Chicken litter compost? - Page 6

There are lots of studies on the 2 methods conducted by universities, extension offices and master composting classes. You can try Web of Science or Google Scholar to look up published papers on the subjects.

I have a couple of recaps somewhere around here in my library but I'll have to look for them.

In a nut shell tho', cold composting is simply laying out your compost materials layer by layer and then waiting for natural to go to work. Some folks call it lasagna composting because you just keep adding a new layer each week (or whenever).  It can take a year or more before you get usable compost.

Hot composting usually involves a little more work. You want to get a big pile built up so that it retains heat in the middle of the pile. The centre will be the hottest and it gets cooler more towards the outside. There are microbes, bacteria and fungi that work best in different temperature ranges. There are basicaly 3 temperature ranges that certain decomposers work best in. Again I need to looks at my research books for exact temp ranges.

Anywho, hot composting tends to work best on large piles that get turned over every couple of weeks so that moisture is retained, oxygen is added and the decomposers migrate back to their prefered temperatur. That movement helps break down the compost in to good humus quicker than letting it sit for a year. Large commercial operations have special machinery to turn the compost. For us backyard composters it usually means a shovel, pitchfork or tiller.

Summary: cold composting is slow and lazy taking a year or more; hot composting is fast, takes some effort and can be used in a month or two.

Hot compost is really the fastest way to get "black gold".
Hubby pushes up the pile with the tractor...old hay and cow manure... and the bull turns it while he plays with it...then hubby piles it back up again.   

LOVE the Bull method for extra help!

When it comes to adding chicken poo to my garden I prefer the simplest and most effective way I can think of to get the job done. My chickens are all in moveable tractors that get moved at least twice a wk. Because of this, I dont have a lot of Poo to use in my garden or to even consider composting. What I do do is every year after my harvest, I till everything into the soil. Weeds, old veggies whatever, if its in the garden it gets plowed under with the tiller. I then plant a very thick stand of rye grass, not rye grain. My school of thought is that the grass roots will extrude root acids that help break down any and all available nutrients in my soil. Whenever the rye grass gets about Knee high, I simply move my chicken tractors on top of the garden site. The birds love to eat the ryegrass and spread their natural fertilizer all over my garden. I move the coops all around the garden makeing sure every bit of rye grass is consumed by the birds and the rich manure is left in its place. Next spring, I till everything under and plant.

Of course chicken manure is not the only manure used in my garden. My brother keeps show horses. These animals are barn kept most of the summer months during the show season. This means he cleans out the stalls and piles the manure in the corner of his pasture. I like to help myself whenever I get the chance. The horse manure is usually mixed with wood shavings and sawdust. The horses in their stalls will mix the manure and wood chips together so that when it is piled up, it will create lots of heat and compost pretty fast. I like to take this semi composted horse poop and mulch my garden with it to help control weeds. Of course the manure is also another nutrient source for my veggies.

One other thing I like to use in my garden is Remail wood chips. This is simply the groundup wood chips from where the powerline right of way crews cut and chip all the brush under the powerlines. I get if free by the dumptruck load and usually get way more than I can possibly use in a single season. ( they delivered about 100 dumptruck loads last time). I take a tractor and loader and pile these chips as high as I can. Every few weeks I will go back to the pile and spread it out and repile it to help it break down (compost) faster. I particularly like to turn these piles when there is snow covering the piles. This helps put moisture down into the piles. If properly turned you can compost these wood chips in about 16 to 18 weeks, but that requires more work than I am willing to do, so when I need chips, I dig them out from the bottom of the pile for my current project and repile whatever I dont use until the next time.  I takes a while to cold compost wood chips so dont expect to use whatever you can collect in the same year gardening. If you can tell what the wood chips are, chances are very high that adding them to your garden will rob your garden plants of valuable nitrogen the plants need to produce a crop.

You must not be allergic to Poison Ivy.   Since the vine travels up those brush and trees along the roadway, the chippers don't discriminate about what they run thru the machines.  I can't handle anything about posion ivy...leaves, stems, berries, etc. without breaking out in a rash.   Even fence clearing around here has to be done by those not allergic to this vine.

I don't know what a "Master Gardener" is. I've been putting my chicken litter compost onto my garden in the spring since B.C. (Before Computers) from my sub-ground level dirt floor deep litter composting pit in the Coop.

Very Nice!

A Master Gardener took a course and got certified as such. Well, I'm making it sound easier than it is, it's a lot more than just a 8 hour class or something, but that's basically the deal. My mother was a Master Gardener.

When I clean my coop i put all the litter in my compost. I have been known in the winter to throw the litter out on the lawn. I did this because I was to lazy to take it to compost in the cold and snow. It seems that in the spring after the snow has melted my lawn benefits. I had the greenest lawn I ever had last summer. I turn my compost 2 times a year. Litter that i put in compost the summer before will be ready this coming spring. I cant wait to see how my garden does.

We have been composting our litter (pine shavings) since last summer. I want to add it to the garden but the shavings are still pretty intact and it doesn't look too "composty". Suggestions as to what we are doing wrong? There were grass clippings in there too, btw.

Is this straight chicken poop or is it mixed with shavings or straw?