Gardening in a Chicken Coop

[MoJoJo]

I'm currently attending Shasta College and taking a Sustainable Agriculture and Farm Management class. We are working on a project right now and I would really love some input/fresh ideas because I can't find anything on the internet.

The project is:
We are trying to use the water that leaks out of the nipples on the automatic waterer we have set up in the chicken coop on the farm. One student said that what he did at home was take a pallet cover it with chicken wire and lay seed in it. Now with all the excess water dripping down, the seeds grow and the chickens have sprouts of various plants to eat along with their other food.

As I was thinking more on this idea and researching different plants that would be good for the chickens, an idea dawned on me.
What if we were to some how create a small garden in the coop by using the excess water as drip irrigation. The problem I'm having is how do we set this up so that:
1) the chickens can still get to the waterer and drink while setting up the plants underneath it to collect the dripping water
2) the chickens can't eat the plants if we are going to have a garden so they can't have access to the plants

The dimensions of the coop are as follows
20 ft X 8 ft with a small enclosure are one end and the waterer is a PVC pipe strung up by hay twine with nipples set every few inches apart.

The garden idea is just something I came up with and I'm not sure it will work but if you have any ideas or advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[lazy gardener]

How much water is leaking out? My suggestion would be to collect it and divert it through some sort of channel outside the coop to a planter attached to the side of the coop. You'd then have to cover the planter with chicken wire to keep them from pulling up the seedlings/tearing up the soil. How bout installing gutters on the coop, collecting rain water, processing through a filtration system, for a never ending (or at least additional) supply of water. You could also save gutter water in a rain barrel, and grow duck weed for additional protein for the chickens. If you do a planter inside the coop, you'll be giving up valuable space. Do you have enough light inside the coop to adequately meet the needs of growing plants? You could do sprouts, but IMO, they need fresher and more consistent water. They need to have very pure water and be rinsed very well several times/day.

 

[lomine]

I know that some people use the wire of their coops to support vines, like peas. Perhaps you could incorporate something like that so it doesn't take up too much horizontal space. Though I would think that whatever you plant will need additional watering.

 

[amiachicknorwat]

Wow, great idea!: taking Deep Litter further than just taking it out into the garden for use and using it in the coop. So my suggestion, if ur not already on it, is to alternate nitrogen bearing layers (Chicken doo-doo, greenery) with carbon bearing layers (straw or deciduous wood chips) and have a fuller indoor garden than just at their watering hole. My coop has a cement floor, so I decided to insulate (winterize) the coop from the ground up. I started with a layer of cardboard, as per Sheet Mulching method, then added sand, straw, wood chips and some greenery (from weeding).

Huh, this now makes me think we can have a garden in the chicken coop all winter. Much Thanks, Nick

 

[lazy gardener]

The only down side to that is the fine layer of silt/dander/chicken dust that tends to cover everything. I've read that there are even lots of bacteria from chicken feces floating in the air in a coop. I do know that there is at least one well known author who has a nice big green house. It's really well thought out. One end is sectioned off for chickens. The middle walking path is covered with plywood, under which are built vermiposting bins made out of cinder blocks. I believe that each bin is 4 x 4, and the blocks are stacked 2 blocks deep. The sides are dedicated to usual green house methods. I don't remember if he has the greenery separated from the chicken area with plastic. I'm going to experiment in my green house, if I can get it set up soon enough. The chickens will have winter access to it, as they have every winter. But, I'll divide it, give them 1/2 and keep the other half for our use with a good plastic barrier. If things get too silty, I'll just let the chickens have the veggies. But, I think that if I seal the plastic to the soil, it should be fine. They're already working on making some nice soil in there. It's parked over a heavy clay subsoil area, and they're working up a nice blend of leaves, grass clippings, compost and a bit of good soil.