barrels stacked up everywhere. It is much more space efficient to stack it like it is delivered, on a pallet.

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1200lbs? how many rodents do you currently have?(adult breeders)

Looking good Tim! Looking forward to seeing your progress!

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

1200lbs? how many rodents do you currently have?(adult breeders)

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Probably somewhere around 250 breeder females, about 75 breeder males, about 125 grow up replacement animals, usually around 50 small rat feeders in a holding cage, about 100 to 150 mice and about the same ASFs. None of those numbers include nursing babies, or new hoppers. Plus, we are getting ready to add another 15.42 breeders to the colony.

Here is an older pic of our rodent room. There is now an additional 2 of the wooden racks, and a DIY mouse rack in there as well.
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/images/gallery/fp20l.jpg
http://www.baileyreptiles.com/images/gallery/fp22l.jpg

Wow! That's shaping up to be an awesome facility! I'll look forward to update pics!

Tim,

How are you liking the ARS grow out rat rack? What are your thoughts on investing your $ in this versus building your own (same with the ARS hatchling rack...I believe that you have one of those in one of your pics). Do you think they were worth the investment?

Thanks!

Looking good Tim :gj:

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Originally Posted by James Tomlinson

Tim,

How are you liking the ARS grow out rat rack? What are your thoughts on investing your $ in this versus building your own (same with the ARS hatchling rack...I believe that you have one of those in one of your pics). Do you think they were worth the investment?

Thanks!

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The short answer is I don't like the rodent rack. For the long answer, please give me a call. As for the snake hatchling rack, I thing it is the best, and I am about to order my third one. On top of that, I think I am about to order an 8018 and a 3033. I want to use the 8018 for our Nicuraguan project, and our soon to be Angolan Python and Blood Python project. I would also like to use the 3033 for our male Ball Pythons, in our new snake room. I was planning on building 3 of our own 11 tub racks that are the same size.

With all that said, I would highly recommend ARS Caging to anyone that asks. I just don't like the rodent grow out (although we do use it as a breeding rack and not what it is marketed for).

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Originally Posted by Boanerges

Looking good Tim :gj:

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Thanks Boan.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

I would like to stop building all of these small rooms, and would prefer to build a 1200 sq. ft. 2 story metal building. I just can't get all the money together before I run out opf space.

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Yup thats my long term plan, hell you can even have these as houses now and can withstand winds over 200mph. These are built stronger than traditional style stick frames and for the $ are a bargain espically when you can handle all the finish work yourself on the inside.

I thought I would come and post an updated pic of the progress so far. It does appear to have changed a bit. Unfortunately I can't work on it this weekend as I have to build 2 new rat racks for Monica. We have hatchlings coming, and need all the rodents we can get. Since the storage room is done, we were able to move the rodent chow out of the room, and have room for at least 2 more racks. The goal is to have the Snake room done before NARBC Chicago, and I think we'll make it. Here is the pic.

http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/nsroom7809.jpg

Tim we just moved into a house with a really nice almost 500 sq foot garage at the back of the property. Can I kidnap you for the rehab LOL.

Seriously though, Mike and I have talked about turning it into a combined ball python/rat raising building. My biggest concern (other than adding in ventilation and heating of course) is security. Not only from a human breaking in but also some sort of alarm system that would let me know in the main house if there was a sudden drop in temps in the snake house. Any comments on that with a fully seperate building?

Also I see that metal rack thingy you have with the big rats in it. Are those seperate metal cages on each shelf or did you somehow take a regular metal storage rack and change it into a rat rack? Looks pretty interesting.

Can You build me a few rodent racks while You're at it? LOL

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Tim we just moved into a house with a really nice almost 500 sq foot garage at the back of the property. Can I kidnap you for the rehab LOL.

Seriously though, Mike and I have talked about turning it into a combined ball python/rat raising building. My biggest concern (other than adding in ventilation and heating of course) is security. Not only from a human breaking in but also some sort of alarm system that would let me know in the main house if there was a sudden drop in temps in the snake house. Any comments on that with a fully seperate building?

Also I see that metal rack thingy you have with the big rats in it. Are those seperate metal cages on each shelf or did you somehow take a regular metal storage rack and change it into a rat rack? Looks pretty interesting.

