Compost and bedding questions!

[CheepPeepers]

Hello!
So I'm not new to chickens (it has been a while though), but I am new to composting.
Does anyone know of any good guides for beginners with a material list or anything?
A lot of what I've been finding just refer to "compost bins" and give no other details on what that means.

Like if we leave it out back just in the yard rather than in a bin is that not usable?
We used to just dump it in a spot in the woods and not use it, but I figure theres no reason I shouldnt put it to work, right?

I literally dont know anything about composting, so any help would be appreciated. I'd love to learn about vegetable and other food waste as well. I'd rather recycle as much as I can if at all possible.

Also for bedding for the coop, is shredded paper okay? I'm trying to figure a good way to recycle various things, and while I'm a little concerned with using mail (is that okay? It switches hands a lot so im not sure :/), I figure it might be a good way to recycle house paper.
My dad used to use newspaper, though I suppose that's the same issue with handling isnt it?

Our coop is a backyard one, we arent part of a large anything, we just have property I'd like to put to work and keep healthy and upkept.

Thank you for any help you guys can give me! I want the best for my birds, so I really appreciate any help!



Ps. Bonus question that should prolly go in a different thread. I accidentally grabbed oyster shell instead of grit. I'm guessing it wont be the same, but Is there a difference between poultry grit and chick grit? And should I get grit with probiotics or does it not matter?
I've never seen probiotic grit around this area so I didn't even know it was a thing. Thanks!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I compost but it's more of this disorganized dump stuff in a bin method, so hopefully someone a little better versed can come answer that part.

For bonus question - difference between poultry grit and chick grit is just the size. Oyster shell is for calcium. I personally don't get the whole "grit with probiotics!" thing (sounds a little gimmicky to me) though I do have some, but I bought it because I liked the size of the grit in the bag.

 

[CheepPeepers]

I compost but it's more of this disorganized dump stuff in a bin method, so hopefully someone a little better versed can come answer that part.

For bonus question - difference between poultry grit and chick grit is just the size. Oyster shell is for calcium. I personally don't get the whole "grit with probiotics!" thing (sounds a little gimmicky to me) though I do have some, but I bought it because I liked the size of the grit in the bag.

Do you think itd be fine to give poultry grit to chicks? Theyre about 3 weeks old (or 3 weeks from when we bought them anyway).
Theres one with probiotics super cheap on amazon right now I was thinking of picking up lol
Though I guess by the time it gets here they wont be 3 weeks anymore haha

Thanks a ton! Your answer helped a lot, I was thinking the same thing about the probiotics, I figure it cant hurt but it's honestly cheaper than some of the other grits for the same amount so it had me questioning 'why' lol

 

[rosemarythyme]

You can offer it to them but I'd sort through the bag and sift out the smallest pieces for chicks. They might be too large still but chicks grow fast so they'll pick them up eventually.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

100% do not use newspaper. It compacts too much, doesn't dry out well, etc. It will stink and just be a mess. I used straw for a long time but it was too dusty and molded too easily so I switched to pine shavings. I added a droppings board and kinds scooped any large piles of poop that made it onto the bedding so I could go about 4 months without replacing the pine shavings before it broke down too much and became too dusty. Both of those things can be composted! Recently I switched to Grounds recycled coffee ground bedding. It was a tad expensive in that I spent $30 on enough bedding for the birds, but this has allowed me to scoop the poop from the droppings board and scoop it from the bedding as well. I have started saving and drying my own coffee grounds to keep the coop replenished. At this rate I'll only have to change bedding about once a year, if that. Currently I've had it in there for 3 weeks and the bedding has zero poop in it because its so easy to keep clean. It smells incredible. The girls seem to love it. So there's my recommendation.

 

[CheepPeepers]

100% do not use newspaper. It compacts too much, doesn't dry out well, etc. It will stink and just be a mess. I used straw for a long time but it was too dusty and molded too easily so I switched to pine shavings. I added a droppings board and kinds scooped any large piles of poop that made it onto the bedding so I could go about 4 months without replacing the pine shavings before it broke down too much and became too dusty. Both of those things can be composted! Recently I switched to Grounds recycled coffee ground bedding. It was a tad expensive in that I spent $30 on enough bedding for the birds, but this has allowed me to scoop the poop from the droppings board and scoop it from the bedding as well. I have started saving and drying my own coffee grounds to keep the coop replenished. At this rate I'll only have to change bedding about once a year, if that. Currently I've had it in there for 3 weeks and the bedding has zero poop in it because its so easy to keep clean. It smells incredible. The girls seem to love it. So there's my recommendation.

