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Chicken Nesting Box Design, IMO Dust Baths, Dry LAB for Feed

July 16, 2023 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with questions on the leaf, bloom, and fruit prescriptions. Tomatoes, peas, and peppers loop between leaf growth and bloom every two weeks instead of moving straight through the nutrient cycle, so they leaf and flower at the same time. He doesn't think fish amino acid (FAA) cuts bean nodulation the way chemical nitrogen fertilizer does, since FAA is already broken-down amino acids taken up fast through the leaf.

Back to Master Cho's presentation on poultry. Chickens dust bathe in dirt and IMOs to clean their feathers, the same way Drake's dog and pigs come out clean from rolling in dirt. He walks through building the layer nesting box: a roughly 60-degree hinged door, a slitted black cloth curtain to keep the back dark and calm, and a rolly bar on top so hens can't roost and crap on it. Chopped lemongrass in the bedding cuts down mites.

Perch training starts after day 30: once a third of the birds are perching at 55 to 60 days, the brooder box comes out and the nesting box, feeder, and water go in. The perch sits lower in front, about two feet, and higher in back, two and a half to three feet, with the best-laying hens claiming the top spot. Floor bedding, rice straw or wood chips cut to about 2.75 inches, ferments into warm, high-quality IMO material you can pull a third out each season. Fermented-feed KNF eggs hold together with chopsticks and show more stress-resistant hormone levels and longer intestines than cage-fed eggs.

Drake closes with broiler housing built at scale, 300 to 400 chicks at a time, fed rice on release and given constant feed access, plus how to make dry LAB: rice bran and liquid IMO sealed in a barrel for two weeks, the same process as making Bokashi bran.

Questions answered

  • 9:56 How do the leaf, bloom, fruit prescriptions work for tomatoes, peas, and peppers? — They loop between leaf and bloom every two weeks instead of moving straight through the cycle, so the plant leafs and flowers at once.
  • 18:40 Will FAA (knfFuel) fish amino acid make bean nodules decrease? — Drake doesn't think so, since FAA is already broken-down, water-soluble amino acids, not the nitrogen that shuts down nodulation.
  • 26:29 Why do chickens, pigs, and dogs dust bathe in dirt? — Dirt and IMO baths clean their feathers and skin and build the microbiome, even though it looks backwards.
  • 32:33 How do you build the KNF layer chicken nesting box? — A roughly 60-degree hinged door with a slitted black curtain keeps the back dark, plus a spinning rolly bar on top to stop roosting.
  • 40:35 When do you move chicks from the brooder box to the perch? — Once a third of the birds start perching at 55 to 60 days, you remove the brooder box and add the perch, nesting box, feeder, and water.
  • 51:00 What can you use for chicken pen flooring? — Rice straw, wood shavings, hemp herd, or wood chips cut to about three inches so the birds can turn it.
  • 54:46 What do you do with broody or mischievous chickens? — Master Cho used a separate pen, or spread red confetti so pecking chickens peck the confetti instead of each other.
  • 56:09 What's the difference between KNF eggs and conventional eggs? — Fermented-feed KNF eggs hold together with chopsticks in three distinct layers, unlike cage-fed eggs.
  • 58:05 How do stress hormones and intestines compare between KNF and conventional chickens? — Natural farming chickens show more anti-stress cortisol-related hormone and longer, healthier intestines than cage-fed birds.
  • 1:00:52 How is the broiler brooder box and pen different from the layer setup? — It's built bigger, about six feet wide, to handle 300 to 400 chicks at once instead of around 120.
  • 1:05:26 How should broilers be fed compared to layers? — Broilers need constant access to feed in big auto-feeders instead of the two-hour gaps used for layers.
  • 1:07:51 Can you make dry LAB to put in chicken feed? — Yes, mix rice bran with liquid IMO in a sealed barrel and in two weeks it turns into dry LAB, the same process as making Bokashi bran.

Topics: imo, dust bath, nesting box, perch training, nutrient cycle, fish amino acid, dry lab, broiler chickens, layer chickens, chicken flooring, tomatoes, mites

KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.

In this episode

  1. 0:00 Countdown
  2. 2:22 Intro and Welcome
  3. 4:07 I Ching Reading and Reflection
  4. 9:56 Leaf, Bloom, and Fruit Prescriptions for the Nutrient Cycle
  5. 18:40 Does FAA (knfFuel) Decrease Bean Nodules?
  6. 22:22 Tomato Growth Cycle Answered on KNF Support
  7. 24:10 Back to the Master Cho Presentation
  8. 26:29 IMO Dirt and Dust Baths for KNF Livestock
  9. 32:33 KNF Chicken Nesting Box Design and Dimensions
  10. 37:58 Poultry Training Course in Korean on YouTube
  11. 40:35 Perch Training: Brooder Box to Perching Hens
  12. 51:00 Viable Materials for Chicken Pen Flooring
  13. 53:58 Chicken Flooring in Soil Potting Mix
  14. 54:46 Prison Pen for Broody and Mischievous Chickens
  15. 56:09 KNF Eggs vs Conventional Eggs
  16. 58:05 Chicken Intestines and Stress Hormones Compared
  17. 59:47 KNF Broiler Chicken House in Korean
  18. 1:00:52 Broiler Chicken Brooder Box and Pen
  19. 1:05:26 Broiler Feeding System
  20. 1:07:51 Making Dry LAB for Chicken Feed

Transcript

Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.

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