yes, I'm thinking it would work. You would need to drill a series of holes around the barrel for air circulation. Make sure to maintain a 50/50 of green and brown compost material. Turning would be to place the lid on tight, place the container on the ground and turning it over and over. Adding chicken waste/manure in small amounts would heat the compost up and hasten the process. I live in zone 7b, and I do what I call is a cold pile every year. I just pile the compost materials in layers on the ground on a tarp. It's usually ready by mid to late April.
Good sources of green material are grass clippings, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, (don't use onion or citrus) , used tea bags, ( remove tea from bag and throwaway bag), garden clippings, ( no weeds), manure, ( no carnivore manure, such as dog or cat), and eggshells, crushed fine. Brown material would include leaves, small shredded branches, shredded newspapers, plain white paper towels, the inside cardboard rooms of toilet paper and paper towels, shredded cereal boxes( use only if the inside of the box is a grey color), shredded all wool carpet, and shredded all cotton material. Some experts warn against using the following, but I've put them in my pile; stale bread, (break into very small pieces and let dry before adding), and plain baked tortilla chips, crumbled. They key is to use an equal mix of brown and green. The finer the ingredients are shredded, the faster the process. If you use more green it can get slimy and stinky, so add more brown. If you have more brown, it cools down and slows the process, so add more green. Often it will slow down in the winter when the green supply runs low. You can then add a 10-10-10 granulated fertilizer (sparingly) to speed it up. There are also commercial mixes on the market that contain bio fungi ingredients that can be good to use. Keep it damp but not wet, about the wetness of a damp sponge. Good luck!
I'm using mine now, and it is mostly decomposed, but there are some leaf bits and pieces of eggshells left. No matter, I mixed it right in to the soil.
