Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[Hershy]

I'm following closely . Actually, I am interested, working on my piles too. At my previous house, I had too much 'green' from lawn clippings. Here I am fighting the wood shavings. We now use a riding lawn mower without a bagger, so I don't have as much green as I used to. Wood shavings also take a long time to break down. Getting a bagger is on my to do list. Currently trying straw in the coop, although it sounds like that takes a while to break down too. One of the compost tumblers is making progress, but definitely not 'cooking' like yours. I'm also not encountering the short time frame you do. Thinking of putting a pit in the run so the chickens can 'help', and play in some partially broken down compost, obviously not a big priority project.

 

[vehve]

I'm following closely

. Actually, I am interested, working on my piles too. At my previous house, I had too much 'green' from lawn clippings. Here I am fighting the wood shavings. We now use a riding lawn mower without a bagger, so I don't have as much green as I used to. Wood shavings also take a long time to break down. Getting a bagger is on my to do list. Currently trying straw in the coop, although it sounds like that takes a while to break down too. One of the compost tumblers is making progress, but definitely not 'cooking' like yours. I'm also not encountering the short time frame you do. Thinking of putting a pit in the run so the chickens can 'help', and play in some partially broken down compost, obviously not a big priority project.

You could try an insulated compost bin, it really helps bring the heat up. Mine had risen to over 40 deg C again (measured above the pile). Are you getting enough chicken poop into yours? You could also throw in a bit of dirt in there. And ground contact really helps too, but with piles I'm imagining that isn't an issue. Look into using hemp as bedding, it's supposed to be a lot faster to compost, and peat moss is nice too, really ties down odors in the coop. Only down side with peat is that it puts out a bit of dust, and isn't a sustainable material in all parts of the world. Straw and pine shavings are decomposing more slowly in my pile, it's clearly noticeable. You should keep the piles slightly moist, and I've found that turning the mass actively helps a lot too. (I do it once or twice a day, but I'm a bit weird that way. My better half thinks I'm in an relationship with my compost.) We process the grass clippings through the run first, but if your problem is lack of nitrogen, I'm not sure how much nitrogen you would pick up in poop compared to the loss from the drying grass. One thing I found was a good way to get things brewing, was taking about a liter of body temperature water, adding 50g of yeast and a few deciliters of sugar and letting it sit for a while before pouring into the compost.

 

[vehve]

Oh, I missed the last part of your post. I would love to have a big enough run to do composting in it, although I might still continue carting it into the hot composter after a while. That way you could first collect a lot of poop and let the chickens eat everything they want, then compost it in an insulated bin, and when it's coocked, take it back to the run for resting. Then worms and other lovely creepy crawlies could enjoy it during it's resting period, and would also provide a little snack for the chickens. For now, I think I'm just going to build a resting container without insulation for the cooked compost somewhere in the yard, and possibly provide an entry point for the chickens into it. I't just needs some sort of rain cover so that the nutrients aren't all washed away.

When winter comes, I intend to cover up the run and do deep litter in it with all the maple leaves that will soon cover our yard in a foot deep layer. I just have to collect them before the rains start. Then I can sprinkle them into the run a bit at the time. This way, the chickens will hopefully chop them up, and I can provide them with some entertainment by throwing oats into the litter through the snowy season.

 

[LindaB220]

I'm following closely

. Actually, I am interested, working on my piles too. At my previous house, I had too much 'green' from lawn clippings. Here I am fighting the wood shavings. We now use a riding lawn mower without a bagger, so I don't have as much green as I used to. Wood shavings also take a long time to break down. Getting a bagger is on my to do list. Currently trying straw in the coop, although it sounds like that takes a while to break down too. One of the compost tumblers is making progress, but definitely not 'cooking' like yours. I'm also not encountering the short time frame you do. Thinking of putting a pit in the run so the chickens can 'help', and play in some partially broken down compost, obviously not a big priority project.

Hi Hershy, Me too. I always miss the grass clippings. It's a green. So is coffee grounds. Go by Starbucks and ask for spent grounds. They give them away free. My daughter did it for me and came out to the car with a 35 lb trashbag full of them.

 

[lazy gardener]

I pick up coffee grounds at church. They put them in the empty coffee cans, and it's first come/first serve. I get there early b/c hubby does the music. Load those grounds into my car before doing much of anything else. I used leaves in the bottom of my hoop coop all winter. mixed with grass clippings and poop, occasional scoop of scratch, the poop and litter melts into the ground. I don't really have anything to take out, after a full winter of composting, and continuing to add leaves and grass clippings, it's not as deep as i'd like to see it. I have 4 bags of leaves left that i'm rationing out until next fall. Getting baggers for lawn mowers was one of the smartest things we've done. I know the blah, blah, blah about the benefits of letting those grass clippings mulch back into the lawn, but since bagging them (and using them where they'll do the most amount of good in coop and garden) we don't have as many weeds in the lawn.

