deep litter: what to do with used shavings?

[Eggie and Me]

We've really gotten into the whole compost thing. Our girls enjoy both, their yard and ours. We compost their shavings into their yard along with yard clippings and their treats. We turn their yard every couple of days and the mulch we're getting is awesome and we've noticed less flys...

It's been so much easier than we imagined..

Thank goodness

 

[FrenchHen]

I let them sit a few weeks, then put them on top of the garden. When we dug potatoes this week, we found that much of them had disintegrated just in this season.
We also found lots of fat and happy worms.

 

[ninny]

I love the use it as mulch idea! I will be doing that.

Edited to ask if i would have to compost it frist?

 

[FrenchHen]

I put it around fruit trees (not touching the trunk) uncomposted. I also put it around flowers (not touching the stems) that way.
I do compost it by letting it sit in a big pile for a month or two (depends on how wet it is) before using it on the veggie garden. If you let the chickens range over the pile, they'll turn it for you seeking worms and such.

 

[isabrownmom]

I have a roosting cage under their bars with just a bit of shavings and I sprinkle a cup of Stall Dry over the droppings daily. Can I put this in the compost bin also?? The rest of the coop has about 4" shavings with DE mixed into it and I was planning on doing the deep litter method. So far there is very little odor in the coop but I wasn't sure about putting the poop with Stall Dry in the compost pile.

 

[kathyinmo]

Do you add table scraps to your compost piles, even in the chicken yard? What if the chickens get into old moldy food in the pile? Wouldn't that be a health problem?

 

[FrenchHen]

The chickens eat, then digest the table scraps. They go into the compost indirectly.

 

[mmtillman]

Quote:
Yep...we compost it and next year we will have some rich dark soil!! We keep our compost a year before we spread it around on the garden....

 

[Melyssa]

An equal mix of carbon and nitrogen will speed up the composting process- in other words, layer greens and browns, add a little lush yummy soil now and then too for the microorganisms.

 

[TeaLady]

I think that chicken poo is a great source of nitrogen, so the wood chip / poo blend breaks down nicely. I've had my girls in a covered run with deep litter since November, and I'm already mining it for good rich dirt.