Composting...

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

How can yall tell when is good time to dig out the chicken run if you use the deep litter method?
Like I still have wood chips and stuff on the surface which I sort of help the chicks out by spreading around over to the less covered areas, especially after heavy rains that tend to either go sideways into the run or runoff I still have some of.
Because if I continue to add dry matter to the run, then the top layer is never broken down completely.
Or do I just move that layer to the side, dig out the ready made compost layers a few inches thin load the run back up with wood chips and stuff?

 

[Sally PB]

I am looking into making compost tea this year. I am planning on making a sub irrigated container garden system where the containers and buckets are all connected together with hose. I will have one water control bucket with a float value to set the water level of all containters. But the rain barrel supply to the control bucket could be full of compost tea as someone recently suggested to me. I have the concept figured out in my head, but I'm having issues finding the hardware I need for running and connecting the hose. Looked at a number of options today at Menards, but nothing jumped out at me. My goal is to make the system modular and easy to expand if I want.

If you do this, please document it in a thread. This sounds like a really cool idea!

 

[Sally PB]

Like I still have wood chips and stuff on the surface which I sort of help the chicks out by spreading around over to the less covered areas, especially after heavy rains that tend to either go sideways into the run or runoff I still have some of.
Because if I continue to add dry matter to the run, then the top layer is never broken down completely.
Or do I just move that layer to the side, dig out the ready made compost layers a few inches thin load the run back up with wood chips and stuff?

I'm in this situation, exactly. What I plan to do is rake/move any obvious big chunks to the side and scoop what what's underneath. Then rake it smooth again. It'll freak out the chickens, but they'll just have to deal with it.

I also plan to clean all the shavings/bedding/poop therein out of the coop and spread it around the run. New bedding in the coop, new stuff to compost in the run. I plan to add a bunch of wood chips to the run this spring too. I have a pile from last fall when I had some trees taken down and the chipped up the small stuff.

It helps that I haven't put any new leaves in the run in a few months. The soft kitchen scraps are either all eaten or have broken down already.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I'm in this situation, exactly. What I plan to do is rake/move any obvious big chunks to the side and scoop what what's underneath. Then rake it smooth again. It'll freak out the chickens, but they'll just have to deal with it.

I also plan to clean all the shavings/bedding/poop therein out of the coop and spread it around the run. New bedding in the coop, new stuff to compost in the run. I plan to add a bunch of wood chips to the run this spring too. I have a pile from last fall when I had some trees taken down and the chipped up the small stuff.

It helps that I haven't put any new leaves in the run in a few months. The soft kitchen scraps are either all eaten or have broken down already.

Thank you! My coop is still quite new and I just did the Hemp bedding bout month or so ago.
Bout how often do you clean out your run? Oh and bout how far do you dig down? Do you get just top inches or so or do you go all the way down to original dirt layer? Mine is clay originally.
Mine began in August of last year...so just been doing DLM since then...

 

[Sally PB]

Thank you! My coop is still quite new and I just did the Hemp bedding bout month or so ago.
Bout how often do you clean out your run?
Mine began in August of last year...so just been doing DLM since then...

I have emptied my coop exactly once in the two years I've had it. This spring will be the second time for getting all the shavings out. I bought one bale of the hemp, and LOVED it. But it's about 5x the cost of shavings, and I didn't love it 5x as much, so it was a one time thing.

I have poop boards with PDZ under the roost, and scoop the poop every day. The coop does not smell at all, unless someone has just dropped a fresh cecal poop.

This spring will be first time I have taken any of the run compost out. I could have last year, but didn't, as I had enough in my compost piles, so I let it build up in the run. I want to add lots of compost to my heavy soil garden this year. It's finally getting a little bit lighter/fluffier in texture.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I have emptied my coop exactly once in the two years I've had it. This spring will be the second time for getting all the shavings out. I bought one bale of the hemp, and LOVED it. But it's about 5x the cost of shavings, and I didn't love it 5x as much, so it was a one time thing.

I have poop boards with PDZ under the roost, and scoop the poop every day. The coop does not smell at all, unless someone has just dropped a fresh cecal poop.

This spring will be first time I have taken any of the run compost out. I could have last year, but didn't, as I had enough in my compost piles, so I let it build up in the run. I want to add lots of compost to my heavy soil garden this year. It's finally getting a little bit lighter/fluffier in texture.

Gotcha...so I probably could just wait til next year! I got plenty of room on the sides of my run to let it build up still. And I don't need anything else added to my plate of to do's if I don't need to right now lol!
I luv the Hemp! But yes quite expensive!
And little frustrated my babies....they chose to sleep on their porch and stairs last night instead of the coop!!!
So needless to say it is all covered in ! Eww!

 

[gtaus]

What I plan to do is rake/move any obvious big chunks to the side and scoop what what's underneath. Then rake it smooth again.

I have found that I do not have to rake anything smooth. My chickens will naturally level everything out in no time. If you have a hole, they will fill it. If you have a big mound, they will flatten it. I have about 12-18 inches of litter material in my chicken run compost system, and everything is more or less all level by the chickens natural scratching and pecking activity.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have found that I do not have to rake anything smooth. My chickens will naturally level everything out in no time. If you have a hole, they will fill it. If you have a big mound, they will flatten it. I have about 12-18 inches of litter material in my chicken run compost system, and everything is more or less all level by the chickens natural scratching and pecking activity.

Last summer I had a tree service drop a (free) load of mulch next to my compost pile. When they dumped it, the pile was approximately 5 ft tall and maybe 6 ft in diameter. Thanks to the chickens, the pile is now about 3 1/2 ft tall and 12 feet in diameter....

 

[gtaus]

I bought one bale of the hemp, and LOVED it. But it's about 5x the cost of shavings, and I didn't love it 5x as much, so it was a one time thing.

Yeah, I have heard good things about hemp litter. I don't even know if it is available around where I live. In any case, it sounds expensive. Does it smell good at least?

Last year I had a pine tree that I was able to chip up some branches, pine needles and all. Boy, did that smell good in the coop for a few weeks! Free air freshner, very nice.

Anyways, I have a separate thread on using paper shreds as coop litter this winter that I just updated. I am very, very, happy with the results of using paper shreds as coop litter this winter. Started with fresh paper shreds maybe last OCT, and have been adding about a bag of fresh paper shreds every 2 weeks. Looks good and no smell even after a long winter. You would be hard pressed to find any chicken poo in the coop because it just automagically disappears into the deep bedding.

The best thing about paper shreds is that I just use all the junk paper we would normally haul off to the recycle center/landfill. So, it's free to me and an ongoing resource. I shred all our junk mail, newspapers, food box type light cardboard, computer paper, etc... It's hard to beat free litter!

And, in keeping with the topic of this thread, all that paper shreds coop litter will get tossed out into the chicken run compost system this spring and should compost down much faster than the wood chips I used the previous 2 years. Looking forward to seeing how fast the paper shreds turn into usable compost this summer.

 

[Oldegarlicshnapp]

I layer leaf mould, dead plant material (brown), kitchen waste, manure, and anything else. I try not to use straight eggshells. Instead I put eggshells inside of vinegar to make water soluble calcium, which can be fed directly to plants. I toss the remains into the compost, but it’s just organic material at that point.