I live in Minnesota, USA where the temps can drop to negative 30 degrees F. The deep litter method has been used for over 100 years to keep the coop warm (especially the floor). The chickens love to scratch around in the straw & sawdust & the bonus is great fertilizer/compost for the garden. I do keep the coop cleaned out in the warm summer months though. Thanks for sharing.
this makes me feel better I've been dumping loads of dead leaves into my coop for deep layer to help keep them warm. I didn't realize I was nourishing them as much also. thnx for sharing.
Great idea for winter, especially for areas that get snow. Also a great idea for those that live in the suburbs and don't have the space for their chickens to roam.
Completely. Was just thinking how are we going to get more warmth for our chickens and I imagine this deep bedding would definitely hold some thermal mass as well as generating heat. Brilliant.
Seems like an excellent system for soil production, but please people: give the chickens a little yard too. Every daytime-active animal has a godgiven right to feel the sun on her fur or feathers! Also, chickens are predators, they hunt flies and such. So if possible; make the yard big enough for them to hunt in. Your need for sustanance does not outweigh other creatures need for a dignified life. If we cant make permaculture without treating our fellow animals like means and resources only, then we should step off this earth. But we wont have to, because we can :)
I agree completely. I have a deep bedding system and a spacious chicken yard. Permaculture deals with as close to nature as you can sustain. This is not natural or fair to the animal. You can do deep bedding and be kind to your chicks. They give us so much.
I was thinking about 10 square meters fenced run with elevated coop. In the run there will be about 1 meter of space for adding material to compost and also this run will be connected to 1meter wide chicken tunnel along fences on my 1200 square meter property. I think this is a lot for 16 birds
This video makes long, drawn out research worth while. Its awesome to see another point of view, that in the end, upholds the principles of permaculture. It has to have a natural cycle that provides a product for the next player in line. An abundance of eggs and 9 cu. yards of compost a year(?), that's pretty awesome. Don't find very many great (actually helpful) videos (or ya have to watch a 100 to see one good one) often. This is good information. It made my favorites list.
+Barry Jordan The "abundance of eggs" part is a bit misleading: "with 15 hens you'll get over 3,000 eggs every year". Maybe the first year. Pullets lay really well their first winter, spring and summer (assuming spring hatched), after that production drops off for many reasons: 1) they moult after they are a year old, usually summer or fall. The process takes a couple of months and most chickens don't lay when they are moulting. 2) winter happens - year old and older hens tend to lay less, if at all, in the winter. Not a natural time to raise chicks especially in colder climates but it is not temperature but the amount of light that triggers this. 3) they may go broody - meaning they have a hormonal need to hatch. Even if there is no rooster, even if they have no eggs to sit on. Left to themselves, they will sit on an empty nest for weeks and weeks waiting for the non existent eggs to hatch. They don't lay then either and if you break them in a "broody buster" (actually the BEST thing for a hen sitting on nothing, the sooner the better) they likely won't lay for 3-5 days after they are broken. 4) they are hatching and raising chicks - incubation is 21 days, figure 2 months of mothering after that before the hen lays again. Add moulting and she is "out of commission" about 5 months. 5) they get older (same as the rest of us). Figure a 20% drop in production just for that. So, if you want to get over 3,000 eggs every year from 15 hens, you will need to get new chicks of productive breeds every spring and if you intend to stick to 15 laying hens, cull the older girls even though they are still productive. I got 12 girls in June 2012. 2 are more a "yard art" breed than a laying breed and over 3 years have averaged about 1.2/week. My best layers averaged about 3.5/week over 3 years. They started laying November 2012. Nov '12 to Nov '13: 2,000 eggs averaging 5.7/day. Nov '13 to Nov '14: 1,300 eggs averaging 3.7/day. Lost 2 in the spring so only 10 layers for half the period. Nov '14 to Nov '15: 891 eggs, averaging 2.4/day. Lost one hen to a fox in April, she was a great layer when she wasn't broody.
This is great, I've been doing this with my chickens but didn't know how great it was until listening to you. My chickens get a armful of straw every week or so and it never gets taken out, just added to. It is breaking down nicely and is spongy when I walk on it, but not wet. If I want manure for my compost I use the manure left from them on the top of their hutch where they roost. Great video you guys, Kim
hi Nicholas, though it was three years old I watched your videos and it was very HELPFUL and informative to those who willing to transform life from Materialistic to NATURAL ... GOD BLESS you and BE WITH YOU... thanks for sharing information ...
I agree to having the floor in "contact with the earth" but I would lay a 1/4" Hardware cloth on the bottom so worms etc can come up from the earth but not rats or moles.
