Harvesting my Chicken Run Compost - Black Gold!

[Sally PB]

I like the idea of having to purchase very few/no inputs at all.

Same here! I'm aiming for not buying much of anything. I saved some tomato and butternut squash seed, and will again. Plant my own seed potatoes too.

But not buying compost... oh yeah!

 

[NatJ]

So, we have a flower garden in front of the house my wife wants to redo. I've top dressed it with compost and mulch, but never really tilled it.

So, we're slowly starting on an new angle in chicken run composting...I'm digging up the flower bed, plants, old mulch, old compost, nasty clay soil, and all...about 6-8 inches deep...and dumping it in the run.

Then I'll replace it with chicken run compost before we replant and re-mulch.

The "stuff" that came out of the bed...good, bad, and indifferent, are now going to be in the run to "recharge" and some day make their way back out into use somewhere on the property. In the meantime, they'll get scratched up, spread around, mixed with poop and organic materials of many types, and converted into something far better than they are today.

Did you already start digging it up?

Because depending on how long you've been adding things on top, you might find that earthworms already "tilled" it for you. If they did, I'm sure you will know within the first few shovels' worth, and then you can decide if it's really worth the effort of moving all that stuff from one place to another.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Did you already start digging it up?

Because depending on how long you've been adding things on top, you might find that earthworms already "tilled" it for you. If they did, I'm sure you will know within the first few shovels' worth, and then you can decide if it's really worth the effort of moving all that stuff from one place to another.

Yes, already started...and the top 3 inches or so are nice "new" dirt, but below that it goes quickly to our native clay, thin native soil with very few earthworms. It'll be a lot of work to move all the material, but I think in the long run it'll pay dividends. Plus, who am I kidding...I can use the exercise!

 

[HensInTheForest]

Well, the great thing about chicken run compost is that the longer you let it sit, the better it breaks down. It's like money in the bank and ready to take out when you want/need it.



I don't think I could do the volume of sifting compost I need without using my cement mixer compost sifter. Well, I suppose I could using the manual 2X4 wood frame with hardware cloth over the wheelbarrow, but it would take a very long time.

The older I get, the more valuable my time is to me. For me, spending the money on the compost sifter was worth the cost, plus there is very little labor involved in the automated sifting process (compared to doing it manually), so my old body does not feel all the aches and pains of working out in the hot sun all day.

If anyone is serious about converting a cement mixer into a compost sifter, I still recommend trying to buy a used cement mixer in good working condition. I spent almost a year looking for a used mixer where I live before I gave up and bought a brand new mixer for my project. But that cost of the cement mixer is by far the most expensive item on that project list.

Even buying a new cement mixer, my total costs on the cement mixer compost sifter project was about $240 at the time of the build. Since I was paying $5 per bag for compost at the big box stores, and I could sift 3 bags of chicken run compost every 15 minutes, it only took me 4 hours of run time to break even on my costs of this project (12 bags of sifted compost every hour = $60 per hour savings of not buying compost at the store).

I think I paid about $200 for the cement mixer, so if you can find a good working mixer for maybe $50, you could really save some money.

Warning. Since I put my compost sifter into action, I have almost doubled my raised beds and gardening space. It's so easy for me to make chicken run compost, and then sift it out for use, that I started building even more raised beds. So, what I save on time and labor on sifting the compost, I probably make up in how much time and labor I spend on my much larger gardens.

We have 2 cement block raised beds 40 ft x 4 ft x 3 ft am now searching for a used mixer! First flock but wow you all have such great ideas here.

I too will pay to do less manual work now. Time is precious.

Thanks for a great post!

 

[gtaus]

I too will pay to do less manual work now. Time is precious.

The older I get, the more precious my time is to me. I can sift more compost in 15 minutes with my cement mixer compost sifter than I could do by hand in ~2 hours. I never really enjoyed manually sifting compost, so the mixer takes that chore out of the picture. Now that I am harvesting so much compost, I have almost doubled the number of gardens I have, which is something I do enjoy.

