Deep bedding issues
When we moved our chickens
from tractors to a coop and rotational pasture system, we had to deal
with manure for the first time. Deep
bedding was the
perfect solution, but we did run into a few minor problems this year.
The real cause of the
trouble is that it's tough to find enough high carbon biomass to fill
the coops (and to keep filling them as manure builds up). Autumn
leaves are may favorite, and I've tried a bit of the sawdust we
bought for the composting toilet, with good results.
But when I ran low on optimal bedding, I decided to try treating
the coop floor as a compost pile.
The positive side is
that I was no longer creating bare patches in the pastures where I
threw our food scraps. Unfortunately, the scent of sweet corn
cobs was irresistable to the neighborhood raccoon, who came for the scraps and
stayed for a chicken
dinner. The hen he was hunting got away, but it took us weeks of
effort to make our flock feel comfortable in the coop again. Now
corn cobs go in the worm bin, and the raccoon seems willing to stay in
the woods.
The issue of never
having enough high carbon materials is one we run into in the garden as
well, and I've got all kinds of ideas for solving the conundrum.
Maybe we'll commit some open areas along the sides of our homestead to
growing rye for straw, or we'll plant a high quality leaf tree (sugar
maple is my favorite) in a pasture that stays mowed so raking leaves
will be easy. We're also pondering chop 'n
drop plants,
although that will probably be less helpful for the chicken coop than
for the garden.
But these issues aside,
deep bedding has been a boon to our farm. Having that high
quality mulch/compost to topdress the berries with this spring was
worth every minute of coop maintenance!
| This post is part of our 2012 Chicken Experiments lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Bess --- We'd be low on greens, but we have access to a nearly unlimited supply of horse manure. So good for the garden!
Faith --- I did the same with some buckwheat cover crop that I accidentally let go to seed this year and it was top-notch in the chicken coop!