Composting chicken run

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Nice day here today! So tired of beautiful weekdays and rainy or windy/cold weekends.

In addition to the usual cleaning, carbon boost, and food waste dump, finally got a chance to spray paint the buckets I bought back in Feb.

Hopefully, using these for the food waste makes it a little easier, a little cleaner, and wastes a LOT less plastic!

 

[vpatt]

Adding lots of leaves to the run today!

 

[Sally PB]

I've been taking a bucket of weeds from the garden to the chickens almost every day. I have an endless supply of weeds, and my neighbor also gives me stuff like melon guts. So the chickens eat well, and I'm hoping to rake up some fantastic mulch when we move the coop to its summer place.

 

[vpatt]

I never seem to get all the leaves I want....But eventually I will get there

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I never seem to get all the leaves I want....But eventually I will get there

I’m getting what I need from neighbors now...but if that supply slows down, I may start looking for leaf bags on the curb in more populous areas.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Picked up a couple Polish “future compost workers” today myself.

 

[vpatt]

They are so cute! I have one polish (frizzled) rooster, Elvis. I have to say the 2 silkies really work the mulch and leaves up.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

They are so cute! I have one polish (frizzled) rooster, Elvis. I have to say the 2 silkies really work the mulch and leaves up.

We’ve got two other Polish, a tan/white and a white. These are black with white heads. My wife likes them, and I find they are pretty good workers for “fancy” chickens.

 

[vpatt]

I noticed yesterday that some of Elvis's topknot feathers are gone because I can see his eyes. He is only about 4 months old...is that normal?

I did post this on a more appropriate thread...sorry, sometimes I forget about that.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Nice day today and got caught up on some chores around the farm, which produced a couple of bucketloads of hay for the pile.

Carbon boosting the pile seemed like a good idea...and thankfully the neighbors had a pile of trash bags full of leaves plus a pile of leaves raked up. It ended up being 10 barrels plus probably 12-15 bags.

I also spent some time throwing a bunch of the materials the chickens had scratched off the pile back on. This proved fruitful as I was able to uncover a significant number of sprouts.

A few weeks ago I soaked a couple small bags of seeds (barley and canola) that I had around and folded them into the pile. I was hoping for a few sprouts and was happy to see quite a few. Also happy - the chickens...who gobbled a sprout buffet with each fork turn!