1 degree - Chickens Thriving on Compost and Sprouts

www.edibleacres...
Another update on our chicken composting system. After the coldest night so far this winter (-3F) we look at what our chicken composting operation can offer for our intrepid friends. Pockets of rich steam, pillows of warm, ropey organic grain sprouts, piping hot earthworms, soil life and ample opportunity to scratch and forage while the earth around is a solid frozen block.
The system works! Even when it's negative degrees! Yay for our chickens and for us!

[@bencapozzi]

OMG, “wonderful, plump friends.” I love it! Great video and great system, Sean. I love that you talk about the joy the animals bring to you.

[@finlandfarm1674]

I'm always throwing bags of garden and lawn waste into my truck that people leave on the curb for pickup. Keeps my chickens happy and I get great compost. Thanks for the vid.

[@MetaView7]

Thanks for the video. That's one impressive compost. I can see the steam coming out and the amazing life inside.

[@janmariebaldwin1415]

I love watching your chickens, in fact I love all your video’s, I learn so much from you 😊 Thank you for sharing 😊 Ps, I like the way in the end shot your rooster is stood on the top of the pile watching over his flock while the girls work 🤣🤣🤣

[@kristinakirkham8507]

This system is so amazing! So cool to see it working in such cold weather! Inspired by you, I took down a compost pile that was helping to heat my greenhouse (and winter chicken quarters)and turned it into a windrow. Now everyday they break it down and I fork it up for them. Maybe I'll add the grain sprouts next year.

[@edibleacres]

Awesome! Yeah, you can simply add whole grains and seeds to the pile... The compost sprouts it for them. We don't do any pre-sprouting, just throw dried seed at the piles and it happens on its own...

[@ingridskitchengarden]

I’m convinced you have the best chicken system. Good job.

[@jd2379]

Looking nice :) glad to see you enjoy in all the little things life provide us with, real great! Cheers

[@PermaPen]

Wow that's cold.... I'd be up there with the chickens on the steaming pile....

[@stevebreedlove9760]

you should put all the chicken system videos together and edit them down into 20-30 min. it's really amazing.

[@BusterABrown]

Great idea Steve. Chickens are why I'm here today.

[@edibleacres]

Thanks. For now it feels easiest to have little chunks as time allows, and provide updates, etc. I made a 'chicken' playlist you might find helpful? kzbin.info/aero/PLihFHKqj6Jeog3qoYlmhOPt_eElEhNMpH

[@stevebreedlove9760]

thanks edible acres! I don't mean now. but eventually. make a course type video that shows across seasons. maybe discuss alternative sources of grain or discuss bulk grain from feed store, etc. it doesn't freeze hard where I live in CA (zone 9b, this year's low about 25). but I love the stacked functions. as I've said before, no one explains stacked functions as clearly as you do!

[@cmb3737]

Just love this technic

[@carlagarrett3244]

wonderful, plump, friends.

[@JanColdwater]

I could imagine these piles in hoop houses with the heated water inside!

[@edibleacres]

Could be the next design iteration...

[@thenextpoetician6328]

Some day, I can only hope, you Yanks go metric. :) I do the conversion in my head just for kicks and nostalgia. Factoid: us Canickistani still use Imperial for our height and weight in daily life. Hmmm. How about scrounging some hot water tank type insulation? Watched the video where you had a blanket on top. Anything that works.

[@joansmith3492]

Impressive.

[@kevinwharem6464]

I struggle to come up with even one legitimate reason why (almost) every yard in the world wouldn't or shouldn't have a scaled up or down system like you've built. It's also a mystery to me why governments & regulatory bodies who wanted to promote quality of life in their area wouldn't encourage these systems everywhere. Do chickens eat comfrey? Been thinking about planting some along the inside of a run, with a "flip up" wire mesh over it. It would grow, then I'd flip the mesh up & secure to the top of the fence. The chickens would decimate the comfrey to the ground. I'd flip the protection back down to wait for the next round. I imagine a polyculture of mixed plants like comfrey, dandelion, etc. that will take abuse & grow back, lining the inside of the coop with multiple sections of this flip up protection. Kind of a perennial rotational grazing system inside the coop.

[@edibleacres]

Yeah I like that idea a lot! I'd be super careful in having comfrey growing near where you may want to also be generating compost since if/when you dig down near the comfrey you may be finding a root fragment growing later. But a permanent system along the exterior with periodic access for the chickens seems great. Turkish Rocket, Comfrey, burdock, nettles, dandelions, kales and lettuces from saved seed... so many options. We grow chard just outside the fence and crack off leaves and toss them in all the time in the summer. Its nice to design those elements, would be rad to hear how it works for you!

[@edibleacres]

Chickens love comfrey more than just about anything!!! And, so nutritious for them!

[@Ash-fd8ww]

In my experience, some people just really like flat, boring grass. :|

[@bobbob-zc1nx]

this may be a bit late but why dont you put some copper wires in the middle of the compost pile(eventually wraped to a tight medium sized coil, that then strings out connected to barrels full of water(small but many, that the chickens cant scratch )put them in the coop on the ground,around the border of the coop-it may bring the tempeture up some in the coop and maybe even a little around the yard? what cha think?

[@edibleacres]

Could be possible. I've found that other elements in the system like that make it very hard to turn and work so that can be a challenge to overcome.

[@bobbob-zc1nx]

i see ill take that into account when i get my own,thanks

[@rlportillo]

Are those "Black Star"? Excellent layers

[@edibleacres]

Black Australorps

[@TheTrueabundance]

those are beautiful birds. Are they black australorps?

[@edibleacres]

Yup

[@allgoodthingsarewildfree8011]

What do you do with the chicken manure from the coop/roost? I have 11 hens free ranging on our 1.5 acres and use pine shavings inside the coop. I'd like to unlock those nutrients for the garden but am worried about directly adding it to the compost pile since the hens scratch and eat from it.

[@edibleacres]

I mix it in to areas that don't have as much grain in it and they work it in. I figure they poop outside all the time and interact with it. I trust their ability to know what makes sense to focus energy on and what to kick around and move away from. So far, almost three years with these hens and they seem super healthy and happy, so it feels like its working, at least for us.

[@dgoldstein6782]

Hi Sean, Where did you get your chickens. Have you heard anything about Sand hill preservation center poultry? Thanks, Dan

[@edibleacres]

We ordered them from Murray McMurray I believe. They were healthy and have worked well, but I'm sure there are better options. I haven't heard about Sand Hill...

[@donnasouthwood]

I live in the Pacific Northwest and we have tons of rain. How would you do this system in an area of heavy rainfall? If it were covered the chickens couldn't access it. Would it have to be under a roof of some sort?

[@edibleacres]

I don't have experience with it so I don't know... But I would think designing it ideally to be as high up in the landscape as possible, with large numbers of swales and deeply mulched production beds down slope would be the place to start. Perhaps a covered area for the incoming material, with all open sides. It would be an opportunity to collect rain water for other uses as well...

[@donnasouthwood]

Great idea! A rainwater collection roof with the compost pile under it!

[@ΦΡΑΝΣΟΥΑΖΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΙΔΟΥ]

These chickens look fat ,healthy,!!!!