I've been reading a book titled, The Battle of Lepanto... It is about a naval battle between the Ottoman Empire and an alliance of western powers. It is cited as the beginning of the ascendance of Europe over these eastern empires. One tidbit attracted my attention... when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, they had been a land power... with the taking of this capitol of empire, they were thrust into a naval world. Constantinople sat at the confluence of land and water routes, a commercial giant for centuries. And water routes accelerated and extended a societies reach by a force of ten. However, when the Ottomans, with their new navy, met the Venetians in naval engagements, they needed at least a force of two to one against the tiny little city state of the Republic of Mark. Why? Because naval technology and culture, naval skill-craft, took centuries to develop. Just imagine all that complex rigging just to move the sails about, and then consider the enormity of natural phenomena to negotiate--without even taking into consideration naval battle strategy and tech. When I think about our culture... I am constantly transported to the idea of Machu Pichu. A place where centuries of societal refinement battled the scarce resources against the threat of starvation and societal collapse by ingeniously managing the element most vital to that communities survival, water. Every drop was guided and diverted and utilized in a complex of labyrinthine tiered garden beds the elegance of which is enough to mirror the Cathedrals of Europe. But eventually, these ideas return me to the stark contrast posed against the backdrop of our own society. It is the circus and marketplace which seem to be the alters of worship behind the veils of ego and kitsch. Our naval skill-craft, our horticultural elegance is expressed in tricking a young man to hawk cars to his own neighbors by manipulating their vanity and pressuring their sense of consideration into capitulation for the wealth of a far off corporate headquarters more concerned with putting out 23 useless versions of a financial ball and chain to burden the citizenry into spending much more than is necessary for a necessity of life--conveyance to and from work. If we had 5 car types from each company and highly regulated technology introduction... cars could be on the market of the lot for as little as 5 thousand a piece rather than an average cost of $33,000. Our communities look like cookie cutter wet dreams of rag and bone men.. six lanes of traffic bounded by acres of unused treeless parking lot, where the only green space is easement between lot and street, for big box stores which leave behind little more than the ability to work a cash register and funnel the wealth out of our communities nickle and dime at a time to far off accumulations used to elect our leaders and sway public policy to assure that societal elites have a greater share each quarter to keep them in their gated communities, with private police forces for each of their eighteen homes! It's not just absurd... it is simply idiotic. Meanwhile, they pay the way for economists who are so clueless about their own "science" as to lack the basic understanding that capital to wages and salaries requires a regulated balance to fend off economic crisis! They may as well be wearing pointed caps adorned with crescents and stars, donning long cloaks and waving wands about for all the use they are! It is enough to make a guy want to sink his head into a bottle, bowl or ass! But then I come across these simple permaculture videos... and I see simple, sincere, forthright young men and women... not entirely unwittingly, laying the ground work for the new Christianity to supplant the barbarity of Rome with simple thoughtfulness and effort. blazing a trail, embarking on the development of cultural strategies to remove the hand of Mammon from our shoulders and throats... and in such a way that those foul minions will never see you, (us), coming. Who knows what strategies and forms your, (our), efforts will one day produce? Thanks guys.
The trick here is to take what he’s doing and apply it in a way that suits your space and ethics. So I’ll take everything he’s said regarding space per chicken, deep bedding establishment etc and then incorporate that into a semi free range chicken operation as, like he mentioned, a chicken tractor isn’t applicable for me.
in cold climates this also works to provide a warm environment and if you bury your bucket feeder giving them a small slot to drink from it prevents the water from freezing. a small fence type barrier will keep the water clean too from their scratching.
Harvey Ussery has really pioneered "the deep litter method" if you want to find out more about it he wrote a book called The Small Scale Poultry Flock. It has a lot of green ideas in it.
Some improvements for temperate regions. I would add a wire mesh bottom to prevent entry by rats, mice and predators. I would build the coop on a raised mound uphill of the garden to make hauling of the manure easy. Dig down inside the mound such that the interior grade is a few feet below grade but above the natural grade. Remove the berm and place a door on the down slope side such that the manure can be removed periodically as needed. The advantage of this bermed design is that it retains the heat generated from the compost and the ground itself allowing composting to continue in the Winter months when heat is needed and it is cooler in the Summer months when heat is not required. Chickens are not great at temperature regulation nowhere near as good as ducks. If composing stops due to the cold, the manure will not break down and the build up of Methane and ammonia will sicken or kill the chickens. Anaerobic conditions breed disease. To speed up the creation of compost and provide drainage you can place slotted pipes through the base of the compost. You can collect the effluent and use it elsewhere.
installing chicken tunnels from the chicken house allows some regulation of their activity. This gives predator protection and "yard time" for the birds that is much better than a small fenced yard.
Very cool. I have a big barn. were I have been housing or chickens. When we moved here it was full with old manure. I added wood mulch last fall on top of all the manure and i was planing on adding hay to the top with grass clippings. I have started raising rabbits too there manure could be added to the mix too.
Something I think would add to your system is to be growing mushrooms around the house it helps to digest inside and grows for se oyster mushrooms to eat outside
David Ahrend I like this idea as well. The only issue I can foresee is that those mycelium won't distinguish between carbon source, or "worse", seem to prefer wood and so they would rapidly decimate any wooden structure. You'd have to make it out of a cement block base maybe?
I have a similar system but because I have a floor, I put living soil in bins then feed the soil my carbon (and young roosters). i put branches, logs and rocks for safe breeding areas for insects and mycelium I also have green grass in the run and coop, but I cage it so the hens can nibble, but can't kill it. The dream is bamboo jungle growing right in the coop.
I just dilute my chicken manure I collect from my chicken coop using water and apply it to my straw and grass clipping. Wait for a month before I plant anything. You don't need to use compost to grow stuff cause compost won't improve your soil and chicken manure, straw and grass clipping do. Most importantly, I end up with a lot of worms in my soil everywhere in my yard. The first year my vegetable yield is not really good cause the clay soil is so compact and I don't till my land. But starting from second year on, my soil is gradually improving without relying on compost. I also apply diluted chicken manure directly to my wheat field. Wheat can tolerate a very high concentration of nitrogen (ammonia that is derived from uric acid). No compost!
