Harvesting my Chicken Run Compost - Black Gold!

[Friendlychicks1127]

I turned my chicken run into a chicken run composting system a couple years ago. I throw all my wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, weeds, spent coop bedding, and just about anything else organic into the run and let the chickens break it down and turn it into compost.

Here is a picture of my run with a large pile of grass clippings I just mowed this afternoon. I don't know if the picture is clear enough, but maybe you can see that in that mowing of grass I pulled up a lot of dead leaves from last fall, lots of dead brown material on the ground, and probably a fair amount of loose dirt got sucked up into those loads. Point is, my grass clippings are not just grass, which is why I was able to pile it so high. If all I had in the bins was grass clippings, then I would never pile them that high because the pure grass clippings would heat up and smell really bad. With all that brown material in the mix I don't have to worry about a stinky pile of grass matting up and going anaerobic.

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Here is a picture of the chicken run compost that I was harvesting from the chicken run today. Note that all my chickens were all right there "helping" me as I was forking out the litter into my compost sifter. I hope you can see how darker the lower layers of the compost is. That's black gold in book.

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Here is a picture of my cement mixer compost sifter. Notice all the screened, finished compost falls into the wagon below the wire on the barrel, and the unfinished compost and larger pieces fall out the end (where I have the blue muck bucket).

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The section of the chicken run I was harvesting today was about 1 year old. In the past, I was getting about 50% finished compost in the first wagon and 50% unfinished compost in the reject wagon. Today, I was getting about 90% finished compost and maybe only about 10% rejects. So, my sifting job was really going fast today - even with the "help" of all my chickens in the area that I was harvesting. BTW, my cement mixer compost sifter sifts out about 6 cubic feet of compost every 15 minutes. I used to buy my compost at the big box stores for about $5,00 per 2 cubic bag. Now I make my own compost and sift it out to the tune of about $60 worth of compost every hour of run time with my compost sifter. Saves me a lot of money.

This year, I have built a few more 4X4 foot galvanized steel panel raised hügelkultur beds. I mix the chicken run compost 1:1 with good Red River topsoil I purchased from a local nursery. That 1:1 mix goes on the top 6-8 inches of my raised beds. Here is one of the raised beds I finished filling up today.

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I will be planting peppers in this raised bed this weekend. Where I live, our average last frost date is the end of May, so I'm right on time with my projects.

Love talking about my chicken run composting and gardening projects. Willing to answer any questions you may have, or look forward to comments and pictures of your setups. Thanks for any feedback.

Great Job I think I will do the same.

 

[Folara]

You may already be doing this, but any time you need to dump the chicken water, or wash out the waterer, do it in the run (or somewhere else you want water to be.)

I definitely do this, and I'm starting to collect old water from the goats to throw into the run as well. Although my efforts may be better concentrated in one specific area of the run like gtaus mentioned!

Maybe just use the unroofed portion of the chicken run to make your compost?

That's a great idea - I'm not sure why I felt the entire run should be composting. I'll still have to water that section down come summer but if I can start building up materials on that side it should help retain moisture better too. My hens just started laying recently so now they're really amping up the manure contribution - I'm anticipating a bountiful harvest next spring!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I wanted some sifted compost to top dress A few sunflower seeds my daughter wanted to plant.

I figured I’d time myself sifting it. Sifting the amount below took 10 minutes. That doesn’t feel too bad.

A good number of worms were mixed in with the bigger chunks that got added back into the run….creating a lot of snacks for the flock.

Two caveats - the 10 min was not a sustainable pace…I couldn’t do 6 times this amount in an hour. Also, I did this at the end of a long day working outside…hauling hay, cleaning coops, mowing the lawn, etc. I wasn’t moving that fast by the time I started.

That being said, the 10 min did include the time for the boss to inspect my work.

 

[Sally PB]

Last summer we had a terrible drought so I had to set up my sprinkler to water the chicken run at least once a week.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be really warm. I have a lot of stuff to do in the garden, but I also plan to water the run. I brought my watering can down from the green house so that I can get a good soaking over a good area. We'll see what the chickens think of it raining in the run!

