how to compost chicken poop?

[Pent]

When my coop is functional, I like to use a three stage process. Clean shavings and bedding go into the coop. When it starts to look dirty and discolored, I push it all out into the run. Out there the bugs can get to it, and the chickens keep mixing it up and pooping in it. Fall leaves and garden clippings go into the run, too. Eventually I rake/shovel out the run into a pile, and let that sit, mixing it up from time to time. Eventually I declare it compost and add it to the garden.

 

[Brigitte1]

Funny because here in Columbus, NM it's also so dry that we finally gave up composting. I use alfalfa in my coop and change it once a month. I have 5 hens and 2 roos. My hubby mows the lawn, I shovel and wheel the alfalfa to the lawn and hubby spreads it out, straight from the coop. And water it like crazy for 2 days. He then takes the lawnmower and mulches the leftovers. We have the best looking grass, in the desert. Nice a plump and green.

 

[banks]

I am searching to find that exact answer.
I am going to clean out my coop and put down fresh pine shaving. I am wondering how what the best way to save the stuff for later use in the flowerbeds. Right now it just looks loke a lot of pine shavings with alot of dried dirt(poo). I dont know what to do with it.

 

[aussieheelr]

Quote:
pretty sure that's a good sign though. I've read that bugs, larve and worms are a good thing. Even flys in moderation is expected.

Basicly
50% brown and 50% green, keep moist and turn occationally and you'll get compost

 

[Hope119]

Quote:
So can you use wood chips instead of wood shavings in the coop?? I have been buying pine shavings, while I have TONS (meaning tens, if not hundreds, of truck loads of wood chips) available for free right here, no driving (at $4.15/gallon for gas!).

I also need help with compost:
+ so I need to clean the chicken coop that has pine shavings and lots of chicken poop.
+ Plus I am weeding some sort of grass out of a large area where I want to plant clover (instead of that weed that will eventually grow taller then me if nobody bothers to fight it) - right now I am getting some green stuff and mostly roots.
+ I also have last year's pile of that weed - it was already taller then me at the time of "harvest".
+ I also have an older compost pile that includes pine shavings from chicken brooder last year (cleaned in August, probably)
+ and kitchen composting waste from last year until March this year (these last two need to be moved from where it is right now).
+ We gather just about one 12 qt bucket of kitchen waste per week.
+ in a week or two I hope to clean this year's brooder

Can I just dump all of these together into a compost pile? Or would it be wiser to break it into maybe two piles, combining things differently (I actually might have to break into two piles if everything don't fit into one place I prepared)? We also have lots of wood chips (pine mostly, probably), lots of fallen branches from trees, some last years leafs, etc - all of these I can gather if needed for whatever reason. I am next to zero in composting, but I don't want to waste the chicken poo and all of the potential nice soil that one could probably get from all the organic stuff we have. I need good soil for garden planting - how should I do the compost pile so I could use the product next spring?

I build 3 walls for my new compost pile using "boards" like this: http://hoosiergardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/CompostBinOpen-300x226.jpg - I already filled it to about 1/3 probably - started with some black soil (well, some of the wood chips were not fully decomposed there), then some dried leafs, but on top of it I already have few buckets of kitchen waste, few buckets of shavings from last year's brooder, few buckets of shavings from the coop (cleaned 1 room out of three, but there was just a very thin layer there), some weeds, etc.

Please, help me do a nice compost pile!

Thanks!

 

[Hope119]

Quote:
Where do you get garden lime and if you spend money on it, then how expensive is it?
Keeping two (or more) piles of different age is a good idea!
Thanks!

 

[Hope119]

And one more question:
how do you know what is "brown" and what is "green". Is last years pile of tall grass stems brown? And same sort of grass just pulled out this year is green? Everything from the kitchen is green? Is it that what ever started to decompose (let say died last year) is brown and everything harvested this year - green?

 

[rechena]

We recently started to make our own compost, and we had the ammonia smell problem, and after added a layer of straw the problem was solved.
we haven't watered for the past week and beneath the top browns layer is still wet and warm, we are rotating the pile once a week when we add the kitchen scraps.

Our question is about the chicken poop and the straw/wood shavings we use, we clean our coop every 3 days, it's a small coop and small backyard, so we like to keep things clean.
The straw and the wood shavings are full of chicken manure, can we just add it to the compost bin? won't it smell too much?
We haven't been adding because we think its too much, but it kind of disturb us to send that to the land field waste... our compost bin is 320L (84Galon)

Thanks for the help

Rechena

 

[bakerjw]

As mentioned putting a lot of straight chicken droppings on plants or a garden will overwhelm it with nitrogen. I like to let mine sit with grass clipping and shredded leaves and other materials for a few months. My chipper shredder makes real quick work of dried leaves and other lawn refuse although I don't put wood in the compost pile. Sometimes the pile gets too difficult to turn by hand so enter the old trusty rototiller. It mixes it up very nicely.

We have pretty bad clay soil here so the wood chips from the coop mixed in with the compost aid in getting the soil in a much more manageable state.

 

[OHmamma]

You can buy garden/yard lime at TSC or farm supply store. It is fairly cheap and a 20 lb bag goes a long way. You just sprinkle it on. You can use it in the barn/coop after it ha sbeen cleaned to reduce ammonia odor and repel flies. But keep the cooks out for a while and cover the lime with straw or chips before you let them back in.

If you are adding it to your garden you should not do it at the same time that you add fertilizer (poo) the chemical reaction may actually harm the soil. Fertilize in the spring before or after planting and lime in the fall after the garden is tilled under. The lime will sit the winter and leech into the ground where it will be stored until spring. The lime not only helps the pH but it also adds calcium and magnesium to the soil.

When you compost manure it is best to cover it with a palstic tarp to hold in the heat, this serves a few purposes. It makes it too hot for bug larvae to survive, kills the endosperm of any seeds left that may cause weeds, and helps deveolop the compost faster. I personally do not add pine shavings to my compost. Pine is a very acidic tree. I use straw or hay only which my chickens love to scratch and eat when they are missing green grass during the cold Ohio winters.....