Hello, thinking about composting with chicken manure, any advice on how to begin, already have the chickens!

[JPadronMiami]

Hello, thinking about composting with chicken manure, any advice on how to begin, already have the chickens!

 

[DobieLover]

I've been composting it for coming on 7 years.
I have poop boards so I put nearly all poop in when the buckets are dumped. One bay will have nearly all poop with a little zeolite/DE and wood ash. This gets layered in with the 1 year old pine shavings from the coop during the annual clean out. This layered pile will sit for another year before it is incorporated into garden soil. Then I start filling up the empty bay with poop/zeolite/DE/wood ash again for another year.
The compost is excellent and my gardens grow incredibly well.

 

[Penpal]

Cow manure and straw can be fully composted in 72 hours. But, you'll need a little water and lot of oxygen. If you have a barrel you can put it on its side, fill with manure and green material and a little water and roll it around.

A study done by my father in law at Central Michigan University about 47 years ago found that if they turned the barrel so the two flat sides can be put on a thingy, and turned you get compost fast. So, imagine there is a door in the barrel to put stuff in and take it out. Inside the barrel there is a paddle. There is a motor that turns the paddle completely around every 90 seconds to aerate the mass and break up clumps.

There are other ways to aerate the mass, but this is probably the cheapest and fastest for a small amount. The cow digestive system does a great job of breaking down their food, 72 hours for cow manure, longer for horse and other species. Chicken manure is "hot" so it will break down quickly.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I collect poo from poop boards also. Given my sandy soil, poo is almost as important to me as eggs. I put it directly in garden and under shrubs in winter. Rain leaches it down into my soil. Spring through summer it goes into compost bin with kitchen scraps, wood shavings, leaves, grass, pizza boxes.

 

[Sally PB]

https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2010/05/08/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/

I made compost in 3 weeks using this method. It is, however, a lot of physical work.

 

[Shadrach]

I scrape up the chcken shite from the coop floor and put it in plastic water butts. I'm not overly fussy about what else goes in with it, shredded paper, feathers, dander and some left over grains.
It takes six months to a year to cook properly in the water butts. They're open to the elements and don't dry out properly until the summer months.
I mix 50% to 50% with soil from my veg garden and dig it in over the winter months ready for spring planting.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2010/05/08/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/

I made compost in 3 weeks using this method. It is, however, a lot of physical work.

Sally, thank you for this! I don't know if I am physically able to do this in 18 days, I may have to modify it, but it gives me a goal!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't feel like stirring regularly and such, so I collect poop and toss it in composting bins (the black bins at left) with dried leaves, grass, food scraps. I fill one bin a year so while one cooks, the other gets filled, and I just alternate. Come spring the year-old one gets emptied into the garden beds and the process starts again.

Poop collected in winter gets tossed around the shrubs lining the driveway to keep those growing well, since by that point the bin is full for the year.

 

[Jeri B]

I scrape up the chcken shite from the coop floor and put it in plastic water butts. I'm not overly fussy about what else goes in with it, shredded paper, feathers, dander and some left over grains.
It takes six months to a year to cook properly in the water butts. They're open to the elements and don't dry out properly until the summer months.
I mix 50% to 50% with soil from my veg garden and dig it in over the winter months ready for spring planting.

Sorry, what is a water butt?

 

[Perris]

Cow manure and straw can be fully composted in 72 hours. But, you'll need a little water and lot of oxygen. If you have a barrel you can put it on its side, fill with manure and green material and a little water and roll it around.

A study done by my father in law at Central Michigan University about 47 years ago found that if they turned the barrel so the two flat sides can be put on a thingy, and turned you get compost fast. So, imagine there is a door in the barrel to put stuff in and take it out. Inside the barrel there is a paddle. There is a motor that turns the paddle completely around every 90 seconds to aerate the mass and break up clumps.

There are other ways to aerate the mass, but this is probably the cheapest and fastest for a small amount. The cow digestive system does a great job of breaking down their food, 72 hours for cow manure, longer for horse and other species. Chicken manure is "hot" so it will break down quickly.

such things are made commercially now, see e.g.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/rotating-composter/s?k=rotating+composter
they are sometimes called tumbler composters. I had one and it worked well but the metal frame rotted. If I were getting another I'd avoid any with a flimsy metal frame. And when just filled they can be heavy, so probably the ones on rollers work easier if you're getting old like me.