Bill Smythe

Well, I cannot locate how to turn it off, but I object to a.full 12 days of involuntary unexpected servitude to a bot. I am presently dealing with issues on a.list if 2000 due to a v v v v few, having, not dial up, but a low speed connection or limited download w/o penalty.

Aimee Hall and those in Australia might look up Tim Malfroy. He has a few apiaries and runs hundreds of Warrés. I have but one... 9 seasons continuously occupied. Perhaps one day Leo, you'll wander, "down under." 😎 But as for being ~"difficult to manage?" I don't allow myself to manage my Warré.
BillSF9c
near San Francisco

Practical? Define that... cost / sq ft?
Or within budget? (Allow 25-50% overrun on uncommon projects!)

Add a dwg of cross section of soil & blg elevation from anything inland above you to water level. Use as a reference. Rain can sometimes flow. Maybe make the subsoil sections w drain surrounds like a basement without a drain. Compact the soil-berm. Maybe add sloping water resistant membranes ( not contiguou$ but  overlapping)  to start at existing soil level and slope 1ft in 10 up toward cones to shed rain. Insulation inside needs a vapor barrier as usual. Add 1 exoskeletonic or hidden camera obscura.

Remote it via old tv antenna remote? Also add tv antenna for fm radio + disguises c.o. function. Add of dish antenna. At the LNA replace w mic and listen where you look. IF nursery camera and added IR leds. Add the low drain to bank if only for 10 ft to a dry well. It's a backup and stub is in place IF you ever wished to do it. Consider a well-digger for home... but drill sideways +slope to bank. Use grey pvc as last section... uv resis.
BillSF9c

Some sayings apply; like, all gardening/beekeeping is local. Soil, climate, etc, vary a lot. Let's say we dial-in the perfect number; you will vary ~+/- 50% from it.

You spec 2x4 fencing. I suggest that 1x2 is the largest safe size; and a homemade "wooden rake-scrap" will be needed to clean it at a minimum ideal of 2x a week... replaced perhaps ea 1-2 yrs.

Now, the hard part. I found Permies on a chase about worms, from a chase about soil and ferts. I am studying inputs and fert yield. I have a few clues.

For composting, equal greens and browns are about right. When worms process soil, what they leave has 5x the N (or available N, a potentially key distinction,) of what they consumed. Poor soil may have 1worm per cu ft and good, 4. Those 4 can process most of that cu ft in a year.

Needed to know is hen fert N, which I think is 3-4, and the volume. Compost wants 70% humidity and hens may not love the mold & other fungii spores in their air. My gut is decent and I begin to feel that 3 worm beds may be needed, or simple removal of the straw and composting it to the side.

Mushroom growers use "horse manure," which to them means 95% straw stall rakings and that 5% is horse manure and urine. Urine itself is a strong fert. I have numbers on it somewhere. They require 30 days and compost at ~150F to get a half-compost that the mushrooms need as a pre-partial digestion.

Once figured out, your answer will be simple. Getting there, not. Thomas Edison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Einstein said; Imagination is more important than intelligence. It all means, if you put your nose to the grindstone, you can do this...! Err on the side of caution as you go so you don't kill your test subjects.

Perhaps 64 worms in a milk crate, lined w 6 mil plastic w enough left to loosely "close"it. A mousture meter for a garden...$10. Have 5-10, inside in a cool area??? And take a daily coop out put into 1, wait 2 weeks. In #2, 50% more, etc. Or such. Do the math. Then go up in one direction by 50% jumps and down the other direction in 33.3%% jumps.  BillSF9c

I would lime to suggest 4-6" of loose straw below the hens. This dries the loo and dry poo smells less. Straw as a.mulch also keels worm beds more moist and.mitigates temps.

Then I want to suggest two of these beds and move the hens each 1 or 2 weeks. Some coops will slide on runners.or have 2 wheels. Some don't.

This allows worm bed access now and thwn, and qhen tbe straw gesta too well used, turn tbat in, say, each 1-3 months. Some watering of worms will be required... but you do change the hens water and clean tbeir coop so there's some.of the water.

BillSF9c

Anne - loved it !
Brad - let's talk Cplorado sometime!

New here. ReStudying native earthworm issues for gardenong.

Best I have found is spread a cu ft bag of ~ well composted manure about 1/4 - 1" thick and water.

Water (and manure tea) travels down the soil column about 1 ft a day, max. More in sand... of course. But tbe worms require time to dig UP yo you from maybe 10 feet down, where the season lags by 3 monyjs. And if it's too hot or too dry, at some depth they will stop... so shade the area to retain moisture nd coolness.

BillSF9c
w bees, in town
lost my two hens - raccoons