That is a lot! If you have a lot of chickens I imagine they gobble it up. What is your system/process though? Are you simply dropping all this in the run twice a week? Are you adding brown compost materials (carbon rich thinks like woodchips, straw, dried leaves, etc.) in between loads? How many chickens? And how large is the run?
Also, does it all go to the chickens, or do you also have a large composting setup outside of the chicken run? And either way, what do you do with all that compost? My gardening, yardwork, kitchen and chicken/duck waste products make me enough compost for my garden, which is fairly large (~25'x55'). All that additional matter you are taking in would make a tremendous amount of compost each year. Are you selling it or giving it away? Do you use it on a field or large garden? Or perhaps you just leave it right there in the chicken run and let it build up?
Yes, it's a lot. It's all evolving. I only started this last spring (before that it was just deep-litter composting in the run).
At the time I had about 20 chickens. I piled up a bunch of leaves and muck from a wet part of my run and started picking up food waste once a week.
Then in August, I added about 55 more chicks, who are now at point of lay. I put last year's pile to bed in late October and built the current compost bin. It's 14 feet long by 7 feet wide. I started with all my fall leaves and then started in with the food waste. The food pantry asked if I could start coming TWICE a week recently. I bring in the food waste, check it to make sure it's clean (and open any packages that need opening) and then dump the food on the top of the compost pile.
A good amount of the food gets eaten as it's added to the pile. Whatever else is there either gets eaten later or rots into the compost. Usually I try to add a dose of carbon between trips to the food pantry to keep the ratios in check. With the snow on the ground, leaves have been tricky...which is why in the pick I posted you see a lot of hay on the pile. I plan to get some wood chips this spring to spread around the rest of the run and to add to the pile. Most of my carbon is leaves, but I supplement with spent hay, shredded paper and cardboard, shavings from coop cleanouts, etc.
Last year's pile should be ready for shifting and harvesting as soon as the weather warms up. I do plan to build a couple raised beds this spring. Other than that, I plan to spread a lot on the lawn, as our soil isn't great. Beyond that...I don't really know yet. I imagine I'll share some compost with family and friends. I may look to donate some to community gardens or organizations that grow food to donate to food banks as well. I'm jealous of that cement mixer sifter, for sure.
My total "farm" is about 7500 sq feet (the property is less than a half acre). Part of that 7500 sq feet is the goat run (the chickens visit it) and the rest is chicken run. So, nobody wants for either space or food.
So yeah, it's been an adventure. Kind of crazy what a guy can get up to when the world tells him he has to stay home for a year.
I really liked the way you bagged up the sifted compost. I have been thinking of doing something like that with my empty chicken feed bags. Last year I just used some empty plastic garbage cans to store the sifted compost outside for use later. But I think I would bag the sifted compost if I had a good covered shed to put the bags in for the winter. I have saved all my empty feed bags, so I do have a good supply to put to use.
