Composting For Beginners

[fickla01]

Sorry, re-posting this in this section as I wasn't sure whether it was gardening or the construction area section and I haven't received any advice yet.
I'm new to chickens and I have a compost question. Point me to some articles or videos you like as I've been searching and am still just as confused and feel really stupid!

My run is not big enough (yet!) to do any type of composting in the run. Right now it's grass that's turning into dirt, but I'll be filling it with sand. I have poop boards under my roosting bars that I'm loving for how easy it is to keep it clean with just 2min of scooping every few days. At this time I'm not doing the deep litter method.

From what I gathered, I will need at least 2 designated piles. One I'm dumping new stuff into and the other I"m letting sit.
But what I'm super confused about is do I need to cover either pile? And if not, how is it not attracting animals if I'm throwing fruit peels and stuff in there?

I've read to water it. Is that only when I decide it's "full" and I'm ready to leave it sit for a few months?
Do I need to turn the pile(s) with a fork on a regular basis, or only the sitting one?
Can the piles be near the coop or should it be far away from the house and the coop?
If I expand my run next year and have a pile in the run for the chickens to scratch through, do you then close off the sitting pile so they can't get to it??

Oh and I'm in MN so I assume in the winter there's no action going on with the compost piles and I need to cover it? Do I just save all the poop from the droppings board then into my big bucket and dump it for a new pile in the spring?

 

[Percheron chick]

There are as many ways to compost as there are people. No one right way. No run is too small to compost. You just have approach it differently. Composting does not have to be a pile. Skip putting down sand in the run and use that area as your "pile". Place what you would normally put in a compost pile in the run. Yard waste, kitchen scraps, chicken poop... Your chickens will scratch through it, mix it up, eat the goodies and help speed up decomposition. This fall, shovel out the mostly finished product and heap it on your vegetable and flower beds. You can make a pile somewhere out of sight and it will continue to decompose and by spring it will be ready to spread on the lawn. Throw fresh leaves in the run and start again. Compost bins and piles are nice when you have materials that take forever to break down but for the most part anything you have will reduce and compost fully in 6 months or less.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Point me to some articles or videos you like as I've been searching and am still just as
confused and feel really stupid!

Since you mentioned stupid videos I'll link this just for fun. It was put out by an Arkansas Master Gardeners group to show how easy it can be. I think the singer is a ringer but the others are real Master Gardeners. I love some of those dance moves.

From what I gathered, I will need at least 2 designated piles. One I'm dumping new stuff into and the other I"m letting sit.

That's the way I did mine. If I were building from scratch I'd use three bins. One to gather stuff, one to let work, and the other to turn the working pile into. That would make turning so much easier. But as Percheron said, there are a huge number of different ways to go about it.

Composting is simply organic material rotting. You need some browns (carbon) and some greens (nitrogen). You don't need an ideal ratio for it to work but it's better to have more browns than greens. It needs to be damp so the microbes that eat it can live and reproduce but not wet enough for them to drown. Turning speeds up the process and has other benefits but you don't have to. The way I look at it the Appalachian Mountains stretching from Georgia into Canada is probably the biggest compost pile in the Eastern part of the continent.

But what I'm super confused about is do I need to cover either pile? And if not, how is it not attracting animals if I'm throwing fruit peels and stuff in there?

You can fix it to keep critters out because it will attract them. I'm constantly trapping raccoons, possums, rats, and mice from mine. I toss in all kinds of stuff. If you don't toss veggies and fruits in there it won't attract nearly as many critters. Life comes with trade-offs.

I've read to water it. Is that only when I decide it's "full" and I'm ready to leave it sit for a few months?

Mine is outside so it rains on it. The collect bin usually has a lot of compost in it when I move it to the working bin. In dry weather I do water the working bin. The microbes need some water to do their thing.

Do I need to turn the pile(s) with a fork on a regular basis, or only the sitting one?

Some people don't turn it with a fork, they may use some pretty heavy equipment. Some people never really turn it. I'm lazy, I may only turn mine once or twice. I use a fork. But only turn the working bin.

Can the piles be near the coop or should it be far away from the house and the coop?

I would not put it real near your house. It can draw critters and if the weather sets in wet for a while it may begin to stink, at least until it dries back out some. If you are dumping stuff from the coop you may not want to carry it too far. If you dump stuff from your garden it may be handy if you don't have to carry that stuff too far. Try yo make it convenient to you. Mine is fairly near the coop and not a ridiculous distance from the garden.

