Brutal Winter Test - How are the chickens!?
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
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One of the aspects of permaculture is the extent and complexity of relationships. Your work here is a critical link in the chain to your work shipping out plants ;) It doesn’t immediately look like gardening, and yet it surely is ;)
Now that's some good chicken tv.
If you could get a simple metal plate with some rods welded onto them, then you could shove the small rods down into the pile so there is a direct thermal bridge between the interior of the pile and the surface of the metal plate itself. Wouldn't need to be anything complicated or super sturdy - just some scrap metal pieces really.
I was thinking the same thing. 👍🏻😎
160 in the middle of winter??? I can't get my compost that hot during summer in Florida! That's amazing! We're getting our first chickens this spring, I'm definitely going to use this as inspiration next winter. Thank you for sharing!
We had a night of -35F with wind chill of -57. My compost pile froze solid Lost our power in our rural home for 3 hours...fortunately, had enough candles and other heat sources to prevent the house from freezing. I feel so sorry for those of you in the Northeast who lost power for so much longer. The good news....we had a high of 51F today so I'm sending that warmer weather to the east as soon as possible! Prayers to all of you.
51f today in tidewater Maryland 🎉
@@kenyonbissett3512 Glad you got it!🙂
I really need to make a high tunnel. I think my hens would love this.
I'm definitely going to be making one too. But we don't have those temperatures
We had a temp of 43 degrees Celsius yesterday. Amazing our planet with all the different temps. Much cooler today. Blessings from Australia ❤️
The hens sound so pleased with the noises. It’s an extremely chill but warm up is to follow!
10:15
Cooking pumpkins in the steaming compost at these temperatures is amazing 👍🏼
We got negative -29F with a heated pad like that, but using a cat litter pan as a water tray for our bunny, and it didn't freeze. Had no wind on it, though.
you are really good doing all that you do with these chickens they eat better than most chickens do that’s probably why they’re living so long…
You are a composting master! 160 degree piles in the middle of the winter is impressive!
We got down to -8 degrees F with 30 degree windchills here in zone 6b Ohio. It was awful doing chores for several days. I had to carry water from our house one bucket at a time to our 5 chicken enclosures and 4 pig enclosures. And also fed them food soaked in warm water.
Though this is not the norm in our area, I do worry that it will be more normal in the future with the unpredictable nature of climate change. So, I plan on vastly simplifying our winter animal holding system in the future. Chickens will go in a single large hoop house and the pigs will be in a barn. Both on deep mulch compost for the winter months.
I expect we'll have more and more wild weather for sure as time goes on... Sounds like you are making plans to have your animals and you more comfortable in the years to come, that is awesome!
Chicken saunas… that all I keep thinking as you pan back and forth🤣
Wood pallets could probably be used for quick spontaneous dry areas for hens to move around on. Keep 5 on the ground by the coop and 5 propped up vertically nearby maybe under cover... When the ones on the ground get snow covered swap em out for the snow free ones
It got down to 6° here i. N. Georgia. Windchill was about -14. I do the deep liter method and my girls did good.
I so enjoy your happy chickens, thank you for sharing.
My favorite videos , about chickens....thanks for sharing !👍🏻like
Oh! Also! Do you ever have any issues with the temperature difference causing any issues for your hens? That's another thing I've read. Not to have heat in the coop because the temp difference can be bad for them? I do love what you do and share your videos frequently!
We haven't seen anything, so hopefully it's OK. We try to have the winter run be ventilated enough so that they aren't sitting in standing steam all day, but rather have a steady slow air exchange happening.
Thanks for your questions and your support of our channel!
It looks like we’re getting a break from the cold for awhile. Not a moment too soon!🥶🐓
So glad you and the girls are all keeping warm! Amazing compost temperature!
We're really happy with how it is going out there, thanks for the kind words!
Can't help but notice all of the grocery store tags on the fruit, could you share notes or thoughts about that going into the compost?
For sure... Lots of tags, rubber bands, etc., going on. We periodically pause, put on rubber gloves, and pick through. Not glamorous but it's what needs to happen :)
@@edibleacres makes sense, the main reason I got into organic gardening was a fear of micro plastics and other invisible, but common toxins, thanks for the answer love all the content you put out!
Thank you for posting. Have been thinking of you both and your beautiful hens.
Thank you so much!
