The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

Jeff -

Mine definitely doesn't increase temperature but it is composting nicely.

I think part of the heat generation with DarkMatter's coop is that it is partly BELOW GROUND LEVEL if I understand correctly - I think he said he dug down to make a pit. That would immediately help with raising temperature I'm thinking.


Also - I'm heading down to AutoZone for that pad heater later this morning. Going to try the 60 watt 8.5 x 5.5 right on the cup necks to see if that will keep them open. We're back in the teens again.

Mine does not heat anything either. Wish it did though. I would love to have unfrozen water.

Today it's in the 20s. Yesterday it was so nice and warm, that the yard was disgusting mud, ice and poop. I forgot how much I hated thaws. Mud is slipperier than ice!

 

[JeffOeuf]

Trying to create a composting pile in a raised coop is a lose-lose proposition. If you do manage to get the composting going, it will rot everything it touches, even linoleum. Mine is safety in the dirt pit.(could you dig a foundation and move the coop to it minus the floor?)

This guy knows what he's talking about.

I wrote an article for an online magazine last year about generating heat for a greenhouse with compost. It is doable, very doable, if you have an ongoing supply of material...like a dairy farm. In all the designs I read about the composting chamber was very carefully designed to exclude anything that could rot. Most were poured concrete with a dirt floor, just like darkmatter's foundation. You can't really compost on top of a framed floor (even with paint or vinyl flooring) without eventually "composting" your floor.

 

[Leahs Mom]

My Garden shares a fence with the chicken run and I let the chickens into the garden in the fall when I'm done with it and let them glean/till/fertilize all fall/winter long:





The Chicken run itself is planted with Illinois everbearing mulberry trees, apples, persimmons, and wild plums to provide free food for the chickens. I originally tried free range, but the predators convinced me that won't work, so I built a large run and planted shade & food for them.

I LOVE your photos and your setup! Enjoying the captions too

Does your fenced area have wire overhead for hawks too..or just the perimeter fence?

 

[Melabella]

Off topic, but have to share this video of this adorable teenage boy trying to do the right thing in his mind, and it didn't turn out the way he had hoped. Being the mother of three sons, I applaud when young men in training are sensitive, and thoughtful. With countless video's out there teenagers (and adults sadly) put up on the internet being hateful and harmful, it's refreshing to see a comical slant to one respecting even the smallest example of the animal kingdom. So many boys today are so misdirected, wish I could hug them all, make them see they are wasting their time, and get on the right track.

MB

 

[darkmatter]

I just did a little Googling and a little calculator work with regard to compost generated heat. Using the available data, In a coop 8' x 10' with 7' ceiling height the compost would have to be at least 7 inches deep, perfectly blended between carbon and nitrogen and very moist to generate an 18 degree (F) temperature increase. That's based on a perfectly functioning compost pile generating 1,000 btu per ton per hour and having a density of approximately 37 pounds per cubic foot. If you cut the moisture level down to something that would be comfortable for the chickens (and acceptable to chicken keepers), that efficiency drops like a rock.

That also assumes that the compost can reach its heat generation potential spread evenly and thin, which is contrary to all the available suggestions.

If I had a ground floor coop with a bare ground floor, I would probably be all over deep litter. But with an elevated, fabricated floor, I can't see its advantages. Having composted pretty seriously for many years, I just can't imagine having the floor of the coop damp enough and deep enough for any decomposition to actually take place.

I guess I'm also lucky in that my girls spend around 14 hours per day outside, so I'm only dealing with half (or so) of the litter generated.

I didn't have googling to figure it out, my dirt pit composting is up to 18" deep and you have to figure the body heat from the chickens also. I have a thermometer in my coop and when it was blowing snow blizzard conditions outside at 16 degrees, the inside was above freezing, the rubber tub water also wasn't froze. My winter water is a rubber tub setting on a concrete block set in the composting litter.

 

[Melabella]

Mine does not heat anything either. Wish it did though. I would love to have unfrozen water.

Today it's in the 20s. Yesterday it was so nice and warm, that the yard was disgusting mud, ice and poop. I forgot how much I hated thaws. Mud is slipperier than ice!

aoxa,,

I took all the horses heavy rugs off so they didn't sweat with the warm weather. Well, all four rolled in mud, from poll to tail. Wet, cold, heavy, sticky mud. When I win the lottery, one of the first purchases I will be making is a super duper built in the wall quiet horse vacumes.

 

[Arkansas81]

Off topic, but have to share this video of this adorable teenage boy trying to do the right thing in his mind, and it didn't turn out the way he had hoped.  Being the mother of three sons, I applaud when young men in training are sensitive, and thoughtful.  With countless video's out there teenagers (and adults sadly) put up on the internet being hateful and harmful, it's refreshing to see a comical slant to one respecting even the smallest example of the animal kingdom.  So many boys today are so misdirected, wish I could hug them all, make them see they are wasting their time, and get on the right track.

MB

Oh my!!!!!! How sad, but endearing. Thanks for sharing

 

[darkmatter]

I LOVE your photos and your setup! Enjoying the captions too

Does your fenced area have wire overhead for hawks too..or just the perimeter fence?

Just a perimeter fence, I have over the years occasionally lost a chicken to Raptors, but the size of my run precludes an overhead net. However there are so many trees and bushes in the run, there are lots of places to hide. Also I now have Guineas incorporated into the flock and they spot danger long before the chickens do and warn.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

 

[Melabella]