Am I better off than I was 4 years ago? Hard to say, We lost our family business, put 6 people out of work, lost our house, now live in the woods at a cabin without running water or indoor plumbing!
However we have our health, our kids have their health, Grandkids are doing great!
We are much...
I have an egg door on the side of the house and the front of the roost box opens on hinges for clean out. Yes they do free range around the yard during the day. In the winter I cover the run with plastic except one section for ventilation.
Yes it does add strength in the final layer because it is cut short like adding fiber to concrete. The insulating layers use straw also mixed with a thinner clay slurry. This layer should be at least 5 or 6 inches thick. Eventually the straw will burn out leaving a honeycomb layer of insulating...
The straw creates insulation. You add lots of straw to a clay slurry. In the final layer you add chopped straw for strength.
If you google Kiko Denzer Earth Ovens he has some great info . I don't think you can use cement in the clay mix.
Actually it's what helps retain the heat on the floor of the oven. Without it all the heat you build will not hold in the oven. We have a four inch layer of clay and straw mixture surrounding empty wine bottles laying on their side.under the 6 in clay slab.
The first layer is 4in thick we did it in about 4 hours with 2 of us working. We let it dry about a week, It depends alot on how humid the weather is. It wasn't completely dry but very firm.
The yellow bricks are fire bricks they line the floor of the oven and are set in a thin layer of sand over a 6 in base of clay and sand which is the heat sink.
The last picture is before the door was cut the bricks extending out make the entrance.
We built our oven 3 years ago still works great! You have to keep it covered with either a roof or a tarp we use a heavy tarp. Makes the best pizza and bread and roast chicken or just about anything . I don't have a picture of the finnished oven on my computer but it covers the brick base. This...
Nice size for a backyard coop. You should draw up plans and post on the coop page. I also like the hardware cloth under the roof we did the same thing I feel very secure and lots of ventilation.
We live in the middle of the woods and so far no predators. We have a 24 in skirt around the...