Chicken litter compost?

[RaZ]

Quote:
Have you turned the pile during the 3 weeks? Is it all chicken manure?
You can tell when compost is ready when it is dark brown/black and smells "earthy".

It usually takes more than 3 weeks unless you are using one of those turners or a sealed 5 gallon bucket and roll it every other day.

 

[savilcr]

its grass clippings, bush clippings and chicken manure spread throughout. I will go turn it over a few more times, would it help to cover it with a tarp?

 

[RaZ]

Quote:
You have a lot of "green" there. You need to add some "brown" stuff like dried leaves or coop bedding (if you use fine pine shavings). Also add a couple shovels of soil to the pile and dump a bucket of water on the pile before you cover it with the tarp.

The soil will have microbes and fungi that will help break down your compost pile. The tarp will help retain heat.

Remember this little poem:

Two parts green and one part brown,
helps the compost turn to ground
Add some water and some soil,
turning is the only toil.

 

[Evernf]

Put in about a pint of household eneriger

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
Given the content of your compost, if you were to lay newspaper, three to four sheets thick, around your plants, then I wouldn't hesitate to put a few inches of compost over top as is.

Besides newspaper, you can use card board OR a few inches (fluffy inches) of shredded paper.


This will all till in nicely when you turn your garden. The newspaper, cardboard, or shredded paper serve as

1f) a barrier, so that you don't burn your plants;

2) it keeps weeds down and prevents them from germinating;

3) it keeps moisture in the ground;

4) it serves to raise the temperature of the soil; and,

5) this is the "brown" material needed to balance your "green" material in your compost.


Happy gardening.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
You have a lot of "green" there. You need to add some "brown" stuff like dried leaves or coop bedding (if you use fine pine shavings). Also add a couple shovels of soil to the pile and dump a bucket of water on the pile before you cover it with the tarp.

The soil will have microbes and fungi that will help break down your compost pile. The tarp will help retain heat.

Remember this little poem:

Two parts green and one part brown,
helps the compost turn to ground
Add some water and some soil,
turning is the only toil.

Next line:

"And if you do it Kla Ha Ya's way, you'll have time to make hay (or rootbeer) and play."

(I hate the "toil" part. It's just an extra step I don't need.)

 

[galanie]

haha and if your chickens have access to the garden, using cardboard keeps them from scratching the roots up. I have my herbs fenced off with concrete reinforcement wire but a small polish can get through it so I've mulched with cardboard on top instead of on the bottom to keep the little turd from digging them up.

 

[RaZ]

Quote:
I agree with you about the toil part.

I don't do it often myself, but I have no problem telling other people that they should.

When I do turn it, I use the tiller and the robins line up for the worms that get exposed.

I am moving a pile that has passively sat for 2 years now. It is very nice black gold. I also made a tumbler for a quicker turn-around now that I have chicken litter to content with.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
I agree with you about the toil part.

I don't do it often myself, but I have no problem telling other people that they should.

When I do turn it, I use the tiller and the robins line up for the worms that get exposed.

I am moving a pile that has passively sat for 2 years now. It is very nice black gold. I also made a tumbler for a quicker turn-around now that I have chicken litter to content with.

Exactly. Let the tiller do the work.

If the manure and clippings are moved ONCE, which is directly into the garden, that eliminates a step. Instead of putting compost to the pile, and then later to the garden, which is 2 steps.

Then, if you till twice per year, the manure, clippings, etc., have "aged" in place. Tilling it into the garden, then eliminates the "toil" of turning a the compost pile.



~ Kla Ha Ya, the lazy gardener (but a thinking one).

 

[RaZ]

I've been experimenting with different composting methods for quite a while. I have a lasagna (sheet) pile that just sits, another that gets tilled a few times a year, a tumbler system and a couple of beds that get stuff dumped directly to the plants.

So far, I've found that piles with a lot of brown (carbon) tend to leech nutients from the surrounding soil and take longer to become usable compost. Too much green (nitrogen) gets stinky. Unless you aerate or turn them often.

I have 2 new experiments just started. One is using the pine bedding and poulty poop in a sheet pile and the other is using the same material in a tumbler system. Also thinking about a compost tea system using the same litter in a rain barrel. That will happen when the next chicks graduate from the brooder.