 

[vehve]

Hi Hershy, Me too. I always miss the grass clippings. It's a green. So is coffee grounds. Go by Starbucks and ask for spent grounds. They give them away free. My daughter did it for me and came out to the car with a 35 lb trashbag full of them.

Or support the local coffee shop instead by helping them get rid of their coffee grounds. Starbucks is taking over Finland slowly too, their second location opened here last year. Tea can be composted as well.

Here are some good C/N tables:
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter3_7.html

 

[vehve]

I pick up coffee grounds at church. They put them in the empty coffee cans, and it's first come/first serve. I get there early b/c hubby does the music. Load those grounds into my car before doing much of anything else. I used leaves in the bottom of my hoop coop all winter. mixed with grass clippings and poop, occasional scoop of scratch, the poop and litter melts into the ground. I don't really have anything to take out, after a full winter of composting, and continuing to add leaves and grass clippings, it's not as deep as i'd like to see it. I have 4 bags of leaves left that i'm rationing out until next fall. Getting baggers for lawn mowers was one of the smartest things we've done. I know the blah, blah, blah about the benefits of letting those grass clippings mulch back into the lawn, but since bagging them (and using them where they'll do the most amount of good in coop and garden) we don't have as many weeds in the lawn.

You can also give back to the lawn by spreading out some of the ready (rested) compost and distribute it evenly with a rake.

 

[Hershy]

I do add coffee grounds, small amts daily, but haven't done a Starbucks pickup in a while. I feel guilty picking up the grounds without making a purchase (I know it's silly).
About the run, I have a 20 x 8 foot run, which we have to walk through to open the coop door. I thought I'd dig a shallow hole and add boards to the sides to contain the compost - sort of a semi buried garden bed idea. I don't think just putting compost all through the run would be a good idea when the rainy season starts. I plan to put wood chips down for that time so it's not a skating rink when wet. I haven't researched, but I don't believe hemp is readily available in the US, it's related to that evil MJ plant that we're all trying to legalize, lol.

 

[vehve]

I do add coffee grounds, small amts daily, but haven't done a Starbucks pickup in a while. I feel guilty picking up the grounds without making a purchase (I know it's silly).
About the run, I have a 20 x 8 foot run, which we have to walk through to open the coop door. I thought I'd dig a shallow hole and add boards to the sides to contain the compost - sort of a semi buried garden bed idea. I don't think just putting compost all through the run would be a good idea when the rainy season starts. I plan to put wood chips down for that time so it's not a skating rink when wet. I haven't researched, but I don't believe hemp is readily available in the US, it's related to that evil MJ plant that we're all trying to legalize, lol.

It's actually a historical reason, the plantation owners who made big money on cotton were terrified when a superior product was introduced to the market, and they lobbied heavily for illegalizing it's farming. It's only in modern days that aunt Mary-Jane has started to cause commotion. I do understand that growing hemp is slowly being made legal in some states. It's not very common in Finland either, and buying hemp bedding in quantities meant for pet guinea pigs is not cost effective, but there is a new player in the livestock bedding market here and I emailed them asking if they would be interested in sending a test batch my way. I might be getting a cubic meter of hemp bedding in a few weeks at cost.

I'm not worried about the rain here, because our coop is on a slope, I put down french drains under the gravel that forms the base for the run, and the whole run is covered. In an open run I wouldn't do it in a Finnish climate though. We do get an awful lot of rain sometimes.

I don't know if the boards on the sides are necessary though, leaving the sides open would allow the bacteria and other lifeforms in the ground to spread to the compost quicker. If you just dig a trench you could make it maybe a foot wide, and then when one is filled, just dig a new one somewhere else in the run, or possibly right next to the first one to allow the bacteria to spread into the new one.

The Starbucks run actually benefits them, they get rid of their used grounds without having to pay for trash pickup. Win-win situation. Or then you can find a nice cafe with a real Italian owner, and enjoy a cappuccino while picking up their grounds. (Not one of those Garden State types, someone who was actually born in Italy)

 

[lazy gardener]

You can also give back to the lawn by spreading out some of the ready (rested) compost and distribute it evenly with a rake.

No thanks! I have no desire to spread my black gold on my lawn. Why would i want to encourage that grass to grow? Remember my name?