Can the grounds be composted/used with fertilizer?
I dont drink coffee and as a result know almost nothing about it, but love the smell of it so that would be absolutely perfect! And it sounds like it works wonderfully!
Thank you for the tip on newspaper and straw as well!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Can the grounds be composted/used with fertilizer?
I dont drink coffee and as a result know almost nothing about it, but love the smell of it so that would be absolutely perfect! And it sounds like it works wonderfully!
Thank you for the tip on newspaper and straw as well!

Coffee is AMAZING in compost. I bought the Grounds brand from Tractor Supply. Used coffee grounds have a relatively neutral Ph and can be added directly to your garden. Their texture has great benefit for drainage aeration. They also contribute nitrogen but only when composted, or after some time in the garden. They attract beneficial microorganisms and worms. You can also use used coffee grounds as mulch.

 

[NatJ]

Materials that can make OK bedding, that are also compostable: shavings, straw, hay, dry leaves, paper (small percent of the total, or else it will pack down), pretty much any other organic matter that is dry and is not in giant pieces.

Some people like to collect the chicken poop from poop boards under the roosts, from the floor of the coop, and so forth. (The poop then gets put in the compost pile.) They tend to prefer beddings like shavings or sand that make poop-scooping easy. (Note: sand does not compost well--it's not going to break down into anything else! But a bit of sand in the compost doesn't hurt anything, either.)

Some other people (including my mother, who taught me to raise chickens) just want all the poop to get mixed into the bedding, add more bedding when convenient or when needed, and clean the whole thing out a few times a year. The mixing is done by the chickens scratching it around.

It's not quite like having a compost pile on the floor of the coop, because a compost pile must be a certain amount moist to rot well, and my Mom kept her chicken coop dry. It's more like having the chicken coop collect all the materials to compost, then moving them to the garden in a big batch in spring or fall. Mom spread it on the garden, rototilled it in, and all the little pieces then rotted in the garden. (Small pieces, mixed well with the dirt, lets the bacteria access it all at once, so it breaks down quickly.)

You can also clean out the coop and pile the results in the chicken run for more scratching, moisture, and rotting; or pile it into a bin, water it, and let it actually compost/rot for a while before using it.

In my Mom's system, we dumped/threw into the chicken pen anything they might eat, anything that might make good bedding, and anything that might make good compost. We left out a very few things that were known to be poisonous (potato leaves and rhubarb leaves were the main ones.) We did put in things like avocado peels and orange peels, that some lists say not to feed to chickens--the chickens didn't ever eat enough to hurt themselves, because that stuff just wasn't that appetizing to them. We did not keep a separate compost pile. We certainly threw in eggshells (step on them so they don't look like eggs); potato peels; shredded paper; buckets of weeds from the garden; slugs; leftover food from anyone's plate (including meat, dairy, starches, fruits/veggies--but we tried to pick out the poky fishbones); and lots of other things.

Purposes of a compost bin:
a) contain the stuff, so it stays tidy
b) keep out rats, mice, raccoons, etc (only some bins do this)
c) keep the pile tall rather than wide and spread out, because it will all rot down faster when it's shaped like a cube instead of like a blanket on the ground
d) make it easier to turn/mix the compost, by scooping it from one bin to another
e) it's a thing for people to recommend, sell, buy, and tell other people how to use

Whether you need a compost bin is for you to decide. Consider things like how close your neighbors are, what wild animals live in your area, and how hard the wind blows (strong wind can blow things out of the pile, any wind can carry smells.)

But composting does not absolutely require a bin-- "sheet composting" is basically spreading stuff in layers on the ground, adding a fancy name, and letting it rot there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am new to composting. Does anyone know of any good guides for beginners with a material list or anything?

