Composting coop litter

[Coldd]

Hi Everyone.

I clean out my coop twice a year and have accumulated a lot of soiled bedding. It’s mostly straw. (Flock fresh, some hemp bedding, etc. looking to buy from a local ranch soon to save $$$.)

Anyways, given that it’s already a mix of green/brown, is there a rule of thumb for this stuff? I generally just mix in the manure from under the roost into the rest of the bedding instead of using a poop board. So, by the time I clean it out there’s a bunch of manure in the bedding.

Any guidance? I am looking to do hot compost. Also, any info you all can give me about how it’s Ok to let chickens into the garden in the fall to cleanup weeds/bugs? My partner doesn’t like the idea of there being ‘raw’ chicken poop in the garden.

Thanks and Happy Fall. (Green tomato year!)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is well known that chicken manure tends to be quite hot. However, the feces that has been under the roost for 6 months, or even 3 months, is no longer very hot. It will heat up in a compost pile though. Keep in mind that once in the compost pile or garden, the nitrogen leaches very quickly, especially after rain.
Most people tend to go with a higher percentage of brown material than I do because I know how fast nutrients leach. You can be a llittle more haphazard in a compost pile. Care needs to be taken when applying directly to the garden because most things can't take it. An exception to the rule is asparagus. I've found that you can use the green manure directly on asparagus with no bad effects.

 

[Sally PB]

https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2010/05/08/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/

If you want to do hot compost, this site will have the info you want.

If you're spreading this on the garden now, it will have "cooled down" by planting time next spring.

 

[gtaus]

Anyways, given that it’s already a mix of green/brown, is there a rule of thumb for this stuff? I generally just mix in the manure from under the roost into the rest of the bedding instead of using a poop board. So, by the time I clean it out there’s a bunch of manure in the bedding.

Any guidance? I am looking to do hot compost.

I clean out my coop twice a year, as well. All my old coop litter gets tossed into the chicken run. I converted my entire chicken run into a composting system about 3 years ago. It would be considered a cold composting system, but the chickens are constantly scratching and pecking in the litter, so I get finished compost in about 3 months.

The big advantage for me is that I don't have to do hardly any work to get great compost from my chicken run. I have so much organic material that I cannot use it all as compost. Over time, I have amassed more chicken run compost than I could ever use. The stuff I harvested from the chicken run this year had been composting in place for a year or longer. I maybe took out only about 15% of the compost in the chicken run that was ready.

Originally, I too thought I wanted to do the hot composting and have ready to use compost in that magic 18 days. But it just seemed like a lot of work for me with all the required turning of the piles, keeping it moist, and checking the temps, etc... With my chicken run composting system, building up a mass amount of litter over a period of time, and basically doing nothing more, I can now harvest any amount of compost I want at any time. Don't even have to wait 18 days. It's all there in the chicken run waiting for me to harvest it when I want it.

Another big advantage of converting my chicken run into a chicken run cold composting system, is that the composting litter is full of tasty bugs and juicy worms for the chickens to eat. In the summertime, my commercial feed bill goes down by half because the chickens find so much "free" food in the composting litter. Good for the chickens, good for my pocketbook.

Of course, if you chose to do hot composting in bins or piles, you do not get the advantage of providing food and entertainment for your chickens.

https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2010/05/08/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/

If you want to do hot compost, this site will have the info you want.

Good article on hot composting. I enjoyed reading it even though I am firmly in the cold composting camp. One thing I read is that cold composting will have larger bits and pieces not quite broken down yet as compost. That is probably true, but I sift all my cold compost with my cement mixer compost sifter, using different sized screens depending on how fine I want the sifted compost to be. The rejected, unfinished, compost gets tossed back into the chicken run for some more time to compost.

Picture of my setup...

 

[Sally PB]

I don't do hot composting much anymore. The chickens will work on the stuff in the run for me. I have compost bins for stuff I don't give them. If I'm in a hurry for some compost, I can do the hot method. If not, it can sit for a season.

It's easier to have the chickens do it.

 

[gtaus]

If I'm in a hurry for some compost, I can do the hot method. If not, it can sit for a season.

The biggest advantage to making lots of low effort cold compost in the chicken run is that I am never in a hurry to make compost. I can harvest more cold compost than I could ever use at any one moment in time. What I don't use just sits and ages even more. It's like having a big bank of ready to use compost whenever I want to take it.

Currently, I have been dumping in bins full of leaves I mow up from the lawn. My chicken run litter is about 18 inches deep in the front of the run. It tapers down to about 4-6 inches deep at the other end of the run (almost 40 feet long), and by then it is more than ready to harvest.

It's easier to have the chickens do it.

When I was younger, I tried to do some hot composting. I was never too successful and certainly never had finished compost in that magic 18-day period. The composting chickens just do a much better job for me, and I don't have to work hard at all turning the compost piles anymore.

For @Coldd, the only work I do in my chicken run composting system is dumping grass clippings, leaves, pulled weeds, etc... into the run for the chickens to work on. When I harvest the compost, I just fill up a garden cart at a time and fork it into my sifter. It takes me about 15 minutes to sift out 6 cubic feet (3 large bags) of compost.

