Starting to put our micro-farm to bed for winter. Happy Hibernation!
We began the task of putting Mother Nature to rest last weekend, timely, as we have had much wet weather since in Reno! So what do we do to begin to get ready for fall weather and winter snow (fingers crossed)?
One side of our little micro-farm^
First we get our chicken coop ready.
Background:
We have a chicken coop that is 4x4 with deep litter compost began inside it. Deep litter is a method that is used to create compost and warmth in a chicken coop (or rabbit pen), with minimal maintenance. We had began with a pile of pine shavings & straw (sources of carbon) inside on the coop floor a few months ago. The chickens helped by adding poop, a rich source of nitrogen, to the mix. We then encourage them to scratch it around and mix the straw/shavings/poop up by adding in vegetable treats, and scratch feed that they dig around for. We assist by turning the mixture with a rake occasionally. Traditional chicken farmers would clean out their coop regularly of poop, and
compost it for fertilizer/manure in a heap or trash bin. It had to rest for 3 mos+. They would complain of ammonia build-up, harmful to chickens sensitive respiratory tracts, and stinky!
However, our deep litter method caused no odor and no ammonia build up. Before October we sealed all the cracks in our coop with caulk, because although you need fresh air in the coop, I don't want it to leak cold air like a sieve. We painted the coop at that time too. All it needs now are shingles, from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in town. To be done at a later date. Maybe at some point I will do a post on building our chicken coop and run.
Our little coop and run, flowers partially dead already. Looked really cute in summer^
Getting the coop ready for winter:
We discovered that it was very dry in the coop deep litter, too dry in fact to make good compost. Why is this ultra-important? Because deep litter done wrong is going to be harmful to the birds in the long run. Composting inside the coop also keeps the interior 10 degrees warmer than the outside temps, which is nice in the winter.
Although there were no smells in our coop, it wasn't doing exactly what we thought it should be. You want it dry, but not so dry that nothing decomposes & microbes/beneficial bacteria can't thrive. Thus, this last weekend we added dirt to the mix. The dirt was slightly wet, so that composting can begin in earnest. Compost in general needs to be slightly wet-like a wrung out towel amount of moisture to work properly. Many people who do the deep litter method have a coop with a dirt floor on the ground. Thus, we had to add our dirt to the mix as our coop sits above ground on stilts. We used Dr. Earth dirt with soil microbes and bacteria in it. We area also planning on adding scoops of dirt from places around our yard that already contain things that compost needs to get started, like mites, insects, worms, bacteria, microbes, micronutrients, etc., just to make sure it gets a good start. We mixed in the dirt with straw/pine shavings/poop with a rake. Now we covered it with more straw. We are throwing in scraps and scratch in earnest to make the chickens turn it over like crazy.
The inside of our coop, after dirt added^
Our nesting box inside coop, Aunt Fanny laying inside^
Outside the coop in the run we are also doing deep litter. Why? Because it makes good compost with minimal effort on our parts in the cleaning department. I got the idea from Northwest Edibles Blog, in which all she does in her coop is open a bale of straw and her chickens scratch it around and make compost. It stinks less, almost not at all, as well.
Our outside run compost texture^
Our run is covered by clear plexiglass roofing panels to keep our birds from getting wet. The texture of our outdoor litter compost is dry, but not so dry that it isn't making good compost. I believe it is working well. Could be a little wetter, but hey, that's ok. We have not cleaned out our run since we
built the coop, and didn't do so at this time either. The compost is still mixing and breaking down, and the chickens are still moving it around. I added more straw on top of the deep litter compost in the run. I want the chickens to have plenty of access to straw that they can bed down into in the coming weather if necessary. In the spring, I will do a big cleanout of compost from the coop and run, and start over again. For now, the compost is still "baking."
We purchased five new aluminum trash cans to store our food for chickens & rabbits. We set up our chicken food can on porch. We hung a hanging feeder for the chickens. We moved our bag of scratch feed/meal worms inside the coop so the roof would protect it from elements. We use a reusable bag for this purpose, as it breathes well and drains water if necessary.
We need to devise a way to get a water heater into the coop, but don't have electricity run to it at this time. We could also use a light, to make our chickens lay more in the short days. Although, some people say this isn't healthy for them. It's natural for egg production to slow in winter. And really, we have too many eggs from our four hens already, so we may forgo the light altogether.
Flower beds:
We began spreading fresh straw into our flower beds. We will add the dead flowers, plants, and fall leaves into the beds too as soon as we get them/clip them. It froze a few times lately, so more leaves and dead plants to come! We will get our garden covered, and cut down annual veggies as well soon. We will pick up a load of compost from a friend to add to the top of the gardens in November as well. How kind of them!
Our hugelcultur bed containing a dwarf nectarine, blueberries, perennial cat nip, annual flowers ^
