October Experimental Results

In early October, the outdoor air temperatures were low enough that it seemed prudent to reconfigure the ventilation system for the chicken coop.   During the summer, the air was drawn from beneath the coop in order to cool the air as much as possible for the benefit of the birds.  The ground beneath the coop, which had chilled all winter and had been shielded from the Sun in the summer, would extract heat from the air as it was drawn into the coop.  This geothermal cooling system kept the coop from rising into unhealthy temperatures for no additional operating cost beyond running the coop’s existing ventilation fans.

The reconfiguration involved capping the intake duct that pulled air from beneath the coop and opening the intake duct that pulled air through the biomeiler.  Readers who have followed the construction of the biomeiler know that there is a 100’-length of 4” corrugated sewer pipe coiled in the mantle of the pile.  The far end admits the outdoor air, while the near end has a well-insulated connection to the air intake duct on the side of the chicken coop.  As the intake fan in the coop pulls air through the duct, that air is warmed by the heat of the composting materials.  The full details of the construction of the current biomeiler can be found in the posts beginning on October 13, 2024.

In the graph, the vent temperatures are clearly far higher than ever seen before.  The vent temperatures are following the general trend of the outdoor air, but the biomeiler is raising the temperature by approximately 50 F degrees.  After the ventilation  revision, the coop temperature has also followed the general trend of the outdoor air, but with an offset of approximately 20 F degrees.  Later in the month, we turned on a heater in the brooder room, for the benefit of the chicks.  Some of that supplemental heat warms the coop, and acts as a confounding variable in the experiment.  

As the chicks develop feathers we will steadily reduce the supplemental heat and the coop temperature will be less affected.  Once the chicks are sufficiently feathered to be able to live in the coop, we will move them to the cages formerly occupied by the quail and the supplemental heating will be discontinued entirely.  I’m hoping the chicks can’t contrive some other method for influencing my research.