Always enjoy your chicken videos. I think we were the only ones who didn’t get the cold snap. We live in the Oregon coast. Christmas Day was 61*F. Wishing you Sasha, all the hens and roosters a happy New Year. Can’t forget the dog’s and cat too.
We didn't get it, either. It was 80F in southern AZ today.☀
I’m so inspired by this. I’m going to do this with my ladies soon. 😊
Loving the chicken sauna!🐔 The older hens still look in great condition! Thanks for your valuable video content 👍. I live in warm to hot zone 9b central california but I still learn much about waste systems, composting, and poultry care from you. My hens make me 😊.
very happy to see all these links held together. I'm sure it's hard to tell how the trees and perennial shrubs fared, but any updates on that stuff would be appreciated, when available. thanks for all the high-quality info.
You must be in a magic spot. I was looking at the radar and thought you guys would get all that lake affect. I am across the river/north a ways of the international bridge by Ogdensburg and we got loads of snow. Of course, we got poured on first. What a crazy storm. So glad to see that you got through it all. Here's to hoping for a not so crazy January. Although it looks like we are going to get really mild temperatures again. So crazy.
This is an absolute marvel! Thank you for the pioneering work you both are doing and for sharing it with us. Those ladies look sooo happy. :))
Fantastic system you have in place and what lucky hens! Thanks for sharing. I hope to reproduce this on a much smaller scale here at my own home. Love watching and learning!
Thanks for another great video. I’m always happy to see you post a new video to enjoy!
It's just amazing. Well done ladies : )
Hi Sean and Sasha,
Have you considered removing the bottom of the pallet and cutting the top of the pallet to the form of the milk pans. The wood from the bottom side can be used to reinforce the top if you have to cut across multiple slats. That way you are still preserving the clean area while allowing the pans to be in direct contact with the hot compost. Cheers,
Bill
That is an interesting idea, thank you!
ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU CHICKEN VIDEOS, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful system. Would like to see the color of the lady's yokes, bet they are nice and dark orange as they eat really good, thanks again!
Beautiful videos! Question, and you may have answered this, how do you keep mice/rats away from all that food?
Chickens eat mice so no issues there, and rats have come in the past but were only helpful in aerating the compost, so we didn't find them negative. THey haven't been around since for some reason...
Ur chicken system is absolutely brilliant 😊
Loveyou your on going insights on the dynamics of this composting chicken system. Letting the incoming freeze it also breaks down the cells and softens which is easier for them eat as its thawing. "Straight outta Compost! LOL
Glad to see everyone at yours weathered the storm okay and that your is system working exactly as planned! I am so impressed with it i hope to start implementing something similar in the new year 🐓💪🐔✌💙
I hope it comes together in great ways for you!
What about building a 6"-12" frame out of locust, big enough to fit all the food/milk/water containers, and place it on top of a newly turned pile of hot compost, then top it off level with more hot compost. Then you can either set the containers on top of or push them down into the compost some to keep the in contact with the hot compost. The height of the frame would keep most of the flying compost out of the containers, and they wouldn't be able to scratch between the containers either. Just a thought.
Just an interesting FYI - Icelandic chickens live til 15 and are excellent foragers. Like the sheep and goat they are long lived and very productive. Sheep 🐑 still producing healthy lamb and mom at age 12. Common to produce twin and triplets, with excellent milk.
That is really neat!
chicks sure look happy....I like how they want to be right there when you are turning the compost.....
160F !? You could make a compost-powered sous vide cooker . . . if you could keep the chickens from getting to it.
Buddy I just love your videos and what you’re doing. Thanks for sharing the knowledge
Had a few frozen eggs as well ours thawed ok and made good scrambled eggs! :-)
How do you deal with the rats attracted by the compost?
I’ve got chickens coming in June. I’m going to give that a shot. Thanks for a very informative video
So happy to share, best of luck!
Thank you again!
Improbable heat indeed !
I didnt read all of the comments but those black rubber dishes do a really good job of not heating. Just staying in the plastic wrapped hen house that still has good ventilation it doesn't freeze during nights in the nearly single digits here in NH. If I place them in a larger container with waste hay surrounding it that helps even more. So nestled into a hot compost pile I bet it wouldn't freeze even below zero.
Good suggestions thank you
That's some crazy hot compost, that's about as hot as mine ever gets even in the summer. My bins are outside and we haven't really had freezing temps much, never mind 0F but there is no way mine gets as hot as this. I need to insulate the sides much more, I think, but I don't think I can match your volume in any case.