For composting you can browse this section in the sister forum about gardening. You can even join and ask questions if you wish, we don't bite. There are composting threads on this forum too but I'm not going to look for them.

https://www.theeasygarden.com/forums/composting-soil-building.15/

Probably the biggest compost pile in the United States is the Appalachian Mountains, stretching from Georgia into Canada. Lots of leaves composting. You can get as technical and scientific as you wish and work really hard, it will speed the up process, or you can pile it up and relax. It will eventually compost provided you don't live where it is so dry it petrifies instead of rots.

It helps to have a reasonable mix of browns (carbon) and greens (nitrogen). Chicken poop is a green. Dried leaves are a brown. Fresh green grass clipping are a green. Dried out grass clippings are a brown. Turning helps but isn't totally necessary.

I hate to get into too much detail because you have so many options. You can pile it up and let it go. You can build bins. You can turn them. You can get a barrel composter. You may be able to turn your coop floor or run into a compost pile, they will turn it for you. Toss garden and kitchen wastes in there with the chickens, whether you compost or not. That's good recycling.

I like to link this to a compost thread, partly because it is just fun but it might give you some ideas. I really like those ladies' dance moves too. I think the guy is a ringer but those are master gardeners, not professionals.

Compost Happens

You can compost shredded paper but beware of things like staples and plastic. I used to worry about the chemicals in the colors, they used to use a lot of metals for those, but these days they are mostly plant based dyes.

I accidentally grabbed oyster shell instead of grit. I'm guessing it wont be the same, but Is there a difference between poultry grit and chick grit? And should I get grit with probiotics or does it not matter?

Don't know which country you are in, that might help some here. In the UK and some other countries, oyster shell is called soluble grit. Hens that are laying eggs need excess calcium for the egg shells. Oyster shell is a good source. But chickens that are not laying don't need the excess calcium.

In the US we call the rocks that they use in their gizzard to grind up food that needs to be ground "grit". In the UK that is called insoluble grit. That difference sometimes causes confusion. If they have access to the ground they will find their own rocks to use as grit. and as others have explained the difference in chick and poultry grit is size.

A lot of people eat probiotics themselves, many of us don't. Some people feed their chicks and chickens probiotics, many of us don't. It's something that I don't consider necessary but also something that will not hurt. I just saw that they are now selling grit with probiotic, Manna Pro I believe. I consider that a clever marketing ploy. You can usually buy probiotics at the feed store, usually to mix with their water. I have not compared the cost of those versus the cost of grit with and without probiotics.

I like the @NatJ post above. In really dry climates another way is to dig a trench and bury it so it gets some moisture. There are always different ways.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Some other people (including my mother, who taught me to raise chickens) just want all the poop to get mixed into the bedding, add more bedding when convenient or when needed, and clean the whole thing out a few times a year. The mixing is done by the chickens scratching it around.

I think what you're referring to is the "deep composting method" and I found that with eleven chickens, no amount of turning, new material, etc, could help keep the sheer volume of poop that accumulated dry. This may work well for a smaller flock, but I typically scoop 1-2 quarts of poop from my droppings board A DAY from my 11 chickens. It's a little less now that the days are longer. The concern with that much poop is the ammonia. Honestly it took me more time to turn the poop daily, go get the fresh bedding and add more to it every couple of days, and then to constantly be buying more bedding. My chickens never scratched around in their bedding either. Even on the coldest most miserable of days they only come in the coop to lay eggs. Switching to Grounds coffee bedding (or sand) has made my daily cleanup a breeze. It takes about 2 minutes to scoop it all out. The coop smells amazing. This significantly reduces the chances of spreading bacteria among the flock as well. I'm spending way, way less money on bedding as well.

Also, I just dump the poop into a giant pile. After a year I make a new pile. Eventually I'll use the poop from the old pile to mix it into the garden. When I change out bedding that's what I add to my normal compost pile. It doesn't have a lot of poop in it so I'm not worried about bacteria and after about three months I feel it's safe to use in my garden.

Here's an article I wrote about my thoughts on deep litter composting (but please note I have only recently switched to the coffee grounds): https://humble-hills-farm.com/2020/...r-me-and-benefits-of-using-a-droppings-board/