Also, I used to buy compost at the big box stores for about $5 per bag. Now I make my own chicken run compost and with my cement mixer compost sifter, I have sifted maybe $500 worth of compost for my gardens. my initial investment in the compost sifter cost me about $200, so it paid for itself in the first 4 hours of use. If I could have found a used cement mixer, I could have saved lots of money on the initial build, but I'm not complaining as I feel I more than got my money's worth out of it. Time is precious.

 

[drinkoj]

For those with covered runs like me, how much and how often do you water it? As the location of the run is on top of a hill and doesn't get much water drainage under the pine shaving. I live in Zone 8a, run is 10'x10', 6" depth of pine shavings and whatever plants/veggies I throw in there, and 11 hens.

 

[gtaus]

For those with covered runs like me, how much and how often do you water it?

Almost all composting guides say to keep the compost material about the consistency of a wrung-out sponge. Of course, the very top inch or two of the compost material will probably be dry, but when you dig down an inch or more, it should be like a wrung-out sponge. If not, add some water. Water is essential to the composting process. If you keep everything bone dry, it will take forever to compost the material. Don't overthink the process. Close counts. How much water you will need to add depends on your climate and how fast your material dries out.

My chicken run is uncovered, and in a normal summer with normal rainfall, I never have to water the compost material. Last year we had a drought summer with no rainfall for about 3 months, so I did use the sprinkler to wet down the compost a couple times a month. This summer we have had normal rainfall and I have not needed to add any water to the chicken run.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Here in the northeast, it's that beautiful time of year when free carbon not only grows on trees, but falls to where we can gather it.

The chickens have loved the hundreds of barrels of leaves I've dumped in their run over the last couple of months. I feel like I'm building up a good stash of carbon in the run.

The neighbors all get really nice when I come steal their leaves too.

Some even bag them up and leave them at the end of their driveway for me to grab, while others not only seem unoffended that I suck up all their "free carbon" with the mower but even bring baked goods and gift cards by afterwards.

 

[gtaus]

The chickens have loved the hundreds of barrels of leaves I've dumped in their run over the last couple of months. I feel like I'm building up a good stash of carbon in the run.

From what I have read, leaf compost, pound per pound, is better than cow manure. Something to do with the tree drawing up all the nutrients way deep down in the soil and depositing those nutrients in the leaves. When the leaves fall, nature replenishes itself as the leaves compost on top of the soil. So, leaves are not just carbon, they are super infused carbon products.

Some even bag them up and leave them at the end of their driveway for me to grab, while others not only seem unoffended that I suck up all their "free carbon" with the mower but even bring baked goods and gift cards by afterwards.

I would think your neighbors should be offering you baked goods and gift cards for cleaning up their yards!

As for me, I have more than enough leaves on my 3 acres to fill my chicken run. A couple years ago, a neighbor had bagged up some leaves and I picked them up - saving them a trip to the landfill - and they were very happy about it. Since the leaves were already bagged, I saved them to use as chicken coop litter that winter. Worked great for everybody.

I have a 3 bin collection system on my riding mower, but I can't mow but maybe 5 minutes before the bins are full and I need to dump them. What kind of system do you have that you could go to someone else's property and mow up their leaves? I don't have anywhere near enough capacity to do that.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

That's interesting about the extra nutrients getting pulled up from down deep back to the surface. Comfry, with it's long tap root, does the same. Get the nutrients where the plants can use it.

I grabbed about 15 bags from a neighbor. Will probably try to grab at least that many again. I'm keeping them bagged for now...all the loose leaves I have now seems like a lot, but I know come spring I'll be feeling low on carbon again.

I have a similar two-bag system (holds about 40 gallons), so I do a lot of back-and-forth trips even though the neighbors yards are all nearby. I'm strongly considering buying one of those pull-behind systems with storage space and an additional blower. The one I'm looking at holds about 400 gallons, but also isn't cheap.

It's tempting, though, as emptying is the worst part of the leaf pickup at this point....that and the dust, which I get comically coated in. It'd allow me to up my carbon intake, and my son who is 11 would probably be set up pretty well for an after-school lawn and leaf service in a couple years, so we'll see.

My leaf and grass clippings pile was steaming hot the other day, and as I add food waste to the system (and the chickens own manure), we're getting some incredibly nutrient-rich compost.