Those chickens are spoiled they got their own Sauna :)
So, I’m Wondering where all that produce comes from. Can you pick it up from grocers? We used to do that years ago but it was banned. Has that been relaxed some?
Good Show Fam 🤯 Amazing temps
An idea for a conductive thing for the milk/water to sit on: old cooking sheets! thinking of the heavy duty kind used in commercial kitchens.
Very interesting to see. Many thanks.
What do you do with the old hens that die? Do you bury them, cremate, or recycle them back into the flock?
For the compost heating system, I'm not exactly an expert in thermodynamics, but it seems what you need is a heat sink in contact with the hot part of the pile that can transfer heat from the center up to the top. All that dry organic matter sitting on top seems to act as a really good insulator, and a sheet of aluminum sitting on top of it might not really do anything to get the things above it warm. You could drive some copper or aluminum pipes down into the pile and weld them to your sheet (copper is better, but aluminum probably works).
I saw a really interesting video recently about a thermal conductor you might even be able to replicate out of scrap materials that might work decently, but I haven't tried it. Look up "What's Inside the World's Fastest Heat Conductor?" on youtube and the Action Lab channel showcases it pretty well. It appears to be simply a copper tube that was sealed with a little boiling water in it. It has a spongy texture inside, but maybe just a standard pipe with threaded end caps would work? Interior pressure seems like it would be negative, so it should suck the ends into the pipe rather than pushing them out, but a failure of process might result in a dangerous positive pressure in the pipe.
Either way, just some scrap copper piercing through your pile should transfer heat decently well. I would think with all that energy stored in those piles, there should be no need to move to a larger one.
Very nice notes here, thank you!
I kept my flock cooped up for 2 days as some of them have some fairly large combs. Since they weren't stirring it, and neither was I, the compost pile froze like 4 inches down.
might need to fork in some coop poop to kick it back into gear.
Peltier Modules provide voltages using nothing but the heat emitted from various sources. They could be wired together (one above ground one below) to keep the milk thawed.
I'll look into that...
does your deep bed method in your coop keep your coop warm? Could you add food scraps/compost into the coop the keep it toasty?
I wouldn't want to add too much food scrap and compost to the bedding area since it creates a higher moisture state in there. We want it to be free of drafts and pretty darn dry where they sleep, so their bedding is dry leaves and dry hay... It doesn't need to be warmed for them to be comfortable, just cozy and insulated and dry and their bodies radiate good heat.
Not sure if it will work ok, or if it is practical for the milk and waterer you could run a water line through the compost pile with a small pump for slow circulation and have the milk bowls sitting on the pipe to keep the milk and waterer thawed or even have warn water and milk if so desired.
If you remember you tried before but it failed, but only because I think you said it was not a big enough compost pile to keep the heat going. Just saying. may be worth a try. You could even configured it to run a line right through the milk and waterer.
Cheers
13:25 this part is amazing
did you ever consider dealing with too much heat those action bacteria by adding extra venting. maybe a plastic pipe with holes along the bottom might be sufficient to give the compost enough aeration. the white spots are also a sign of the compost going almost anaerobic. heat is of course a factor in using up the oxygen, but a little extra passive venting might be enough... all the best
Good ideas and something to consider for sure
This is soooo d@mn smart!! If I lived on acreage I’d be copying everything you do! However, on my 1/2 acre suburban lot this is just not feasible…
Love the way you think…
Interesting you mention that because literally our whole space where my wife and I live is a 1/2 acre suburban lot. We farm other spaces as well, but the vast majority of the videos you see on this channel happen at our 1/2 acre, most definitely including the chickens.
What a life,,,, spa n buffet.... Lololol
Do the stickers on the produce ever get annoying? I noticed some are still on the produce you feed to the chickens and I believe they are plastic (so they wont break down).
Have you ever tried soaking the bread in the milk? My hens eat that up so quickly, I doubt it would ever have time to get frozen over. Just a thought!
Neat idea, something to consider!
I would keep the skids under the milk, but push a piece of 1' copper pipe 18' into the compost and up through the skid and against the bottom of the milk bowl
Thats a neat and simple idea thank you
Maybe a box to keep the milk dishes in the compost but no compost gets in the box with milk dish?
Box or just something to keep the compost out like a wood board or even bins or something
Some sort of frame around the dishes maybe, I like it... I'll consider that...
