Composting with Chickens

[Jjfester]

Wasn't quite sure where to ask this, but this looks right.

I am new to chickens and gardening. We have 4 almost 8 week old chickens, 2 Australorps, 1 Barred Rock, and 1 Light Brahma.

I have also started my first garden which got a late start so may not produce much to eat, but is my practice run for next year.

I have read about composting and it seems that most people compost their pine shavings and chicken manure. Also other's keep compost piles with the chickens so they can help eat and break down the piles.

Do you use the same compost bin inside the coop to compost the chicken droppings? Or do you have 2 separate bins, one for droppings away from the chickens and another one inside for your veggies etc?

Suggestions would be appreciated and since we are finishing up our coop and run over the next week and probably building the compost piles.

Pictures would also be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[shortgrass]

Well some of my chooks free range, so they are the ones that get the luxury of the big pile; its by my garden. A tip on that; don't put a pile right next to your garden, keep it at least 20' away. The possibility of infecting the garden with powdery mildew from composting poo is pretty high, so set it apart a ways

I have a small pile in the run with the girls that don't get to free range, I just toss kitchen scraps over the fence, weeds etc... Then every couple days, the pen get raked and the leftovers go to the big pile.

Really IMO, the best thing to do is remove the manure straightaway to the compost pile, and give the chooks fresh-ish scraps; if you have mites or other critters or pathogens, it will be getting recycled right back to the coop, so I personally take all the poo away

I'd take a pic for ya but its still dark out lol

 

[DmCrawlz]

We have a composter right in the coop. It is just a square made out of railroad ties. Nice to be able to throw food scraps in and not have to worry about turning it as the chickens do all the work. The more food you put in there, the more yardwaste you need to put in or it's going to get flies. I use leaves from around the yard as chicken bedding, so as I scoop out the coop, it all goes in the composter too. We also have a wood chipper and throw the mulch in the coop, this mulch has been good for the compost dirt as it keeps it a little more airier than just straight compost.

Now that our composter is filled to the top, we are going to start a new compost bin in the coop and not throw anything else in this one. After a few months when all the food has composted down, I will start using it for plants. Most people cover it with plastic, but I live in Florida and it's too hot for that and I feel it is unnecessary.

 

[manaze88]

I don't know what the pine shavings might do to the PH of your soil. For that reason, and because I'm too lazy to look, I don't compost in my pine shavings. Of course, now I'm going to go look

 

[lazy gardener]

Nice pic DM. When I clean out my coop, I just toss the litter (pine shavings and poo) into the run. I add bagged leaves and grass clippings. The chickens work it over real good. I'm working on getting all areas in run (that aren't covered with grass), covered with used bedding. IMO, bare soil is unhealthy soil. I have a ways to go b/c of the ground work that we had done a year ago, but progress is being made. Stinky food gets put in my compost tumbler. Anything remotely edible goes in the chicken run. When garden space allows, I also do sheet or trench composting right there. Working on Back to Eden mulch for new mini orchard, hoping to have enough to be able to convert the garden this fall.

 

[DmCrawlz]

A bagger for our riding mower is on my wishlist! I'd love to have fresh grass clippings to throw in the coop. For now, we just aim the mower at the run when we go around the edges. I agree, I don't like having bare soil either. So far, the best thing for us has been the wood chipper, but we have a lot of trees and an endless supply of branches and limbs to be chipped. In the fall I spend a lot of time raking leaves.

 

[lazy gardener]

Oh, how I'd love to have a wood chipper!!! Lawn mower bagger was one of the best outdoor investments we've ever made.

 

[Jjfester]

Thank you for the replies. These give me some thing to think about.

Sadly our yard is completely dead right now and not just dormant. I could literally rake up my whole yard and have straw for the run. So there will be no green grass trimmings and not much weeds so I am not sure how to balance out food scraps. I am hoping we will get new grass over winter, but at the moment it is deader than dead.

If I put the bedding from their cop in the run with the chicken poo in it, it won't cause diseases?

Do people generally not clean out the run? Just let it go au natural? Our chickens will be free range during the day, well they already free range during the day but are still living in my kitchen at night. Hopefully that will change this weekend.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm not at all concerned about chickens playing in chicken poop. That's what they do. If you want them to turn the litter under the roosts, just toss down some scratch. Sounds gross, but... then again... so are chickens! Yes, by putting the used litter in the run, it gets the soil inoculated with lots of good bacteria and other goodies. This encourages insects and worms to proliferate, which, in turn helps to improve the soil even further. The insects and worms also give the chickens something to dig for, which helps to turn all of that litter into healthy compost. In terms of cleaning out your run... that depends on how big it is, how many chickens, and a lot of other things, like your weather, soil, and if you have neighbors living very close by. A well managed run that is either covered with vegetation or deep litter should not smell.

 

[DmCrawlz]

One problem you will have is that dirty chickens equals dirty eggs...if you don't have enough bedding or debris to keep the soil dry, then the chickens will constantly have yuck/poo on their feet and it will come off on the eggs. I like not having to clean the eggs so I try to keep the coop and run as dry as possible.