Would YOU hire a stall cleaning service?

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

I do have part time people that help on weekends, and some days during the week. That bedding cost is with those people cleaning some days. I also buy a special fork ($40) because it makes my stalls easy and saves bedding.

There is no way a device can save as much as I do. I use a shaking motion constantly on the handle, and it truly just shakes off the bedding, leaving just the manure. And I am really fast too. No, I don’t teach anymore - hated it. All of the teaching I do now is just to occasionally help someone for free.

[system]

It sounds like you have a good handle (no pun intended!) on your stall cleaning and would not necessarily benefit from this.

If I could do it as quickly and cleanly manually, I wouldn’t be so excited, and I wouldn’t think others could benefit from the service. It definitely saves us a LOT of time and a LOT of bedding. We’re darn good at conserving bedding when cleaning manually, but with the device the stalls get SUPER clean and bedding use is significantly reduced, even with the stalls bedded heavier. When cleaning manually, we use special forks also, which help, but there’s still no comparison.

[ExJumper]

I would be more worried about the pee spot. Manure is relatively easy to sift through and shake the good bedding off of. I don’t see, however, how a “machine” could deal with pee spots. You can’t just break them up and sift through them or you just mix pee-soaked bedding in with the clean bedding. Pee spots have to be picked up relatively whole and dealt with in a completely different way than do solid balls of poo.

[MistyBlue]

Is it one of those Woody Pet shaker machine things? The last barn where I boarded had one, the BO was a big lover of new gadgets.
Those do get stalls clean if the bedding is fine like pellets or sawdust. However, they’re slow. I used to go there in the mornings and help with stalls (for fun and a free workout) and I’d do 13 stalls to the machine’s 8 stalls and mine were just as clean. It’s still a lot of shovelling though…and that BO was a slowpoke so it might be faster if the person using it was faster at shovelling bedding into it.

[system]

No, it’s not a Woody Pet thing. The pee spot is shoveled out and disposed of.

[pj1]

[QUOTE=Sugerbunnikins;3797846]
yes. i use the one at my barn. my trainer says that real ladies dont shovel shit. she only charges me $20 per stall per day. i think its a steal![/QUOTE]
OMG!!! You ARE kidding?? Twenty Dollars a day!!! :0

[Auventera_Two]

If a person knows how to clean stalls properly, there should not be ANY bedding wastage. I know how to lightly pick up the poop so I don’t scoop up a gallon of shavings with it. A few shakes in the basket fork and all that’s left is manure, no shavings at all. I clean 3 stalls a day and it takes about 20 minutes. Besides, the cleaning is good exercise and “down time” for me. So no, I would not use this service.

[Just_Wondering]

[QUOTE=pj;3801478]
OMG!!! You ARE kidding?? Twenty Dollars a day!!! :0[/QUOTE]

That would be $600 per month per horse. (Monthly board in some barns)

[pj1]

I only have two horses now so wouldn’t hire a service so just go ahead and put the device up for sale. I want one. Think how many you could sell to those that are too far away to use your service!

[Chardavej]

There is a device out called the “shaker” that sifts manure from bedding, and it will do the whole stall, you don’t have to sift anything, just fork the bedding and manure on it and it sifts it and dumps the waste in a manure bucket. Don’t know how well it actually works but is this something like what you have in mind?

http://www.morristool.com/mtshaker.htm

Theres a video on the site of it in action.

[RockinHorse]

I have known two individuals who, at separate times, tried running a stall cleaning business. Both had been quite successful doing the work as independent contractors. In both instances, the market would not bear the amount of money they needed to charge to cover their employees salaries, insurance, workman’s comp, transportation, billing, supplies, etc and still have money left over for them to receive any income from the indevor. One folded pretty quicky, the other was able to hang on for a while paying illegal workers cash under the table but they too folded after a while.

You need to be very realistic about the costs and do your market research carefully.

[system]

Chardavej: It’s not the Shaker. The concept is similar, but a bit more refined.

PJ: The device is available. PM me for more info.

[unclewiggly]

[Unclewiggly: What do you pay for bedding on a monthly basis? How long does it take your cleaners to clean each stall, and are the stalls really, REALLY clean (almost NO manure pieces left in them)? I bet the cleaners clean quickly, but I also bet that they remove a LOT of bedding from each stall. That translates to a lot of bedding used, but ALSO a lot of bedding/waste to dispose of. Are your current stall cleaners bonded and insured? They drive to your farm now, right? My costs for those aspects shouldn’t be much, if any, different than theirs…

My straw costs me about $270.00 month. Manure removal I get paid $75.00 load. They come about every 6 weeks. Mucker runs me about $900. month and does 10 stalls daily. Stalls are clean, stall floor mats swept all corners and along stall walls swept. W/ 4 stallions in residence right now they can be very wet stalls. Takes Mucker 2 1/2 hours.
Mucker is an independant contractor and works several barns in area.

I worked for a mucking service, arranging the contracts and hiring the muckers. It was not cost effective, to many variables from barn to barn, winter driving, trying to keep consitant help who knew what they were doing around horses.
I hope you invention takes off and makes you a lot of $$$.
But for those of use who use straw doubt it will be benifical.:yes:

[Chardavej]

[QUOTE=AlternativeAlter;3803133]
Chardavej: It’s not the Shaker. The concept is similar, but a bit more refined.

PJ: The device is available. PM me for more info.[/QUOTE]

PM me too please!

[horse_maids]

I have a stall cleaning service…keeps busy…but you will find help hard to find. i do all over east coast…

[seabreeze]

@AlternativeAlter

What if it was closer to $5.00/stall/day, and you saved half on your current bedding and disposal costs? What is one hour of your time worth?

I could go for this on a part-time basis. I couldn’t afford to do it every day, but as the sole person here on my little farm, I’d love to have a couple of days a week that I didn’t have to do stalls…like Monday and Saturday. I’d welcome a break and that price is reasonable.

[Palm_Beach]

This is a 10 year old thread…anyone hear of this device that cuts stall cleaning time in half?

[Moderator_1]

Heads up this thread was bumped by now-deleted spam.

[2DogsFarm]

@kookicat

my trainer says that real ladies dont shovel shit.

:lol::lol::lol:
I knew I wasn’t real!

@AlternativeAlter I would consider this if you offered an As Needed service - say come & strip stalls bi-weekly.
I am perfectly fine picking my own stalls & do so at least 3X daily.
Stripping gets limited to once a season - mostly because I am IT when it comes to labor.
One Old (supposed)Lady can only do so much…

I’d probably also consider using your service to supply bedding as that would save me trips to the feedstore.
Although, when budget allows, I spring for a pallet of bedding that lasts me roughly 3mos - depending on season < longer in Summer, less in Winter.

Do you have a ballpark estimate of what you’d charge to do 3 stalls weekly?
Or PRN?
With & W/O bedding supplied?
Color me interested, but dependent on cost.

ETA: add me to the list of Heartbroken who did not see the Zombie date
2 Good 2 B True