compost or chicken

[picklespickles]

i find that the stuff i might have amended the garden with before i now use to feed animals with. then, they do their own version of composting.

have chickens changed the way you compost?

 

[BarkerChickens]

Yep...what we used to compost mostly goes to the chickens! And then we compost what they leave in their coop and run. Composting with chickens is so much more fun! Gardening too! They eat bugs and weeds and scratch up the dirt. I LOVE having chickens!!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Do you compost the pine???

 

[johnnyjack]

i do .pine shavings in my garden with alittle chicken poo. oh yeah.then the straw from the runn.

 

[picklespickles]

no pine here.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I have a big compost tumbler that I used to put everything in but like Barker, the chickens now get the good food scraps. I still put the yard stuff in my barrel and keep that turned until it breaks down. The chicken poop and pine shavings I spread in my front yard, no kidding!! It relly makes the grass grow and keeps all the little birds and squirrels happy picking at the leftover scratch that's in it! I have it all over my spring garden spot too so hpefully when that gets tilled up it will be really nitrogen rich this year. I'll probably plant tomatoes and cucumbers again. I even had about 12 stalks of corn grow lst year, that was so cool!! Never grown that before but it fertilized and produced medium sized ears of silver queen. I love to compost, had worms for awhile too and probably will do that again but when my chickens were small I over feed my worms to them, didn't give them enough time to replenish before I kept using them so then there were none! I wish our city had a more convenient recycling program, like curbside service with the trash separated, we don't though so I only do that at work.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Whatever is in the coop gets composted, pine, alfalfa, etc. Like Scrambled Egg, we use a tumbler as well. We have three, but we didn't buy the large ones (we're too cheap and resourceful

) and ours are made of wood frames with 35 gallon trash can and lid. Works miracles! We've been using them for a couple years now and with the three, we can have multiple stages going on. Our compost us used in our garden, so any plants with possible diseases, etc aren't composted nor dog poop. Hey don't laugh! Dog poop is compostable and great for NON-food plants. We actually rototill dog waste into the ground rather than bagging it up and filling up some landfill with compostable material (please note our dogs are not in the garden area, so no contamination here!!). We have gotten to the point where we have less than 1 trash can of trash going out a week. Also, bills, etc. we shred and throw in the compost (our chickens will eat the darn paper shreds, so we keep it FAR away from the chickens!! he he

 

[Gonzo the Great]

Quote:
Yeah, the next thing you know, you will see orders of flat screen televisions with built in feeders and waterers showing up at your doorstep and credit card bills to the name of BarkerChickens Jr.

 

[BarkerChickens]

HA HA and luxury nesting boxes!

 

[picklespickles]

and the worst thing of all, it'll be them in the house and you in the coop.