Germinating on an Idea

So a little while ago, I had a thought. The Chicken Palace we built, while awesome and spacious, is not necessarily easy to clean. When we built it, we were concerned with security from (as of yet non-existent) predators and with speed as the little chikety-chicks were already cheep cheep cheeping their way through tinyhood in a Rubbermaid tub in the barn....with another batch in my bathtub. It had 12inches of chicken wire extended from the walls and tacked down on the ground. None of this is too big of an obstacle, except that in order or reinforce the walls and doorway, we have a 2x4 standing up on edge all along the foot print. Making it just a bit of a pain to muck anything up and out.

We also didn't put in enough litter for it to be really deep litter and therefore substantial enough to get it out. And the rain has a tendency to pour down the hill, make it in the palace, but doesn't really make it out...

And I'm kinda pressed for time/lazy.

A friend of mine also sent me a whole bunch of seeds.

And I thought it might be nice to suck up some of the nitrogen with seedlings and help break the chicken poop down while giving the chickens a snack in the spring (they're in a different coop over the winter). I'm not necessarily trying to get rid of the poop - that would take years and probably something more tenacious than mesclun mix and carrots, like fescue or something - but just something to help it break down into dirt faster. But chicken poop is really hot, and this was uncured chicken poop. The chickens had only been vacant from the palace for about 2 months? 3? Not nearly long enough for the poop to have cured and turned into something less hot.

But I figured that we had a crazy cold snap coming (it's been a super mild winter here...), and that I had nothing to lose really as I had seeds coming out of my ears. I was banking on the super cold snap protecting the seeds from getting burnt. (OK not the same, but work with me here). So I raked a few packets of various kinds of seeds into it and promptly forgot about it for a few weeks.

A nice variety. Just in case.

Success! If you look closely, you can see that the carrot seeds have come up, too.

That last photo was taken 2 weeks ago, and the seedlings are even bigger now. If nothing else, the chickens get a brief snack for 10 minutes worth of my time. Worth it to me!