 

[gtaus]

I'll still have to water that section down come summer but if I can start building up materials on that side it should help retain moisture better too.

We live in different locations, but I find that my chicken run composting system retains a lot of water an inch or more below the top surface layer. The top layer can be bone dry, but I dig down an inch or so and I hit that magic "wrung out sponge" state which goes all the way to the ground. Lots of bugs and worms living in the sub surface compost, which is why my hens are always digging out holes and feasting on stuff on day long. I currently have about 12 inches of material in my run, but in the fall when I dump leaves, it can easily get up to 18 inches or more deep. I think you need some volume of material to retain that water like you want. Again, my top inch or so of the compost can be bone dry, so you need some inches below to retain that water.

 

[gtaus]

I figured I’d time myself sifting it. Sifting the amount below took 10 minutes. That doesn’t feel too bad.

That's some good looking compost. I don't know how much you have there, but for 10 minutes on a manual shifting job it looks like a good job.

Two caveats - the 10 min was not a sustainable pace…I couldn’t do 6 times this amount in an hour.

Well, there's the rub, isn't it? I gave up my manual 2X4 frame with hardware cloth because I was, well, starting to feel my age. With my cement mixer compost sifter, I can sift out 6 cubic feet (a gorilla wagon full) of compost in 15 minutes, without really much effort on my part at all. All I do is pick up a pitchfork full of chicken run compost and throw it in the sifting barrel. Very easy.

The other day I sifted out 24 cubic feet of compost and was not tired at all. But I was sifting the compost, then mixing it 1:1 with fresh topsoil to fill my new raised beds and to top off my beds from last year. I don't have enough wagons to sift compost for an hour straight.

That being said, the 10 min did include the time for the boss to inspect my work.

We all need those inspectors to approve of the job. I don't think I would mind that.

I had a bunch of chickens "helping" me while I was harvesting the compost, so I had to go a little slower to be sure not to poke any of my "helpers" with my pitchfork.

 

[gtaus]

I brought my watering can down from the green house so that I can get a good soaking over a good area. We'll see what the chickens think of it raining in the run!

My chickens enjoy a gentle rain on a warm day. They will stay outside all day in a soft drizzle. If it rains hard, they escape back into the coop.

We all know that composting needs some amount of water. Dry material will not compost much at all. The other benefit to having some moisture in the chicken run composting material is that it is a much better living environment for all the bugs and worms that live below the dry surface. My commercial feed consumption goes down by half, or more, in the non-snow months when the chickens can spend all day outside foraging for food to eat in the compost litter.

Also, if I have not mentioned this before in this thread, I find that our egg yolks turn a darker orange color when my chickens are outside foraging for food. In the winter, when they only have access to commercial feed, the yolks are much lighter colored. I don't know if that makes a difference in taste or nutrition, but I think the darker colored yolks are the better eggs. Dear Wife feels the same way.

 

[Folara]

We live in different locations, but I find that my chicken run composting system retains a lot of water an inch or more below the top surface layer. The top layer can be bone dry, but I dig down an inch or so and I hit that magic "wrung out sponge" state which goes all the way to the ground.

My thoughts exactly with the amount of material! I'll be collecting a lot more carbon around the property to start building up the layers. This thread is so inspiring

 

[gtaus]

My thoughts exactly with the amount of material! I'll be collecting a lot more carbon around the property to start building up the layers.

Yes, I think sometimes people believe everything must be done all at once. I add stuff to my chicken run compost maybe 2-3X per week, a little at a time, and over time it all adds up.

Especially if you put fresh grass clippings in the chicken run. I think it works better for my chickens to give them some fresh green grass clippings every few days rather than dumping a massive load in the run all at once. But, I have riding lawn mowers with collection bins, so it's easy for me to go out every few days and collect some fresh grass clippings. I understand other people might not be able to do that.

This thread is so inspiring

Thank you. This BYC community is the best and I try to add what I can. It's great to know that some people are finding value in the topics I love to talk about. Thanks for the positive feedback.

 

[TropicalBabies]

A few pictures of my sifting setup...very low tech but it IS custom designed to fit my wheelbarrow.

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This is my compost sifting machine

Unfortunately it does not come with an off button.