In researching the Deep Litter method, I find that some people say you must turn over the deep litter daily or multiple times per week. BUT, you didn't mention this and I was thinking, if I am turning it that often (and adding more on top that often) then wouldn't it be disturbing the very bottom layer which is where the final product resides? If I am constantly turning it down into the bottom layer, seems like that nutrient rich, loamy compost would have larger, un-composted debris in it. Thoughts? ~Dawn
I have been doing this for about 3 years, just keep adding shredded cardboard and paper, and kitchen scraps. Also throw pumpkins and whatever into the run area, attached to the coop
Can you combine a smaller version of this system with rotating paddocks? The coop would be stationary and surrounded by small paddocks where the chickens can hangout and graze. They would be shut in the coop at night but free to roam the paddocks during the day. I have the room for grazing, I'm just lazy when it comes to cleaning or moving the coop. And I'm guessing the coop should be a little higher than the surrounding land, to avoid water seeping in? I'm surrounded by irrigated hay fields and sometime excess water floods parts of my backyard a couple of inches deep.
Tiffany McLeod Plant a variety in each paddock, should be a good system that I plan to go with myself. Swales and/or making a pond or wetland system might ne a good way to control the water while being beneficial as well 👍
Question - is shreded cardboard and newspaper an ok bedding/form of carbon for chickens? Straw can get pretty expensive for those that live in the suburbs and there are only so many leaves you can store when you have limited space.
I am concerned with the 'worm parasite' that is passed from chicken to chicken through their waste. If you are collecting their waste in one place, what's the chance of chickens eating a parasite if you throw their food on the bedding?
No water in the coop. When you clean out the coop, the stuff you remove is put in a pile, and that you water maybe once or twice a week. The chickens will till it for you. Dont worry about turning that. After some time, use it in the garden or yard to nourish plants. It'll attract bugs your chickens eat, like rolly pollys, worms, beetles, spiders. This is how I use it. Then you start over with the compost in the coop and do it all over again. You want to keep the coop dry especially in winter, to keep frostbite from happening. Every time you clean out the coop leave a little of the compost at the bottom. this provides bacteria and molds needed to start the next deep liter. If you've gotten the point that there are different ways to compost, then you have the right idea, because there are depending on your end goal and how to achieve it. I have a tumbler composter for kitchen scraps, the coop, the deep liter which comes out of the coop, and I also bury food that's too gross to feed to the chickens directly into the ground. This attracts more insects, and nourishes the garden as the food breaks down. Along the same idea, you could get a wormery going, which is also a great way to compost.
Would this work for goat barn bedding? They wouldn't turn it over really and their waste is a lot different from chicken poo. So far it's been simpler for me to go without bedding and sweep the barn's rubber mats once or twice a day.
Must admit this idea has my head spinning even after reading the info on the website. Kind of makes sense but just doens't seem right. Then again my experience hasn't dealt with this "deep layering". That there are anti viral and antifungal properties in the compost never occurred to me. Maybe that is one of the reasons free range chickens can be found all over the compost heaps. Animals instinctively know what they need. Have thought for years that in spite of what many think that animals may be smarter than humans.
bought an old school house that was built in 1917 and moved to a 5 acre spot in the county... we are refurbishing it and will be moving in soon... got 5 acres! (moving out of a dreaded HOA mcmansion neighborhood if we can get our house sold)
So I have a few questions. My first would be if I can do this with a under coop run. Here in the county I live in I am required to have a run with access to sunlight for the chickens. Our compost pile doesn't do very well down here so this whole idea is really awesome, but I am concerned about the amount of sunlight it will get from the Florida sun. Secondly I'm wonder if this idea can be applied using metal wire under a stilted coop so the feces will fall through, or will the metal mesh damage the feet of the chickens?
+Brianna Cooper I think the whole point of the system is for the birds to be able to follow their natural behavior of digging and scratching in the layers. They turn over the materials (including their droppings) into the soil to make the compost. The metal wire would be counter productive. Depending on the size of their run, you could set up a shade house in their run with a deep bed in it or make it an extension from the run. They will spend most of their time in there when confined.
Thank you for replying but you misunderstand. The chickens coop will be 3 feet off the ground and have a wired bottom, so that the dropping can continue through to the ground. which is where the run will be. The chickens will be fed under the coop and have access to water that way. the run will house the composting zone if you will. The coop will be small but the run will cover the requirements for each chickens needs based on this video. The reason why I mentioned the wire was because I know that newspaper that is not shredded can severely damage small chicks so I wanted to know if we would have that same problem with our older chickens using wire bottoms. I've seen it done before, but the conditions the chickens were in were not my cup of tea. So I was mainly asking if too much sun hitting the composting area would stop this from working, and if wire flooring would hurt my hens feet.
