Who uses their chicken compost?

[brownboi2012]

i didnt know you could use chicken compost. i just throw it away, is that wrong of me?

 

[dancingflower68]

I just have four little bantams, and I use pine shavings for litter.....when I clean the pen out I just "mulch" all the garden beds with the shavings. No burn, but it isn't a lot of poop either.

This doesn't attract flies?

 

[Xtina]

Portland is awesome, thanks! And getting better all the time. If only the city government would start working on fixing this crappy weather we have all the time, it'd be perfect!

 

[Xtina]

^ That post of mine was in response to DancingFlower's compliment. I should have quoted that one, but I'm just getting used to this new forum design and thought I'd give the reply button on each post a try. Didn't work how I expected!

 

[dancingflower68]

Portland is awesome, thanks! And getting better all the time. If only the city government would start working on fixing this crappy weather we have all the time, it'd be perfect!

Ya, that is one drawback..I'm actually from Seattle, but I don't think I could handle all the drear any more! I've lived in Central Ca for too long now!! I would like all those vegetarian restaurants you have in Portland though!!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I'm not an expert, but have been composting for most of my life, so I'll try to help.

I have read all 9 pages of this thread because I'm very interested in composting and how to get started, but I have a ton of questions..the first one is..flies? Is this good? I thought we were trying to avoid flies??

Never had too much problem with flies. Keeping the pile turned and working helps. If you have a problem, a top layer of dry grass (leaves, straw) can discourage them. We keep the compost piles away from the house, too. Occasionally we have seen fly larvae wiggling in the pile, but chickens love wigglies!

What do you do to make it cool down? Put it in a different container or something?

Microbes are doing the work of decomposing, and the process generates heat. (This heat will kill weed seeds and you can sometimes see steam rising on a cold morning.) When the process is complete, and the microbes have run out of food, the result is dark, rich, good smelling compost, that will cool down from the lack of microbial activity. Hot compost has either not finished decomposing or has a nitrogen/carbon imbalance, which can be harmful to plants.

There was a huge compost pile at a local dairy that caught fire one year! It smoked for 3 days until they got it put out.

Do you have to rinse the eggshells first?

We do, to discourage unwanted critters from digging through the pile, but it's not absolutely necessary.

Are the ads that are printed in full color on glossy paper ok to use, or just the regular black-ink part of the newspaper??

The main part of the newspaper is printed with soy based ink and fine for composting. We put the glossy ads in the recycling bin.

Composting isn't really too hard as long as you keep in mind what the microbes need to thrive: moisture (think of a sponge that's been squeezed out), air (stirring the pile is good), and food. They do best with a balanced diet of 50% carbon (think of "browns" like dry grass and leaves, shavings, straw) and 50% nitrogen (think "greens" like fruit and veggie leavings, lawn clippings, pulled weeds, and chicken poop). Anything plant derived is fine, like coffee grounds. Meats, dairy, and fats (oils) will cause the pile to smell and attract raccoons and friends, so should be avoided, but little incidental bits won't harm anything. Some folks say to avoid citrus, but we include it and have never had any problems. We do tend to leave out things that are hard and don't compost easily (corn cobs and peach/cherry pits come to mind). Also, cutting your additions into smallish bits will help speed the process.

Hope this has answered some of your questions. Composting gets to be a way of life. I never use the garbage disposal, just put everything in a covered container by the sink, which gets dumped into a lidded 5 gal bucket in the garage, which gets taken up to the garden and added to a pile. Our wonderful neighbors delivered a huge pile of horse manure/straw compost this spring, and the veggie garden is awesome this year! Chicken compost is amazing too!

Best wishes to you!

 

[dancingflower68]

I'm not an expert, but have been composting for most of my life, so I'll try to help.
Never had too much problem with flies. Keeping the pile turned and working helps. If you have a problem, a top layer of dry grass (leaves, straw) can discourage them. We keep the compost piles away from the house, too. Occasionally we have seen fly larvae wiggling in the pile, but chickens love wigglies!
Microbes are doing the work of decomposing, and the process generates heat. (This heat will kill weed seeds and you can sometimes see steam rising on a cold morning.) When the process is complete, and the microbes have run out of food, the result is dark, rich, good smelling compost, that will cool down from the lack of microbial activity. Hot compost has either not finished decomposing or has a nitrogen/carbon imbalance, which can be harmful to plants.

There was a huge compost pile at a local dairy that caught fire one year! It smoked for 3 days until they got it put out.
We do, to discourage unwanted critters from digging through the pile, but it's not absolutely necessary.
The main part of the newspaper is printed with soy based ink and fine for composting. We put the glossy ads in the recycling bin.

Composting isn't really too hard as long as you keep in mind what the microbes need to thrive: moisture (think of a sponge that's been squeezed out), air (stirring the pile is good), and food. They do best with a balanced diet of 50% carbon (think of "browns" like dry grass and leaves, shavings, straw) and 50% nitrogen (think "greens" like fruit and veggie leavings, lawn clippings, pulled weeds, and chicken poop). Anything plant derived is fine, like coffee grounds. Meats, dairy, and fats (oils) will cause the pile to smell and attract raccoons and friends, so should be avoided, but little incidental bits won't harm anything. Some folks say to avoid citrus, but we include it and have never had any problems. We do tend to leave out things that are hard and don't compost easily (corn cobs and peach/cherry pits come to mind). Also, cutting your additions into smallish bits will help speed the process.

Hope this has answered some of your questions. Composting gets to be a way of life. I never use the garbage disposal, just put everything in a covered container by the sink, which gets dumped into a lidded 5 gal bucket in the garage, which gets taken up to the garden and added to a pile. Our wonderful neighbors delivered a huge pile of horse manure/straw compost this spring, and the veggie garden is awesome this year! Chicken compost is amazing too!

Best wishes to you!

Aw, Thanks you so much Wishing4Wings!! That's very helpful to me!! I'm excited to get started! I love the chicken compost I get in bags, it makes everything grow great!! I'm sure homemade is even better!

 

[trooper]

Do you have to rinse the eggshells first?

I feed my chickens the egg shells.This adds calcium which the chickens need.I put them into a plastic container with other table scraps and feed it to the chickens.This saves on feed and treats,gets rid of the scraps without taking a chance of critters finding it and helps to start my compost pile more natural.Not much scraps and such to sit around and get an odor.

 

[bruceha2000]

I have found that a spading fork is WAY better than a shovel for turning a compost pile unless it is pretty close to 'done'. They are better for digging rocks out the the garden too. Now if I could only find a market for our #1 crop! Too small for a stone wall, too big to leave in the garden,

Bruce

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I have found that a spading fork is WAY better than a shovel for turning a compost pile unless it is pretty close to 'done'. They are better for digging rocks out the the garden too. Now if I could only find a market for our #1 crop! Too small for a stone wall, too big to leave in the garden,

Bruce

We have the same problem. Rocks everywhere! Too bad they don't compost.