Who uses their chicken compost?

[Nicole01]

I started my compost the day I got my first chickens last year! It's been awesome. I thought it would smell, but I was wrong! All the poop washed through on the first compost pile. I've had to walk over it in my coop shoes. It's quite a large area. My husband is responsible for turning it over since I have a massive neck injury.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Compost pile shouldn't smell much if it's well balanced. 50-50 mix of "greens" and "browns", greens being grass clippings, most kitchen veggie waste, and things that are, well, green (includes chicken poop). Browns would be dry leaves, dry grasses, straw and shavings. It's something about keeping the nitrogen balanced during decomposition. To keep the smell down, you also need to mix it well (which also aerates) and give it a little moisture (think rung out sponge).

Been composting one way or another for over 40 years.
Of course, we get a little lazy sometimes, so compost bin is away from the house!

 

[Mule Girl]

this question may have been awnsered but I missed it? Sorry if i am re asking. How long is chicken poo HOT as far as too hott for the garden how long do ya'll wait?

 

[GardenerGal]

this question may have been awnsered but I missed it? Sorry if i am re asking. How long is chicken poo HOT as far as too hott for the garden how long do ya'll wait?

Mule Girl,
i would give raw (uncomposted) chicken poop a couple of months in a compost pile, turning it regularly, before using it. But if the poop is mixed with shavings or other bedding - straw and whatever - it can be used right away as side dressing or mulch in garden beds. That's how I use it. It will get warm, but not hot, if you don't layer it too thick. A couple inches is good.

 

[bruceha2000]

So I am thinking of really tilling up a nice plot in my yard next spring. Should I start composting now for next spring? Should I be adding the compost to the soil all along? We only have 4 hens and are cleaning out their coop weekly... So just a little poo and some shavings.... My grandmother always kept a steel bucket on her counter and we threw all of our leftovers in It. She had the best garden!

How 'bad' is the soil? If it doesn't have much in the way of organic matter, I would till in compost. If it is pretty friable, I would wait until fall after frost (assuming you have frost, I didn't check your location prior to replying) so you aren't just feeding all the weed seeds that will blow in and germinate. I don't know that there is any advantage in tilling it now, barring bad soil consistency that needs a lot of amendment.

 

[3forfree]

So I am thinking of really tilling up a nice plot in my yard next spring. Should I start composting now for next spring? Should I be adding the compost to the soil all along? We only have 4 hens and are cleaning out their coop weekly... So just a little poo and some shavings.... My grandmother always kept a steel bucket on her counter and we threw all of our leftovers in It. She had the best garden!

You could till up a small area and get a soil test. That will tell you what's going on.

 

[Mule Girl]

Thanks Garden girl I was wondering ours has a bit of straw and shavings in it but not a whole lot, I will experiment with the landscaping not the tomato plates..lol

 

[Frost Homestead]

we have a huge compost pile and we throw our chicken poo and bedding in there. I basically throw anything in there that's organic that would normally be thrown in the trash. I put leaves and sticks from the yard too, my compost isn't the kind that gets turned, it's a slower process. We've been adding to the pile we have now for about a year and soon we're going to start a second one while the first one finishes. I can imagine about a year from now we're going to have more than a dump-truck sized load of really awesome soil.

 

[GardenerGal]

Thanks Garden girl I was wondering ours has a bit of straw and shavings in it but not a whole lot, I will experiment with the landscaping not the tomato plates..lol

That's a good way to test. When I have more poop than shavings, I never put it right on the plants but I do use it on bare ground in the shrub beds or as a side dressing between plants and rows without touching any plants or getting too close to their bases. You would not want to apply it directly to the tomato plants, that's for sure. If you get plenty of rain, or water regularly, it will work into the soil pretty quickly. Once it "deactivates" enough that it isn't giving heat, you can mix it into the ground right up to the plants.

 

[Aves]

I deep litter, so once a year in March, I take out all the litter and poo and throw it on the garden (or rather, I pile it in DH's truck bed, and HE throws it on the garden. It sits there, about 2-3" deep, until mid May when I till it under. For me, it gives enough time to take the "hot" out, and when I till, the shavings help aerate the soil.

I throw most of our kitchen scraps to the chickens and turkeys, so that doesn't go to the garden. Same with weedings from the garden - straight to the chickens/turkeys.

Don't do a lot a citrus here (try to eat local - and citrus isn't local to MI ) so no thoughts on that

Exactly what I do too, and we really get a great deal of produce from our garden annually...Aves