+Brianna Cooper My chicken coop is 3-4' off the ground on stilts with a wire bottom in the coop.They climb a ladder from the pen up into the raised coop at dusk. They sleep and nest in the raised coop, but go freely outside through an opening into a large metal 8x10' metal dog pen with a secure shaded top. To give them even more room, I have a fence that surrounds both the coop, and metal pen allowing them more room to scratch and be 'outside'. Their night time poop while perched falls through the wire flooring, and during the day when out of their pen in the fenced area, they continue to work the fallen poop into the dirt under the coop. I pile gathered leaves inside the pen and fenced area. Their water and food dish is inside the metal pen, and I throw green left overs from my garden into the fenced area for added daytime consumption. At night I shut the metal pen's door securing them from predators that might come over the surrounding fence.
Do you have a problem with rats or mice? Do you have a problem with smell, ammonia build up or feces smell? My chickens free range right now in a nice yard (lots of grass) and we move their house around the yard. If it begins to stink somewhere we know we left them in once place too long and so try to avoid that. It rarely stinks. How does this work with it all enclosed in a smaller area? Also, we did have a problem for awhile with rats after their food as well and so had to begin making sure their house was cleaned out of all food in the evening. How would you deal with that in this system? We are looking to move in a year or so out into the country. Right now we live in the city with few predators, but when we move their will be LOTS of predators and we have to rethink what we are doing. A fenced yard will no longer be adequate.
+Beth Oquist no smell due to a good amount of organic material which is mostly carbon. another good example of this is Paul Gautschi on the Back To Eden documentary. He has 20-30 chickens and no smell b/c he adds in so much organic matter. you can check his videos on L2Survive's channel.
Hi, I'm wondering if you've already moved to the country ? While some feel that taking any risk at all that they'll be taken by a predator is too mean/irresponsible, I don't feel that way exactly. I don't think one should have to spend hundreds of $ to install that kind of system before getting chickens, though I do think that if you can't give them some things, like frequent exposure to natural foraging in vegetative areas, that is too mean. It about the predators. Too many people react to that threat by keeping them in what quickly becomes a packed dirt ( or muddy) enclosure, for an outside yard, with fence down into the ground & across the top. That is the most secure, but in my experience, the rooster are lretty good at sounding the alarm about predators, they all run for cover when the shadow of a large wingspan looms. They just need plenty of low ( not just tall trees that just make good perched for said large bird predators) cover. I have come to the same conclusion at Paul Wheaton & am into his whole rotational paddock system ( permies.com) . Can do a stationary central coop or a portable bottomless one. If using the portable electric mesh fencing ( or 2 electric wires, 1 low & 1 high, along other kind of fence, that will insure against most ground predators. I think only weasels can get around that one & it's rare enough to ever see signs of one - even though my brother had one in his house on his farm once ! So, I now know they're around, back home in Dunn Co., WI. If you have some stationary, tall T-posts or something, you can weave/crisscross the whole top of the yard or paddock area with a durable string/rope which I've heard the hawks etc. will be afraid to fly into, afraid of getting tangled up in, & it doesn't cost as much, or is as hard to install, as making a "roof" of mesh. Can leave fairly large gaps. Haven't done it yet myself. They've been free ranging since we got chickens again since moving to IL & so far I've been around when a hawk was threatening twice & scared it off & they have a lot of cover to run under & have a big fenced in yard for them ( no rotaional paddocks yet, couldn't afford new supplies, used fencing I already had). If we start seeing ground predators I'll keep them in it again.
That would partly defeat the purpose, since half of the precious nitrogen waste you're trying to collect would just end up in the yard where it would simply dry out and return to the atmosphere (mostly), rather than being bound to carbon in the chicken shed. You could still do it, but it would make the system much less efficient. This is a good system to employ seasonally in temperate climates, where you overwinter your chickens in greenhouses that get used for plants in the growing season. You can then keep the chickens on pasture in the summer (assuming you have suitable pastures available). If that's not possible, this system will work best if the chickens are kept indoors all the time, though the shed should definitely have a lot more light and fresh air than this setup.
@@schoolofpermaculture I was thinking that if you're market gardening in polytunnels and are facing pest problems, quail might be a good solution rather than chickens -- they could remain in the tunnels at all times, eating bugs and producing quail eggs, while having little harmful effect on the produce. Have you ever seen anything like this?
That coop wouldn't work in urban Texas. Looks to me like rats, raccoons and possums could get in there. They call it deep litter method in the back-yard chicken world. Very effective and recommended.
I live in Minnesota, USA where the temps can drop to negative 30 degrees F. The deep litter method has been used for over 100 years to keep the coop warm (especially the floor). The chickens love to scratch around in the straw & sawdust & the bonus is great fertilizer/compost for the garden. I do keep the coop cleaned out in the warm summer months though. Thanks for sharing.
Deep bedding is just what Mother Nature does way to go love it
this makes me feel better I've been dumping loads of dead leaves into my coop for deep layer to help keep them warm. I didn't realize I was nourishing them as much also. thnx for sharing.
Great idea for winter, especially for areas that get snow. Also a great idea for those that live in the suburbs and don't have the space for their chickens to roam.
Completely. Was just thinking how are we going to get more warmth for our chickens and I imagine this deep bedding would definitely hold some thermal mass as well as generating heat. Brilliant.
Seems like an excellent system for soil production, but please people: give the chickens a little yard too. Every daytime-active animal has a godgiven right to feel the sun on her fur or feathers!
