No the subject of compost, I plan to put the bedding from the coop floor into a compost heap. The poop is mixed with saw dust and some shavings from the nest boxes, do I need to add anything else to the heap, or will this do ok on its own, and be ready for next spring ?
You want the compost heap damp enough so the microbes and bugs that eat it can live and reproduce. As mentioned the optimum moisture level is a wrung-out sponge, but rain will affect that. On the Emerald Isle you probably don't won't need to add much water.
It sometimes helps to seed the compost pile with the right organisms to get to started. You can buy anything, I sometimes see advertisements for those microbes. But an easy cheap way to do that is to take a couple of shovelfuls of dirt and toss it in there. That dirt has the microbes in it. No need to buy anything. Those microbes will show up anyway but it sometimes helps to start the process.
Neither of those are that big a deal normally though if you lived where it is really dry like a desert it could be. Those microbes will eventually show up anyway.
The possible issue is that to compost you need a balance of greens (nitrogen) and browns (carbon). The closer you are to the ideal balance the faster the process but the balance doesn't have to be that close to ideal.
From your list the bedding sawdust and shavings are all browns. The only greens is the poop. You probably do not have an good balance of greens to browns, adding some greens would probably be a good idea. Some greens are vegetables and fruit peelings or scraps, manure like chicken poop, and any green plants like fresh grass clippings. If the grass clippings dry out and turn brown they are considered browns so get them while they are fresh.
A lot of this stuff has both browns and greens in it so it's hard to get a good ratio unless you are a professional. I'm sure not. Even if you pile up a bunch of almost ll browns and it stays damp it will still break down, it just might take a while.
You might find this interesting, the local master gardeners put this together to show just how easy it can be to make compost. I love the ladies' dance moves.
