How fine should chicken run compost be sifted?

[gtaus]

I have a broadcast spreader but for the big distribution i load the pickup and my wife drives real slow as I pitchfork it evenly across the pasture.

Wow, sounds like a lot of manual labor for 4 Tons of compost!

Now I no longer use chemical fertilizer or pesticides..i use chickens!

Although on a much smaller scale, I just mainly use chicken run compost and do not use any chemical fertilizers in my garden.

at three - four eggs per day my 10 hens keep ahead of our consumption and we sell the rest (1-2 dozen per week to help with the chicken food bill).

Yeah, my chickens are getting old and are now only giving 1 or 2 eggs per day - for 8 hens. They still turn over the compost, but not much for eggs anymore.

The chickens do an amazing job scratching up as i add it through the Summer but it is the high acidity of their poop that causes the accelerated breakdown into a rich black soil filled with worms and other useful bacteria and insects.

I know the chickens will scratch and peck through all the piled compost you have, but how much chicken poo can you really get from only 10 chickens? Even on my small scale chicken run compost system, I don't think I get very much contribution from chicken poo in the mix. Mainly it's the constant scratching and pecking the compost that turns it over and speeds up the composting process.

So when i deduct the previous $3500 that i spent on fertilizer and $600 in fuel and maintenance and tarps the total saving of cash and in-kind for 10 chickens is about ‘$7,600.00 less the $500 in feed costs and a reduction of labor of about 200 hours. More than a fair deal.

Sounds like you have a great system going. I would say that it's more than a fair deal and your chickens are great work animals saving you money and feeding the family at the same time.

There is a YouTube video somewhere of a guy who only feeds his (hundreds?) chickens from his commercial compost piles. But I think he gets lots of continuous restaurant waste food for his composting piles. Anyway, his feed cost is $0 and it appears the only labor he puts into his chicken operation is collecting eggs. Sounds like you have found your balance of chickens with your compost, but I wonder if your 4 tons of compost could support more than 10 chickens and maybe even use less commercial feed?

Anyway, it was a great post. Lots of great info and was a pleasure to read.

 

[Legamin]

I’m sure i could keep more chickens on compost as our sheep operation is going to double this next year but the issue then becomes having to build a covered lined pit (crazy state ordinances) so that they can keep at it through the year..otherwise its 9 months of compost and 3 months of bedding and food in a larger winter sound coop. On 10 acres we are heavily built with two large field shelters, garage and machine shop, wood shop 120,000 sq’ of dairy barn and another 40k sq’ open barn just built for more sheep. I have a meat operation that supports a rare nearly extinct sheep breeding operation (which is how this all started..wanting to save a sheep breed near extinction! The chickens came in a weak moment after watching a Joe Salatin YouTube video! I will have to consider something though because this added population will more than double the poop production..probably more than i can use. But i have a large stream erosion valley on the property that needs partial fill and all the extra compost will probably end up there…i could use about 80 yards of compressed (by bulldozer) material to increase pasture land.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Good stuff! The guy raising chicks just on compost is Karl Hammer (sp?) up north with the Vermont compost company.

I have more compost going in my chicken setup than is probably reasonable on my > 1/2 acre lot - working on my third 2 bale w x 3 bale long composter, plus have the 14’ x 7’ wooden one.

I do supplement my ~70 hens diet with commercial feed, but they eat a lot less of it than they would.

Sifting compost provides some beautiful material, but for most applications (even planting grass) I don’t bother.

 

[gtaus]

The chickens came in a weak moment after watching a Joe Salatin YouTube video!

Yes, and Justin Rhodes is another YouTube favorite of mine to watch. In any case, it sounds like your chickens more than pay for themselves with the amount of compost they turn over and the eggs you get as a bonus.

 

[gtaus]

Sifting compost provides some beautiful material, but for most applications (even planting grass) I don’t bother.

Well, I agree mostly. Even when I was buying bagged compost from the big box stores, I would always sift the compost to remove the "waste" material like stray plastic or metal bits that I did not want to get into my garden. My cement mixer compost sifter makes it very easy to sift the compost to different sizes depending on the end use. I like to sift the chicken run compost with the 1/4 X 1/4 inch screen when I use the compost to make soil blocks or other potting medium. I have been using the 1/2 X 1/2 inch screen for sifting compost that I will mix in with soil for my raised beds. But if I just intend on using some compost as a top mulch, then I am not too concerned about sifting it at all.

For most of my current needs with raised beds, I do sift my compost. But sifting with my cement mixer compost sifter is so easy that it does not matter to me and in no time I have carts full of sifted compost from the chicken run. Years ago, I used chicken bedding and droppings in the ground garden in the fall, and just tilled the material into the soil to winter over, and then planted in the spring. Over the years, I stopped tilling the garden and started growing in raised beds. My raised beds use a finer sifted material and I think my results are better growing plants.