Composting...

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Yup, I bagged 4 bags of my neighbors leaves this year! She was happy to see them go!

A side effect of collecting the neighbors leaves is that baked goods and gift cards tend to show up on your doorstep.

It’s much appreciated, but in addition to compost ingredients, I rake the leaves for exercise to keep my weight in check…the baked goods quickly negate the exercise.

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Nike Compost. (Just Do It.)

I have a 3 bin compost pile. One end is the collection bin. This time of year, it's kitchen vegetable scraps and chicken poop. In the summer, it's that plus weeds I pull in the garden.

When the pile is big enough (it'll be in the spring for this pile), I pitchfork it into the middle bin, and water it if necessary. Depending on how energetic I am, 4 days later I'll pitchfork it into the other end bin. Then a couple days later, back to the middle bin. This aerates the pile and mixes it up. Back and forth for about 3 weeks, and by then it is still chunky, but ready enough to use.

The pile needs a certain size/mass to heat up and do its magic. I have a big garden, so I can use all the compost I can make. Summer of 2020 was my first year with chickens, and I had the BEST compost I've ever had, thanks to their nitrogen rich poop.

OH, You are my go to girl!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Oh I am! I just haven't the slightest what I'm doin!

I'm afraid it has to be more to it than what I'm doin...
So yall tell me how you would fix this mess...or if I should keep going as I am:

Currently have a raised garden bed that I plan to move to the other side of the chicken run before spring. It is made up of old pieces of wood, really good fertilized soil and soil. I have been dumping kitchen stuff into it since everything died out. It also has chicken poop and weeds and old plants from summer as well as their dirt. I have stirred it as best I can before it began getting harder with colder temps. It is not covered...should it be? Does it need to be?? Cuz hubby is gonna complain. I was savings cardboard boxes to lay over the top of the raised bed for what I thought was good for composting and he pitched a fit.
So I have stopped throwing stiff in it...but it is still uncovered.
Like I said I do plan to move the entire thing (don't ask me how lol) to the other side of the run just before spring.
I have a 10x20 covered run that has deep litter which will get cleaned out round same time. It has whatever chickens are eating from pumpkins and stuff that will be in it probably as well as leaves, pine shavings, wood chips, etc.

Clarksville, TN? I love that area. Was stationed in Fort Campbell for a while.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Yup, I bagged 4 bags of my neighbors leaves this year! She was happy to see them go!

I went up and down our subdivision and collected leaves off edge of the road where they tend to collect and go towards the drains and got well over ten 5 gl buckets full! 3 year old grandson luved helping do that as well!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Clarksville, TN? I love that area. Was stationed in Fort Campbell for a while.

Oh cool! It is growin like insanely fast!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I went up and down our subdivision and collected leaves off edge of the road where they tend to collect and go towards the drains and got well over ten 5 gl buckets full! 3 year old grandson luved helping do that as well!

That's great...start the kids on leaf duty young. My son had his own sawed-off rake at that age...and now at 10 he's driving the mower tractor and bringing me leaves by the barrel full.

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Our worm bins only once smelled bad and that was when I tried giving them nuts that had been in the cupboard for two years. They went rancid so I dug them back out and threw it away. The bin was back to smelling good in a couple days.

For our first bin I filled a 50 gallon Rubbermaid tub half full out of our the compost tumbler. It was probably half done at that point. So in three months they've turned 25 gallons of partially composted food and 12 pounds of weekly kitchen scraps (blended for faster consumption) into about 35 gallons of soil. That was 500 worms.

Since that was so successful but slower than I wanted, I decided to increase the production with more bins and more worms. I've overdone myself though I got 2500 more worms and have only had a chance to create 1 more worm bin... It's been hard to keep up with their food demands at this point!

For the second bin I emptied the fresh compost tumbler (food scraps from last two months) that had barely composted into the new bin on top of a 1" layer of shredded paper. That was possibly 30 gallons and then I put 2" of our natural silty loam soil onto the top and mixed it into the top few inches of food scraps. The bin has roughly 1500 worms and in the last 3 weeks they have gone through about half of the food scraps already was well as two pounds of blended food scraps. In another month I expect the full bin will be done and then I will be asking my neighbors for their food scraps to help feed these guys

I have just enough leftover food scrap wannabe compost in the tumbler that I can make another bin but it's frozen solid so I may have to wait until I can get it out of the tumbler. Then I'll have a pretty solid system of bins for the food scraps we make. I figure the garden scraps once it's going will also wind up in the worm bins as supplemental food.

I do not think worms will work for me. I cannot touch the dry ones for chicken snacks, so no thank you!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

You may want to locate your deep litter chicken run over your intended garden area - that would be the fastest, easiest way to add nutrients and organic material in a hurry.

If you have the space, I’ve always dreamed about a setup with a coop in the middle, garden on one side, chicken run on the other…then every fall, switching the run/garden to the other side.

This sounds so good, it is inviting! OOps! no can't do. The run is all covered and the grass will not grow without the sun, darn it!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

I keep a big pile of leaves, layered with chicken poop and shavings, food scraps, eggs that get thrown out of incubator, chicks that dont survive, grass cuttings from the yard, weeds from lower beds, ect.. I have a good 4 or 5 piles around the property.. nothing fancy but thats how my granny did it, after a few years the bottom is super rich and loaded with worms! Im right under 2 years on my piles so give me a few more years and I'll have something to show for it

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Ive been doing the same with my Chickens...they really love veggie scraps and extra ripe bananas and breadfruit. Cutting on waste and cutting the feed budget is good too

Who would not love breadfruit? Too bad I have to drive an hour away to get a small bag of frozen breadfruit tostones,lol