A steamy, "HEN"mam Spa!
?? When you look for food scraps from restaurants and stores are you looking for organic or Non-GMO only or just whatever you can get 🤔?
We try to aim for higher quality ingredients for the most part. I'm not interested in collecting from McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts, but I'm not going to check every sticker on fruit to make sure it is organic either. Our main sources tend to have pretty high quality ingredients for the most part.. Let's call it 'a little picky' :)
So we had a very rainy day and my 13 chickens loved every minute of it, to the point I had to lurer them into the coop cause they where drenched. Which brings up my question about chickens in the rain, is it ok or a bad idea?
We always try to trust their judgement, so maybe they had a good reason to be out and in the rain? Maybe adding some good covered areas so they can be outside but not in the rain?
Yeah I plan on planting a Illinois mulberry and a elderberry bush in their yard so I expect that to help them out a bunch.
Ballin’
Love your system. Appreciate the follow up in this severe weather. Compost power is so underated. Glad to see you evolving this technology. Wondered how it would work with the higher ceiling and larger square footage.
Great work again Thanks for pointing allthe aspects.
It might be that the h3ns were all together but my impression was that your flock has grown a lot !!
It has, we are somewhere near 90 or so now...
Chicken sauna, neat
Can you talk about bread? I've been told that we should not feed it to our chickens and ducks. I value your opinions and experiences. ❤️
Reasonable question... Our feeling is that if we mainly (only) gave them bread it would be super nasty for them. As a free choice element available to them as a snack, but with their main carbs coming from whole, soaked grains, then it feels reasonable. So far we haven't seen any major issues so we don't concern ourselves, but thats just our opinion... Provide them a very wide range of free choice options and they'll do the right thing seems like a decent mantra
Another heating option would be to bury a metal dryer duct and run a small fan through it.
Do the chickens have a sand bath?
Not an explicit one but under their coop it is very very dry and we added diatomaceous earth and sand back in the day
you never talk about the eggs production. Can you make a video about it someday?
Sure can... Our setup is a little odd in that most of our hens are quite old... 90 or so hens, about 70 of them are at least 3-4 years old, so very reduced production, but more of a retirement community :)
Where do u get all the scraps from?
ua-cam.com/video/Y5qyJcr6WJs/v-deo.html - A video discussing our process
is it bad for the eggs to freeze?
Sure is. We really want to avoid that in general. So long as we catch them the next day we can use them ASAP and they are OK but for storage they'd go bad very quickly.
lol aren't those little produce stickers annoying? It is looking like the high tunnel is a necessary element for cold weather composting.
THey are annoying, but once in a while somehow the mood is right and picking through it all is fine enough :)
The high tunnel is important for very cold times, and now we have a warm moment and they use it much less... Good to have overall though
Good Lord where do all those food scraps come from every day?
ua-cam.com/video/Y5qyJcr6WJs/v-deo.html - this talks about it a bit.
Sorry of not *freezing*
❤❤❤
My chickens thrive in an open air type coop at temperatures into the -40s . It takes a properly designed coop and the right breed of chicken . The coop is uninsulated and unheated .
That makes a lot of sense
You must have hundreds of rats, plz share how u deal with them? Having raw food including meat will attract everything.
Chickens kill and eat rats and mice. There are probably less than you think. 😉
Are you guys able to breathe in there? Look at that nitrogen steam
With the right balance of ingredients it works, but it can be intense sometimes!
I don’t understand why foxes, raccoons and hawks are not a problem for this flock
Magic spells :)
Foxes and raccoons are mainly a night thing and they are secure in the coop, hawks have a hard time with the complex canopy I think
@@edibleacres where I am the pressure is so high they are out during the days as well. I am planting things to help defend from above lol
You must eat a lot or pick up wast at restaurants.
Careful you don't roast your chickens! He he... it is always confronting how much food you guys pull (and make use of) from the waste stream of businesses... from (maybe) just a handful of places? You use it well though.
We collect from mainly 2 places, sometimes a 3rd, but one is quite fruitful, literally :)
Hope everyone had a wonderful Xmas 🎄🎅 Please look into 5kw Chinese diesel air heaters. Very cheap(£120 Uk), very efficient and really effective. All the rage over here just now. With ability to use an EGR Cooler on exhaust to get hot water. 👊 can burn loads of fuels Inc cooking oil & waste engine oil
Hen Sauna! 🐔🧖♀