If I expand my run next year and have a pile in the run for the chickens to scratch through, do you then close off the sitting pile so they can't get to it??

I would not, why not let them help you turn it? They will scratch and scatter it unless you have walls on all four sides. Mine love scratching in the working bin and the collecting bin. They find all kinds of neat things to eat, stuff I put in and critters they find.

Oh and I'm in MN so I assume in the winter there's no action going on with the compost piles and I need to cover it?

Cover it if you wish. I don't.

Do I just save all the poop from the droppings board then into my big bucket and dump it for a new pile in the spring?

You can do that if you have a bucket big enough to hole it all. One of the problems is that if the pure poop gets too thick it can hold moisture and draw flies if it is not frozen. That's an advantage to letting the chickens have at it, they will love the maggots that hatch from the fly eggs. If I pile poop on too thick so I start to see flies I cover it with a thick layer of grass cuttings or raked dry leaves. Or I turn it to mix it in. The spring thaw might be a busy time for you.

Some people don't get pure poop from their droppings board, they may have other stuff mixed in. If they are not dealing with pure poop they may not have to handle it as I do. We are all different.

The bottom line is to try different things until you find a way that works for you. Once you actually get into it you usually find it is not nearly as complicated as you imagined.

 

[GardenCityChickens]

Composting chicken waste is great stuff for the garden! There are lots of ways to do it.

I've got a wooden pallet sized compost bin with a lid. I put in my chicken poo,
uncooked kitchen scraps (cooked food attracts rodents),
garden waste like tree clippings, leaves (I try to shred the branches and stalks with a budget garden shredder, otherwise the sticks would be in there for a long time!) ,
And brown cardboard shredded in our paper shredder!

In the autumn we empty it all. We set aside the top new material to put back into the bin, and spread the bottom bit that's nice and black soil.

A lid is helpful in our damp climate because when the compost is really wet it doesn't break down well. But too dry and similar problem! We'll water it during the summer.

 

[fickla01]

Thank you! This is incredibly helpful. I even watched the adorable video and it really made me smile

I really liked the example of the mountains still composting despite no one turning it and the emphasis that time is really the only thing i'm speeding up or slowing down based on how i decide to do it.

I will have to think more about if I can do some or all of it in their small run. I guess i"m just picturing a lot of grossness if my kid wants to walk in and sit with them.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

My run is only 12x12 but I took a board and put it across one corner to create a separate triangle of the run that I refer to as the compost corner. I don't actually use it to compost I take compost that is basically finished and dump it in that corner and let the chickens have a ball with it for about a week then I shovel it back out and spread it in the garden.

I've had a 3 bin composting system for years but my next system will be 4 bins. One bin to build up the fresh stuff. the next 2 bins would be used for turning between the bins for 'cooking' the compost and the 4th bin for storing the completed compost. The more you 'work' your compost the faster it breaks down, that's the theory that compost tumblers work on . It's real easy to 'turn' the compost in a tumbler so they will break it down faster if it's tumbled daily.
As far as moisture, I think damp like a wrung out sponge is the term I've heard.

 

[fickla01]

Thank you, that's very helpful!

The part of their run not under their coop is maybe 6x6? (BIG coop, tiny run in comparison until we can spend more on the expansion!) But I think I could do the space under their ramp as an enrichment area. That's a really good idea.

 

[perkolator]

In such a 6x6 space I wouldn’t want to give up any of that precious space to put a compost pile inside the run, make it separate/outside the run.

I like to compost but have kept my main pile separate and the chickens only get access to it when they free range. My main pile is a 2-stall cinder block compost bin on top of concrete pad. The POs made it and I really like this setup.

Anyways, for almost a year now I have been doing a sort of “composting run” - when my compost pile was adequate size, I started dumping the materials in the run since I didn’t have any wood chips and it was bare dirt. I’ve put leaves, grass clippings, piles of vegetation, logs, etc in there. Because my area has a slope, I figure I can rake the chunky stuff to the high-side and the low side will start collecting the finished goods for me to shovel out later for the garden. Seems to be working, the soil in the run went from a lot of dirt and DG to being super soft and dark and visually rich like the forest floor