Off topic from the trailer, but I recently implemented brick 16, which was a pretty funny story in itself, but I'm happy to report it worked like a charm. If you want to hear the story, read on, otherwise, just know that it works, and it's awesome.
So a bit of backstory: Many of the things that I try to experiment with end up getting tampered with or destroyed by my landlord's daughters. Maybe they are just curious, I don't know. For example, once I tried to install something like a Hugelkultur bed in my small front yard. Instead of building upward, I dug a small trench and buried wood inside. Within a day or so of finishing the bed and planting seeds, I come home one day, and the entire area has been removed and paved over with sand, for no apparent reason.
Well anyway, I wanted to try this chicken feeder technique ever since I first saw this video, and especially since I got my first chickens in April of this year, I had it in the back of my mind to try it. So I built the bucket, threw in some straw and added some small amount of meat to attract flies. Sure enough, within a week, somebody had dumped it out. I tried to explain what I was trying to do, but shortly after, the landlord confronted me saying, "My daughter told me you're trying to raise FLIES?!" and I said, "No, I'm not currently. I WAS trying something, but it was actually a fly trap, to REDUCE the floy population. Anyway, someone threw it out, so you've got nothing to get upset about." So that was the end of it. However, I left the bucket hanging so the novelty of it would wear off and people would stop investigating. This was probably in July, maybe August.
More recently, I was walking across the parking lot of one of my corporate clients, and I just happened across a dead rabbit. I had this strange moment where I just KNEW I had to take it with me. So I bagged it up, ended up having to carry it with me to a couple different meetings, and when I came home, I stealthily put it in the bucket and put the lid back on.
After a few days, I didn't notice any changes, but I covered it with a bit of straw and left the lid off for a few hours while I was home alone, then I put the lid back on and left it alone.
A couple days later, there was a faint whiff of something foul, not too incredibly strong, but noticeable depending on where you were standing and which direction the wind was blowing. I'd give it a repulsion factor of 2. I thought I probably just needed more straw. However, before I could add any, my landlord came again and said, "I think something died in the front yard. I didn't let on that I knew what it was, but I asked him if he thought that whatever it was would attract predators that might harm the chickens, and he said he didn't know but that probably it would be taken care of by maggots.
So I walked away thinking, "Busted. Experiment failed. Smell is too strong, and attracts unwanted attention from the neighbors." And I started making plans to dump the bucket into the
compost heap and forget it.
The next day, I went out to do just that, and there was no smell at all. Then I grabbed the bucket and it was incredibly light, not nearly as heavy as the rabbit had been. I took off the lid, and….no rabbit.
Panic. Who found the rabbit, and when is the shoe going to drop? I casually asked my wife, "Did you do anything with the bucket in with the chickens?" "No, I have no idea."
So I went back to the bucket and then I noticed it: a huge crater scratched up directly underneath the bucket. I figured out that the rabbit hadn't been taken out, just transformed. I got a box, dumped the bucket inside, and my chickens ate happily ever after.
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