chicken run ground materials and enrichment?

[vintage]

Tree trimming services usually deliver full dumptruck loads.

Yes! I looked into it. Sounds amazing, especially a mix of chips and logs! We go through a lot of wood.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My question is should I have let the grass trimmings DRY out before throwing them in to run?
What other compost matter can I use in run flooring?
Can I use:

• Deadheads
• Banana peels (fresh or dried)
• Weeds with roots attached

These were things I already have on hand but wasn't sure I could use or not.
Thank you!

Ideally yes you should let grass clipping dry a bit for the reasons 3KillerBs listed (I usually schedule my mowing for sunny days, and let the clippings fall on the ground as I go, so by next day they're mostly dried out and ready to use). But if you throw in a little bit of fresh clippings it's fine.

I don't have banana peels but some folks to feed them to chickens, so I have to assume they'd be ok. Any non-poisonous weeds, flower/veggie trimmings are fine (most recently I've thrown in a bunch of bolted arugula stems and flowers). I'm a big fan of collecting dried leaves in fall and using those throughout the year. Pine straw and needles are fine if you have those lying around.

 

[bhawk-23]

My chickens are amazing earth-movers.

Ha! That line made me think of Badgermoles!! Huge Avatar fan here