Also, chickens are predators, they hunt flies and such. So if possible; make the yard big enough for them to hunt in. Your need for sustanance does not outweigh other creatures need for a dignified life. If we cant make permaculture without treating our fellow animals like means and resources only, then we should step off this earth. But we wont have to, because we can :)
I agree completely. I have a deep bedding system and a spacious chicken yard. Permaculture deals with as close to nature as you can sustain. This is not natural or fair to the animal. You can do deep bedding and be kind to your chicks. They give us so much.
I was thinking about 10 square meters fenced run with elevated coop. In the run there will be about 1 meter of space for adding material to compost and also this run will be connected to 1meter wide chicken tunnel along fences on my 1200 square meter property. I think this is a lot for 16 birds
This video makes long, drawn out research worth while. Its awesome to see another point of view, that in the end, upholds the principles of permaculture. It has to have a natural cycle that provides a product for the next player in line. An abundance of eggs and 9 cu. yards of compost a year(?), that's pretty awesome. Don't find very many great (actually helpful) videos (or ya have to watch a 100 to see one good one) often. This is good information. It made my favorites list.
+Barry Jordan The "abundance of eggs" part is a bit misleading: "with 15 hens you'll get over 3,000 eggs every year".
Maybe the first year. Pullets lay really well their first winter, spring and summer (assuming spring hatched), after that production drops off for many reasons:
1) they moult after they are a year old, usually summer or fall. The process takes a couple of months and most chickens don't lay when they are moulting.
2) winter happens - year old and older hens tend to lay less, if at all, in the winter. Not a natural time to raise chicks especially in colder climates but it is not temperature but the amount of light that triggers this.
3) they may go broody - meaning they have a hormonal need to hatch. Even if there is no rooster, even if they have no eggs to sit on. Left to themselves, they will sit on an empty nest for weeks and weeks waiting for the non existent eggs to hatch. They don't lay then either and if you break them in a "broody buster" (actually the BEST thing for a hen sitting on nothing, the sooner the better) they likely won't lay for 3-5 days after they are broken.
4) they are hatching and raising chicks - incubation is 21 days, figure 2 months of mothering after that before the hen lays again. Add moulting and she is "out of commission" about 5 months.
5) they get older (same as the rest of us). Figure a 20% drop in production just for that.
So, if you want to get over 3,000 eggs every year from 15 hens, you will need to get new chicks of productive breeds every spring and if you intend to stick to 15 laying hens, cull the older girls even though they are still productive.
I got 12 girls in June 2012. 2 are more a "yard art" breed than a laying breed and over 3 years have averaged about 1.2/week. My best layers averaged about 3.5/week over 3 years. They started laying November 2012.
Nov '12 to Nov '13: 2,000 eggs averaging 5.7/day.
Nov '13 to Nov '14: 1,300 eggs averaging 3.7/day. Lost 2 in the spring so only 10 layers for half the period.
Nov '14 to Nov '15: 891 eggs, averaging 2.4/day. Lost one hen to a fox in April, she was a great layer when she wasn't broody.
This is great, I've been doing this with my chickens but didn't know how great it was until listening to you. My chickens get a armful of straw every week or so and it never gets taken out, just added to. It is breaking down nicely and is spongy when I walk on it, but not wet. If I want manure for my compost I use the manure left from them on the top of their hutch where they roost. Great video you guys, Kim
I also do the same. i had no idea it worked so well
hi Nicholas, though it was three years old I watched your videos and it was very HELPFUL and informative to those who willing to transform life from Materialistic to NATURAL ... GOD BLESS you and BE WITH YOU... thanks for sharing information ...
நாகரீக கோமாளி thanks a lot!
This dude rocks the crocs with the best of them! ❤️👍🏼
I agree to having the floor in "contact with the earth" but I would lay a 1/4" Hardware cloth on the bottom so worms etc can come up from the earth but not rats or moles.
You can probably combine this method with free ranging. I would feel strange to keep chickens in the dark all the time.
He says add light through a transparent roof
I've been reading a book titled, The Battle of Lepanto... It is about a naval battle between the Ottoman Empire and an alliance of western powers. It is cited as the beginning of the ascendance of Europe over these eastern empires. One tidbit attracted my attention... when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, they had been a land power... with the taking of this capitol of empire, they were thrust into a naval world. Constantinople sat at the confluence of land and water routes, a commercial giant for centuries. And water routes accelerated and extended a societies reach by a force of ten. However, when the Ottomans, with their new navy, met the Venetians in naval engagements, they needed at least a force of two to one against the tiny little city state of the Republic of Mark. Why? Because naval technology and culture, naval skill-craft, took centuries to develop. Just imagine all that complex rigging just to move the sails about, and then consider the enormity of natural phenomena to negotiate--without even taking into consideration naval battle strategy and tech.
When I think about our culture... I am constantly transported to the idea of Machu Pichu. A place where centuries of societal refinement battled the scarce resources against the threat of starvation and societal collapse by ingeniously managing the element most vital to that communities survival, water. Every drop was guided and diverted and utilized in a complex of labyrinthine tiered garden beds the elegance of which is enough to mirror the Cathedrals of Europe.
