Left over pine shaving

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ChickenMammX4 said:
We have a 8' x 16' covered run and 6 chickens. When we built, right away we added grass clippings and straw knowing the grass would turn to mud quickly. *this was spring 2015* As time passed we continued to add grass clippings, straw, landscaping debris, hay and in the fall, leaves and pine needles. The run stays pretty dry but just damp enough from rain or snow blowing in to allow everything to decompose. There's about 4-6" of Deep Litter in the run. The poo drops to the ground below. There is no mess, no odor, no flies. We did no cleaning through out the year.

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Jump ahead to *spring 2016*... Time to clean out. We got 3 1/2 wagon loads of beautiful compost to till into our vegetable garden.

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We threw in some hay, straw and garden debris from weeding to start the process again, just waiting to start cutting grass to add that. Come fall, the leaves and pine needles will be added. It's so easy to maintain, the chickens love pecking for bugs, seeds & worms. And, we get beautiful compost for the garden.

Edited to clarify... This is our run, in the coop we have pine shavings and a poopboard under the roost filled with PDZ. The poopboard gets sifted every day or 2 and thrown on the compost pile. The pine shavings are changed out twice a year.
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I have almost the exact same set up, but my run is a lot bigger so I won't need to clean anything out for a few years. Since I live in the high desert, I need to water the run down every so often to help things decompose, but even if I don't the clippings, leaves, brooder bedding, etc eventually breaks down as the chickens dig through them.
 
Yeah my coop doesn't smell but I've noticed a lot of poop build up where the chicks tend to congregate. I only have a thin layer of pine chips in the coop, maybe a couple inches. I guess I can let that build up and then add it to the run. I'm slacking on getting a garden up and running again but I like the idea of throwing it all in there and letting the chickens do the work of turning it over.

I also like the idea of adding grass clippings and leaves. I'll probably start doing that today. My chicks, all 10, are just a little too small to let free range yet.
 
angnic22 said:
I agree. Great info and always awesome to have pics. what's PDZ?
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PDZ is also sold as Stall Dry, it's used to deodorize and absorb moisture and ammonia from livestock urine/droppings. It comes in a powder form as well as granular form, I use the granular. I buy it at Tractor Supply. I fill the poopboard below the roost with the PDZ, it acts sort of like cat litter. Using a mesh paper tray, I sift it out every day or 2.
 
Every spring and fall, I take an few hours on a nice afternoon and clean out the chicken coop, laying down a fresh batch of wood shavings. It takes 3 or 4 wheel barrow loads to empty out all the nest boxes and the inside of the coop.

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I mix everything as evenly as I can and then take it to the garden. That's when the chickens take over...all winter they have been digging in the garden and working the soil. Once the old wood shavings and ~6 months worth of manure are dumped in the garden, the girls go right to work incorporating it into the soil.

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They continually work the ground making the soil light and fluffy. It's a win win in my book. They work hard and eat all sorts of grubbies and I get some of the best garden soil I have ever seen.

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I've had 6 and 8 foot tall tomato plants with vines heavy with fruit. All I gotta do is keep the girls out of the garden till fall harvest. They love tomatoes too.

I get this chore done by late March / early April, then all is ready a few short weeks later in mid May.

It took 11 days for 4 chickens to incorporate all the chicken litter into the garden.
 

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