Corn Crib Assemble/Disassenble

A bit of knowledge needed. I'm looking at some wire corn cribs and was wondering how the roof was put on. Is it done as a whole unit or by piece. Looks kinda hard either way with out a platform or boom. Some of them I'm looking at aren't very local.

Pic for attention

I moved mine about 30 years ago in two pcs the roof and the lower part. I can't remember how I got the roof back on but I do remember it didn't go to well. The roof is crooked and not on too straight. Although it is functionable and works as it should. I didn't have anything that would lift it up high enough to place it on properly. I would think that would be the way to if you have the equipment or lay it down, after you brace it good on a flat bed and sneak it down the road all in one piece.

Don't know about a round corn crib, but on most round steel bins, the roof was assembled after the first ring was assembled on top of the first ring. It was then jacked up, next ring assembled below & to the first, jacked up, next ring assembled and then jacked up until the final bottom ring was completed.

The one I saw, had p shaped clips that pulled the wire and the metal together. The bolt went thru the p clip and up thru the ridge. Best way to take it apart, is like it went together. With bin jacks. gobble

We took two of them down many years ago. All we had was a six foot ladder. The roof came apart fairly easy then the wire sections. Loaded them both on a sixteen foot trailer, strapped it down with chains and hit the road. Left home at dark, got back at dark, three people, about 150 miles one way. Your mileage may vary.

I braced one inside including an outside skid tipped it on the skid and pulled it down the road, works for a short distance. I took one apart also, built a platform inside unbolted the roof from the platform. The side were one piece top to bottom, unbolted it in three pieces, when down the three pieces could easily be separated into the individual sections.

That would make sense to me. Probably would have been the proper way to have done it. Like you said that's the way they do the grain bins when they build them

In the area I live, we dont use corn cribs. The corn in this area is used as sileage, or to a cannery for human consumption.
I cant help but wonder why any corn that was stored in it wouldnt get damp and mildew would ruin it.

Also, why arent birds and other animals eating the corn as fast as they can?

When I was a high school junior Dad was still picking ear corn. With increasing yields another corn crib was needed. We drove the pickup probably three hours one way to Charles City where the Walsh Company made wire corn cribs. A very good foundation/floor was formed and poured with a sheller drag down the middle. To build the crib the first wire ring was attached around the edge of the foundation. As I remember there were U bolts in the concrete that a J bolt hooked into which held the first wire ring. This first, second, and third wire rings were probably somewhere around 6' tall. Next the first ring was filled with ear corn of course using an elevator. You had to make sure the elevator dropped the corn into the center so the first ring formed a true circle. Next a couple guys stood on the ear corn and attached the second wire ring. As with the first ring long rods were pushed through the interwoven wires joining the sections. Again this ring was filled with ear corn and once again the 3rd ring was added with guys on the inside and outside. The roof was constructed like a grain bin but was done standing inside on the corn and working from an extension ladder on the outside. Dad went to a picker sheller with steel grain bins shortly after this crib was built. The crib was sold to someone who was still picking ear corn. Probably 15 years later I had an excavator come and break up the concrete.

Also, why arent birds and other animals eating the corn as fast as they can?

That's what I was wondering! Looks like rats would have a wonderful time feeding and nesting in there!

Different brand cribs go together and come apart in different ways. Spee-D-Cribs had tall panels that pinned together vertically so the roof went on last. Behlen cribs had bands that went around the wire like a stave silo and the roof went on last. Walsh cribs went up in ring sections. There was another brand (Martin maybe?) that looked like a grain bin from a distance that had perforated steel rings which went up using bin jacks with the roof already on the top ring.

My son bought an un-used ear corn crib and moved it about ten miles, then converted it to a gazebo. We tried raising the roof as one unit, using a car tire/wheel in the center, and lifting through the center with a jib boom on a front loader. I could lift it with my JD 630 and 45 loader, but it wanted to fold, so we backed off and got a sheet rock lift in the center, with some hillbilly modifications, and after a few adjustments got it in place and looking good. He only used the bottom half - there was another section above the one that they used, but they didn't want it to be that high. His wife is proud of it, and that was our ultimate goal. Here's a picture of the finished product;

A picture of the inside, looking up. It can't get much simpler.

Rats in the crib - very common in the ear corn days. I remember shoveling corn in the grinder and rats scurrying for cover. I've stomped many rats. You'd think that a stomping would kill them, but no. . .

I remember an older gentleman who had a rat run up his pants leg in the crib. He had his overalls unbuckled and dropped to the ground in a split second. I wish he had been wearing undershorts. I can't wash that memory from my mind.

I helped a guy move on .Don't know what brand but we set the roof on with the loader and a telephone pole chained to the bucket. Had to be pretty straight up to do it though. I forget what we used to keep it round with. I suppose a guy could put some 2x4's across it to hold the roof out then just lift it off. Then we unfastened the sides and fell down in sections about half the height of the crib walls. If I had been there when they did all of it. I would have put a couple 2x4's across the sides and lifted with 4 chains set it on a wagon with both halves on it then went back for the roof or used a second wagon in one trip.

I like it. I bet it keeps out the big mosquitos. lol Bill

Looks like the brand could be a Behlen? www.behlenmfg.com

I have moved 2 of those. I took the roof off in 1 piece. I ran a rope through the top hole to a big plywood circle and lifted it off using the old hay trolley track and pulley off the barn roof peak. They are quite light really. they can be braced inside and laid over also.

It has screening around it to keep the bugs out.