But eventually, these ideas return me to the stark contrast posed against the backdrop of our own society. It is the circus and marketplace which seem to be the alters of worship behind the veils of ego and kitsch. Our naval skill-craft, our horticultural elegance is expressed in tricking a young man to hawk cars to his own neighbors by manipulating their vanity and pressuring their sense of consideration into capitulation for the wealth of a far off corporate headquarters more concerned with putting out 23 useless versions of a financial ball and chain to burden the citizenry into spending much more than is necessary for a necessity of life--conveyance to and from work. If we had 5 car types from each company and highly regulated technology introduction... cars could be on the market of the lot for as little as 5 thousand a piece rather than an average cost of $33,000.
Our communities look like cookie cutter wet dreams of rag and bone men.. six lanes of traffic bounded by acres of unused treeless parking lot, where the only green space is easement between lot and street, for big box stores which leave behind little more than the ability to work a cash register and funnel the wealth out of our communities nickle and dime at a time to far off accumulations used to elect our leaders and sway public policy to assure that societal elites have a greater share each quarter to keep them in their gated communities, with private police forces for each of their eighteen homes! It's not just absurd... it is simply idiotic. Meanwhile, they pay the way for economists who are so clueless about their own "science" as to lack the basic understanding that capital to wages and salaries requires a regulated balance to fend off economic crisis! They may as well be wearing pointed caps adorned with crescents and stars, donning long cloaks and waving wands about for all the use they are!
It is enough to make a guy want to sink his head into a bottle, bowl or ass!
But then I come across these simple permaculture videos... and I see simple, sincere, forthright young men and women... not entirely unwittingly, laying the ground work for the new Christianity to supplant the barbarity of Rome with simple thoughtfulness and effort. blazing a trail, embarking on the development of cultural strategies to remove the hand of Mammon from our shoulders and throats... and in such a way that those foul minions will never see you, (us), coming. Who knows what strategies and forms your, (our), efforts will one day produce? Thanks guys.
Totally awesome, I just started a deep litter coop and run, you guys are a wealth of information, thank you!
The trick here is to take what he’s doing and apply it in a way that suits your space and ethics. So I’ll take everything he’s said regarding space per chicken, deep bedding establishment etc and then incorporate that into a semi free range chicken operation as, like he mentioned, a chicken tractor isn’t applicable for me.
in cold climates this also works to provide a warm environment and if you bury your bucket feeder giving them a small slot to drink from it prevents the water from freezing. a small fence type barrier will keep the water clean too from their scratching.
Harvey Ussery has really pioneered "the deep litter method" if you want to find out more about it he wrote a book called The Small Scale Poultry Flock. It has a lot of green ideas in it.
I think I would be cleaning this out once or twice a year and using all that material in my garden! looks like good stuff!!
Some improvements for temperate regions. I would add a wire mesh bottom to prevent entry by rats, mice and predators. I would build the coop on a raised mound uphill of the garden to make hauling of the manure easy. Dig down inside the mound such that the interior grade is a few feet below grade but above the natural grade. Remove the berm and place a door on the down slope side such that the manure can be removed periodically as needed. The advantage of this bermed design is that it retains the heat generated from the compost and the ground itself allowing composting to continue in the Winter months when heat is needed and it is cooler in the Summer months when heat is not required. Chickens are not great at temperature regulation nowhere near as good as ducks. If composing stops due to the cold, the manure will not break down and the build up of Methane and ammonia will sicken or kill the chickens. Anaerobic conditions breed disease. To speed up the creation of compost and provide drainage you can place slotted pipes through the base of the compost. You can collect the effluent and use it elsewhere.
installing chicken tunnels from the chicken house allows some regulation of their activity. This gives predator protection and "yard time" for the birds that is much better than a small fenced yard.
This video is so awesome!!!!
Very cool. I have a big barn. were I have been housing or chickens. When we moved here it was full with old manure. I added wood mulch last fall on top of all the manure and i was planing on adding hay to the top with grass clippings. I have started raising rabbits too there manure could be added to the mix too.
Something I think would add to your system is to be growing mushrooms around the house it helps to digest inside and grows for se oyster mushrooms to eat outside
David Ahrend I like this idea as well. The only issue I can foresee is that those mycelium won't distinguish between carbon source, or "worse", seem to prefer wood and so they would rapidly decimate any wooden structure. You'd have to make it out of a cement block base maybe?
I have a similar system but because I have a floor, I put living soil in bins then feed the soil my carbon (and young roosters). i put branches, logs and rocks for safe breeding areas for insects and mycelium I also have green grass in the run and coop, but I cage it so the hens can nibble, but can't kill it. The dream is bamboo jungle growing right in the coop.
I just dilute my chicken manure I collect from my chicken coop using water and apply it to my straw and grass clipping. Wait for a month before I plant anything. You don't need to use compost to grow stuff cause compost won't improve your soil and chicken manure, straw and grass clipping do. Most importantly, I end up with a lot of worms in my soil everywhere in my yard. The first year my vegetable yield is not really good cause the clay soil is so compact and I don't till my land. But starting from second year on, my soil is gradually improving without relying on compost. I also apply diluted chicken manure directly to my wheat field. Wheat can tolerate a very high concentration of nitrogen (ammonia that is derived from uric acid). No compost!
