You dont need to explain anything to us. Every video you make is a privilege for anyone to watch. The world is a better place for what you put out into this world
Your commitment to stewardship of our beautiful planet shines through in every video. Watching your channel is not only a pleasure but also a profound learning experience. Each episode leaves me inspired and more knowledgeable about sustainable practices. Thank you for all that you do and for sharing your wisdom with us!
So much inspiration, thanks for taking the time! I made a "dead hedge" to divide some compost areas. also made a living hedge of willows...stuck willow prunings in a row about 4 inches apart, made 2 rows about 6 feet apart, let grow to about 8-10 feet then twisted together to make an arch! That's the primary compost bed, they get shade and some shelter so they keep working the compost even when it's hot or rainy. Bonus...The Japanese beetles love the willow and I knock the beetles down for them to eat.
I had a small version of this at my last property, based on your system. My lockdowns obsession project was making compost. Had the happiest 10 chickens you could imagine, I used loads of cardboard from work (tv and speaker boxes mainly) and shredded paper from my partners work, I would collect leaves, woodchip, make charcoal, sprout seeds, all based on your videos but at a much smaller scale. SO MANY worms in the pen for free protein for the chickens and we got the deepest dark yellow yolks in our eggs when all the egg shortages were on. (We used ex layer hens to give them a taste of the good life too). So thank you for making your video's, I will eventually make an even smaller system at the new place but it's pretty suburban now so i might switch to bantams and guinea pigs or rabbits for the nitrogen makers. Peace from Australia.
Your chickens have a great life! Their environment is varied providing everything they need all that wonderful dust for bathing, fresh scraps, shade, windfalls from the trees and bushes and of course manna from heaven ...the red wigglers when the man with the pitchfork shows up! They are glossy and fat and very interested in everything that's going on around them ... very lucky!!!
Always fun to see the chicken run innovations. Follow up idea: there was a kind of living wall where I think you were pollarding willows staggered every 3,4,5 years (?between you and road); and then another living wall / debris wall? plus rhizome barrier separating you from a neighbor's field
Just sharing we are doing similar things in our duck run. Their manure is not “hot” so no quick compost but it brings in the bugs that decompose the items, which the ducks LOVE! Thanks for your information
Hi Greetings from Aus. I have been so inspired by your channel, my very small flock of chickens and Guinea Fowl have benefited from your in yard compost systems, despite the fact that they free range all day every day, they come home to a choice of yummy things to scratch for. One issue that I haven’t seen you cover is rodents. My unenclosed yard is shaded by elderberry and grapevines, certain times of the year the um rat population is uggh! Keep up the good work!! Thanks from ‘woop woop’ in Aus 😊
I'm grateful for your time. I'm planting fast growing plants for shade in my chicken coop. We are blasted with high UV levels and 110 degree days this week. going to try sunflowers and looking for other fast growing plants to provide relief for my hens. the lows have been 50's so it's a challenge. airhugs to beautiful Zelda.
It’s wonderful to see the chickens trying to find something in the soil how they scratch and just keep doing what they do best, and you’re always looking for ideas to keep them going. I’m working on mine also my soil got so compact ❤ I don’t no if to fork it up or put down shaving and grass please tell me which one I should do❤
Our local hardware store has a plastic pot recycling bin out the front. I keep a lookout for any seedling trays with an open lattice, if placed on the ground upside down they act as readymade frames for allowing the hens to browse greens without digging up the seeds. I'm in the middle of a rather muddy winter, so I've dropped a line of them along a well-travelled track in the chook run with barley seed underneath (the cheapest sprouting seed option here right now) so I have a line of fresh greens accessible instead of a muddy riverlet.
I don't have chickens and I just have a two bay pallet built compost system. Good enough for my suburban garden. I do have robins and cardinals that seem to enjoy time in the compost bay. They have been aerating the compost on the edges. The other day I found quite a pile of compost outside of the bay. The robins are having too much fun.
Using chicken tractors. I would feed the 24 hour soaked soft white wheat when I moved the tractors and collected the eggs in the evening. This made sure the slept with full crops. There generaly was some remaining when they start at daylight and ome would be buried and grow to harvest next time the tractor cane around. It grows all winter in my climate.
"This time of year it feels more like a jungle than a yard". I hear that! We have lots of Amaranth, mammoth sunflowers and mulberry giving plenty of shade to the hens.
Off topic. I just learned that gooseberries, currents were outlawed in the early 1900's because of white pine rust. I guess that may be why I have never heard of them. Thanks for sharing.
I love the Chicken Jungle it seems like a very peaceful place to be, I'm sure they love it too. Thanks for sharing it with us has given me lots of inspiration over the years. I let my chickens hang out in my raspberry patch in the summer it gets morning sun and is shaded by trees in the hot after noon. They seem to really enjoy it. My chicken peeps are small white Silky's an Bantams I live in town and i use them to keep down the bugs and help with fertilization and they give us a few eggs as a bonus. Being small they aren't as destructive as large chickens can be.
I cut down a very tall Virginia pine, it was swaying a lot of in the wind and we worried it would one day hit the house it was at least 60 ft. I cut it into sections and use it to boarder off walkways and compost.
Wondering if there’s an update on the Chicken Run Experiments in growing greens! Made a lot of sense to me logically, but curious if it worked out in reality
I love the chicken yard. I'm planning one for my property but am wondering how you keep yours safe from predators. I have a family of foxes in a wooded part of the acreage.
Great update. How do you make sure the seed starting mix you harvest isn’t full of weed and food seeds? I’ve been using a smaller system than you, and the potting / seed compost I’m harvesting is full of seed. Especially tomatoes and melons.
Wheat = beer. lol it would be rough especialy if you use rain water and a small amount of bread yeast. ps i disargree i think your chickens are free range, recomendation is 1 square meter of run per bird, i have over double that and it looks like your not far off that, they have access to live vegitation and living compost piles. they may be hemed in but they are not caged birds they are free range.
Greetings Sean, Im currently in the process of building my composting station right beside my chicken coop. Do you think its ok to add their bedding as a brown base in the beginning stages of composting, or would their poops be too much of a hazard for them to browse through?
What do you do with spent coop bedding? I use the deep litter method in my coop and clean out the soiled hemp every six to twelve months. Right now I'm storing it in pallet compost bins as it is really slow to break down. I'm using some of the 12 month + stuff in holes as I plant around the yard and top dress non-food plants. Would you use it in a veggie garden? How about as mulch for blueberries? The jumping worms are here. I'm afraid to introduce red wigglers to the compost because these invasive worms are monsters compared to them.
We add chicken bedding directly to the garden and sometimes soak it really thoroughly and add finished compost on top and sew in larger seeds like cucumbers and beans and nasturtiums and things like that and it seems to work incredibly well so long as the moisture is there
I'm sorry for a totally unrelated question, but I'm wondering if you could share how you go about stratifying apricot seed. I was visiting friends and found two trees dropping fruit on a parking lot, so I have a sudden abundance of seed. It appears a lot of folks are removing the shells, then stratifying in the fridge with expected sprouting in 1-2 months. I'd hate to have trees just sprouting in late summer in my zone 4b location! Thanks for any advice you might have!
Ideal is to plant them in the shell and all in the FALL... Plant 2-4" deep, even better is to plant IN a garlic production bed, in the center works great. They can then sprout over winter and pop up in the spring and grow with protection... 2nd best is leaving shell on and storing in moist sawdust/soil buried in a rodent proof container over winter outside in a sheltered spot and check EARLY spring to then plant...
