Step-By-Step Guide on How to Build a Snail Pen (SNAILERY)

Step-By-Step Guide on How to Build a Snail Pen (SNAILERY)
Materials Needed for Constructing Different Snail Pens
Depending on price and availability, the following materials can be used as snail housing materials; Concrete blocks or bricks, polythene sheets, galvanized sheets, Mosquito nets or nylon mesh, chicken wire and also disposable materials like car tyres, baskets, oil drums, and old water tanks are also good materials.
In construction of snail house, one of the major things you will bear in mind are the constraints to snailery. The constraints are listed below
•    Menace of termites
•    Menace of snakes
•    Menace of rats
During construction all these things must be considered. The recent construction of snail pen is done in such a way that every pen is covered by a strong wire-wedged cover that snakes, rats, cannot destroy even termites cannot penetrate.

How to Construct Different Snail Pen
1. Using Baskets
A basket is a good material for locally made snail cage. It is used for raising hatchlings of less than three months of age or for incubation of eggs. The major limitation in the use of basket for raising snail is poor durability.

Steps involved in making snail housing using baskets

• Get a good basket and lay sack on the bottom to hold soil.
• Fill the basket with humus or loamy soil to a depth of 15-20cm.
• Put dry leaves on the soil for mulching.
• After that, cover the basket with a lid, or chicken wire mesh placed between two mosquito nets and fastened with a wooden frame, to provide protection against insects.

2. Hutch Box (Wooden Snail Cage)
A hutch box is a square or rectangular, single, or multi-chamber wooden boxes with lids, placed on wooden stands. Hutch boxes are useful in semi-intensive snailery system. They are very suitable as hatchery and nursery pens because eggs and young snails can be easily located and observed.

Steps involved in the construction of a hutch box

• The dimension should be about 100cm x 50cm with a stand of 30 to 35cm.
• The box will have a cubical wooden frame.
• The base of the box should be built of hardwood and perforated to allow free drainage of excess water.
• After constructing the box, sieve humus or loamy soil into it to a depth of 20 – 25cm.
• Cover the box with a lid made of chicken wire mesh reinforced with mosquito nets. The lid should be fitted with a padlock to discourage poachers from stealing your snails.
• The stands of the cage which is 35cm high should be placed inside a container or bowl filled with water plus kerosene, used engine oil or any other disinfectants. This is done so as to prevent insects from crawling up the box to attack the snails.
• The soil in the hutch box must be changed occasionally because an accumulation of droppings and slime will increase the chances of disease development.
• A box of 1sqr.m can be used to rear 4 – 6 mature snails.

3. Construction of Snail House Using Tyres
Tyres are less expensive and readily available in urban areas. It can be sourced from local mechanics or vulcanizers and used as backyard snail farming structure, this is an intensive system of snail farming.
Tyres have poor ventilation, you can improve ventilation by perforating tyres using a hot pointed metal rod.

Steps involved in the construction of snail housing using tyres

• Select an appropriate site under a shade.
• Stack 3 – 4 tyres upon one another as shown in the image above.
• After stacking, fill the tyres with suitable loamy soil to a depth of 10 – 15cm.
• Cover the tyres with chicken wire and mosquito mesh, placed between the topmost tyre and the second one from the top for protection.

Car tyres can hold up to 3 – 6 snails, depending on their sizes. Tyres of larger diameters can hold between 5 – 10 mature snails.
4. Drums or Tanks used for Construction of Snail Pen
Oil drums and old tanks could also be used to raise snails instead of discarding them. Old tank drums are good for small-scale production (especially for family consumption).

Steps involved in the construction of snail housing using oil drums or tanks

• Perforate
• Lay sacks on the bottom of the tank to hold the soil and then fill with humus or loamy soil to a depth of 10-15cm.
• Place dry leaves on the soil layer as mulching.
• Cover the box with a lid made of chicken wire mesh reinforced with mosquito nets.
• The tank could be placed on a stand if available.

5. Trench Pen Snail House
Trench pen is a type of snail habitat that is built in a shallow pit.

Steps involved in the construction of trench pens

• Select an appropriate site and peg out the position of your pen.
• The trench is either dug into the ground or raised 40 – 50cm above ground level using cement blocks.
• Ensure that the trench is well drained to prevent water-logging
• Fill the trench with good loamy soil to a depth of 10 – 15cm.
• Concrete can be leveled on the floor of the trench before topping with the soil.
• Construct feeding and water trough to a height 5 –7cm above the soil level.
• After that, cover the pen properly with a well fitted framework of chicken wire plus mosquito net.
• Trench pens have the advantage of being flexible, especially when sorting snails according to their sizes and phase in the growing cycle. The snails are always easy to locate, for handling, feeding, selection, and final sale or consumption.
• On the contrary, trench pens have the disadvantage of being expensive to construct (especially the raised trench pen). Secondly, the farmer may end up having backache because of long stooping or kneeling due to the low height of the trench.

6. Free-range Snail Farming System
The extensive snail farming system also known as free range system. This system simply replicates the snail’s natural habitat as applicable in the wild. This is the best snail breeding system as it helps them to stay active all year round compared to the other systems.
The freedom to roam in large areas allows the snails to avoid each other’s slime trails. Over-slimed ground and excess faeces can change snail behaviour by putting out chemical signals like ** pheromones* which are detrimental to reproduction and growth rates in snails.
 A pheromone is a chemical an animal produces which changes the behaviour of another animal of the same species .

Allowing snails to breed at their own pace and encouraging the natural biological cycle in an ecological farming system, results in better breeding performance, faster rate of growth, higher reproduction yields and it meets the highest standards of quality and sustainable accountability.
The free-range snail housing system , however, has its own disadvantages.

• It requires more land than other types of snail farming.
• It is difficult to locate and protect eggs and newly born snails when using the free range system.
• A fully enclosed and roofed pen is relatively expensive to build.
• In the open type of free-range pen, it is more difficult to keep out predators and poachers.
• It may be difficult to control disease outbreak because of the farm size