Can chickens dig through compost with manure in it?

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Most definitely. I'll build a pallet compost pile. Wood chips, coop clean out, paper, cardboard and what not. Water it and let it heat up. At some point, the chickens will attack it. Don't know what the trigger was, but they kicked a 4 foot tall pile out of the pallets.

I wonder if the trigger is the pile cooling down after the initial temperature spike, down to a temp where worms and other creepy crawlies can thrive.