Composting litter

[cookiesdaddy]

Quote:
YES!! I would LOVE that, Nifty!!

Amy

I second that idea. Please add a "Garden" page. I think most people raising backyard chicken are also interested in backyard garden.

 

[Theda's Mom]

For information on manure management, you might want to consult your state extension office. Be aware too, that different states have different regulations regarding manure management. NH is pretty lax (lots of "shoulds & coulds") whereas MD - with its concern about the Chesapeake watershed - has become much stricter on everyone, not just large farmers.

I've been composting manure - horse and now chickie - for years in a system of large (12x12x5) bins. They will need to be rebuilt soon and when that happens, we're planning on pouring concrete "floors." That will allow me to 1) use the tractor to "turn" the pile occasionally (which speeds decomposition) and 2) will help prevent all the lovely (and toxic to fishies) nutrients from leaching into the ground and nearby streams. Since I have three of these bins, and it takes anywhere from 4 to 6 months to fill one. This gives each pile ample time to decompose. It then gets spread on flower beds, in the vegetable garden, around shrubs, on the pastures, on the lawn .. with the occasional application of lime, I'm all set!

Regarding earthworms: check gardening catalogs. Many of them carry a nice selection of worms. (Ye Haw)

Happy Composting!!!

Susan

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Well, I've done a bit of an experiment with compost: Lawn Top Dressing

Whatever happened I need to duplicate it! Problem is I only have 7 chickens and since I let them free range I only have the litter / manure from when they are roosting or otherwise in the hen house.

I got so desperate I started looking for compost online... well, when I saw it for $40+ a yard (and questioned if it was as good as my home brew) I decided to stick with my girls.

So, now I need to keep at my composting and get this stuff cooking faster! I'm just so impatient.

 

[cookiesdaddy]

Interesting experiment, Nifty! I'd guess it's the compost and the watering. I can't imagine the sand made that much a difference!

I myself do have a good collection of chicken poop under the roost. I don't know about the run though. There're poops scattering around there, but most of the soil in the run are dry and sandy. I don't think I could call it "black gold" as somebody on this forum has been blessed with. I wonder if I can just use it (soil from the run) to build up some garden bed. I also need a lot of compost / good soil material.

 

[GoodEgg]

There has been so much useful information on this thread. I agree, we need a section, or an info page, or a sticky, or something. I don't want to forget all of this info.

And I CAN fix my coop to make the litter deeper! (It feels like a "duh" kind of thing,

why didn't I think of that???, but I'm SO glad for the ideas!)

trish

 

[GoodEgg]

Just wondering if anyone has thought again about the garden section, or deep litter on the personal pages, or any other way to keep this information available?

I subbed to the thread, but if nobody replies, I guess I can't see it anywhere? (There's not a list of our subbed threads we can access, is there?)

I don't mind compiling information, but I'm certainly not an expert ... I've only had my chicken coop "in operation" for less than a couple of months, and I'm not really doing deep litter yet since I found *another* ground leak.

I just love all the info everyone has sent in, and I'm sure others would find it useful?

Thanks!!!

trish

 

[LoneCowboy]

My husband and I were just talking about this. I have dropping pits under my roosts, to keep the chickens from digging in their poo. If I go the deep litter system, do I need to remove those dropping pits?

It seems like the right way to go since it helps warm the hen house in the winter too.

 

[grateful]

Would this post ever become a sticky?
Great info and thanks. New in to the chicken world and I am trying to figure out what to do with all the little and poo. Looks like deep litter is the best with a couple of compost bins.
Has any one made bins out of plywood with holes drilled into the sides. May be even with our a bottom?
Travis
Bozeman, Mt

 

[Chickenaddict]

When we first moved into this house 4 years ago there was a pile of leaves, grass clippings and other composting materials. It was a pretty huge pile with nasty roots growing thru it. That first spring i sifted thru it with a pitch fork to loosen things up, then added fresh grass clippings and garden lime to help break up the twigs in the pile, stirred it all up and let it sit til next spring adding to it leaves, grass clippings and old soil from planters.

The next year we got our first chickens and hadn't a clue about how to get rid of the shavings, i had a major blonde moment for awhile there until someone mentioned composting it to me. I never really knew how to compost when we got here but i knew it had to be turned and kept nice and moist. My MIL told me to add the lime to help break down the twigs faster. Keep in mind this was not just a small pile it was a mountain.

I began adding pine shavings to it every time i cleaned out the coop (once a week) and everytime i mowed the lawn or raked that also went into the compost. Everytime i added to it i stirred it with the help of the chickens of course

. By the second year we had a massive worm farm going on in there and never had to buy bait for fishing. The pile got bigger and bigger despite us adding it to our gardens every spring and fall.

Last fall we decided to share the compost wealth we had going on and posted an ad on CL for free compost. This pile aka mountain was 16 ft long, 6 ft wide, 5ft tall but no one seemed interested in it when they were told it had chicken poo in it until the phone rang one morning and this nice guy was more than thrilled to pick it ALL up. Now we have started 2 more piles, one for this year and one that will be ready next year and just keep rotating them so we always have a steady pile of already broke down compost.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the previous posts. I compost my poopy litter for a few months. I also add other composting materials. I do it in piles. My soil is sand and low in nitrogen, so it's good for my soil. I test it.

Here are some pictures. The first pics are piles that I am using now and the last picture is starting a new pile. I put leaves, grass, kitchen scraps (no meat), Stuff from the gardens that I don't feed the birds. The coop litter and the chicken poop. It takes several months to compost. The new piles will go into the gardens in the fall and tilled in. Last falls piles are going into the gardens now. The piles get pretty big. We have used a lot of the existing piles. The new pile is just being started. In the first picture we also let the birds range in part of the corn field. They are great little tillers and poopers. We use a front end loader on a tractor to turn the piles.

Click on an image to make it larger.