Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[keyhole kate]

I was thinking about ways to get more use out of my unheated greenhouse on my allotment and got an idea of making a hotbed with the chicken poo and nesting box straw to heat it to start off some seeds rather than using the heated propagator at home then transporting them to the greenhouse has anyone had a go at making one ?

[sjp]

I know the principle of a hot bed but I not sure chicken poo is 'hot' enough as it's cattle manure/bedding that's traditionally used as it's classed as been a 'hot' manure due to it been very wet

[Olly]

That's interesting - I've always understood that chicken manure was 'hotter' than horse/cattle, in terms of whether or not plants can withstand it.

 

I'd love to know - I have considered this myself, but the thought of having to clear it all out in the spring puts me off! Also I'm not sure I'd have a large enough quantity/how hot it would get.

 

I've had a result in previous years with lighting a large candle overnight in the greenhouse when a heavy frost was predicted, it was a decorative candle that I no longer wanted so quite a large diameter, and it was just enough to keep the frost off. It does mean nipping up there to light it every night and then blowing it out in the morning, though.

[sjp]

all the old photo/drawing of hot beds I've seen are at least 3ft deep and the same wide with a few inches of soil on top then a cloche of some sort over that there is also a system for a cold frame the old Victorian brick built ones were the frames are filled up with the muck the either straw or soil on top then once the bed reaches temperature the trays/pot of plants are put into the frames or early salad type crops are planted into the soil it could work for early strawberries too the trick is to put the manure in at the right time so that the heat is just reaching it's peak I don't think they would work as a heat source for a green house as the volumes of air

Olly your right about the chicken poo. that's why I hate writing stuff down I much prefer talking about stuff it's far easier and quicker to explain. in this context cow manure gives off more heat as it rots so is hotter and is/was also available in large quantities as they need mucking out more often than anything else on the farm

[Olly]

Ah, thanks that makes sense.

[keyhole kate]

I do have access to horse and cow poo I was going to try it out in our plastic recycling bins as they are quite deep but may re think this.