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Check out these temp alarms from Reptile Basics...
http://www.reptilebasics.com/Tempera...p-1-c-295.html

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

Check out these temp alarms from Reptile Basics...
http://www.reptilebasics.com/Tempera...p-1-c-295.html

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Jon, I love you! That is exactly what I was looking for. If we got all three parts of it, I think it would cover all the concerns we have with having the ball pythons out there! Perfect! Not too horribly expensive, no monthly monitoring fees. It's very much like what we used years ago in a private fish hatchery I worked at but that unit was way, way more costly than this. How in the world did I miss this at Reptile Basics. Thanks again Jon! :banana:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Tim we just moved into a house with a really nice almost 500 sq foot garage at the back of the property. Can I kidnap you for the rehab LOL.

Seriously though, Mike and I have talked about turning it into a combined ball python/rat raising building. My biggest concern (other than adding in ventilation and heating of course) is security. Not only from a human breaking in but also some sort of alarm system that would let me know in the main house if there was a sudden drop in temps in the snake house. Any comments on that with a fully seperate building?

Also I see that metal rack thingy you have with the big rats in it. Are those seperate metal cages on each shelf or did you somehow take a regular metal storage rack and change it into a rat rack? Looks pretty interesting.

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Jo,
I wish I could start a business, and run all over the country building snake rooms for people. I barely have time to do mine. As for security, I am very rural, so I have never worried about it. This is actually our second seperated room from the house. The original room is in a seperate building from this building. I would probably add video surveillance and alarms if I were more urban though.

As for temps, I would look at Jon's post above. I know you used to be able to order dialers for the Helix 1500 watt systems, and they would call a phone number if the temps fell outside of a preset range. I know people that set the phone number to a pager or cell phone. You can't get those anymore, I don't believe, but if it was available, I could find someone who could make one.

Lastly, the rat cages are something that we built from scratch using a roll of 1/2" x 1/2" welded wire mesh and a Stainless Steel rack from Lowes. Then I just wired the cages to the shelf, and built the tubs out of expanded PVC. It works great for large rat storage, or for Monica to grow up replacement breeders. Great airflow, so they don't get hot very easily. This allows you to put more rats in there than you think you can. The downside to the rack, is that rats like to "shoot" pee sideways, and tend to pee on next door racks and the wall. Sometimes it's a pain.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

Can You build me a few rodent racks while You're at it? LOL

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Jon,
Just let me know how many, and the shipping addy. My wife has been on my butt for at least three weeks to build these. I can't seem to break away from the new snake building long enough to do it. However, I need food for baby snakes, so I finally gave in and said I would do it this weekened. LOL.

Looking good Tim!!:gj:

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

Check out these temp alarms from Reptile Basics...
http://www.reptilebasics.com/Tempera...p-1-c-295.html

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We use these Temperature Alarms in our snake building and they work great. We have one in the main room and in the incubator. They are pretty nice because you can program 9 different numbers into them to call.

[QUOTE=muddoc;1071237] The goal is to have it done by October before we leave to go to the Chicago Show.

hey there , tim right? just a quik question i went to poland for a bit but im coming back home to chicago in a week, will i make the show? i didnt here of any chicago sho, can u fill me in on the date of it ? lookin forward to seeing u there , man im excited this is new to me as for i am still a kid but now i can driv eout there sinc e i got my liscense haha , its gonnna be kool seeing somone i can tlak to on the forum as well. thankx

paul

The NARBC Tinley Park show is in OCTOBER on the weekend of the 10th of October. You have plenty of time.

Thanks Slaon Brothers for the compliments on the new room. That was Jo that was looking for an alarm. I have thermometers with remote stations that I can monitor from.

Sweet building! :gj: You have talent. :)

And I thought it was hard getting myself to work on the 4 stacking cages I'm doing now for my BPs! :D You are an inspiration!

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Originally Posted by Argentra

Sweet building! :gj: You have talent. :)

And I thought it was hard getting myself to work on the 4 stacking cages I'm doing now for my BPs! :D You are an inspiration!

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Thanks Adriana. I hope I can inspire you to build 10 more racks, and fill them all up.