Full Compost Bin

[mischievouschickens]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 4x8 coop that I've given a thorough cleaning twice over the past several months. Consequently, my relatively small compost bin is full to the brim with chicken poop, shavings and veggie scraps. What do you all do with the poop?

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I do exactly what you do. And when it is all cooked, it goes in the garden, between planting seasons. I also ran out of space in my compost bin. I need to do something about that soon, because I would need to clean my roost, but I will wait until early spring.

 

[mischievouschickens]

Hi Rhoda,

I understand that you can wait until Spring before cleaning again but I'd really rather not wait that long. In the meantime, the girls continue to do their thing. It would be a shame to just throw away all the good stuff but if I have to, I will just put it in a plastic garbage and into the garbage can it will go. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you!

 

[kezabel]

Dig it into your garden beds, they be ready for spring planting then!!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

You can compost it in the plastic trash bags with some activator. Makes excellent potting soil if you have an inconspicuous spot to store it

 

[Gretel12]

i put all my extra compost in contractor garbage bags and put them in the sun to cook, then in the spring i use the bags for liners for my vegetable and flowerpots with holes punched in for drainage....

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I would have to agree. Don't waste the poop. You can improve your overall harvest by improving your soil. Some people would look in my roost and see poop; I see an awesome batch of greenbeans. Keep it. It is one of the benefits of having chickens. Eggs, meat, no lawnmowers, entertainment and poop.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
Where are you located? If you are in a place where there is little or no snow and spring is expected soon, you could make "lasagna beds" with unfinished compost. I made some lasagna beds in the fall b/c I wanted both my compost tumblers emptied so I'd have plenty of space for winter poop.

Build your "lasagna beds" or sheet compost wherever you plan to garden in spring. Build like a regular compost pile. That is, start with a layer of "browns." For this, I use the wood shavings from the chicken pen. Then do a layer of "greens." This would be vegetable scraps and, in summer, garden waste (grass clippings, etc.) I didn't have enough greens for all my beds, so I asked at my local supermarket for discarded produce. They were happy to give me bags of the stuff. I roughly chopped with a little ax all the lettuce, herbs, spinach, etc they gave me. Next, another brown layer. For this I used shredded dried leaves from the fall. Next, I put a layer of partially finished compost (or finished, if you have it) - chicken poop from their droppings tray, egg shells, kitchen vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags- you know the drill. Finally, I topped it with hay. You can plant in this before it decomposes completely. Patricia Lanza claims you can plant immediately, but I prefer to wait a few weeks. (Read more in this post at my blog.

If you're in a cold climate like me, you obviously can't do this yet. If you bag it to make lasagna beds later, I'd put it in paper yard waste bags rather than plastic or you are going to have a "fowl" mess on your hands. (Sorry about the bad pun!

)

Katherine

Edited to add: Okay, it looks like some people do successfully compost in plastic bags! I guess that is an option.

 

[1acrefarm]

I till it in.

 

[darkmatter]

I use the deep litter method over a sublevel dirt floor in the coop-----I dug a deep foundation of bricks to build the coop on and the poop and litter compost's over the winter which I then haul out by the wheelbarrow load to the garden in the spring. I then add grass clippings, pine needles/cones, wood chips all summer long to start the cycle again. Pics on my BYC page.