Chicken Run Composting for Garden questions

[RUNuts]

How soon can one use chicken manure on a garden?

In the fall while the bed lies fallow for winter, immediately.
In the spring or summer near planting or with plants, compost it for 6 months as a general rule.

 

[gtaus]

Answering my own question concerning using a mini tiller for turning over the built up leaves, grass, and wood chips in the chicken run. Our snow is finally gone in the chicken run and today I went out there with my mini tiller. I have been dumping wood chips, grass clippings, and leaves in the chicken run.

Last fall, there was about 18 inches of leaves in the chicken run. That got compacted down to about 10-12 inches this spring after the snow melted. My mini tiller can dig about 6 inches deep. So I tried turning over the litter with the mini tiller and it did not work very well. The wet leaves clogged up the tiller almost immediately. So I had to unclog the tiller and try again. If I only till up a little bit at a time, and then go back over it again - and again - I can get fairly deep, but it does not work nearly as well as I had hoped.

A hay fork would probably turn over the deep litter in the chicken run better, but that is also harder on the back. So I am now thinking about piling up the litter into wire compost bins, letting the compost action work it's magic for awhile, then taking the wire off the pile and letting the chickens back at it to tear it all down again. Then repeat. I went down 10-12 inches to the ground, but the leaves just have not "composted" over the frozen winter months. It will take more time and effort.

Anyway, spring clean up has started. I got my riding mower out and have stated mowing up the dead grass and left over leaves from last fall. I collect them in the grass collection bins and have been dumping that material in the chicken run. The chickens sure are enjoying scratching and pecking through that stuff.

 

[speedy2020]

I have play sand run for 4-5 years and recently use wood chips due to the smell after the rain. As I understand, the wood chips will last about 4-6 years then decay and turn into compost.

 

[gtaus]

I have play sand run for 4-5 years and recently use wood chips due to the smell after the rain. As I understand, the wood chips will last about 4-6 years then decay and turn into compost.

I have lots of free wood chips and could dump them into the chicken run. I am just trying to dump everything (wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, kitchen scraps, etc...) into the chicken run and compost in place. The idea for the mini till was to turn over the material, provide some fresh air to the mix and help it compost a bit faster.

Speaking of the mini tiller, I think I can take off the splash guard and try the tiller again. The wet leaves were getting stuck between the rotating tines and the splash guard. Maybe if I can get that guard off, the tiller will not get clogged up. On the other hand, without the guard, I may end covering myself with wet leaves.....

 

[OlympicChick]

Maybe next time add pine cones in with the leaves and such? They might help prevent the leaves from compacting so much.

 

[gtaus]

Maybe next time add pine cones in with the leaves and such? They might help prevent the leaves from compacting so much.

Yes, I will be cleaning up underneath a bunch of pine trees in the backyard and will be dumping all the pine cones and needles into the chicken run litter.

As to the leaves, they are really not compacting so much. I currently have about 18 inches of leaves in the chicken run, and today I dug all the way down to the dirt with my pitchfork. Until I got down to the last 4 inches, the leaves were still all fluffy. I can see some composting action in the bottom few inches of the chicken run litter. So that's a good sign.

My chickens spend all day out in the chicken run tilling up the leaves. Evidently they are finding lots of good stuff to eat in those decaying leaves. The grass has started growing and I was able to mow a small patch today. I threw the grass clippings in the chicken run and the girls loved it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Gtaus, would if be a fair presumption your run isn’t moveable?

I have had excellent results using brooders and small coops to compost exactly how you have; scraps, lawn clippings, wood chips, ect. Then after months in place I move the coop or brooder and make it a garden bed. I’ve never had anything produce such rich results in the garden as this technique. I think today I’ll shoot a video showing this spring’s tomato bed. I already have footage from when I started it.

Something I did discover with this year’s tomatoes was that if any of the run area is covered from rain, it needs a couple of weeks to get rained on before planting. Otherwise the plants added to the part of the run that didn’t have the rain mix and dilute everything will get burned. In the part of the run that did get rained on, I was able to plant the garden the same day as moving the run and the transplants immediately thrived.

 

[gtaus]

Gtaus, would if be a fair presumption your run isn’t moveable?

I have had excellent results using brooders and small coops to compost exactly how you have; scraps, lawn clippings, wood chips, ect. Then after months in place I move the coop or brooder and make it a garden bed. I’ve never had anything produce such rich results in the garden as this technique. I think today I’ll shoot a video showing this spring’s tomato bed. I already have footage from when I started it.

Something I did discover with this year’s tomatoes was that if any of the run area is covered from rain, it needs a couple of weeks to get rained on before planting. Otherwise the plants added to the part of the run that didn’t have the rain mix and dilute everything will get burned. In the part of the run that did get rained on, I was able to plant the garden the same day as moving the run and the transplants immediately thrived.

Well, the idea was to make the chicken run and the coop mobile, but in reality, it's pretty much not moving in the backyard. I have seen a number of YouTube videos where people have smaller coops and runs and, like you, let the chickens till up and prep an area to later plant a garden. That's a great idea. In my case, I will be expanding my chicken run this summer. I have a garden located elsewhere on my property and it is bigger than what I use. Otherwise, I too would consider building a garden underneath the chicken run and moving everything.

As it turns out, I think I will be using the deep litter from the chicken run to see how much compost it is making and/or using some of the material as mulch in the garden.

 

[littledog]

We use a mini-tiller in the chicken run once a year just to loosen up and level the surface, so we can re-situate and level the cement blocks that support the coop. Then we rake and set aside the large pieces (like bark) and dig out the actual compostable material (broken-down straw, wood chips, poop, last year's bark that has broken down.) We use the compostable material as a starter for next year's compost pile, after this year's finished compost has been removed from the compost bin for use in the garden. Then we rake back the non-composted large pieces, to be a base in the coop.

 

[gtaus]

We use a mini-tiller in the chicken run once a year just to loosen up and level the surface, so we can re-situate and level the cement blocks that support the coop. Then we rake and set aside the large pieces (like bark) and dig out the actual compostable material (broken-down straw, wood chips, poop, last year's bark that has broken down.) We use the compostable material as a starter for next year's compost pile, after this year's finished compost has been removed from the compost bin for use in the garden. Then we rake back the non-composted large pieces, to be a base in the coop.

Yeah, I need to figure out what some kind of system like that. For the past week, I have been mowing up dead leaves and grass from the winter and dumping that into the chicken run. There are also a few patches of lawn that are green and growing grass, so I was able to mow up some clippings to feed to the chickens. All that gets put into the chicken run.

I measured the depth of the deep litter in the chicken run and currently it is at 16 inches. The good news is that the chickens really seem to like it as they will dig all the way down to the ground, eating bugs as they dig. The fluffy leaves and dead grass make easy digging for dust baths. There is no smell to the chicken run and it never gets muddy when it rains - there is just too much deep litter for any mud.

At best, my mini tiller is designed to go down 6 inches, so I would really have to work it over a number of times to get it down to the dirt. But the chickens are doing a pretty good job themselves without my help. So I have just been throwing scratch grain into the litter and letting the chickens scratch through everything and find stuff to eat.