Harvesting my Chicken Run Compost - Black Gold!

[NatJ]

Also, I would assume that the flowers would have to be non-toxic to the chickens in case they try to eat them.

A list of flowers that are edible for people would probably be safe for chickens too.

In addition to the flowers other people mentioned, I know pansies are edible, and they tend to be easy to find anywhere that sells started plants. They tend to be short plants (so they don't fall over, but there's a chance they might get buried by what the chickens scratch out). They typically grow and bloom for a few months and then die. Some varieties will drop seeds that grow the next year, some do not.

 

[gtaus]

A list of flowers that are edible for people would probably be safe for chickens too.

In addition to the flowers other people mentioned, I know pansies are edible, and they tend to be easy to find anywhere that sells started plants. They tend to be short plants (so they don't fall over, but there's a chance they might get buried by what the chickens scratch out). They typically grow and bloom for a few months and then die. Some varieties will drop seeds that grow the next year, some do not.

Thanks for the response. I'll be looking into that as well.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Thanks to your suggestion, I might look at adding some landscaping timber lining up with the chicken run fence. That would confine the overflow while at the same time creating a self-mulching flower bed. That's just a great idea. I think I have some landscaping timber in a pile around here, somewhere.

Landscape timbers is what I did as well. If you want a "finer sift" you can always put some chicken wire or hardware cloth along the bottom foot or so of the fence line.

At another part of my run, I have hops vines that grow up the fence. It provides some shade and hides some composty parts of the run. At another spot I have mint. The landscape timber keeps it from spreading into the yard, and the chickens keep it from spreading into the run.

I agree you want flowers in your bed that aren't harmful to chickens and beneficial to pollinators and chickens. Perennials that are bee friendly would be a good choice, but what about sunflowers? You could harvest the heads and toss them right into the flock if they grow well.

 

[gtaus]

Fall Leaf Cleanup Method

I don't have one of those expensive tow behind vacuum systems for my riding mowers. I suppose they would be the best. I do have a tow behind sweeper, and that works, but I find it fills up too fast...

Another issue I have with my lawn sweeper is that I dump all my lawn debris, grass clippings and leaves, into my chicken run. So, I would have to dump everything out of the sweeper and then use a pitchfork to put everything into bins to carry and dump it in the run. That's a lot of extra work.

I have a 3-bin bagger on one of my riding mowers and another 2-bin bagger on a smaller riding mower...

Google picture of my solid plastic bins as an example.

Anyways, I use the bins to collect my leaves in the fall. The collected leaves are already in those bins which makes them easy to carry into the run and dump. They only problem is that mowing up whole leaves directly into these bins is that the bins fill up in almost no time.

If I have a lot of leaves on the ground, I have started doing a pre-chop method on the leaves, first without the bins attached, then going over a second time with the bins installed. I get maybe 3X as many leaves vacuumed up that way before I have to dump them in the chicken run. The leaves are chopped up smaller, and pack in better in the bins.

Yeah, I thought I was pretty smart with my evolving fall cleanup system. Then I watched a YouTube video the other night where a guy uses almost the exact same method I do but he shows you how his system works. For composting, of course, there is some benefit to chopping up the leaves into smaller bits before they get dumped into your chicken run, for example, because smaller bits will compost faster. Not really an issue for me because I now have so much chicken run compost, but the chopped-up leaves will compost faster in any system.

Here is the YouTube video that I enjoyed. It's almost exactly what I do, including blowing leaves away from the tree trunks with a leaf blower. It might look like a lot of steps, but I find my yard cleanup is actually faster doing it this way...

I just bought a backpack leaf blower with 730 cfm this fall. It really has changed some of the ways I clean up leaves in the fall. It's pretty nice. I can even blow out wet leaves from under and around bushes now. Get them out into the yard to dry out and get mowed up later.

Anyways, until someone gives me one of those big tow behind leaf vacuums, I am pretty happy with the method I use with my bins and shown in that YouTube videos.

I just don't see me investing in this type of system...

 

[Iluveggers]

@gtaus How big is your chicken run that you compost in?

I use pine shavings in my coop, and I scoop poop each morning into a bucket. When the bucket gets full (usually 2-3 days), I dump the bucket on one of my over-winter raised garden beds, or in the large (20x50) chicken run (if the veggie garden is in use). I also throw leftovers, veggie scraps, leaves, hay, weeds/grass clippings into the run.

In the spring I stop adding shavings to the garden beds (only dump in the run) and I top off each garden bed with a layer of dirt compost (usually my neighbor buys a big load and lets me take a little for the top off in exchange for my help for the day). I have found though that although my run is constantly being turned by the chickens, it is too “chunky” to take any compost from the run to add to the beds. I am pretty much on my own w this project, no extra machinery, but I was wondering if you could think of any suggestions to help it break down faster. It is an open run, no roof, and about 20 (soon to be 30) chickens are in the 1000 ft area daily. They also have the ability to forage in the garden from Oct-May (350 sq ft), plus the covered run off of our coop (160 sq ft), and a 2 ft wide walkway that connects the covered coop/run, garden, and uncovered enclosed runs. Most nights in the spring & summer they also are let out for an hour or two to forage in the rest of the yard. I try my hardest to give these ladies (& new little guy) enough variety and space to move around but also stay safe from predators.

