Composting chicken run

[vpatt]

I just noticed that my drinking straws say commercially compostable on the box. I'm guessing that means I should not put them in the chicken run compost? And do you all put bread scraps in?

 

[BReeder!]

Good point. When I “dump” my grass clippings, I drag the mower clippings bag along the wood chips to make a long shallow line. Then I kick em around a bit. We don’t get rain in the mowing season (summer in California), so someone in a rainier clime might want to put a roof over the clippings dumping area.

I'm guilty of just dumping grass clippings in the chicken and the duck runs. It's never been an issue because the birds readily scratch it all over the place and mix it into the other bedding materials and dirt. I often dump a full load from my lawn mower (ordinary self propelled bagging mower) into each run when I'm cutting the grass.

 

[BReeder!]

Thanks...system working pretty well so far but constantly learning and trying to improve.

My next upgrade is switching the food pantry from plastic bags to reusable 5-gallon buckets. That should help keep a LOT of plastic out of the landfill going forward!

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?

 

[BReeder!]

I just noticed that my drinking straws say commercially compostable on the box. I'm guessing that means I should not put them in the chicken run compost? And do you all put bread scraps in?

Correct and yes.

Do not put compostable plastics in your chicken run. Now if those straws are paper, that might be ok.

As for bread, I absolutely compost it. If it goes to the birds, I make sure to provide it in small amounts and broken into small pieces to limit the amount each bird consumes. Bread is not ideal for poultry as a feed, but I don't mind them having it as a snack. I also do not give the birds access to moldy bread. That goes straight to my compost bins in the garden away from the poultry.

 

[gtaus]

I just noticed that my drinking straws say commercially compostable on the box. I'm guessing that means I should not put them in the chicken run compost? And do you all put bread scraps in?

I would think paper drinking straws would be OK in the chicken run compost system. I shred paper, junk mail, and light cardboard boxes all the time and throw it in the deep litter instead of filling up the landfill/recycle center. But I avoid any plastics in my chicken run compost. Not good for the chickens and not good in the garden.

I feed our old expired bread to my chickens in small amounts. It is like candy to them but I suspect it is mostly empty calories.

 

[gtaus]

I often dump a full load from my lawn mower (ordinary self propelled bagging mower) into each run when I'm cutting the grass.

I think even a few chickens would be able to scratch that much grass clippings around and into the compost without much difficulty. A push mower bag is really not that big. I have a 3 bag/container system on my riding mower and each container is maybe 3X as much as my push mower bag. So I am careful to spread out the grass clippings when I dump them in the run. If I just dumped them in a big pile, and then it might rain, that pile would would heat up and smell pretty bad. Wet, slimly grass clippings is not a good smell.

 

[gtaus]

I also do not give the birds access to moldy bread. That goes straight to my compost bins in the garden away from the poultry.

If I have anything moldy, I just dump it in my garden compost bin separate from my chicken run compost. However, I suppose if your chicken run compost was deep enough, you could just as easily dig a small hole, dump in the moldy food, and cover it back up. Worms would find their way to the moldy food, eat the food, and then the chickens could dig around and eat the worms later.

I watched a YouTube video where some guy was getting waste food from commercial restaurants. He fed them everything, including any moldy food, but he said that he felt the chickens were smart enough to avoid the moldy food as there was just so much other good food to eat. That sounds about right to me, but I have never had that much waste food at any one time so I don't know.

I have read that chickens are very hard to poison because their digestive system runs food through in just a couple of hours. In nature, they would be scavenging on dead carcasses and such and maybe our human sensibilities are overprotective for our backyard flocks.

 

[JCaseyHammond]

Thanks...system working pretty well so far but constantly learning and trying to improve.

My next upgrade is switching the food pantry from plastic bags to reusable 5-gallon buckets. That should help keep a LOT of plastic out of the landfill going forward!

These are food grade although the lid costs a couple bucks extra. It does fit, you have to use it firmly. Use them for scraps bucket and for fermenting the chicken feed.
Edited to add the link
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...7LyU7ncLr0E678hSW7Ko4iKXAZyLp69RoCwgMQAvD_BwE

 

[JCaseyHammond]

Don’t allow any plastic foam biodegradable or otherwise, unless you want to practice crop surgeries. Once eaten, the crop can’t pass the foam and the chicken can’t throw it back up.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

These are food grade although the lid costs a couple bucks extra. It does fit, you have to use it firmly. Use them for scraps bucket and for fermenting the chicken feed.
Edited to add the link
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...7LyU7ncLr0E678hSW7Ko4iKXAZyLp69RoCwgMQAvD_BwE

Yeah, I found similar white buckets with lids from Home Depot - they sold 10 packs with free delivery so I bought two plus two 10-packs of lids.

I also got a stencil with our farm name on it and snagged some painters tape and a couple cans of blue spray paint - now I'm just waiting for a day warm and dry enough to apply the labels....then I figure I drop off 10 buckets, then when I pick them up drop off 10 clean ones.

I'm hoping that saves a lot of waste plastic and makes it easier to move the food waste (a 5 gallon bucket of food is easier to move than a bag).