Harvesting my Chicken Run Compost - Black Gold!

[gtaus]

I wanted to post a few pictures of how I dump my leaves in the chicken run that the chickens will turn into all that black gold compost we love. This is probably my favorite time of the year when I can both vacuum up the leaves on the lawn and cut some grass at the same time. It makes for a beautiful blend of grass clippings and leaves. Perfect for composting...

That's about 7 bins full of leaves and grass clippings. I added another 7 bins after taking that picture. It's just great stuff for composting litter.

I don't know what the chickens find to eat in those piles, probably some tasty bugs, but they will scratch and peck that row down level in no time. That all will get mixed in with the months of grass clippings that are currently on the top layer.

In a few weeks, the grass will stop growing and from that point on it's only vacuuming up leaves in the yard with the riding mower till it snows. I will try to remember to take a few pictures with all the autumn leaves filling up the chicken run. It's a really nice sight to see the leaves in the chicken run with all those colors.

At any rate, it's all the layers of grass clippings and leaves that break down and turn into black gold compost come springtime. My chickens do the bulk of the work mixing the litter and breaking it down. I don't turn over the litter at all. I just let it sit for the winter, composting in place, then in the springtime, I rake off the top 4 inches, or so, and everything below that is basically black gold compost that I process in my cement mixer compost sifter.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

This time of year, when the mix is grass and leaves, I imagine the chickens eat a good amount of the grass clippings in the mix, and they motivate the flock to tear apart the leaf piles.

If the piles of leaves get deep enough, I've gone out in February and turned over a bit and uncovered worms for the flock...a nice mid-winter treat for sure. So, the composting materials keeps feeding the flock while it breaks down!

 

[gtaus]

This time of year, when the mix is grass and leaves, I imagine the chickens eat a good amount of the grass clippings in the mix, and they motivate the flock to tear apart the leaf piles.

I don't know how much grass clippings the chickens eat. I have been dumping bins full of grass clippings in the chicken run all summer long. I am sure they eat a few grass clippings, but with all the scratching and pecking it appears to me that they are looking for tasty bugs to eat. When they dig down a little bit into the compost litter, they can find lots of juicy worms to eat.

I think it's in the nature of chickens to scratch and peck for food. The chicken run compost is great for them. It brings out their natural instincts to look for food and all the while they are breaking down the litter into finer compost.

If the piles of leaves get deep enough, I've gone out in February and turned over a bit and uncovered worms for the flock...a nice mid-winter treat for sure. So, the composting materials keeps feeding the flock while it breaks down!

I don't have any solid cover over my chicken run, so once it starts to snow outside, the chickens mainly stay in their coop for the winter. They don't want to walk on white snow. Last winter I keep a few big garbage cans full of leaves. Every once in a while, I will spread out some leaves on top of the snow and the chickens will come outside for fresh air and sunshine. That worked out well so this year I plan on saving even more leaves.

I live in northern Minnesota, and come January and February, we can have temps down to -30F or even -40F. I could not turn the compost litter even if I wanted. I am considering building some kind of winter framework to keep a portion of the chicken run snow free. But it has to be strong enough not to collapse under the weight of the snow. I have been considering different designs, such as an A-Frame that would shed the snow.

Building some kind of winter roof over part of my chicken run is not top on my to-do list. It would be nice, but the chicken run litter continues to compost even under the snow. Last year, I started off with about 18 inches of litter in the run before snowfall, and then in the spring it had broken down and compressed to about 12 inches. This year, I am currently at almost 20 inches deep before I add my fall leaves. That is a lot of compost in the making!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

My chickens enjoy grass clipping and other weeds, but every flock is of course different.

Sounds like you get a lot more snow than we do here in Rhode Island. I have done the same with leaves though, for when it snows...hay also works well for this.

 

[gtaus]

Sounds like you get a lot more snow than we do here in Rhode Island.

I was stationed in Rhode Island and other East Coast States many years ago when I was in the Navy. The ocean breezes moderated the temps in the winter compared to what we get here in Minnesota. I remember some good snow falls on the East Coast, but the snow never really lasted very long. Where I live now in Minnesota, we can have snow on the ground from November till May, depending on how bad the winter gets.

I have done the same with leaves though, for when it snows...hay also works well for this.

Yep, my hens don't mind walking on leaves, or anything else to speak of, on top of the cold white stuff but they don't like the snow itself. It does not bother me in the sense that it all gets composted eventually. I get lots of leaves for free, but I would have to pay for hay or straw. So, I will be saving lots of leaves in garbage cans and/or bags for use later in the chicken run this winter.

 

[Sally PB]

they will scratch and peck that row down level in no time

Thus the phrase, "in no time flat!"

I don't know if chickens actually are the source of that phrase, but they could be.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

More "fun in a composting run" - I was away on vacation this last week, so our flock (not yet laying) stayed in the large coop with plenty of food, water, and some hay to play with.

Since the run wasn't going to see any action for the week, I soaked some BOSS in water overnight and tossed it around the run before we left. Came home to today to a bunch of green sprouts all around the run, which should give the chickens (back out in the run today) an extra treat and some extra nutrients (and motivation to scratch) in the run for a few days.

 

[gtaus]

$485 per Hour Sifting Chicken Run Compost!?

I was in our local garden center the other day and noticed that they are selling 0.75 cubic foot bags of organic cow and chicken manure compost for $12.99 per bag. Well, heck, I make my own chicken run compost so I wondered what the current cost savings for me would be if I used the cost of $12.99 per bag in my calculations.

