From two existing chicken houses, Osceola, IA, farmer Randy Brown constructed a Wheelchair-Accessible Farrowing House. The facility has 6-foot-wide aisles in front of and behind the farrowing crates, with a 7-foot-wide aisle at one end. For easier access from a wheelchair, the crates rest on platforms that were raised up 6 inches in the front and 4 inches in the rear. This slope allows the animal waste to run behind the crates into a 15-inch wide gutter formed between the rear of the raised platform and a narrow curb. The curb is low enough for Brown to drive his wheelchair over it but high enough to contain the manure. Brown's farrowing crates feature doors at the rear to accommodate a scraper for cleaning and stationary feeders at the front so feed can be supplied without having to open the doors. He uses sawdust as bedding until a week after farrowing, at which time he removes the crate doors, scrapes out the sawdust, hoses down the area, and replaces the sawdust with a pig blanket.