It's been 19 months since I got the chickens and DLM is still working great for me. It has become almost completely hands off. I can be lazy about it and have had no issues. Since that first green and brown materials loading in 2018 I've only put in stuff that would normally get composted such as leftover food, vegetable stalks, crushed up chicken shells, coffee grounds and the like.
The Coop:
Over this past winter I got extremely lazy and did not turn over the soil in the coop even once. April 23 2020 was the first day I turned it all over. Everything had broken down very nicely. The soil never got waterlogged (I put the coop in a very raised area), but kept just the right amount of moisture to get the microbes going. The coop did not stink at all. Chickens seem happy. I put their water bowl outside into the run so that I wouldn't have to move it around every time I wanted to turn the soil over. The only thing on the floor in the coop now is a nest box my husband made.
The Run:
Today (April 28) is the very first time I ever turned over the soil in the run. It is very friable (crumbles easily). The chickens love pulling out the big fat worms and chasing each other around with worms dangling. There are still grass roots in the soil and it does turn over a little clumpy, but the clumps are easy to break up. The pinecones and all other stuff is pretty much broken down. Sawdust from my husband's projects have ended up in the run over this Spring as well and I mix it in now.
Difference Between the Coop and the Run:
There was a difference between how all of the materials broke down in the coop as opposed to the run. Because I turned everything over in the coop many times over the course of this past 19 months, pretty much everything had broken down. There were absolutely no grass clumps or roots at all. It has become really lovely soil. The run is also becoming lovely soil, but it did turn over in loose clumps with grass roots still attached. Over a long enough period of time, I expect that if I had never turned over the dirt in the run the grass roots would have eventually composted (maybe another year?).
When we have company over sometimes I throw Flock Fresh in the run to make it all look nice and pretty (the Flock Fresh smells nice too). We continue to throw in leftover food, torn up paper bags, torn up cardboard boxes and cereal type boxes, shredded paper, whatever fallen fruit I can scrounge and old plants.
Part 3 will air later towards the Fall when I add in more pine cones, needles and maple leaves. Hopefully I will be able to get ahold of fresh wood chips too because we recently purchased a 5 acre forest property where wood chips can be dropped off. I may also bring in loamy underbrush soil from the property too. We'll see.
Part 1 is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ll-city-part-1-the-beginning-fall-2018.75664/
The Coop:
Over this past winter I got extremely lazy and did not turn over the soil in the coop even once. April 23 2020 was the first day I turned it all over. Everything had broken down very nicely. The soil never got waterlogged (I put the coop in a very raised area), but kept just the right amount of moisture to get the microbes going. The coop did not stink at all. Chickens seem happy. I put their water bowl outside into the run so that I wouldn't have to move it around every time I wanted to turn the soil over. The only thing on the floor in the coop now is a nest box my husband made.
The Run:
Today (April 28) is the very first time I ever turned over the soil in the run. It is very friable (crumbles easily). The chickens love pulling out the big fat worms and chasing each other around with worms dangling. There are still grass roots in the soil and it does turn over a little clumpy, but the clumps are easy to break up. The pinecones and all other stuff is pretty much broken down. Sawdust from my husband's projects have ended up in the run over this Spring as well and I mix it in now.
Difference Between the Coop and the Run:
There was a difference between how all of the materials broke down in the coop as opposed to the run. Because I turned everything over in the coop many times over the course of this past 19 months, pretty much everything had broken down. There were absolutely no grass clumps or roots at all. It has become really lovely soil. The run is also becoming lovely soil, but it did turn over in loose clumps with grass roots still attached. Over a long enough period of time, I expect that if I had never turned over the dirt in the run the grass roots would have eventually composted (maybe another year?).
When we have company over sometimes I throw Flock Fresh in the run to make it all look nice and pretty (the Flock Fresh smells nice too). We continue to throw in leftover food, torn up paper bags, torn up cardboard boxes and cereal type boxes, shredded paper, whatever fallen fruit I can scrounge and old plants.
Part 3 will air later towards the Fall when I add in more pine cones, needles and maple leaves. Hopefully I will be able to get ahold of fresh wood chips too because we recently purchased a 5 acre forest property where wood chips can be dropped off. I may also bring in loamy underbrush soil from the property too. We'll see.
Part 1 is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ll-city-part-1-the-beginning-fall-2018.75664/