A few years ago, I invested just over $200.00 and converted a cement sifter into a compost sifter. Here is a picture of my setup...

With the cement mixer compost sifter, I can sift out about 7 cubic feet of compost into that 6 cubic foot black wagon every 15 minutes.

I had to sift out a wagon full of compost for Dear Wife this past weekend for her flower gardens and pots. I wondered how much it would have cost us to buy the equivalent in bags of organic compost at the local nursery. Turns out, that wagon full of my homemade chicken run compost would cost $121.28 if we bought the compost per bag!

That makes my time savings in sifting my own chicken run compost up to $485.00 per hour! Of course, you don't need a cement mixer compost sifter like mine to make valuable compost at home. But I'm an old guy and it was just too much for me to continue to sift all my compost with my old wood frame and hardware cloth over a wheelbarrow.

For those of you who might like to look at the cost savings breakdown of my homemade chicken run compost, here is the math from Copilot AI...

********************************
Let's break this down step by step to calculate your savings per hour:

1. Determine how many bags of store-bought compost equal 7 cubic feet:[7 \div 0.75 = 9.33 \text{ bags}]
2. Calculate the cost of 9.33 bags:[9.33 \times 12.99 = 121.22]So, 7 cubic feet of store-bought compost would cost $121.22.
3. Find out how much you produce per hour:Since you sift 7 cubic feet every 15 minutes, in one hour you would sift:[7 \times 4 = 28 \text{ cubic feet}]
4. Determine the cost of 28 cubic feet of store-bought compost:[(28 \div 0.75) \times 12.99][37.33 \times 12.99 = 485.10]

So, by sifting your own chicken run compost, you save $485.10 per hour compared to buying the equivalent amount from the store.

That’s a huge savings! Your method is definitely paying off.
***************************

 

[gtaus]

Here is a copy and paste from a post I made on another thread, but it seems to fit here even better. Hope you enjoy it...

What is the value of homemade Chicken Run Compost?

I love reading the comments on composting. It's one of my favorite topics as I make all kinds of homegrown chicken run compost, using my soiled shredded paper chicken coop litter along with leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, and just about anything else organic I can find.

Need to add nitrogen (eg chicken poop) and oxygen (aerate the pile), and moisture, so that the microbes can reproduce and break things down. I have the same problem, because I live in a dry climate.

Yep, you need to add enough water to get it to that magic wrung out sponge consistency for good composting action. My paper shreds in the coop really don't compost much at all until I toss the soiled bedding outside in the chicken run.

aerate the pile is hard. I got 3 compost bins that still composting and they are almost 2 years old. I am just over it.

Unless you are willing to work your compost bins, it will take a very long time for nature to break down a bin full of compostable material. If you add manures, or other greens in the mix, it will help.

I have a 5 bin pallet wood compost bin setup that I used only as a fill and forget system. I would maybe only fill up one bin per summer and then next year fill the next one up. By the time I filled the fifth compost bin, it was 5 years for the first bin to breakdown. That worked for me for many years. But then I got chickens.

Now I dump just about everything organic from my 3 acres wooded yard and lawn into the chicken run. The composting chickens do all the work in scratching and pecking in the litter, breaking it down into smaller bits and pieces, speeding up the composting process. No need for me to turn the chicken run litter when the chickens themselves are constantly working the material.

I would encourage you to reconsider how to make compost. It's my most valuable by product from having chickens, worth more to me than the eggs I get. I'll provide an example just a bit later. I think you will be amazed at how much your chicken run compost is worth.

that's the easy part. Just throw a chicken on top of the pile

Yep. Let the chickens be chickens and do all that work for you.

I decided to really invest in making compost with my chickens. I built a cement mixer compost sifter to reduce my work. Here is a picture of my setup...

For years, I used the typical wood frame with hardware cloth on top of a wheelbarrow. But I'm getting older, and I wanted to step up my gardening in my retirement years. It takes me about 15 minutes to sift out a full 7 cubic foot black wagon full chicken run compost. It would take me hours to do that manually, and frankly, I'm not up to that task anymore.

So far, this year, I have sifted out 70 cubic feet of compost from my chicken run. That's less than 10% of my available run compost. My chicken run compost is 100% organic - no bits of glass, metal or plastic in my compost like the commercial store-bought bags of compost have in them.

But how much is all that homemade chicken run compost worth? I used to buy my bags of compost at the big box stores, so I just took some current prices from cheapest to most expensive compost options at my local stores.

Then I compared that to how much money I have saved using my homemade chicken run compost. Here is what that looks like...

Chicken run compost is very valuable!

I don't expect many people are willing to invest in a cement mixer compost sifter setup like I have. It cost me about $250.00, which was a lot of money for me to invest in a project when I did not know if I was going to do much gardening. But it was the best decision I ever made. My current garden is now about 3X bigger than pre-sifter investment.

How long did that $250.00 investment take for me to break even?

Check this out...

Of course, it's not only all the money I saved on NOT buying commercial compost at the big box stores, but I grow lots of good food for us to eat fresh from the garden. Dear Wife does all the grocery shopping, but I suspect food is not cheap these days, so our raised bed gardens save us a lot of money in what food we grow.

FWIW, my chicken coop paper shreds take about 2 months to break down into usable compost out in the chicken run where the chickens are constantly turning the litter when they scratch and peck everything looking for tasty bugs and juicy worms to eat. That's a pretty fast turnaround for very little effort on my part. The chickens do almost all the work.

 

[fat brown hen]

@gtaus Your setup looks fantastic! It looks like you have 2"x4" welded wire for the fence -- how do you keep the chickens from flinging everything out of the run?