Chickens geting into the compost?

[possumqueen]

You're not missing anything, Pat. You're dead right.

If the chickens turn the pile it has to be restacked to heat up. The advantage is that THEY turn the pile, mix it, mince it, poop in it, and eat bugs and seeds. Then I fill up a compost bin with it and it cooks again.

My bins are made of 2x4 weld wire three feet high and three feet in diameter, so they don't have access to the cooking pile itself. When it has cooked and started to cool, I open and remove the wire and the chickens get it again -- unless it's ready for the garden.

When I (finally) get my little tractor finished, I will be scooping out the nearly pure poop from under the roost, which is where it accumulates best, and using that to start new piles.

And, yes, I don't have just one or two piles. I have a whole row of weld wire bins that cook all the time. Right now is leaf season, and I don't have chickens yet, so I'm stockpiling leaves out behind the garage for when they arrive!

No, it doesn't save much labor. But we aren't made to take it easy. The exersise I get from managing the compost is complete and satisfying -- at least for me. . . .

 

[Ladyhawke1]

“Aakchewlilly”….this weekend my compost pile will be getting a face lift. It has been a free for all for the chickens. My compost pile is backed up to a small stone wall. I rake it into a pile against the wall, and it is their job to spread it “all” over the yard.

I will be going to Home Desspot and I will be getting 3 or 4 - 8 foot by 2 foot garden lattices in white PVC. It comes in a wood also.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

These lattices are also used for my pens in conjunction with play pen panels and hardware cloth for protection, attached to t-posts. . This lattice works very well and now comes in four foot by eight-foot sections.

Anyway, I will be making two sections for the compost piles so that I, or the chickens can “turn” the compost…..while the other pile “cooks”. Then this process goes back and forth. There will be two sections with a lattice “gate” for each section… to let chickens in or keep them out. Sorry I cannot draw you a picture.

 

[urban dreamer]

My hens love it and it drives me crazy. Every week when I go in to rake up chicken poo, leaves, ect ( I can not free range, against city ordinence), I pile everything up into a pile infront of the door (we have a covered run for them) . While Im gone the girls dive into it and have everything spread back out by the time I return with the shovle and bucket. I rake all back up into a pile and they give me the stink-eye. I have two large barrles that I have been keeping droppings, scraps and bedding in so this weekend its all going down into my plot for my garden next spring. Mabey I'll sneak them out for a few hours and let them de-bug my garden

 

[CarolynPerth]

Urban dreamer, if you let them out while you are in the garden you can just act like you a rounding them up from an escape if anyone comes along. Besides chickens make the BEST gardening companions (so long as anything you don't want eaten is protected). Mine keep me company and make garden chores much more pleasant.

 

[Dr HaHa]

I used to have 2 compost piles. One is a manure spreader load of manure with chicken bedding on top and one was purely vegetable scraps. The veggie scraps are gone and the manure pile is twice the diameter as it was. I used to have a flower bed by the back door too. 10 Golden Comets changed all that. But I get 10 eggs a day and all the attention I need. Their still my good girls!

 

[StupidBird]

Chickens are ssoooooo helpful when working in the garden once they realize where I am working is where treats are...

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Everytime they see me take the shovel out of the garden shed...they gang rush me.

 

[Reinbeau]

Mine are constantly in my composting area down back, plus they're in the leaf litter in the woods next door - they're not eating the compost so much as what's under the compost/leaves/litter/etc. I've seen no ill-effects because of it.