In researching the Deep Litter method, I find that some people say you must turn over the deep litter daily or multiple times per week. BUT, you didn't mention this and I was thinking, if I am turning it that often (and adding more on top that often) then wouldn't it be disturbing the very bottom layer which is where the final product resides? If I am constantly turning it down into the bottom layer, seems like that nutrient rich, loamy compost would have larger, un-composted debris in it. Thoughts? ~Dawn
I have been doing this for about 3 years, just keep adding shredded cardboard and paper, and kitchen scraps. Also throw pumpkins and whatever into the run area, attached to the coop
Can you combine a smaller version of this system with rotating paddocks? The coop would be stationary and surrounded by small paddocks where the chickens can hangout and graze. They would be shut in the coop at night but free to roam the paddocks during the day. I have the room for grazing, I'm just lazy when it comes to cleaning or moving the coop. And I'm guessing the coop should be a little higher than the surrounding land, to avoid water seeping in? I'm surrounded by irrigated hay fields and sometime excess water floods parts of my backyard a couple of inches deep.
Tiffany McLeod Plant a variety in each paddock, should be a good system that I plan to go with myself. Swales and/or making a pond or wetland system might ne a good way to control the water while being beneficial as well 👍
Love this guy... and his chicken setup.. gonna do this for my chickens too. :)
Sounds like a great system, great video
Question - is shreded cardboard and newspaper an ok bedding/form of carbon for chickens? Straw can get pretty expensive for those that live in the suburbs and there are only so many leaves you can store when you have limited space.
more great info man. .......big love to all invovled chickens too
Puedes sacar BIOCHAR ACTIVADO si usas algo de carbon molido en tu gallinero.
I concur with Shad... He know's his shit.
I am concerned with the 'worm parasite' that is passed from chicken to chicken through their waste. If you are collecting their waste in one place, what's the chance of chickens eating a parasite if you throw their food on the bedding?
Was anything said about adding plenty of water? I have a coop such as his and I add materials, but it is dry as a bone without adding water.
No water in the coop. When you clean out the coop, the stuff you remove is put in a pile, and that you water maybe once or twice a week. The chickens will till it for you. Dont worry about turning that. After some time, use it in the garden or yard to nourish plants. It'll attract bugs your chickens eat, like rolly pollys, worms, beetles, spiders. This is how I use it. Then you start over with the compost in the coop and do it all over again. You want to keep the coop dry especially in winter, to keep frostbite from happening. Every time you clean out the coop leave a little of the compost at the bottom. this provides bacteria and molds needed to start the next deep liter. If you've gotten the point that there are different ways to compost, then you have the right idea, because there are depending on your end goal and how to achieve it. I have a tumbler composter for kitchen scraps, the coop, the deep liter which comes out of the coop, and I also bury food that's too gross to feed to the chickens directly into the ground. This attracts more insects, and nourishes the garden as the food breaks down. Along the same idea, you could get a wormery going, which is also a great way to compost.
Hello! The link for the details on this system has changed, it should be www.atitlanorganics.com/blog/composting-chickens. Thanks!
Well that sounds good, but what do you do when you go on vacation
Would this work for goat barn bedding? They wouldn't turn it over really and their waste is a lot different from chicken poo. So far it's been simpler for me to go without bedding and sweep the barn's rubber mats once or twice a day.
that compost would be great for worm compostng
Do you need to turn them at all like a compost heap?
Love u atitlan fam
How to get eggs, have we to enter into this house??? Won't the germs will enter with us please reply
Must admit this idea has my head spinning even after reading the info on the website. Kind of makes sense but just doens't seem right. Then again my experience hasn't dealt with this "deep layering". That there are anti viral and antifungal properties in the compost never occurred to me. Maybe that is one of the reasons free range chickens can be found all over the compost heaps. Animals instinctively know what they need. Have thought for years that in spite of what many think that animals may be smarter than humans.
not smarter so much as more in tune with nature.
***** AGREED
Good vid. Subbed from what I saw
How do you harvest eggs?
Hey Sweet Nick... nice vid... miss you bro...
Hey what's up Jake? Sure been a while. What have you been up to? -Nicholas
bought an old school house that was built in 1917 and moved to a 5 acre spot in the county... we are refurbishing it and will be moving in soon... got 5 acres! (moving out of a dreaded HOA mcmansion neighborhood if we can get our house sold)
+Jake Robinson thats great, sounds like a dream - let me know if you need design and consultation work. We will fit it in for ya.
So I have a few questions. My first would be if I can do this with a under coop run. Here in the county I live in I am required to have a run with access to sunlight for the chickens. Our compost pile doesn't do very well down here so this whole idea is really awesome, but I am concerned about the amount of sunlight it will get from the Florida sun.
Secondly I'm wonder if this idea can be applied using metal wire under a stilted coop so the feces will fall through, or will the metal mesh damage the feet of the chickens?
+Brianna Cooper I think the whole point of the system is for the birds to be able to follow their natural behavior of digging and scratching in the layers. They turn over the materials (including their droppings) into the soil to make the compost. The metal wire would be counter productive. Depending on the size of their run, you could set up a shade house in their run with a deep bed in it or make it an extension from the run. They will spend most of their time in there when confined.
Thank you for replying but you misunderstand. The chickens coop will be 3 feet off the ground and have a wired bottom, so that the dropping can continue through to the ground. which is where the run will be. The chickens will be fed under the coop and have access to water that way. the run will house the composting zone if you will. The coop will be small but the run will cover the requirements for each chickens needs based on this video. The reason why I mentioned the wire was because I know that newspaper that is not shredded can severely damage small chicks so I wanted to know if we would have that same problem with our older chickens using wire bottoms. I've seen it done before, but the conditions the chickens were in were not my cup of tea. So I was mainly asking if too much sun hitting the composting area would stop this from working, and if wire flooring would hurt my hens feet.
