Charlie Barnwise

Yes, I have jumping worms. They appeared suddenly in my compost heap and quickly proceeded to process all of the mulch and wood chips in my garden. It was an alarming discovery to say the least. My neighbors reported them as well. I don’t know where they came from, but I suspect a big decomposing fiberglass bait pool left on my property by the first owner may have been the source. I never saw worms in it, but it was full of similar castings.

Problems:
1) They DESTROY mulch. I use leaf litter and wood chips as path mulching in my garden. With the worms, this has limited benefit as all mulch is turned into castings within a season.

2) The castings are poor. Unlike night crawlers, jumping worm castings are large and limited to the top organic layers of soil. They do not enable root systems to develop, wash away extremely easily and are not intermixed with the other soil horizons. Whatever nutrient gain is realized is short and offset by a plant’s struggle to establish itself. I have noted tillering, stunted/no growth, uprooting when plucking fruits or leaves, etc. I also suspect the worms eat the young rootlets as they develop, further stunting growth.

To make matters worse, we had enormous amounts of rain this summer, with intense downpours of several inches multiple times over the summer. I have dealt with unprecedented erosion, with literal streams developing and cutting course through my garden - lasting for days. The top inches the soil being jumping worm castings and loss of mulch  
made matters somehow even worse.

3) Chickens do not like them. The birds are fearful of the worms. One bird was enthusiastic at first, but I think she ate so many of them that they continued to writhe inside her and made her feel unwell. After day one she has turned up her beak at them.

In short - they are awful. I can absolutely see why forest ecologists are worried about their spread in northeastern forests. They absolutely will limit seedling regeneration and soil development. I will try solarizing large parts of my garden to reduce populations next summer, which will require some extra planning for planting schedules. Good luck if you become cursed with these freaky varmints.

I’ll see to it that it is decorated with baubles and glitzy trinkets.

gus·sy /ˈɡəsē/ verb
INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
make someone or something more attractive, especially in a showy or gimmicky way.

Thanks, Matt. I’ve a seen a picture of your coop and is it not too late to replace some of those roof panel fasteners with pins? I think the metal is fairly flexible and could be lifted up for access.

In the Rhodes designs, the roosts are 2”x2” strips laid over the bottom hardware cloth floor every 12”. Similar to the Coleman version, to my knowledge. I filled in the gaps with cardboard and pine shavings until their feet get bigger.

Well it is 90% finished and holding chicks. Bending the pipes was easy with a simple plywood jig. I had to re-bend a bit to get each relatively uniform. The roof paneling conforms nicely to the variabilities in the hoop shape.

What is not complete are the nesting area access door and the towing boards. The teeny wheels are temporary $1 cart wheels from ReStore until I find something larger that doesn’t cost a pretty penny. The pulleys will fit nicely under there while I hunt.

The frame is identical to Rhode’s Chickshaw, but it he ends are slightly modified to fit a hoop roof. Overall I think I saved a little money on this project, but not much compared to Rhode’s plan. Without weighing it is lighter because less wood was used, but again, not a major change. In the end I think the bent hoops are very capable of repurposing which was my main motivation.

Access is possible by unpinning one section of the roofing and folding up. The chicks are brooding nicely in there now and I filled the floor mesh with cardboard and pine shavings until their feet are bigger.

I still have to gussy it up, but it was pretty easy to throw together.

Hi Matt - great tips! Thanks. I also don’t get bad wind. I was a little nervous about the off chance that a lighter build would effectively turn itself into an airship and carry the birds away in the night…I realize I could just wrap the thing in a tarp when bad wind is forecasted. I think I’ll go with this plan and let ye all know how it turns out. Wish me luck.

I’m doing electric fencing as well. Just trying to determine what will protect them in the winter if I can’t connect the energizer to 110. We often have about 6” or more of wet, constantly melting snow and I want to keep the preds at bay (I especially don’t want any exploratory perforations of the hoop house plastic.

PS - anyone have tips for a diy pipe bending technique? Not too keen on buying the gadget that I would rarely use.

Cheers

Thanks for your experience and insights, William. I can see the advantage of the flat top. To be clear, my “hoop top” will be made of rigid plastic, same or similar roofing that Rhodes’ uses. Don’t mean to give the impression I’ll be using greenhouse plastic as in a hoop house. If I end up repurposing the hoop too for the garden, I would change the covering.

I’ll be using an electric fence like Rhodes. Additionally, I’m planning on parking the Chickshaw inside a hoop house during the winter to give them a some snow-free run.

Hey gang,

Going to be new to chickenry this spring and I’m looking to build my chicksaw soon. Does anyone have perspectives on the relative design benefits/flaws of Justin Rhodes’ vs Eliot Coleman style chickshaws?

I’m leaning towards a hybrid model where I build a wood frame based on Rhodes’, but instead of continuing to frame it up with wood according to his instructions, adapting a Coleman style hoop top to give the chickens more vertical space and, mainly, to save on lumber and cutting wood pieces. I’m figuring it would end up looking a bit like a Conestoga wagon.

I like having multi-purpose structures, and I figure the other advantage of using a hoop based top, besides less wood and cutting, would be that i could use it as a quick low tunnel if ever I gave up the chicksaw for chicken sheltering. Conservation of effort, conservation of resources.

A disadvantage to Coleman’s style seems to be that it could invite more lift under heavy winds, requiring some preventative staking. Also that his design doesn’t seem to have easy top access like Rhodes’. I figure I could affix the hoop top to a second rectangular frame that could latch into the base for reasonably easy removal if that was ever needed.

Hoping to hear some feedback from ye permies.

Cheers!