Compost questions

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What do you put on the chicken compost pile? Thinking adding a small one to the run of my gold deathlayers.

Generally, the best ingredients for any compost pile, including one within a chicken run, is "stuff I can get for free or need to get rid of anyway". Within reason, anyway, of course.

So, for carbons...have fall leaves? wood chips? Spent hay? Those work great.

Greens/Nitrogen? Food scraps from the kitchen. Scraps and weeds from the garden. Grass clippings from the yard.

As with any compost pile, you'll want more carbons than nitrogen. Typically, with a small pile in the run, you'll pile it up, they chickens will kick it apart and spread it out. So, that's the "turning" action you'd do in a typical, non-chicken run pile.

 

[Predoggg]

I put my coffee grounds with filter in the compost, so I was wondering if that is okay with them. I got plenty of carbons in my compost.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I put my coffee grounds with filter in the compost, so I was wondering if that is okay with them. I got plenty of carbons in my compost.

Many will tell you no, but honestly, I do. Coffee grinds with filters, tea bags, shredded junk mail, old coop bedding, etc. all go into the chicken run compost.

 

[Annetti]

Hey there! Welcome to gardening! Brown materials in compost are things like dry leaves and cardboard, while green materials are fresh kitchen scraps. A good mix is essential. No need for worms, but they can help. When your compost looks like dark, crumbly soil, it's ready. Use it as a soil amendment or top dressing

 

[Ifitaintbroke]

Egg shells in the compost too. Add some calcium for tomatoes and such.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

So probably a stupid question. I'm pretty certain I'm allergic to celery, but haven’t been able to be tested yet. It's spicy, which I've learned is apparently not something celery is. I use a lot of it at work and wasn't thinking when I dumped a ton of it into my composter. Am I going to be allergic to any fruits or veggies I grow in that resulting dirt?

 

[TooCheep]

@JacinLarkwell - No. That won't be a problem. Plants take up water, minerals and other nutrients from the soil. The bacteria, fungus, insects, worms and other small critters break down the vegetable matter to make compost for you. Your new plants don't directly take up the liquid from other plants, even if uncomposted chunks of celery are left in the soil.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@JacinLarkwell - No. That won't be a problem. Plants take up water, minerals and other nutrients from the soil. The bacteria, fungus, insects, worms and other small critters break down the vegetable matter to make compost for you. Your new plants don't directly take up the liquid from other plants, even if uncomposted chunks of celery are left in the soil.

Okay. It's off the ground, so no bugs in there, just heat and time and little guys from the dirt I added.

I didn't think I'd have to worry about it, but I had just turned my bin when it clicked that I might have just doomed myself

 

[nao57]

So I thought I'd jump in here. Sorry I didn't see this until searching out my own compost questions. So I'll tell you a few things I know but put in a few questions also...
1) difference between brown and green? I know you beed a certain Ratio of one to the other, but I don't know what is in the different groups
2) do you need worms or other critters? I'm looking at a hand turning bin, and I don't think worms would survive in there if I'm being honest
3) how do you know when it's ready? Should it just look like dirt?
4) do you just use it as a dirt substitute if you have enough? Or do you only put it on the top of the soil?

I wouldn't think of it as green and brown only. Instead classify it as carbon and nitrogen matter. That's how the farmers think also that do it a lot. Also especially South America, Brazil and other places they also classify it differently from urine being composted now also and not only the ... solids. They try to have everything go back into the garden that is lost. Also in the Brazilian compost systems they don't need a fancy turning chamber like people are doing here. You don't have to do that. You can go as simple as a downhill slope from the outdoor compost toilet that slides into the compost chamber! Then you have an external door to open that from the other end, AFTER it burns out.

The system will work faster with worms and critters. You actually WANT worms and all kinds of critters in there, as its very similar to speeding up the process similar to how Rieman sums work. The more bugs in there the better and faster. The bugs are working for you.

How do you know when its ready? You will know because it won't smell as much. Or at all. This you can think about; people do aged steer manure in gardens from the stores. That stuff doesn't really smell anymore, once its properly got everything converted and burned out.

Now where it gets tricky is that at some point you have to have everyone in the household on board with both doing the compost and also they have to cut off the compost chamber at one point while its in the aging phase to not have new 'solids' go in, and have the new stuff go into the second chamber. You can't have fresh unaged solids going into something you are burning out. And that takes cooperation from everyone you are living with. And the compost can be from everything really. All you need to do is make sure its properly burned out.

For the answer to your question #4; that kind of depends on limiting factors. Like do you have more normal top soil, dirt, or more compost. I don't think there's such a thing as having too much compost usually. And how you want to be thinking about it is 'carbon in the soil' and nitrogen also. Most yards and farms don't have enough carbon. But you don't only want aged out compost manure either because you want a lot of different kinds of nutrients. You can also have to combat some things like clay soil that need more other things like aged manure also.

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But my question is... I wish I had a better idea like... how deep in a compost pit ages how quick or slow compared to the stuff near the top? Like do you have to turn it more often the deeper the pile is to have it all finish aging out at the same time? And how the thickness and depth of the compost pile affects how slow it ages?

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Also people have shown comparison photos and things on growing with and without compost fertilizer and its pretty amazing the differences.


Thanks.

 

[RoyalChick]

Good luck with your composting. Don’t let all the discussion of ‘the perfect mix’ put you off.
I have been composting from childhood - one of my chores was to carry the bucket in the kitchen and tip it on the compost heap - and I can tell you everything organic breaks down eventually. Contact with the earth makes it happen faster and easier.
I have a compost heap with a lot of pine cat litter. Two no-nos in the compost world because too much brown (pine sawdust), and cat waste which is a (very low) risk to pregnant women.
It works fine.
3 bins is a big help. One in use, one rotting down, and one to use in the garden. Then just rotate.