Chickens with no intrest in composting

[junebuggena]

They will get to it, eventually...

 

[lazy gardener]

Silly! Of course I don't expect them to eat POO!
I want them to scratch it up and look for the worms, undigested grain, grass seed, etc. so it breaks down the poo more quickly. I will put the composted manure onto the garden, flower beds, and field when it has composted.
Chickens CAN speed up the process by a year

She wants them to be happy and dig through it for juicy bugs

Ok, then! Sorry, my bad! Yeah, they will speed up the composting process. But, you've given them such an incredible bounty that they are like kids in a candy store. So much to eat, so little time.

 

[Hensndoes]

Silly! Of course I don't expect them to eat POO!
I want them to scratch it up and look for the worms, undigested grain, grass seed, etc. so it breaks down the poo more quickly. I will put the composted manure onto the garden, flower beds, and field when it has composted.
Chickens CAN speed up the process by a year

Hmm... the farm I came from only took a couple months to compost their horse manure. They have no chickens.

Edit to add: your chooks are in a heaven of fresh new unpicked pasture. Once they pick off the ground stuff maybe they will dig into the mounds.

 

[SheilaCondit]

In a few months horse manure looks broken down, but is not to the state of crumbly dark soil where the fibers of the hay have broken down and it will have a soil smell rather than a manure smell - that is when it has been completely composted

 

[21hens-incharge]

Maybe toss a handful of scratch on the mound while they are near it to get them started?

 

[SheilaCondit]

Yesterday morning around 8am I took 3 hens over to the compost bins where I had thrown meal worms on top of the piles. They ate the worms, then raced back to the chicken yard and found comfy spots under the apple trees. Maybe my mistake was not using scratch so they would be inclined to use those chicken feet. I will try with scratch next time, Thank you

 

[Molpet]

feed them an hour before roost time... they are too full to bother w/foraging if they have food all day

 

[SheilaCondit]

An hour before roost time will start tomorrow, Thank you

 

[RonP]

11 birds?

Put the compost in a bird run about 15x15.
Limit the birds to their coop and the 15x15 run.

The compost will be spread in a few weeks...

 

[peckpeckpeck]

x2 what TexasSam said
I'll come by with my chooks to help mow that grass!

In all seriousness, it sounds like they need incentive to compost.

When I let mine out, they scratch around the compost for 2 minutes & then move on to dust bathe under my rosemary bushes, then scratch up my succulents & eat the gravel, pick at fallen apples, and so on. In other words, no focus & the world is their oyster.

When I want them to work the garden, I fence them into a small area with a loose ring of chicken wire clipped closed. I do this in the morning before they've filled up on feed & other goodies. They'll start scratching out of sheer boredom if nothing else.