+Brianna Cooper My chicken coop is 3-4' off the ground on stilts with a wire bottom in the coop.They climb a ladder from the pen up into the raised coop at dusk. They sleep and nest in the raised coop, but go freely outside through an opening into a large metal 8x10' metal dog pen with a secure shaded top. To give them even more room, I have a fence that surrounds both the coop, and metal pen allowing them more room to scratch and be 'outside'. Their night time poop while perched falls through the wire flooring, and during the day when out of their pen in the fenced area, they continue to work the fallen poop into the dirt under the coop. I pile gathered leaves inside the pen and fenced area. Their water and food dish is inside the metal pen, and I throw green left overs from my garden into the fenced area for added daytime consumption. At night I shut the metal pen's door securing them from predators that might come over the surrounding fence.
Do you have a problem with rats or mice? Do you have a problem with smell, ammonia build up or feces smell? My chickens free range right now in a nice yard (lots of grass) and we move their house around the yard. If it begins to stink somewhere we know we left them in once place too long and so try to avoid that. It rarely stinks. How does this work with it all enclosed in a smaller area? Also, we did have a problem for awhile with rats after their food as well and so had to begin making sure their house was cleaned out of all food in the evening. How would you deal with that in this system? We are looking to move in a year or so out into the country. Right now we live in the city with few predators, but when we move their will be LOTS of predators and we have to rethink what we are doing. A fenced yard will no longer be adequate.
+Beth Oquist no smell due to a good amount of organic material which is mostly carbon. another good example of this is Paul Gautschi on the Back To Eden documentary. He has 20-30 chickens and no smell b/c he adds in so much organic matter. you can check his videos on L2Survive's channel.
Hi, I'm wondering if you've already moved to the country ? While some feel that taking any risk at all that they'll be taken by a predator is too mean/irresponsible, I don't feel that way exactly. I don't think one should have to spend hundreds of $ to install that kind of system before getting chickens, though I do think that if you can't give them some things, like frequent exposure to natural foraging in vegetative areas, that is too mean. It about the predators. Too many people react to that threat by keeping them in what quickly becomes a packed dirt ( or muddy) enclosure, for an outside yard, with fence down into the ground & across the top. That is the most secure, but in my experience, the rooster are lretty good at sounding the alarm about predators, they all run for cover when the shadow of a large wingspan looms. They just need plenty of low ( not just tall trees that just make good perched for said large bird predators) cover. I have come to the same conclusion at Paul Wheaton & am into his whole rotational paddock system ( permies.com) . Can do a stationary central coop or a portable bottomless one. If using the portable electric mesh fencing ( or 2 electric wires, 1 low & 1 high, along other kind of fence, that will insure against most ground predators. I think only weasels can get around that one & it's rare enough to ever see signs of one - even though my brother had one in his house on his farm once ! So, I now know they're around, back home in Dunn Co., WI. If you have some stationary, tall T-posts or something, you can weave/crisscross the whole top of the yard or paddock area with a durable string/rope which I've heard the hawks etc. will be afraid to fly into, afraid of getting tangled up in, & it doesn't cost as much, or is as hard to install, as making a "roof" of mesh. Can leave fairly large gaps. Haven't done it yet myself. They've been free ranging since we got chickens again since moving to IL & so far I've been around when a hawk was threatening twice & scared it off & they have a lot of cover to run under & have a big fenced in yard for them ( no rotaional paddocks yet, couldn't afford new supplies, used fencing I already had). If we start seeing ground predators I'll keep them in it again.
Woah... Is this the guy that had that frakishky large hair... I recognise the voice.
Would this work if you let them out daily?
That would partly defeat the purpose, since half of the precious nitrogen waste you're trying to collect would just end up in the yard where it would simply dry out and return to the atmosphere (mostly), rather than being bound to carbon in the chicken shed. You could still do it, but it would make the system much less efficient. This is a good system to employ seasonally in temperate climates, where you overwinter your chickens in greenhouses that get used for plants in the growing season. You can then keep the chickens on pasture in the summer (assuming you have suitable pastures available). If that's not possible, this system will work best if the chickens are kept indoors all the time, though the shed should definitely have a lot more light and fresh air than this setup.
Could you do this in a polytunnel?
Of course, just make sure not to overheat the chooks
@@schoolofpermaculture I was thinking that if you're market gardening in polytunnels and are facing pest problems, quail might be a good solution rather than chickens -- they could remain in the tunnels at all times, eating bugs and producing quail eggs, while having little harmful effect on the produce. Have you ever seen anything like this?
I feel so sorry for the chicken if they are not allowed to go outside.
That coop wouldn't work in urban Texas. Looks to me like rats, raccoons and possums could get in there. They call it deep litter method in the back-yard chicken world. Very effective and recommended.
Want a closer look at working, composting deep litter? czcams.com/video/lOdM22IgcRQ/video.html
15 chickens, 3K eggs per year = 200 eggs per week. nice
Can this work with goats?
Прикольно, бо ідея з переміщенням кліток для курей вимагає багато часу
No rats coming in?