Earthen Den for Roosting

I've been digging around trying to find someone who's already done this, I'd like to give my chickens a sort of earth bermed roost, getting eggs means bending over, but the trade off for temperature buffering and natural environment seems well worth it in theory.

Has anyone else done this??

Paul??

I have a 6'x6'x6' chain link cube that i'd like to build this within and my chickens are allowed to free range during the day. I know I'll still have lost eggs but there's a hyper abundance of forest grazing and chicken grubbin' around me that I'd like to take advantage of.

Any suggestions/comments are welcome!

Hi Zachary. Here is a video of Paul describing a root cellar/underground animal shelter that Sepp Holzer built for cattle. Is this what you had in mind?

Yup! I've seen that exact one!

That's precisely what I've got in mind except that I don't know that I'm going to bother with the full WOFATI system as I live in high desert and it just seems over kill for a place to nest.

As anyone attempted this on a smaller scale? For rabbits/chickens n' the like?

You could try a combination of soil and Earthbag Dome construction... that's what I am going to try doing.

Since you live in the desert, I figure you'd have plenty of dirt to play with lol