Encompassed garden compost pile within run

[amiachicknorwat]

Working great! A pile of treats. Never seen 'em scratch and peck so much. Plus, they turned in later than usual (had to wait longer before closing up chicken coop from nocturnal predators). I'm so glad for the chickens. Pretty happy from my POV too, cuz chicken doo-doo accelerates the composting process, so everybody's happy. I look to the day when all can run free, but for now their run is getting larger. We're still afraid of what our cat might do. He's a main motivating source of our species apartheid, at least till our chicks are full grown. No prob. That's coming fast>>>>

 

[RonP]

Do a search on "deep litter".

Essentially very effective cold composting when sufficient carbons are available.

 

[amiachicknorwat]

Here's someone's counter argument:

http://hencam.com/henblog/2013/12/why-i-dont-use-deep-litter/

But I am starting to. Our chicken coop has a cement floor. No being should have to sleep, live on cement. Plus I wanted to winterize. So I wanted to winterize the chicken coop from the ground up. After a clean sweep I laid down cardboard, fairly thick with full coverage. Then applied sand, straw and deciduous wood chips, then some dirt here and there. It's a form of sheet mulching familiar in permaculture. I got a start on your suggestion, but not so deep ... as yet. But compost heat could provide winter heating (I live in Canada) without the use of circadian rhythm distrupting heat lamps, hmmm?

 

[RonP]

Here's someone's counter argument:

http://hencam.com/henblog/2013/12/why-i-dont-use-deep-litter/

Thank you for sharing that article.

I have found hundreds to support deep litter runs, this may be the first against.

My personal experience differs with the author, mimics the hundreds of supporters.

I have a wood floor in my coop.

I use pine shavings, ~ 8-10 inches deep.

The coop litter never really decomposes, not enough moisture, as sufficient ventilation is critical in any coop.

Dust is the main issue, the moisture also never reaches the wood floor...

No muck or foul odors ever, as suggested in the article.

Once a year or so, I remove the shavings and put them in the outside deep litter run, where within 6 months, it completely decomposes into wonderful compost. Also no foul odors, mud, or flies. my outdoor deep litter run has 12 - 24 inches of carbons, mostly shredded leaves and wood chips, all free, to offset the nitrogen rich manure.

My coop footprint is 64 square feet. I currently have 14 birds. I also have 17 square feet of draft free ventilation.

My outdoor run is ~ 200 square feet.