Deep Mulch

We are starting a new method with the chicken tractor called the Deep Mulch Method. Instead of moving the chickens to new forage daily, we will leave them in place for a couple weeks, adding fresh hay every day. This creates a deep layer of manure and hay which rapidly decomposes and creates beautifully fertile soil, conveniently in a rectangular raised bed. We will throw in greens from around the yard so they still have "forage" as well. 

Over the last week we have had very cool weather and severe storms so Peter made their upstairs much more secure and added a ramp and a longer better roost.  We started putting hay up there for them as well. We are studying various tractor designs at http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html in order to get ideas for improvements, nesting boxes, etc.  We also moved them back to the dog crate with the light out on the back patio for a couple nights so they could be warm and dry during the horizontal rain and thunder and lightning. We will post pictures soon.