A few years ago, that averaged out to saving me about $60 per hour of sifting compost rather than buying it at the big box stores. I imagine the price of compost has gone up significantly since I priced it out 3 years ago. So, I'm probably saving even more money today.

BTW, I really don't consider sifting the chicken run compost as "extra" work because when I was buying big box store compost, I would always sift it to remove bits and pieces of plastics, metals, wood, rubber, etc... that always seemed to be in those bags. Not a lot of debris, but enough that I sifted it all the same.

If a person really wants to do some hot composting, I suggest they also try some cold chicken run composting at the same time. Then you can compare the results to your labor effort to see what makes more sense for you. At my age, I'm more inclined to let the chickens do the work for me.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The biggest advantage to making lots of low effort cold compost in the chicken run is that I am never in a hurry to make compost. I can harvest more cold compost than I could ever use at any one moment in time. What I don't use just sits and ages even more. It's like having a big bank of ready to use compost whenever I want to take it.

Currently, I have been dumping in bins full of leaves I mow up from the lawn. My chicken run litter is about 18 inches deep in the front of the run. It tapers down to about 4-6 inches deep at the other end of the run (almost 40 feet long), and by then it is more than ready to harvest.



When I was younger, I tried to do some hot composting. I was never too successful and certainly never had finished compost in that magic 18-day period. The composting chickens just do a much better job for me, and I don't have to work hard at all turning the compost piles anymore.

For @Coldd, the only work I do in my chicken run composting system is dumping grass clippings, leaves, pulled weeds, etc... into the run for the chickens to work on. When I harvest the compost, I just fill up a garden cart at a time and fork it into my sifter. It takes me about 15 minutes to sift out 6 cubic feet (3 large bags) of compost.

A few years ago, that averaged out to saving me about $60 per hour of sifting compost rather than buying it at the big box stores. I imagine the price of compost has gone up significantly since I priced it out 3 years ago. So, I'm probably saving even more money today.

BTW, I really don't consider sifting the chicken run compost as "extra" work because when I was buying big box store compost, I would always sift it to remove bits and pieces of plastics, metals, wood, rubber, etc... that always seemed to be in those bags. Not a lot of debris, but enough that I sifted it all the same.

If a person really wants to do some hot composting, I suggest they also try some cold chicken run composting at the same time. Then you can compare the results to your labor effort to see what makes more sense for you. At my age, I'm more inclined to let the chickens do the work for me.

I embrace your methods.
I have two pieces of input.
It may not be everyone's choice but one option is to create a larger garden to use the excess.
The other is, if using it on a garden, get good accurate soil tests. I was surprised after using lots of the compost from manure/bedding and garden waste that my soil test showed a very low level of nitrogen. It was surprising because of the high percentage of feces in the mix. I then needed to add things like blood meal and other nitrogen sources for heavy feeders like brassicas.
So the bottom line is that it didn't stay hot nearly as long as I expected.

 

[gtaus]

I have two pieces of input.
It may not be everyone's choice but one option is to create a larger garden to use the excess.
The other is, if using it on a garden, get good accurate soil tests.

Good advice.

In fact, since I converted my chicken run into a chicken run composting system and have so much compost ready to use, I have doubled my raised beds in the past 2 years and expect to add more beds next year as well. I also gave a load of compost to a neighbor that was gardening. But I still have way more ready to use compost than I take out.

I don't in-ground garden anymore. Everything is now in raised beds. I top off the raised beds each year with 1-2 inches of fresh compost, and my plants are growing well. I might get a home soil test kit, but I would not pay for a soil test on each any every raised bed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Beautiful. Better to have and not need.
I just used raised beds too. I have four, 4X40 foot beds. They have changed over time from all veggies to one or two used as chicken runs alternating with veggies.

 

[Birdsonghill]

I use fresh chicken waste laden straw litter from under the roost cleanout area, directly on corn and certain other crops with great success. I also compost, working one or two 8 foot diameter 4ft high compost bins adding the chicken waste with leaves and misc. plant materials. I don't turn the piles but once or twice and let time and the weather break it down to fantastic compost that feeds all my crops. The more diverse the materials that go into the pile the better the compost is usually! I also raise composting worms in a separate system utilizing an old upright Kenmore top of the line freezer( laid over)that only lasted two years before going down with more expensive repairs than a new one cost. Of course no chicken waste in that one! Only garden and kitchen waste. When I was younger I worked the compost more aggressively and had more for use in my nursery pots for planting ornamentals for sale. I do not worry about loosing some of the nitrogen from the waste leaching out! It works it way down from the compost area into a very productive garden plot and makes the compost safe to use on tender plants but still stimulate healthy dark green growth and strong stems and good root systems. I have not used commercial fertilizers except fish emulsion and kelp extract in twenty five years or so. Well worked compost will help buffer PH problems and make healthy bioactivity feed the plants despite less than ideal PH and resist drought better, as well. Chicken poop and compost are money to me.