 

[gtaus]

How big is your chicken run that you compost in?

My chicken run is about 13X39, open to the sky, with bird netting on top for protection.

I scoop poop each morning into a bucket. When the bucket gets full (usually 2-3 days), I dump the bucket on one of my over-winter raised garden beds, or in the large (20x50) chicken run (if the veggie garden is in use).

I use a dry deep bedding (mostly shredded paper these days) and clean out everything about twice a year. All my used coop litter gets dumped into the chicken run composting system. I rotate areas where I take out the compost. At this point, all the compost I remove is at least one year old.

I also throw leftovers, veggie scraps, leaves, hay, weeds/grass clippings into the run.

Same here. Although my chickens normally eat almost everything from the chicken bucket waste scraps and leftovers in only a few minutes every morning. The bulk of my chicken run compost is leaf mold, grass clippings, and any other material (weeds) I might toss in during the year.

I top off each garden bed with a layer of dirt compost (usually my neighbor buys a big load and lets me take a little for the top off in exchange for my help for the day).

According to the owner of the local nursery where we get some of our plants, he recommends mixing a high-quality topsoil with my chicken run compost 1:1. Compost is great, but it does not have the same stuff that good topsoil does. And topsoil does not have the same stuff as compost. Together, they make magic, I guess.

I live on a lake and have very poor native sandy soil. I have to buy my topsoil by the scoop of a Bobcat loaded into my 4X8 utility trailer. For years I tried to amend my native sandy soil with compost. Sure, it improved the soil to a degree, but when decided to use raised beds with quality topsoil and compost, it was like night and day difference for me. That was the magic trick for me to grow food.

I have found though that although my run is constantly being turned by the chickens, it is too “chunky” to take any compost from the run to add to the beds. I am pretty much on my own w this project, no extra machinery, but I was wondering if you could think of any suggestions to help it break down faster.

I have moved to using shredded paper as my dry deep bedding for the last ~3 years. Paper shreds breakdown much faster than other litter I used in the past. When dumped into the chicken run, the paper shreds coop litter is compost ready in a few months. I usually let it sit longer, of course, because the chicken poo needs to "cool" down before being put on a raised bed garden.

With your 20X50 chicken run, and if you are dumping all your organics in there, I suspect you could be harvesting as much compost as you need and barely scratching the volume in the run. Well, in my case, I harvest hundreds of dollars of compost every spring for my raised beds and I estimate only using less than 10% of my compost in the run.

As I said, the bulk of my chicken run compost is leaves and grass clippings. At the front of my run, the compost litter is about 18 inches deep. The chickens are constantly turning that litter and I usually harvest the compost at the back end of the run where it is about 6 inches deep. By the time the compost litter gets to the back of the chicken run, it's really broken down well.

But I always sift my compost litter just the same. For years, I used a simple 2X4 wire frame on top of my wheelbarrow for sifting out my compost, like this...

That worked for many years. The finished compost sifts out into the wheelbarrow, and I tossed the larger stuff back into the run for more composting. I always had enough sifted compost for my needs.

Of course, if your goal is to break down the compost faster, then you might need to manage the compost litter a bit. Like ensuring that there is enough water in the litter to keep it at that wrung out sponge consistency. Maybe you need to turn that litter some on your own with a pitchfork or tiller. The chickens do a great job on their own, but it never hurts to go deep with a pitchfork. Mixing in a lot of green grass clippings will heat up the compost litter and speed up the breakdown process as well.

In my case, the chicken tilling and nature is fast enough for the amount I remove every year. My success is really built on having so much material available that I never worry about how fast the compost litter is breaking down. I would estimate, at this point, that all the compost I harvest from my chicken run is over 2 years old.

Sifting all the compost I used every year was a lot of work. I decided to upgrade my system and invested in a cement mixer compost sifter setup...

At the time I built that cement mixer compost sifter setup, I calculated that I could sift out about $60 worth of finished compost per hour with little manual effort compared to the old sifting frame on the wheelbarrow. In less than 4 hours, that setup paid for itself. Since then, I have more than doubled my raised bed gardens and have sifted out hundreds and hundreds of dollars of finished chicken run compost every year.

The finished compost sifted into that black wagon gets mixed with topsoil and put into my raised garden beds. The rejected material in the gray wagon, too big for finished compost, gets tossed back into the chicken run for more processing or I use it as top mulch in the garden beds as a sun/weed block.

The sifting process helps break down all that material as well. Even if not small enough to sift out as finished compost, the sifting process breaks down the rejected litter and will speed up the process for the next turn in the chicken run.